The Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) and the Hospital General Universitario de Valencia (HGUV) have signed today a collaboration agreement that strengthens the collaboration between both institutions and whose ultimate goal is to improve the health care of patients, taking advantage of the full potential of information and communication technologies (ICT).
Specifically, with this agreement, the UPV, through the SABIEN Group of ITACA Institute, and the General Hospital will implement the project «Interactive process mining for data analysis: in search of value-based medical care».
As Gema Ibáñez, researcher at the SABIEN-ITACA Group, explains, the digital transformation of healthcare and effective adoption of value-based healthcare could reduce the burden that healthcare systems currently bear, redefining protocols, pathways and workflows to increase their efficiency.
«But for this to be possible, healthcare professionals and information and communication technology experts need to speak the same language. Moreover, to achieve this, process mining can be a key element,» adds Carlos Fernández Llatas, a researcher in the SABIEN-ITACA group at the UPV.
As part of this project, the UPV and the General Hospital will work on updating and improving PMApp, a software application developed by the SABIEN-ITACA research team at the UPV that enables interactive process mining analysis in clinical environments. The solution includes, in addition to the application, a methodology involving health professionals and managers.
«It is a disruptive tool that opens the door to a change in thinking when it comes to analysing hospital data and makes it possible to delimit the digital footprint of how each hospital works to improve its efficiency. With this new agreement, we want to continue improving its features to contribute to achieving the best possible hospital care,» says Gema Ibáñez.
This tool is currently being used in the emergency department of the Hospital General de Valencia; it helps healthcare professionals to make the best decisions throughout the process, helping to reduce waiting times and achieve optimal diagnosis and treatment.
The agreement signed this morning by the rector of the Universitat Politècnica de València, José E. Capilla, and the managing director of the Hospital General Universitario de València, Inmaculada Renart, will run until the end of 2025.
Four years of work
This collaboration between the SABIEN-ITACA Group of the Universitat Politècnica de València and the Hospital General Universitario de Valencia began in 2018 with the awarding of the «Premio López Trigo». In that first stage, data were validated, and the PMApp tool evolved to provide better visualisations of the information and mechanisms to validate it. Furthermore, last year, the UPV team and the General Hospital began to use it to study the emergency department, building indicators and advanced process views, making a qualitative leap in the information available for management.
The UPV and Hospital General de València team was awarded last November for developing and applying this software with the ENNOVA Health prize, organised by Diario Médico and Correo Farmacéutico – the national publishing unit with the most significant readership in the clinical field.
Source: UPV’s Communication Area