IBM Australia and Mater Health Services unite on Smart Hospital strategy

Mater Health Services and IBM Australia have forged a long-term alliance to pioneer technology initiatives, improve patient safety and strengthen health care research by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). This partnership will see the development and implementation of innovative information technologies within acute health care environments.

Over a year ago, Mater and IBM commenced the Smart Hospital strategy to implement new technology systems into Mater facilities to enhance patient care and clinical results. To ensure that this strategy was successful, Mater developed a strategic alliance with IBM and it's from this alliance that the Smart Hospital Consortium was launched.

By using Information Communications Technology, the Smart Hospital Consortium aims to change how health care is delivered to patients.

According to Mr Mal Thatcher, Mater's Chief Information Officer, the Smart Hospital Consortium has two fundamental objectives, to improve the patient hospital experience and to improve clinical outcomes.

“We recognise that the road for hospital patients can be very bumpy, so a cornerstone of our Smart Hospital strategy is to use technology to significantly improve that experience and to adopt innovative technologies to strengthen clinical practice, thereby improving patient outcomes,” Mr Thatcher said.

Together, Mater and IBM will design specific technology systems benefiting patients, by implementing web and portal technologies that will provide patients with access to online pre-admission and post-admission services. The system will also introduce Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology to provide smarter patient identification and tracking systems. In addition, point of care devices will be deployed to deliver patient information and entertainment services at the bedside.

Smarter communications and mobility platforms based on a medical grade wireless and wired network will be implemented to improve the hospital's clinical practices. Methods to capture clinical information will include, Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and voice recognition technologies. Through these systems, clinicians will be able to better engage with general practitioners and private specialists to share clinical information in a timely manner.

Mr Best says that IBM is proud to be a founding partner in this consortium.

“It's very much an open framework directed towards building a more vital health care industry,” Mr Best said.