Akron Children's Hospital and IBM
Akron Children's Hospital and IBM in 1961 conducted a joint study to examine the viability of eliminating some or all of the paperwork that has burdened hospital personnel for many years. The study resulted in an initiative, announced on Feb. 18, 1962, to address many of the same issues which health information technology strives to solve today: becoming more efficient, reducing costs and improving patient care. Two years into the effort, Roger Sherman, the hospital's administrator at the time, heralded developments such as drug dosage monitoring and harmful drug interaction alerts, both of which he said had improved quality of care, and the ability to track disease correlation [5]. The system also allowed users to easily view lab results on terminals.
The effort is sometimes neglected when the history of the development of electronic medical records is discussed. A 1966 film on the use of computers in healthcare features Roger Sherman showcasing the system [5] [6]. The project is also discussed in Melville H. Hodge’s 1978 book titled Medical Information Systems: A Resource for Hospitals, and a 2004 brochure titled Reducing Medical Errors: IT Helps Secure the Patient Safety Net [3].
References
- https://www.akronchildrens.org/cms/home/index.html
- http://www.ibm.com/us/en/
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15179735
- http://www.navinet.net/blog/1961-year-electronic-health-record
- http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/17/the-miracle-of-digital-health-records-50-years-ago/
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-aiKlIc6uk
