Hallym University Chuncheon Sacred Heart Hospital

Under the theme of “Strategic Initiatives in Healthcare: Innovative Use of Technology Enhancing Outcomes”, the 2nd HUMC-UCLA Joint International Conference was successfully held at Tamkin Auditorium in Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center on October 24, 2016.

Nearly 100 participants including professors and IT staff of UCLA joined the conference to share ideas on the use of information technology for hospital management and patient care.

Mr. Shannon O’Kelley, Chief Operating Officer of UCLA Health, emphasized in his opening remarks that both Hallym and UCLA are important partners to each other that have similar vision and mission. President Hae-Ran Lee of HUMC delivered congratulatory remarks with the introduction of Hallym University Medical Center as well as the explanation on medical system of Korea.

UCLA speakers presented their ideas and experiences on telemedicine. According to their explanation, as patients often experience difficulties in getting proper medical treatment due to a long distance to hospitals, the telemedicine system was developed. Now, some of the telemedicine services are covered by insurance, the discussions on the development of telemedicine are actively in progress.

In particular, the introduction of Vespa Robot attracted a lot of attention. Vespa Robot which was jointly developed by Dr. Paul Vespa of neurology at UCLA and InTouch Health is a remote-presence robot and is also called “EVA,” for executive virtual attending physician. It is used for performing ICU rounds when doctors are not available to do so directly. Doctors control the robot remotely to see their patients through the monitor and the camera. The speakers also presented on the app-based program for the communication between nurses and patients, a successful hospital readmissions reduction program for heart failure patients by providing them with post-discharge care, and a communication program between psychiatry patient and therapists for on-line consultations.

Manager You Kim of Medical Information Team at Hallym University Medical Center gave a brief overview of Hallym’s IT system and introduced various mobile apps for medical staffs, patients and hospital leadership. He showed some real cases of using the apps and discussed on mobile system of medical institutions.

Dr. Sunghoon Park of Pulmonary, Allergy & Critical Care Medicine at Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital presented on ‘Hallym Rapid Response System (RRS): Quality and Safety Initiatives using Real-time EHR-based Scoring System’, and Ms. Hayyoung Oh, unit manager of surgical ward at Hallym University Kangnam Sacred Heart Hospital gave presentation on ‘Implementation of EHR-based Cardiovascular Risk Surveillance System in Outpatient Clinics.’ The last presentation on ‘A Phenotype-Based Exomic Variant Annotating Tool for Clinical Decision Support System’ was delivered by Dr. Yun Joong Kim of Hallym Institute of Translational Genomics & Bioinformatics. After all presentations were given, there were discussions among the participants from each organization on medicine, nursing, administration and IT innovation.

After the conference, HUMC members joined the two-day benchmark program prepared by UCLA from October 25 to 26. The program was composed of 4 sessions – medical care, hospital management, research, and training. The treatment session dealt with topics related to the management system of liver transplant ICU and medical ICU, quality and patient safety, and patient experience. The hospital management session covered human resources, management of referral hospitals, pharmacist intervention, and care coordination.

The following session focused on research area including clinical informatics program, medical imaging informatics, and interdepartmental program of bioinformatics. After the discussion, participants visited remodeled research center.

Hallym members were given a tour in the last session through two simulation centers - one located at the hospital and another at the university.

After the joint conference and benchmark program, Hallym and UCLA agreed to cooperate on hospital management and patient care in the future and organize joint projects which are mutually beneficial. It is expected that Hallym will lead the medical IT field through the collaboration with UCLA, the number 5 hospital in the U.S.

The specific programs for the conference including topics and speakers are as follows:

■ Program
∙ Opening Remarks
(Shannon O’Kelley, COO, UCLA Health)
∙ Congratulatory Remarks
(Hae-Ran Lee, MD, PhD, President of Hallym University Medical Center)
∙ The Use of Telemedicine in Critical Care
(Paul Vespa, MD, Chair and Director of Neurocritical Care, UCLA Health)
∙ Hospital Mobile Platform
(You Kim, Manager, Medical Information Team, Hallym University Medical Center)
∙ UCLA Connected Health: Care in the Digital Age and Remote Patient Monitoring
(Michael Ong, MD, PhD, Clinical Lead for UCLA Connected Health, UCLA Health)
∙ Hallym Rapid Response System (RRS): Quality and Safety Initiatives using Real-time EHR-based Scoring System
(Sunghoon Park, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Div. Of Pulmonary, Allergy & Critical Care Medicine, Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital)
∙ Enhancing Patient Engagement in Mental Health through Technology
(Armen Arevian, MD, PhD, Director of the Innovation Lab at the Semel Institute, UCLA Health)
∙ Implementation of EHR-based Cardiovascular Risk Surveillance System in Outpatient Clinics
(Hayyoung Oh, RN, Unit Manager, Surgical Ward, Hallym University Kangnam Sacred Heart Hospital)
∙ A Phenotype-based Exomic Variant Annotating Tool for Clinical Decision Support System
(Yun Joong Kim, MD, PhD, Director, Hallym Institute of Translational Genomics & Bioinformatics, Hallym University Medical Center)

By Chul Kwon, Int’l Cooperation Team, HUMC (chris@hallym.or.kr)