CSC (NYSE: CSC) announced the launch of its Global Institute for Emerging Healthcare Practices with the mission of monitoring worldwide trends, conducting regional and multi-country studies, and evaluating emerging operational practices and technologies that have the potential to improve performance of healthcare industries around the world. By merging trends and experience across geographies, and tapping its expertise in the United States, Australia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), CSC's new endeavour will offer healthcare providers the tools to learn about, and capitalise on, best practices no matter where they are developed.
"While many aspects of healthcare payment differ among countries, the goals of safe, efficient and high quality care are universal - and technology is a critical component of delivering on these imperatives," said Mark Roman, president of CSC's Global Healthcare Group. "CSC's expertise in technology, and our position as a global leader in the healthcare market, enables us to deliver key insights and uncover tools and services for use by our clients around the world. We are pleased to create a formal home for our thought leadership activities, which will allow us to share what we learn with the industry."
Dr. Harald Deutsch, vice president, CSC Healthcare EMEA added: "As the healthcare landscape across EMEA continues to change, it is increasingly important to provide our customers with credible industry intelligence to enable them to make better informed business decisions."
In tandem with the launch, CSC released a new global report, 'Telemedicine - An Essential Technology for Reformed Healthcare,' that describes how telemedicine(1) addresses the healthcare challenges of access to care, resource shortages and escalating costs that impact healthcare throughout the world. The report also identifies telemedicine solutions available and already in use. For instance, specialists in Queensland, Australia, provide rural care through a mobile screening program that operates as a mobile clinic from a van in remote areas.
The immediate question for health systems and government/payers is where to start and how to make longer-term plans for integrating telemedicine into routine healthcare. Within the report, CSC makes the following recommendations to organisations considering a telemedicine solution:
- Start by picking one healthcare issue that can be addressed by telemedicine, using existing solutions that address access, resource and care delivery problems, from the ICU to home care.
- Focus on immediate needs and opportunities, but do not overlook selecting solutions with an eye toward broader use down the road, such as adding new services, and addressing the needs of changing target patient populations.
- Understand current challenges and investigate local and regional efforts that are continuing to chip away at these barriers. For example, in the US, new regulations have recently been announced that enable the credentialing of physicians who use telemedicine for remote care visits across state lines. In Australia, the Connecting Care program coordinated by New South Wales Health will be drawing on a number of products and services to support self-monitoring and support solutions for patients with chronic conditions. The state-wide initiative will connect doctors, hospitals and community health services. Such knowledge can help organisations to shape a roadmap.
The report on telemedicine and others will be made available at the CSC Global Institute's home online: www.csc.com/globalinstitute. The site will host a wide array of global resources and experts from the US, Australia and EMEA.
Related news articles:
- CSC's Profile
About CSC Healthcare EMEA
CSC Healthcare EMEA is part of the CSC Global Healthcare Group, which serves both private and public sectors around the world. As a leading provider of interoperable, scalable IT healthcare solutions CSC is transforming healthcare with better information for better decisions.
Working with health ministries and healthcare providers across the region CSC Healthcare EMEA helps to drive reform and rise to the challenge of delivering a digitised health service. Spearheading the development of its product range is the CSC European Solution Centre, which is complemented by CSC's global Innovation Centres.
Currently the EMEA group has healthcare operations in more than 11 countries, employing approximately 3,000 healthcare experts. As part of a global group it is supported by an extensive partner network and provides substantial experience of national healthcare markets.
About CSC
CSC is a global leader in providing technology-enabled business solutions and services. Headquartered in Falls Church, Va., CSC has approximately 91,000 employees and reported revenue of $16.0 billion for the 12 months ended April 1, 2011. For more information, visit the company's website at www.csc.com.
1. Telemedicine is the provision of healthcare services through use of information and communication technologies where the health professional and the patient - or two health professionals - are not in the same location.