Children’s Hospital Boston, one of the largest and most prestigious paediatric medical centres in the United States, and a part of Harvard Medical School, has partnered with Cerner Corp to improve paediatric care and research through the use of advanced healthcare information technology solutions. As part of the partnership with Cerner, Children’s will develop a ‘Paediatric Vision Centre’ to provide the top physicians, nurses and informaticians of the future with the opportunity to discover how healthcare IT can drive the patient-care process and deliver evidence-based knowledge in a simulated, paediatric-care environment. Children’s will implement a range of Cerner systems, including Cerner’s Millennium solution, an integrated clinical IT system, which will provide increased access to general paediatric and specific patient information at any location across the Children’s network of inpatient settings, outpatient clinics and physician practices. Children’s will also implement Cerner’s closed-loop medication management process, a set of solutions designed to ensure all clinical interactions with a child result in the "five rights" (the right patient, drug, dose, route and time). Cerner says that many of its 700 clinicians will work with Children’s to create a knowledge repository of leading paediatric research that can then be used and shared by clinicians at Children’s and other children’s hospitals. This knowledge repository will enable Children’s best practices to be distributed to clinicians using Cerner Executable Knowledge solutions featuring evidence-based rules, alerts and order sets. "We chose Cerner because they understand the needs of a paediatric hospital and the vital role healthcare IT plays in it," said Eileen Sporing, senior vice president of patient care operations at Children’s. "Cerner has proven it understands clinician workflow and how to implement a successful computerised physician order entry (CPOE) solution. Sporing added: “We know that the partnership between Children’s and Cerner will deliver integrated technology that will put the most up-to-date clinical paediatric knowledge at the fingertips of our doctors, nurses, pharmacists and clinicians." The partnership with Cerner will also extend to Children’s work with the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School and a partner with Children’s in paediatric oncology. Trace Devanny, president of Cerner, said Cerner and Children’s shared a common vision of advancing world-class paediatric care and research capabilities: "This partnership is a very important step toward realizing that vision. We will collaborate with Children’s to harness the leading paediatric research and knowledge in the world and connect it with the most advanced clinical information technology solution in the world." In the UK Cerner is currently part of one of three consortia bidding for the final English NHS Local Service Provider contract to be awarded for the Southern region.
