Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Pittsburgh and UPMC are forging a long-term alliance to better analyze patient information, which should help doctors to better detect disease outbreaks and other critical health trends, the organizations announced Monday.
Details from electronic health records, diagnostic imaging, prescriptions and a host of other sources offer a trove of insight into disease, the organizations said in a joint announcement. The effort ,called the Pittsburgh Health Data Alliance, will improve technology and other methods to explore and understand that data, a move that should foster spin-off companies and contribute to economic development in Western Pennsylvania, the schools said.
“The alliance, funded by UPMC, will see its work carried out by Pitt-led and CMU-led centers, with participation from all three institutions,” the organizations said in a statement. “The centers will work to transform the explosion of health-related data into new technologies, products and services to change the way diseases are prevented and how patients are diagnosed, treated and engaged in their own care.”
UPMC, based Downtown, is the largest health care network in the region. CMU and Pitt, both based in Oakland, are the largest universities. The organizations have planned funding for the alliance for at least the next six years.
“The complementary strengths of the alliance’s partner institutions will allow us to re-imagine health care for millions of people in our shared, data-driven world,” CMU President Subra Suresh said in a statement. “Through this collaboration, we will move more rapidly to immediate prevention and remediation, further accelerate the development of evidence-based medicine and augment disease-centered models with patient-centered models of care.”
Officials from CMU, Pitt and UPMC are expected to talk more about the alliance at a joint press conference late Monday morning.
Adam Smeltz is a Trib Total Media staff writer. Reach him at 412-380-5676 or asmeltz@tribweb.com.
