GE tests technology to boost CDC’s rapid-response

What’s up, doc?: GE’s Centricity EMR system is used by thousands of doctors and clinical staff to electronically record health information during a patient visit. The pilot program in development modifies the GE system so that data can be sent to health officials and they, in turn, can inform the doctor about any disease alerts in that area.

As BusinessWeek.com explains the technology in its story, “So when a doctor sees a patient with diarrhea and a fever, he or she would record the symptoms in the patient’s EMR, then upload the anonymous data point — a female patient, aged 65, in Zip Code 02138, showing a fever and gastrointestinal illness — to an online repository of public health information. As other patients visit other doctors in the area complaining of similar problems, that information is also input and uploaded to the database, allowing public health officials to see aggregate patterns and identify disease clusters much earlier…. That kind of early detection helps doctors treat patients better and helps prevent further spreading of the disease.”

The New York Times — which calls the GE project a “good example” of how the healthcare industry is innovating in the area of information technology — adds that the “Obama administration’s plan to spend $19 billion to hasten the adoption of electronic health records that can share data across networks” will likely propel this kind of technology going forward.

* Read “GE Healthcare Unveils a Plan to Stop Epidemics” on BusinessWeek.com
* Read “Health Care Industry Moves Slowly Onto the Internet” in The New York Times
* Read GE’s announcement