Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Foundation forms $1 million alliance with Regenstrief Center
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Foundation is forming a $1 million partnership with Purdue University's Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering to study how engineering principles can improve the delivery of health care.
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"Through the Regenstrief Center, Purdue's Discovery Park is bringing the university's core strengths to bear on the public policy issue of health care that ultimately affects every citizen in the nation," Jischke said. "This partnership with the Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Foundation will give our researchers at Regenstrief and Discovery Park a window to a global player in the health-benefits industry. We're confident we will be able to provide answers to the grand challenge of minimizing costs, improving service and re-engineering health-care delivery in America."
Casey said this alliance with the Discovery Park center combines the industry strengths of Anthem with the interdisciplinary research strengths of one of the world's leading institutions.
"In less than two years, Purdue's Regenstrief Center has established a national reputation for applying engineering principles to give us tangible, workable ideas to improve the nation's complex and comprehensive health-care system," Casey said.
The partnership between Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield and Regenstrief was announced during a presentation by Jischke, who is asking Indianapolis community and business leaders for suggestions on what should be included in a new strategic plan for Purdue.
Indianapolis-based WellPoint Inc., which is the parent company of Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, unveiled a plan in July that will enable its 34 million members to access their records via the Internet. Advocates say online medical record systems can reduce errors and avoid unnecessary procedures by making a patient's medical history available to physicians immediately.
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Steve Witz, executive director of the Regenstrief Center, said collaborations with WellPoint and Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield's plans across the country will focus on the area of personal health-care records, electronic medical records and other areas to improve the delivery of health care for the provider and consumer.
"By drawing upon talent from all of Purdue's 13 schools and colleges, the Regenstrief Center strives for a holistic, interdisciplinary approach to improve the cost, efficiency, quality and safety of health-care delivery," Witz said. "In turn, our ability to design and implement effective and sustainable solutions is strongly linked to our strategic partnerships with professionals throughout the health-care industry.
"By collaborating with WellPoint and Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, we will be able to advance our process-engineering principles into a new and very strategic area and help achieve the goal set forth by President Bush to make all medical records available online within the next 10 years," Witz said.
At Regenstrief (pronounced REE-gen-streef), Purdue experts are applying the principles of technology, engineering, supply chain management and more into research designed to improve health-care delivery.
Since it was launched in February 2005 within the e-Enterprise Center, the Regenstrief Center has generated more than $20 million in sponsored research. Those research projects have focused on improving the safety and efficiency of patient care; providing more efficient deployment of physicians, nurses and other health-care personnel; and better coordinating inpatient and outpatient treatment.
Every college at Purdue is involved in Regenstrief activities. For example, the center also involves liberal arts faculty in areas such as sociology, health communication and kinesiology, as well as Purdue researchers in pharmacy, nursing, health sciences, consumer sciences, technology, agriculture and veterinary medicine.
Regenstrief and Indianapolis-based St. Vincent Health, which operates 16 Indiana hospitals, began a strategic partnership in April 2005 that is developing projects in several areas. Regenstrief also is collaborating with the Indiana University Medical Group-Primary Care, a practice of 138 IU physicians in 17 clinics that produced more than 500,000 patient visits in 2003.
Construction is expected to be completed by next spring on the $12.4 million Gerald D. and Edna E. Mann Hall, which will be home to the Regenstrief Center. About 25 percent of the floor space in the 50,000-square-foot Mann Hall will be devoted to Regenstrief, with the rest utilized by the e-Enterprise Center, the Center for Advanced Manufacturing and the Purdue Homeland Security Institute.
In 2005 the Regenstrief Foundation in Indianapolis provided $1 million annually for three years to launch the Regenstrief Center at Purdue's Discovery Park.
The Regenstrief name comes from Sam Regenstrief, who emigrated from Vienna to Indianapolis as a child. Regenstrief founded a company that manufactured and popularized the low-cost home dishwasher, at one time producing 37 percent of the world's dishwashers in Connersville, Ind. Sam Regenstrief died in 1988. The Regenstrief Foundation carries out Sam and his wife Myrtie Regenstrief's philanthropic legacy of interweaving medicine, engineering and technology.
Writer: Phillip Fiorini, (765) 496-3133, pfiorini@purdue.edu
Sources: Martin C. Jischke, (765) 494-9708
Dennis Casey, (317) 287-6036
Larry Glasscock, (317) 488-6400
Steve Witz, (765) 496-8303, witz@purdue.edu
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu
Related Web site:Regenstrief Institute
Speech:
Jischke: Community input vital in deciding Purdue's future
Related news release:
Jischke receives Indianapolis residents' input on Purdue's future
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