Aneesh Chopra, Federal CTO, Healthcare Committee, U.S. House of Representatives

On May 20-21, 2010, Alcatel-Lucent kicked off its inaugural Connected Hospital User Group conference in Washington DC where selected leaders from government, domestic and international healthcare industry executives gathered to share best practices and insights on connected hospital.

Aneesh Chopra, Federal CTO, kicked off the two-day CHUG meeting with a keynote address on how Federal government action to promote Information & Communication Technologies (ICT) can address the inefficiencies in the U.S. healthcare industry.  Chopra discussed President Obama’s initiatives, the state of telemedicine, and how federal agencies with a role in healthcare are using ICT to solicit new ideas.

Congressman Frank Pallone, chair of the House Subcommittee on Health, also addressed the Alcatel-Lucent CHUG group and discussed the recently enacted health reform legislation.  He discussed how the new legislation is intended to address the sharing of health records, the standardization of health information, and the challenges of hospitals in meeting new entrants to the health delivery industry.

Also during the meeting, Alcatel-Lucent Connected Hospital team shared its Connected Hospital Vision and key solution pillars with the customers and industry leaders.  Jim White, VP of Connected Hospital Sales hosted a workshop on “Expanding the Boundary of Connected Hospital through Telemedicine”, which brought home the fact that sensors and need for sensor networking will radically change the telemedicine and industry should be thinking beyond just remote monitoring trials to make telemedicine practically possible at mass level.

Jim spoke about sensors are omnipresent in our lives and sensor networking, a vision whereby a patient’s vital signs can be monitored and tracked in a massively scalable way, with intelligent systems being able to take the front line in sifting through this mass of information before involving medical oversight when and where needed.

One of our biggest connected hospital projects is UPMC in Pittsburgh, Pa. Steve Boocheever, EVP of International and Commercial Division at UPMC, shared what it takes to develop the ecosystem for truly delivering the connected hospital.  Children’s Hospital at UPMC has recently achieved HIMSS stage 7, the highest level of IT integration, creating a completely paperless hospital built on a foundation of Alcatel-Lucent WAN/LAN/Wireless/Telephony solutions. It is the first pediatric facility to accomplish this goal (read more here).

And there’s more to come. The Washington, DC meeting in May was just the start of many Connected Hospital User Group meetings and the tip of what we can accomplish in the healthcare space. In fact, customers have already started to ask about the next CHUG meeting, which will be happening in early Fall.

You can find out more about the Connected Hospital here.