The Ottawa Hospital and BD to create Smart Hospital

OTTAWA – BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company) and The Ottawa Hospital (TOH) formally announced a collaboration that aims to improve the quality of patient care. TOH will integrate data and reporting to standardize and improve its services by using artificial intelligence and smart connected devices. The collaboration agreement between TOH and BD will specifically focus on four key areas:

• Creating an organizational approach to ensure antimicrobials are used prudently and in only necessary ways to preserve their future effectiveness.
• Developing clinical decision support tools that use artificial intelligence to enhance choices made by medical professionals.
• Creating a strategy for medication management that works to support patients and caregivers during every step of the patient’s journey.
• Ensuring an integrated approach to chronic disease management for patients, families and staff.

Dr. Alan Forster (pictured), executive vice-president and chief innovation and quality officer at TOH, told the Ottawa Citizen newspaper that the collaboration was overdue. Healthcare, he said, has tended to lag behind other industries when it comes to use of technology and innovation.

“We recognize that there is a need for change in the healthcare system,” Forster said. “We need to have better technologies and we need to have better approaches to caring for people.”

The hospital and the medical technology company will work together to develop approaches to solve some of the challenges facing healthcare providers, patients, caregivers and health administrators, he said.

Eventually, Forster said, the hospital might be able to use technology to more accurately predict demand for beds a week down the road, for example.

Another project will develop a system that can help health professionals assess the amount of IV fluid to give a patient in the intensive care unit.

“How do we build a system where the data informs the decision about the appropriate rate to run the IV fluids?” Dr. Forster asked.

He said the hospital was hoping to create a system that would make a recommendation for treatment for a physician or nurse based on data fed into an algorithm.

Forster said the agreement would connect the hospital with innovations in health care around the world, through the company. BD is currently working with Eastern Health in Newfoundland. Forster said he hoped more Canadian hospitals would begin similar collaborations and share innovations.

“My ultimate goal is that we be connected with a bunch of hospitals.”

Ivy Parks, president of BD Canada, said automation and digital imaging could help speed up identification of bacterial infections in patients so that patients could get the right antibiotics more quickly. “Giving patients the right treatment the first time reduces stays in hospital and often prevents recurrence of infection,” Parks said.

“At The Ottawa Hospital, we are always thinking about the future of healthcare and collaborating with BD allows us to find new and innovative ways of ensuring our patients receive the best care possible,” said Cameron Love, President and CEO of The Ottawa Hospital. “This partnership gives us the opportunity to improve patient care and challenge the status quo of the healthcare industry, which will also help as we look towards building our new state-of-the-art healthcare facility.”

About The Ottawa Hospital
The Ottawa Hospital is committed to providing each patient with the world-class care, exceptional service and compassion that they would want for their loved ones. Over their three campuses, they serve tens of thousands of patients in Ottawa and the surrounding area each year. They rank 5th in Canada for total research funding and published over 2,200 research papers in 2019. As one of the largest research hospitals throughout the country, they are constantly innovating and providing new insight into the healthcare sector.

About BD
BD is one of the largest global medical technology companies in the world and is advancing the world of health by improving medical discovery, diagnostics and the delivery of care. The company supports the heroes on the frontlines of healthcare by developing innovative technology, services and solutions that help advance both clinical therapy for patients and clinical process for healthcare providers. BD and its 70,000 employees have a passion and commitment to help enhance the safety and efficiency of clinicians’ care delivery process, enable laboratory scientists to accurately detect disease and advance researchers’ capabilities to develop the next generation of diagnostics and therapeutics. BD has a presence in virtually every country and partners with organizations around the world to address some of the most challenging global health issues. By working in close collaboration with customers, BD can help enhance outcomes, lower costs, increase efficiencies, improve safety and expand access to healthcare. For more information on BD, please visit bd.com/en-ca or connect with us on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/bd1/ and Twitter @BDandCo.