Dell Inc. announced Thursday that it will provide computer equipment and services to support a major University at Buffalo initiative to start an institute here devoted to advancing electronic medical records.
Work at the Institute for Healthcare Informatics will focus on such areas as standardizing the way health care personnel share electronic medical records and using computers to improve the management of patients with chronic illnesses.
Dell’s investment—valued at $15 million over the life of a five-year deal — comes in addition to a $20 million state grant; a $10 million investment by UBMD, the UB group that represents its 450 affiliated doctors; and the support of Buffalobased Computer Task Group.
The project will add about 100 jobs downtown with the potential for adding more than 100 jobs in the future, officials said.
It also gives UB and Buffalo a foothold in the growing medical information technology field at a time when President Obama has made electronic medical records a priority for federal funding because of their potential for improving quality and controlling costs.
For Dell, which established a rela-
tionship with UB with the 2002 installation of high-performance computing clusters in the university’s Center for Computational Research, the institute investment is part of a larger effort to diversify beyond its core hardware business.
Dell, the world’s second-largest maker of personal computers, last year acquired Perot Systems for $3.9 billion. Perot provides computing hardware and software consulting to more than 1,000 hospitals and 30,000 physicians nationwide, according to the company.
“The field of information technology has had a huge impact on the productivity and efficiency of our economy. It has influenced the way we work and play,” Michael S. Dell, CEO of the Round Rock, Texas-based company said during a news conference in the institute headquarters in the Roosevelt Building on Main Street next to the Allen-Hospital Metro Rail Station.
Dell said the enormous power of current computers and the decreasing cost of applying that power make the medical field ripe for moving to electronic records for patients. Electronic information on patients can instantaneously give doctors detailed medical histories, flag potentially adverse drug combinations and help monitor large groups of patients with chronic illnesses, such as kidney and heart disease.
At first, the UB institute will focus on sharing electronic medical data among the doctors in UBMD. The institute’s data analysis and records management eventually will extend to physicians, nurses and pharmacists throughout the region and New York State and potentially serve as a testing ground for ideas that can be applied nationwide, officials said.
“This is a game-changer for the region,” said Dr. Russell W. Bessette, executive director of the new institute.
An institute initiative will make sophisticated information technology available to physicians who cannot afford costly electronic medical record systems, such as those in rural areas, he said. In addition, under one state grant, Bessette said, UB will work with Sheehan Health Network and Erie County Medical Center — both of which care for many poor and uninsured patients—to examine the impact of chronic diseases and addiction disorders in patients.
The Obama administration earlier this year announced plans to award $975 million in grants to help states and health care providers adopt health information technology. The grant money comes from the 2009 economic stimulus legislation passed by Congress.
Dr. David L. Dunn, vice president for health sciences at UB, said creation of the institute will enable UB to attract additional research funding.
The institute builds on a project started last year to develop an electronic records system to help manage Western New York patients with chronic illnesses. The initiative between UBMD and Computer Task Group, known as CTG, aims to create a software system that will share patient records electronically among the 450 doctors affiliated with UB to help them identify patients with symptoms that could lead to kidney disease and diabetes.
The $28.9 million project is being partly funded by a $7 mil-lion grant obtained in 2009 from the state, as well as investments by CTG and UBMD.
CTG gets more than a quarter of its sales from its health services business.
“We believe medical information technology could be one of the biggest industries in the future,” said James R. Boldt, chief executive officer of CTG.
Boldt said that with Dell’s partnership, the computing power of the institute will be “unbelievable.”
A memorandum of understanding between UB and Dell was signed just before officials made the announcement. Although the deal runs for five years, Bessette called it an initial investment that he and others hope will turn into a long-term relationship.
Officials described securing the latest state grant for the institute as a “heavy lift” and pointed to Assemblywoman Crystal D. Peoples-Stokes, D-Buffalo, as playing an instrumental role.
“It will create new jobs and educational opportunities in medical records management for residents of Buffalo’s East Side, including residents near Sheehan Hospital and Erie County Medical Center,” she said.
Launch of the UB institute represents UB’s continuing expansion into downtown’s Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus. Other projects in the works include the recent groundbreaking for a new Educational Opportunity Center building on Goodell Street and the current construction of a center for heart-vascular care and research at Ellicott and Goodrich streets, a joint venture with Kaleida Health.
“The institute will position UB, [the State University of New York] and Buffalo as a national leader in medical informatics,” said Buffalo Mayor Byron W. Brown.
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