The U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) announced that for the first time it will use electronic medical records (EMRs) to manage healthcare treatment for more than 700 athletes and 3,000 support staff at the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
USOC has purchased integrated EMR and practice management software (Centricity Practice Solution) from GE Healthcare. The software will be connected with a PACS (Centricity PACS-IW, GE Healthcare) for medical record image viewing and storage.
The EMR/PACS eliminates the need for the USOC to ship paper-based medical records and DICOM CDs to the site of the Summer Olympics.
Jan De Witte, CEO of GE Healthcare IT and Performance Solutions, told AuntMinnie.com in a telephone interview that the idea of converting to the electronic format came from Dr. Bill Moreau, USOC managing director of sports medicine. De Witte said that he and his colleagues selected the system for its ease of use, ability to integrate many different caregivers in multiple locations, and analytics capabilities.
The EMR is expected to provide better, faster access to more comprehensive patient records, and result in more rapid treatment for patients. The EMR is being loaded with medical information such as clinical information about prior injury-related treatments and existing conditions, such as allergies or asthma.
USOC physicians also will use the system's analytics capabilities to benchmark treatment protocols and, over time, to identify best practices for treatment, De Witte said. The EMR system interfaces with GE's Medical Quality Improvement Consortium (MQIC) clinical data warehouse that contains close to 30 million anonymized treatment records provided by more than 300 member institutions.
GE also announced that it will continue to be a corporate sponsor of the USOC through 2020.
