InformationWeek 500: UPMC Goes Well Beyond Innovation

UPMC's Windows system engineers can now handle 159 servers each, up from 102 before the transformation. On the Unix side, they deal with 49 servers apiece, up from 35.

The data center went from 48 cabinets to two, with plenty of space to grow in the next five years. Before the transformation, UPMC expected to be out of space in two years, Sikora says.

UPMC did this consolidation while growing: Its Windows environment grew 229% in terms of apps added and expanded, its Unix environment grew 238%, storage increased 685%, and the number of desktop users rose from 22,000 to 49,000, Sikora says.

The virtualization and consolidation have CIO Dan Drawbaugh and CEO Jeffrey Romoff toying with new opportunities. "We're talking about public and private cloud computing, how UPMC could position our private cloud for virtualization that we have in place and establish relationships with key partners on the public cloud," Drawbaugh says.

UPMC has already started bringing to market new products and services related to its partnership with IBM. In late July, the two companies announced a joint multimillion-dollar investment in SmartRoom, a UPMC subsidiary that will market a location-based system developed by UPMC. SmartRoom embeds ultrasound technology in badges worn by UPMC staffers, so that when they walk into a patient's room they're identified on a bedside monitor. The system automatically provides doctors and nurses with pertinent patient information and workflow tools so that important data is more easily accessed and entered into digital patient records.

UPMC Innovation

SmartRoom An ultrasound-based location system that feeds information to staff and patients

Via Oncology A wholly owned subsidiary that sells evidence-based, Web clinical decision support tools to cancer doctors nationwide

SingleView Enterprise, federated picture archiving and communications system that provides a unified view of patients' medical imaging tests regardless of where they're stored

Center for Connected Medicine UPMC and 14 partners, including IBM, Google, and Verizon Wireless, develop healthcare applications and technologies

While UPMC and IBM won't say exactly how much they've invested in SmartRoom, the companies describe it as the largest investment to date from the $50 million joint development fund they created as part of the IT transformation partnership.

Drawbaugh won't say exactly how much of UPMC's $7.7 billion annual revenue is generated by spun-out businesses like Via Oncology and SmartRoom; those two together have generated "multimillion dollars" and are profitable, he says.

UPMC is involved in other collaborative efforts, including a health information exchange being launched that will let healthcare providers and other institutions in western Pennsylvania and parts of Ohio and West Virginia easily share patient records and other data.

UPMC also recently launched the Center for Connected Medicine, collaborating with more than a dozen tech companies, including Google, IBM, and Verizon Wireless, on new healthcare applications. It also has created a technology development center, for which it's recruiting 25 high-level engineers to work on mobile healthcare and other applications.

These projects and partnerships all reflect UPMC's relentless focus on technology innovation and entrepreneurship. "It's part of the DNA of UPMC that whatever you're doing today you're planning for improvement tomorrow," Sikora says. It's what makes UPMC a healthcare industry standout.

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