Hospital gets applications to market faster with an IBM Integration foundation solution
Customer Company Size
Large Corporate
Region
- Europe
Country
- Germany
Product
- IBM Integration Bus
- IBM MQ
- Healthcare Connectivity Pack
Tech Stack
- IBM Integration Bus
- IBM MQ
- Healthcare Connectivity Pack
Implementation Scale
- Enterprise-wide Deployment
Impact Metrics
- Productivity Improvements
- Cost Savings
Technology Category
- Application Infrastructure & Middleware - API Integration & Management
- Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration
Applicable Industries
- Healthcare & Hospitals
Applicable Functions
- Maintenance
- Logistics & Transportation
Use Cases
- Process Control & Optimization
- Predictive Maintenance
Services
- System Integration
- Training
About The Customer
Based in Freiburg, Germany, University Medical Center (UMC) Freiburg is one of the largest hospitals in Europe, with over 10,000 employees. Its medical professionals and administrators rely on an IT environment consisting of more than 80 clinical, operational, and patient care applications. This application environment demands constant change, with ongoing application modifications and deployments. The integration architecture team at UMC Freiburg, led by Markus Gogolin, must ensure that all new and modified applications interface effectively with the medical center’s two backbone systems, one for patient data storage and the other for clinical report archiving while maintaining consistent service for users. These systems must also comply with Health Level Seven International (HL7), which provides messaging standards for exchanging patient care and clinical information in electronic health records (EHRs).
The Challenge
The University Medical Center (UMC) Freiburg, one of the largest hospitals in Europe, relies on an IT environment consisting of more than 80 clinical, operational, and patient care applications. This application environment demands constant change, with ongoing application modifications and deployments. The integration architecture team at UMC Freiburg needed to connect the hospital’s business and patient care applications with its clinical and patient data storage systems to provide a full view of patient care in one location, resulting in better overall care. The team had to ensure that all new and modified applications interface effectively with the medical center’s two backbone systems, one for patient data storage and the other for clinical report archiving while maintaining consistent service for users. These systems must also comply with Health Level Seven International (HL7), which provides messaging standards for exchanging patient care and clinical information in electronic health records (EHRs).
The Solution
UMC Freiburg implemented two components from the IBM Integration foundation portfolio: IBM Integration Bus and IBM Integration Bus Healthcare Pack software. The solution connects the medical center’s applications across its IT environment and provides monitoring, auditing, and analytics capabilities. Integration Bus software provides the team with capabilities to build solutions needed to support HL7 integration requirements. IBM MQ software supports the Integration Bus software by helping UMC Freiburg’s 80-plus applications securely communicate with one another. Gogolin also engaged IBM Training for in-house education on the IBM software and subscribed to the IBM On Demand Consulting service to receive assistance from the IBM Software Services for WebSphere team.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
Case Study missing?
Start adding your own!
Register with your work email and create a new case study profile for your business.
Related Case Studies.
Case Study
Hospital Inventory Management
The hospital supply chain team is responsible for ensuring that the right medical supplies are readily available to clinicians when and where needed, and to do so in the most efficient manner possible. However, many of the systems and processes in use at the cancer center for supply chain management were not best suited to support these goals. Barcoding technology, a commonly used method for inventory management of medical supplies, is labor intensive, time consuming, does not provide real-time visibility into inventory levels and can be prone to error. Consequently, the lack of accurate and real-time visibility into inventory levels across multiple supply rooms in multiple hospital facilities creates additional inefficiency in the system causing over-ordering, hoarding, and wasted supplies. Other sources of waste and cost were also identified as candidates for improvement. Existing systems and processes did not provide adequate security for high-cost inventory within the hospital, which was another driver of cost. A lack of visibility into expiration dates for supplies resulted in supplies being wasted due to past expiry dates. Storage of supplies was also a key consideration given the location of the cancer center’s facilities in a dense urban setting, where space is always at a premium. In order to address the challenges outlined above, the hospital sought a solution that would provide real-time inventory information with high levels of accuracy, reduce the level of manual effort required and enable data driven decision making to ensure that the right supplies were readily available to clinicians in the right location at the right time.
Case Study
Gas Pipeline Monitoring System for Hospitals
This system integrator focuses on providing centralized gas pipeline monitoring systems for hospitals. The service they provide makes it possible for hospitals to reduce both maintenance and labor costs. Since hospitals may not have an existing network suitable for this type of system, GPRS communication provides an easy and ready-to-use solution for remote, distributed monitoring systems System Requirements - GPRS communication - Seamless connection with SCADA software - Simple, front-end control capability - Expandable I/O channels - Combine AI, DI, and DO channels
Case Study
Driving Digital Transformations for Vitro Diagnostic Medical Devices
Diagnostic devices play a vital role in helping to improve healthcare delivery. In fact, an estimated 60 percent of the world’s medical decisions are made with support from in vitrodiagnostics (IVD) solutions, such as those provided by Roche Diagnostics, an industry leader. As the demand for medical diagnostic services grows rapidly in hospitals and clinics across China, so does the market for IVD solutions. In addition, the typically high cost of these diagnostic devices means that comprehensive post-sales services are needed. Wanteed to improve three portions of thr IVD:1. Remotely monitor and manage IVD devices as fixed assets.2. Optimizing device availability with predictive maintenance.3. Recommending the best IVD solution for a customer’s needs.
Case Study
HaemoCloud Global Blood Management System
1) Deliver a connected digital product system to protect and increase the differentiated value of Haemonetics blood and plasma solutions. 2) Improve patient outcomes by increasing the efficiency of blood supply flows. 3) Navigate and satisfy a complex web of global regulatory compliance requirements. 4) Reduce costly and labor-intensive maintenance procedures.
Case Study
Harnessing real-time data to give a holistic picture of patient health
Every day, vast quantities of data are collected about patients as they pass through health service organizations—from operational data such as treatment history and medications to physiological data captured by medical devices. The insights hidden within this treasure trove of data can be used to support more personalized treatments, more accurate diagnosis and more advanced preparative care. But since the information is generated faster than most organizations can consume it, unlocking the power of this big data can be a struggle. This type of predictive approach not only improves patient care—it also helps to reduce costs, because in the healthcare industry, prevention is almost always more cost-effective than treatment. However, collecting, analyzing and presenting these data-streams in a way that clinicians can easily understand can pose a significant technical challenge.
