UPMC to spend $100 million on data warehouse

As the trend of personalized medicine grows in popularity, larger organizations are becoming more eager to jump on the bandwagon. Case in point, UPMC announced today that it will invest $100 million to develop a robust data warehouse geared toward using analytics for predictive modeling that will impact both clinical and financial decision-making.

For the effort, which will be spread over five years, UPMC is teaming with dbMotion, IBM, Informatica and Oracle. In particular, IBM--which recently extended an agreement with UPMC to provide technology support for the hospital--will provide business analytics software for the project, according to an announcement.

"Today's healthcare institutions have access to unprecedented types and volumes of data that have the potential to unlock the secrets of human health and disease, leading to new and highly personalized care pathways," Steven Shapiro, chief medical and scientific officer at UPMC, said in a statement. "In this environment, advanced information management and analytics platforms will fuel the next giant leap forward for healthcare, in much the same way that the microscope and antibiotics transformed care in generations past."

Chris Belmont, vice president and CIO for Jefferson Parish, La.-based Ochsner Health System, talked to FierceHealthPayer in a recent interview about his organization's investment in data warehousing. He estimated that such a system saved Ochsner $3 million in its first year alone.

Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, meanwhile, looked to within for answers, developing home-grown software to for data collection purposes.

To learn more:
- here's the UPMC announcement
- read IBM's version of the announcement
- check out Oracle's announcement