Technology will enable UW to quickly aggregate data from its disparate EMR systems to improve and accelerate medical research and discovery.
SEATTLE and REDMOND, Wash., Sept. 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The
University of Washington (UW) will use Microsoft Amalga, the unified
intelligence system, in a research protocol designed to provide clinical and
translational researchers with faster and more complete access than they
previously had to electronic data stored on disparate systems within the
university. UW's Institute of Translational Health Sciences (ITHS),
http://www.iths.org, intends to use Microsoft Amalga to accelerate and improve
translational research, which takes medical discoveries from the laboratory
into the clinic and out into the community.
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Microsoft Amalga addresses a common and critical challenge of healthcare
providers by integrating vast amounts of clinical, administrative and
financial information that flows in and out of disparate information systems,
and tailoring that information for use by researchers, physicians, analysts,
laboratory technicians, nurses and administrators. Microsoft Amalga takes
advantage of health enterprises' investments in existing health IT solutions
and makes it possible for the entire organization to gain quick access to data
and turn that information into critical knowledge that facilitates better
decision-making and improved patient outcomes.
In the UW's complex academic systems, gaining access to aggregate views of
data is time- and labor-intensive and hinders translational research with long
lags between the time a researcher has a need for a particular data set and
when access to the data set is provided.
Microsoft Amalga is designed to provide ITHS researchers with the ability
to comprehensively access, search and perform analysis on data stored in UW
medical record systems, UW research laboratory systems and study data
management systems. For example, subject to institutional review board and
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations,
researchers will be able to quickly assess whether the UW patient population
has the numbers to support a study testing a particular hypothesis or if there
are new patients eligible for recruitment into a trial. Microsoft Amalga also
will enable researchers to prospectively collect study-specific data that is
not in the university's electronic medical record (EMR), collect biological
research specimens for the study and link them to the study or patient --
under approved research studies with appropriate consent -- and generate
reports appropriate for biostatistical analyses.
'We're excited to collaborate with Microsoft in utilizing Amalga, a new
technology that opens up access to critical data currently stored in disparate
systems, to help improve translational research,' said Dr. Peter Tarczy-
Hornoch, division head, Division of Biomedical and Health Informatics at the
University of Washington. 'The Amalga tool will improve the ability of ITHS to
provide our researchers with access to all of the data they need when they
need it, allowing them to conduct their work faster and more effectively.'
'We are very pleased to support the technology needs required for the
important work being led by one of the leading research institutions in the
country,' said Steve Shihadeh, vice president, Microsoft Health Solutions
Group. 'We anticipate ITHS will gain significant value by using Amalga to
aggregate and present information that is vital to its initiatives in
translational research.'
Microsoft Amalga is in use at other renowned U.S. healthcare institutions,
including District of Columbia Primary Care Association, NewYork-Presbyterian
Hospital, Johns Hopkins Health System, Novant Health, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer
Center & Research Institute, St. Joseph Health System and the Wisconsin Health
Information Exchange.
About University of Washington
The University of Washington is one of the nation's leading recipients of
federal research and training awards. The National Science Foundation in 2005
placed the University of Washington second overall in the nation and first
among public institutions in receipt of federal funds for science and
engineering. The University has ranked among the top five federally funded
research institutions since 1974.
The ITHS is funded in part by the NIH Clinical and Translational Science
Award (CTSA) and comprises the University of Washington (UW), Children's
Hospital Regional Medical Center, and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
The goal of the ITHS is to make a positive impact on human health locally and
globally through collaboration with academia, industry, nonprofit agencies,
government, and local communities. As a member of the CTSA Consortium, the
ITHS will work with 60 other select academic medical centers of excellence to
transform how clinical and translational research is conducted and enable
researchers to provide new treatments more efficiently and quickly to
patients.
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) is the worldwide leader in
software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their
full potential.
SOURCE Microsoft Corp.
