Hitachi and Danish hospital to study use of big data for improving hospital management

12 November 2014

Bispebjerg and Frederiksberg University Hospital and Hitachi, Ltd.  have agreed to jointly develop solutions for increasing the efficiency of hospital management using IT at Hitachi's Denmark Big Data Research Laboratory, which opened on 5 November 2014.

Hitachi established the Hitachi Global Center for Innovative Analytics in April 2013 to act as a driving force behind the expansion of business in big data applications by combining the resources of Hitachi Group’s laboratories and business divisions. Hitachi has since been accelerating activities involving the use of big data including in healthcare.

The new solutions will target a variety of themes, including the “next-generation hospital operations that combine data on facilities and human behaviours” and will define research topics by March 2015. The goal of these studies will be to increase the efficiency of hospital operations in order to achieve specific goals set by the hospital, such as reducing the number of beds and increasing the number of outpatients that can be received.

Mogens Jensen, Danish Minister for Trade and Development Cooperation, "Hitachi is one of the world’s most innovative companies. I welcome the establishment of the Big Data Research Laboratory in Copenhagen and appreciate the agreement with Bispebjerg and Frederiksberg University Hospital on joint development of data-based health solutions. This is a notable recognition of Danish industry strongholds within health-IT and smart cities. And a good example of how public-private partnerships can pave the way for innovative solutions to tomorrow’s challenges."

Claes Brylle Hallqvist, Executive Vice President, Bispebjerg and Frederiksberg University Hospital, "We are very happy to have completed this agreement with the Hitachi Group. By effectively combining our vast resources, including data, facilities, and manpower, with appropriate technologies, we will be able to further improve healthcare services for the citizens of Copenhagen.

"Hitachi gives us the ability to combine a long range of data, which can both optimize the hospital management and improve patient care. As one example, we have installed censors in more than 800 temperature-controlled units such as freezers and medicine cabinets. We hope that Hitachi can help us find patterns in the temperature data, so that we can predict, when a unit is about to fail and thereby save precious medicine and medical research material."

Yutaka Saito, Executive Vice President and Executive Officer, Hitachi, Ltd. said, "It is a great honor to have this opportunity to contribute to improving the level of healthcare in Copenhagen by combining the Bispebjerg and Frederiksberg University Hospital’ wealth of experience in hospital management with the Hitachi Group’s expertise and technologies. The healthcare field, which will be the focus of these activities, is one of the core fields in Hitachi’s Social Innovation Business, and the collaborative relationship that we have recently agreed upon is an extremely important theme for the Hitachi Group."

Source: Hitachi