IBM Middle East will continue its focus to drive new technologies for the region’s healthcare sector, as part of the company’s recently announced global initiative to infuse an estimated $250 million of investments into its healthcare business over the next three years.
The initiative will include the hiring of healthcare specialists, solutions development, research and development projects, IBM Business Partner collaborations and other programmes.
In December 2003, IBM Middle East launched a series of regional seminars for healthcare professionals to spread awareness of its advanced healthcare technologies. The company also addressed some of the fundamental challenges of healthcare information management at the annual Arab Health 2004 conference including issues such as providing more care with limited resources, minimising medical errors, speeding up the diagnosis process and sharing important data so that health professionals can make informed business and clinical decisions quickly and easily.
“The healthcare industry in the Middle East is under tremendous pressure to address patient safety, quality of care and cost issues. They need advanced technologies that can help them manage costs, reduce medical errors, and deliver better patient care,” said Samer Shaar, general manager of IBM Middle East, Pakistan and Egypt.
The highlights of the global announcement include new healthcare solutions designed to deliver information-based medicine that bring safer, more efficient approaches to health care; formation of the IBM Centre for Healthcare Management; creation of the IBM Research Healthcare and Life Sciences Institute; creation of a new IBM Clinical Transformation consulting practice and the creation of a new IBM Information-based Medicine business unit.
A key focus of IBM’s healthcare initiative will be the development of consulting practices and customised industry solutions to help transform hospitals, accelerate medical research, and optimise processes to lower healthcare costs. Each new solution will leverage the healthcare industry insight and consulting methodologies of IBM Business Consulting Services, combined with the deep technology skills and resources of IBM Healthcare and Life Sciences. Among the practices and customised solutions which are being announced are:
- Safe and Lean Healthcare Provider, a solution to help hospitals improve resource allocation, utilisation and planning.
- Aligned Clinical Environment, a solution for hospitals and healthcare organisations to integrate, analyse and manage complex and disparate clinical, research and administrative data from multiple systems.
- Centre for Healthcare Management, a resource for information and dialogue on critical issues facing healthcare payers and providers.
- IBM Research Healthcare and Life Sciences Institute, which will work with IBM’s eight research centres around the world to drive invention and technology innovation specifically targeting the healthcare, life sciences and pharmaceutical industries.
- Clinical Transformation Practice, a practice that brings together healthcare consultants (who are also physicians, nurses or hospital administrators) with business intelligence experts to help customers transform hospitals and healthcare systems.
- Information-based Medicine business unit, which is aimed at bringing greater focus to this high-growth emerging field of medicine and healthcare delivery.
