BARRINGTON, Ill. – Aug 26, 2010 – GE Healthcare is bringing today’s EMR technology to tomorrow’s practitioners by donating its latest platform to the University of Texas at Austin for educational use. The University’s Health Information Technology Summer Certificate Program just graduated its first class of 54 students at the end of July. These students used GE Centricity® Advance software in the University’s newly created Health Information Technology Learning Laboratory in the Clinical Education Center University Medical Center Brackenridge. This innovative interdisciplinary medical education center is a member of the Seton Family of Hospitals.
The donation is one way GE is simultaneously demonstrating its commitment to the primary care physician market and to nationally-recognized Workforce Development Programs aimed at teaching those that will work in this emerging field for years to come. GE is one of six vendors that chose to donate software to the program.
“We never flinch before agreeing to an investment like this,” said Jim Corrigan, vice president and general manager of GE Healthcare IT. “It’s an investment in the future of our industry and in the young minds that will shape it. We’re thrilled to participate in this learning opportunity and assist in the education of the critical primary care physician segment.”
Geared to the smaller, primary care physician practice, Centricity Advance is a proven, fully integrated EMR, Practice Management and Patient Portal solution designed specifically to make healthcare IT functionality affordable, minimally disruptive during implementation and easy to use. Unlike most clinical and financial management solutions, Centricity Advance is delivered in a web-based, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model. This modern, efficient deployment method means the solution costs less than a traditional client-server software deployment, and can be maintained, upgraded and supported with virtually no involvement from the onsite staff.
“We’re grateful to GE and to the others supporting our program. The opportunity for students to work directly with software such as Centricity Advance is a vital component in our mission to educate tomorrow’s leaders,” said Dr. Leanne Field, Director of Health Information Technology Programs in the College of Natural Sciences. “With these tools, our students can fully benefit from the world class program we’re able to offer.”
ABOUT GE HEALTHCARE:
GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services that are shaping a new age of patient care. Our broad expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, drug discovery, biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies, performance improvement and performance solutions services help our customers to deliver better care to more people around the world at a lower cost. In addition, we partner with healthcare leaders, striving to leverage the global policy change necessary to implement a successful shift to sustainable healthcare systems.
Our “healthymagination” vision for the future invites the world to join us on our journey as we continuously develop innovations focused on reducing costs, increasing access and improving quality and efficiency around the world. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare is a $16 billion unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE). Worldwide, GE Healthcare employs more than 46,000 people committed to serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100 countries. For more information about GE Healthcare, visit our website at www.gehealthcare.com.
