China Medical University Hospital Achieves HIMSS Triple Validation

China Medical University Hospital in Taichung, Taiwan, was recently validated for three HIMSS digital maturity models: Stage 7 for Infrastructure Adoption Model (INFRAM), revalidation of Stage 7 for the Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM) and Stage 6 for the Analytic Maturity Adoption Model (AMAM) .

INFRAM measures the maturity of an organization in terms of infrastructure and associated technological capabilities. EMRAM measures their clinical outcomes, patient engagement, and clinician use of EMR technology, while AMAM evaluates their analytics capabilities.

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT

CMUH is the first hospital in Taiwan to be validated for INFRAM Stage 7. It achieved this feat in just four months after reaching Stage 6. It attributed its success to its Chinese zodiac-inspired infrastructure strategy .

The hospital is also the first in the country to be validated for Stage 6 AMAM. The company was able to demonstrate some mature applications of analytics, including drug spending analysis, which enabled it to achieve annual savings of approximately NT$200 million ($6.2 million). Another example is its ARDiTeX (ARDS Technology System) visualization panel used in the respiratory intensive care unit. It helped reduce 28-day mortality in patients diagnosed with ARDS (Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome).

In addition, the CMUH was revalidated for EMRAM step 7. To meet the requirements of this milestone, the hospital made major changes to its EMR system. These include the implementation of the electronic medication administration record, the integration of records within multidisciplinary teams and the establishment of interoperability with the Med-cloud database of the Taiwan National Health Insurance.

HIMSS also recognized its antimicrobial AI platform, the Intelligent Anti-Microbial System (iAMS), as a remarkable use of EMR. It is a four-in-one AI-based platform that identifies drug-resistant strains and predicts and monitors the risk of infectious sepsis and mortality. It also offers intelligent medication dosage recommendations and automatic comparisons of drug interactions and allergy history. In just three months after its implementation in June 2021, iAMS helped reduce the sepsis mortality rate by 7.1%, compared to 13.4% during the same period the previous year.

To date, CMUH has developed 16 AI-based services and 50 dashboards based on the Microsoft Power Business Intelligence platform, all of which are widely implemented in clinical and operational areas.

THE BIGGEST TREND

CMUH joins a growing group of Taiwanese healthcare providers who have been validated for EMRAM. Its revalidation follows Changhua Christian Hospital which was also validated for stage 7 EMRAM a few months ago. THE Chung-Ho Memorial Hospital of Kaohsiung Medical University is the latest hospital in Taiwan to be validated at Stage 6, followed by Far East Memorial Hospital last year. Taichung Veterans General Hospital and Tungs Taichung MetroHarbor Hospital have also reached Stage 6 for this model.

The AMAM and INFRAM validations of the CMUH also follow those of Samsung Medical Center, the first healthcare provider in Asia Pacific to achieve AMAM Stage 6 and INFRAM Stage 7.

ON THE FILE

Dr Wei-Cheng Chen, Chief Secretary of CMUH, said they looked to international standards and models for inspiration and validation of their digital transformation efforts.

“During these years without any smart hospital models in Taiwan, we have observed and learned to understand what an AI smart hospital is. We found that HIMSS provides a systematic approach and clear criteria to achieve this goal. This is why CMUH strongly supports HIMSS to guide our directions and uncover our weaknesses,” explained Dr. Chen.

Further explaining his vision of becoming an AI-enabled smart hospital, CMUH Superintendent Dr. Der-Yang Cho said, “At CMUH, our vision of smart healthcare is rooted in a patient-centered approach, aimed at refining clinical processes and improving the quality of care through data analysis and AI. This approach, constantly evolving with our digital transformation journey, integrates advanced AI and BI to deliver more accurate, efficient and reliable medical solutions like iAMS.”

“Superintendent Dr. Cho highlights our commitment to “useful, practical and preferred” tools and projects that improve patient care and quality of life. Through these efforts, we aspire to make our health services not only effective and efficient, but also privileged and valued. by our patients,” added CMUH Assistant Superintendent and Professor Oscar K. Lee.