Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1169964
64 CIO / HEALTH IT Epic unveils patient data research initiative, new software By Jackie Drees A t Epic's User Group annual meeting Aug. 27, CEO Judy Faulkner and other executives revealed several initiatives and products the EHR vendor is focusing on to support evidence-based pa- tient care research and enhanced clinical workflows, Wisconsin State Journal reported. Ms. Faulkner highlighted Cosmos, a new Epic program designed to mine data from millions of patient medical records at various health systems to help research the effective- ness of treatments. "is will revolutionize healthcare, when the [physician] has evidence-based medicine from 230 million people," said Ms. Faulkner, according to the report. "It will be a cosmic … leap forward." Cosmos currently gathers de-identified patient data from 8 million individuals at nine health systems. An additional 31 healthcare organiza- tions have signed on to participate in the pro- gram, increasing the total anticipated number of records to be included to 25 million. Even- tually, more than 200 million patient records could be involved, the publication reported. Cosmos supports robust research on topics such as drug side effects, including short- term and long-term issues like drugs possibly increasing dementia risk. e program "will be able to be searching through and finding those associations before they're noticed by a human," said Epic CMO Sam Butler, MD. In addition to Cosmos, the EHR giant also announced several new products including soware that will allow physicians to write shorter notes and clinic visit summaries and voice recognition soware designed to allow physicians to conduct patient visits without the use of a computer keyboard. e voice recognition technology is currently a proto- type, and it could be available in three to five years, according to the report. n United Health Foundation donates $1M to expand telehealth services in rural Appalachia By Andrea Park T he United Health Foundation, UnitedHealth Group's philanthropic arm, is partnering with The Health Wagon, a Wise, Va.-based free clinic for the under- served areas of the Appalachian region. Within the partnership, the foundation will provide a three- year, $1 million grant to expand The Health Wagon's ser- vices across the largely rural six-county region. New ser- vices funded by the grant will include mammography, ultrasound, X-ray and dental offerings, while existing ser- vices will be able to expand to more people, both via tele- health and in person at The Health Wagon's two mobile units, two stationary clinics and regular pop-up events. The Health Wagon, which was founded in 1980, is the only free clinic in the region. In 2018 alone, the organization served more than 4,700 people, providing over $5.6 mil- lion in healthcare services. "We know from experience that early detection and treatment of disease is vital for improving the health and well-being of the people we serve," Teresa Tyson, DNP, ex- ecutive director of The Health Wagon, said in a statement. "We welcome the United Health Foundation's partnership in expanding life-saving specialty and diagnostic care for thousands of medically underserved individuals and fami- lies living in southwest Virginia." n AdventHealth launches largest AI-enabled Mission Control command center in US By Andrea Park A dventHealth marked the opening of its Mission Control clinical command center at the Altamon- te Springs, Fla.-based health system's Orlando campus on Aug. 28. At 12,000 square feet, the high-tech center is the largest of the five launched so far by GE Healthcare at health sys- tems across the U.S. and Canada. AdventHealth's Mission Control will monitor and orchestrate patient care across all nine of the system's campuses; it will be staffed 24/7 by a rotating team of 78 nurses, EMS and flight dispatch- ers and other specialists. The hub includes 60 monitors displaying hospital and patient data. This information, which includes near- and real-time data such as bed status and helicopter and ambulance movements, is constantly analyzed by 20 different artificial intelligence apps to guide clinical deci- sion-making in areas such as patient transfers, placement and treatment, and ambulance dispatch. AdventHealth's facility is the third to open in August: Both Tacoma, Wash.-based CHI Franciscan Health and Tampa (Fla.) General Hospital teamed up with GE Healthcare to launch their own command centers in August. Other members of the GE Healthcare Command Center Eco- system include The Johns Hopkins Health System in Balti- more and Humber River Hospital in Toronto. n