Karolinska Universitetssjukhuset entrance

    Making patient safety the no. 1 priority

     

    A cooperation between Systematic and Karolinska University Hospital has led to development of Columna VitalShare.

     

    Challenge

    • Few monitored health data are saved and journalised.
    • Large amounts of knowledge and measured data disappears
    • Time-consuming and manual processes which can lead to human errors
     

    Solution

    • Automatic and patient safe collection, storing and distribution of data
    • Wireless access to the system with data distribution to e.g. EHR
    • Visualisation of health data 
     

    Benefits

    • Reduction of human errors and incorrect documentation
    • Reduction of waiting time from data being measured to it becoming available in the EHR
    • Possible to use the recorded data in research

    Data creates value

    With its great focus on research and innovation in health technology, Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm, Sweden is one of the leading hospitals in both the Nordic region and Europe. In collaboration with Systematic, Karolinska University Hospital has now developed Columna VitalShare in order to gather, store and display clinical measurements of patients’ health data, such as heart rate, blood pressure, saturation, and body temperature. 

    “We have the technical knowledge and skills to develop such a solution, while staff from the hospital have the practical experience to know what the most useful and effective solution should be in order to facilitate their day-to-day work and to ensure that patients get the best treatment”, says Henrik Rosenberg Rasmussen, Account Director at Systematic. The collaboration between Karolinska University Hospital and Systematic have been centred about utilising each other strengths and insight to develop Columna VitalShare.

    Optimizing patient safety

    The key functions of the Columna VitalShare solution are to collect, store and display data from a wide range of medical devices. By focusing on the value of data, it is possible to optimise patient safety by collecting patients’ measured results. This happens, for example, when a department admitting a patient can search for data from the department where the patient was previously examined or treated. 

    Using the Columna VitalShare solution, hospital staff can easily get a visual overview of a patient’s clinical data, collected automatically during their stay at the hospital. The Columna system is a new and improved solution for the clinicals, who will receive an overview of the progresses rather than simply having individual “snapshot” data in separate and manual measurements.

    Such data provides hospitals with new opportunities, and the Columna VitalShare solution helps ensure fewer data entry mistakes, easier workflows, and a more reliable foundation for doing research. The solution is now in use at Karolinska University Hospital where it supports hospital staff in getting a better overview of patient data, ensures a strong basis for treatment and care decision-making, as well as being a great contributor to increased patient safety.

    Columna VitalShare features

     

    DeviceConX

    • Measures and reads all the values shown by designated items of medical equipment
    • Can be connected to all existing and future IT systems
    • Automatic data transfer to electronic medical records
     

    Vendor Neutral Archive (VNA)

    • Automatic data storage in an internal database
    • Easy, secure access to large amounts of data
    • Possible to provide the clinicians with a visual overview of data, which allows integration with a user interface – also from third party
     

    Viewer

    • Customised interface that effectively creates the right overview for any given situation
    • Opportunities for integrating future equipment
    • Opportunities for validating data

    A valuable collaboration

    The collaboration between Systematic and Karolinska University Hospital arose following an IT tender that included an agreement for a partnership. The purpose of the partnership is active collaboration between hospital and supplier with the aim of jointly developing innovative IT solutions.

    Karolinska University Hospital’s focus on research and innovation in health technology align with Systematic’s specialist capabilities in relevant technologies, know-how in the field of healthcare, and proposals for practical solutions. Combined, these competencies create a shared understanding of the clinical context, the user situations, and the many technological possibilities.

    The actual data collection from medical equipment takes place in the DeviceConX system, for which Systematic’s partner company NantHealth is responsible.

    “In addition to our innovation experience, we provide our partners with both technical and healthcare know-how. Our collaboration with hospitals outside Denmark means we establish an international perspective on health IT, which we also bring home to our Danish customers. Our partners and customers can therefore get qualified international sparring, be challenged in their habits and be inspired to try new, innovative approaches to addressing their challenges,” concludes Henrik Rosenberg Rasmussen.

    Columna VitalShare was implemented at Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm, Sweden during the spring of 2018. Parts of the system consist of standard solutions, while other parts are new and were developed in collaboration with Karolinska.