Intermountain opens new informatics research center

Intermountain Healthcare opened a new center to support clinical information systems, the Intermountain Homer Warner Center for Informatics Research, on Feb. 16, on the campus of the medical center in Salt Lake City.

“With the growing emphasis on and the importance of medical informatics we will continue to grow in this area with employees and their research,” said Marc Probst, Intermountain’s chief information officer. “The collaborative work that will happen in this center will accelerate the rate of change in developing information system tools to help doctors and nurses better care for patients.”

Named after Homer R. Warner, MD, PhD, the center honors one of the industry’s fathers of clinical computer systems, according to the provider. Beginning in the mid-1950s, Warner began his work using computers for clinical decision support (CDS) in cardiology at LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City. His work set the stage for the growth of the new field of academic study called medical informatics. In the 1970s, Warner and his Intermountain colleagues created one of the nation’s first versions of an EMR.

Beginning in 2005, Intermountain partnered with GE Healthcare to develop and implement a new clinical information system, which also provides CDS.

Intermountain’s Homer Warmer Center for Informatics Research will centralize 60 full-time health IT positions, many of which are new positions created with the center.  Within the next ten years, Intermountain expects to need an additional 100 informatics specialists.

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