Thought Leadership
Case Studies
CCM Case Study: UPMC
UPMC-Founding Partner with the Center for Connecetd Medicine
UPMC partners with industry thought leaders to transform health care and introduce the world to life-changing medicine
Innovation occurs when ideas from different people and disciplines mingle, fusing to form new concepts to meet formidable challenges. Imaginative institutions create settings where ideas flow and connect in ways that generate better methods of operating. Innovation, collaboration and imagination are three vital components needed to transform health care.
“Life-changing medicine” is a slogan that the 54,000 employees of the UPMC health care system are proud to uphold. It represents their dedication to innovation and creative thinking, hallmarks of an industry that must address the challenges of access, quality and cost. Underscoring this commitment, UPMC founded the Center for Connected Medicine with three other health care and technology leaders—Alcatel-Lucent, IBM and Verizon—in September 2009 to revolutionize health care in the United States and to drive health care excellence worldwide.
Exemplary Organization
A $9 billion global health enterprise ranked among America’s “Best Hospitals” and “Most Wired,” UPMC exemplifies connected medicine. It integrates more than 20 hospitals, 400 physician offices and outpatient sites, long-term care facilities and a health insurance arm with 1.6 million members. Its international and commercial services have launched a portfolio of new businesses and international ventures, extending UPMC’s worldwide reputation for ground-breaking science, technology and medicine.
As Executive Vice President for Business Development of UPMC’s International and Commercial Services Division, Stephen Boochever oversees UPMC’s strategic partnerships with industry and commercialization of emerging technologies. He has seen the Center for Connected Medicine evolve in the past two years to include eight additional strategic partners, hosting nearly 8,000 visitors from 35 countries.
Reaction to the Center has been “very positive,” Boochever says. Decision makers from around the world have the opportunity to see integrative health care technology in action. They also are inspired by the vision of Andrew R. Watson, MD, MLitt, FACS, Medical Director at the Center for Connected Medicine. Because of its participation in the Center, Boochever notes, UPMC has been able to achieve a level of collaboration it otherwise would not have enjoyed. “The Center has proven to be an important proving ground for many different forward-looking solutions.”
Value-Added
Industry experts believe that health care is in a state of confusion with no clear direction or leadership. Mired in traditional approaches to modern problems, the industry is fraught with challenges to be cost effective and provide access to high quality care. Disengaged and isolated from the delivery of healthcare, patients are at serious risk for medical errors and other problems because the priorities of payers, providers and patients are not aligned.
By providing a collaborative vision for a connected environment, the Center forges a path to patient-centered, cost-effective, accountable health care. Serving as a global thought leader, the Center is developing a blueprint for innovative patient-centered and population health models using strategically integrated health information technology (HIT) solutions. Visitors are treated to discussions and demonstrations that explore the possibilities of an interconnected health care environment—a system that shares medical information among stakeholders when and where it is needed.
Boochever has high praise for the facility. Located in the US Steel Tower in downtown Pittsburgh, it is a “front door” into the future of healthcare, he says. The 14,000-square-foot Center shows how technologies are put to use within a health care system and provides a tangible, applied philosophy of change for healthcare.
As a professional doorway into the UPMC environment, the Center likewise helps create brand recognition for UPMC as a health system among the “who’s who” in technology and medicine. “Because our agenda is highly diversified and we’re able to talk with existing and potential partners, it creates a pipeline for business among a portfolio of companies, technologies and relationships at the Center and showcases our collaborative efforts,” Boochever says.
Shining Examples
UPMC, for example, is partnering with dbMotion, one of the Center’s strategic partners, on an extensive interoperability initiative. The solution integrates patient information from disparate health information technologies, harmonizes it semantically and delivers it to clinicians at the point of care within their existing workflow.
"Because our agenda is highly diversified and we’re able to talk with existing and potential partners, it creates a pipeline for business among a portfolio of companies, technologies and relationships at the Center and showcases our collaborative efforts."~ Steve Boochever, VP for Business Development
International Commercial
Services Divison, UPMC
The Center also provides the venue for promoting a joint venture between UPMC and fellow partner Alcatel Lucent, exploring telemedicine. And UPMC’s partnership with IBM to develop SmartRoom technology brings the right patient information to the bedside when it’s needed, to deliver better care with fewer mistakes.
Further highlighting the successes of UPMC’s investment, the recently opened Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC has been recognized as an exemplary model of connected medicine by working collaboratively with many of the partners of the Center. "Children’s success is in synch with our strategic focus of using technology to drive safety, quality and efficiency up while keeping costs down," Boochever says.
Affiliated with the University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences, UPMC uses innovative science, technology and medicine to invent new health care models. The Center supports UPMC’s research and development objectives, Boochever says, and future investments in technology and co-development efforts. It is "very synergistic to our broader agenda as an organization and global diversification interest in solid, evidence-based science, patient-centered, accountable care and smart technology," he notes. "The Center brings all that together. At the Center you can see it, talk about it and demonstrate it. It’s a pipeline for new opportunities and supports our overall strategic objectives."
Change Agent
By providing a forum for health care and IT leaders to interact, the Center “can be a change agent in the industry, influencing standards, driving change through access to senior leadership and establishing a thought leadership agenda,” Boochever says.
The sterling reputation of the thought leaders at the Center is a draw not only to visitors, but others interested in joining the Center. “Our goal is to have a Center that is well-used, provides room for growth and is very open to new strategic partners in the right situation,” Boochever says.
UPMC has maximized the Center for its own purposes as a meeting place, technology showcase and thought-leadership center. But perhaps the most rewarding role for UPMC is as a facilitator of partnerships among the various technology members. “UPMC is happy to showcase the value of the Center for guests of the partner companies,” Boochever says. “When you have leadership representing many different perspectives and a venue where we’re interacting together, we believe the Center can become a change agent in the industry.”
Other “living labs” or innovation centers may exist in the nation to showcase technologies, he adds, but they are focused on a single health care organization or system. “They are not multiparty collaborative efforts like the Center for Connected Medicine, bringing together key players in one environment,” notes Boochever. “That’s unique.”
