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Advancing the Rapid Learning Healthcare Delivery System: CDW Debut

August 1, 2013

What if we could link the data systems of South Carolina’s largest hospitals and communicate that information to the state’s largest research universities, thus creating a comprehensive, statewide patient database for research?

This question was posed to Health Sciences South Carolina (HSSC) member organizations in 2008. The rationale for creating the clinical data warehouse (CDW) was compelling. Clinical researchers need vast quantities of patient information to develop and test ideas behind the next generation of treatments and technology. The ability to study statewide patient populations in real time and to retrieve detailed healthcare data beyond their own patient database would greatly amplify researchers’ efforts and results.

HSSC’s health system members were excited by the CDW because such a statewide tool could lead to better treatments for the chronic diseases that plague South Carolinians and reduce healthcare costs. The tool could also foster partnerships with the biomedical industry, leading to new medical technologies and job creation.

HSSC leaders agreed to make the CDW a priority initiative. With its launch in September 2013, the CDW has become the cornerstone of the South Carolina Rapid Learning Health System, a powerful tool HSSC and its member organizations are using to change the course of research, healthcare and public health in the state, and potentially the nation.

HSSC has initiated three pilot projects that utilize the CDW to address chronic illness and disease in South Carolina. The project will also demonstrate how this powerful tool uses de-identified patient data from across the state to support research, which in turn supports a better healthcare system and ultimately better public health.

CDW Project 1 - Improving Childhood Pneumonia

CDW Project 2 - Improving Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Care

CDW Project 3 - Assessing the Impact of Safe Surgery 2015

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