Duke University and Verizon have agreed to collaborate on developing health IT products that will improve patient outcomes and decrease health costs. The initiative will focus on ways to increase patient engagement and preventive care.
Verizon Connected Healthcare Solutions, the company's health IT arm, will provide the technology to perform analytical processing and modeling of data, as well as the operational staffing and resources required for technical development. Duke will supply the services of students, research and project management experts, and educational program development staff, as well as intellectual property.
Specifically, the joint venture will explore the commercial possibilities of Duke research and offer a Verizon internship program to students. To evaluate the progress of the initiative, there will be a scientific advisory board that includes Duke and Verizon representatives.
"This strategic agreement with Verizon offers great promise to serve as an agent of positive change in the U.S. healthcare delivery market," Kevin Schulman, director of Duke's health sector management program, said in a press release. "By tapping into Verizon's leading technology resources and applying Duke's research expertise, both organizations will be able to closely collaborate to explore how we can collectively unleash the powerful potential of health information technology."
Schulman told InformationWeek Healthcare that the agreement will help Duke researchers figure out how to scale up promising innovations for the mass market by using Verizon's computing and communications infrastructure.
To learn more:
- read the press release
- see the InformationWeek Healthcare article