Northern Finland has chosen ImplantDB
BCB Medical strengthens its position as market leader in information management systems for patient-follow-up in joint replacement surgery
The specialty care area of Oulu University hospital chose BCB Medical to deliver its ImplantDB information management system, intended for patient follow-up after joint replacement surgery. The specialty care area of Oulu University hospital covers geographically half of Finland.
During this spring, ImplantDB, created by BCB Medical, will be taken into use at the Oulu University Hospital and the hospital districts within its specialty care area. Implant DB is the preferred solution for the treatment chain monitoring and quality surveillance in joint replacement surgery in Finland.
ImplantDB truly supports our service chain and enforces our activities in joint replacement surgery. It enables flexible co-operation throughout the treatment chain all the way from the orthopedic clinic to general practice. Simultaneously, it helps us to create coherent quality surveillance for joint replacement surgery throughout our region. Also the possibility of integrating ImplantDB with the other Information Management Systems in use had a major impact in our decision making, says Juhana Leppilahti, chief orthopedist at Oulu University hospital.
With the agreement now signed, ImplantDB has been taken into use in eight of the 22 hospital districts in Finland. With Northern Finland being included in the network of ImplantDB users, the system can easily be widened into a national follow-up system for the entire treatment chain in joint replacement surgery. Now it is possible to coherently follow-up the efficacy and effectiveness of treatment for those tens of thousands of patients with artificial joints that are registered in the ImplantDB system, says Petteri Viljanen, Managing Director of BCB Medical.
Implant DB – Improving the effectiveness of the treatment chain for patients undergoing joint replacement surgery
Approximately 20,000 joint replacement surgeries are performed in Finland every year and it is estimated that the need for surgery will increase in the future due to the aging of the population.
Considerable improvements and cost savings can be gained with the help of an information management system that is specialized in monitoring the efficacy of the treatment chain. In the hospital district of Ostrobothnia it has been possible to shorten the waiting time for patients in queue for joint replacement surgery from 14 months to 4 months due to increased effectiveness of the complete service chain. In addition, BCB Medical was involved in a development project that lead to improved effectiveness in the operation theatre enabling surgeons to perform 50 per cent more surgeries than previously within normal operating hours. This means more than 600,000 Euros in cost savings, says Viljanen.
The use of ImplantDB helps the hospital districts to direct their limited resources to the right patients thereby improving the functioning of treatment chains. If ImplantDB would be used nationwide in all the hospital districts in Finland, we could talk about cost savings in millions of Euros per annum.
ImplantDB enables the follow-up of the efficacy of treatment
Arthrosis is the most common joint disease in the world. Joint replacement surgery, which is the common treatment for severe arthrosis, is an extensive orthopedic procedure which improves the patient’s quality of life. From society’s point of view, it is an expensive procedure and therefore it is important to follow-up the efficacy of treatment. With the help of ImplantDB it is possible to co-ordinate and standardize life-long follow-up and quality surveillance of joint replacement procedures in a cost-effective manner in co-operation between operating hospitals and health care centers.
With the help of standardized and comparable information on effectiveness, the hospital districts receive up-to-date information, which enables them to improve their procedures based on collected data. The most important thing is, though, that the treating doctors know how their patients are doing and they know to react immediately if problems occur, says Petri Virolainen, chief of orthopedic surgery at the Turku University hospital.
Further information:
Managing Director Petteri Viljanen, Phone: +358 400 727 366
BCB Medical is a service provider for the health care sector in developing reliable solutions for information management and sharing. The company, established in 2003 in Turku, Finland, develops and maintains centralized database systems for information management. Several tissue banks, hospital districts and hospitals in Finland, Germany and Denmark are included in the list of reference clients.
www.bcbmedical.com
The specialty care area of Oulu University hospital, consists of the hospital districts of North-, Western and Central- Ostrobothnia, Lappland and Kainuu, a territory covering geographically half of Finland. It includes the University Hospital of Oulu and 4 central district hospitals and 69 health care centers.