InformationWeek ranks Christiana Care among nation’s top innovators

InformationWeek ranks Christiana Care among nation’s top innovators

Theresa Gillis, M.D., medical director of Oncology Pain and Symptom Management and Rehabilitation Services at the Helen F. Graham Cancer Center, shows a patient the benefits of Insight, which was named to the InformationWeek 500 list.

Christiana Care Health System has been named to InformationWeek magazine’s 2012 InformationWeek 500 list for the second consecutive year. The publication calls  Christiana Care one of the nation’s most innovative users of technology.

The magazine spotlights Christiana Care’s Insight program, a tablet-based, self-evaluation tool that enables patients to report the severity of their symptoms and how they affect their quality of life.

Insight also won top five honors in the health category from Computerworld Magazine earlier this year after the publication named the innovative tool a Laureate Award winner from among 500 nominations.

“We are always looking for and excited to drive solutions that help our clinicians,” said Karen Gifford, Christiana Care’s director of Information Technology. “Making the Information Week 500 list testifies to the hard work and collaboration of many people at Christiana Care to serve our patients as respectful, expert caring partners in their health.”

Patients with cancer first used the patient-friendly wireless tool in a pilot program in May 2010, followed by patients with heart failure. Christiana Care’s Information Technology team launched a new release this year for a wider patient audience and is now making iPads available to patients for the first time.

Patient feedback helped develop the program. Seventy-six percent of patients say that they like using Insight, with 67 percent claiming the tool better prepares them to speak with their doctor. Doctors use the data to spark meaningful conversations with their patients.

“The InformationWeek 500 has recognized the most innovative users of business technology for 24 years, and this year’s innovations were particularly impressive,” said InformationWeek Editor In Chief Rob Preston. “What the editors looked for are unconventional approaches — new technologies, new models, new ways of grabbing business opportunities and solving complex business problems with IT.”

It is difficult to make the list. According to the magazine, qualifying companies must complete a rigorous application about their business technology strategies. The process is both quantitative and qualitative, whereby applicants are ranked based on their responses to a questionnaire and are also evaluated based on the innovation they outline in an essay submission.

Last year, Christiana Care made the InformationWeek 500 list for the first time with its innovative implementation of a two-part, break-through communications and workflow system in the emergency department at Christiana Hospital. The magazine further highlighted one part of the initiative, Christiana Care’s use of large touch-screen monitors to better manage trauma rooms, in its annual “20 Innovative IT Ideas To Steal” article.

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