Intermountain opens informatics research center

Intermountain Healthcare announced the opening of the Intermountain Homer Warner Center for Informatics Research in Salt Lake City, named for a pioneer in medical informatics.

The center, which opened Wednesday, initially will be home to 60 full-time IT employees. Intermountain expects to add 100 more informatics specialists within the next 10 years, according to a news release from the system.

Dr. Homer Warner, 88, is chairman emeritus of the University of Utah's medical informatics department.

"Dr. Warner identified the field and then defined that field," said Dr. Brent James, himself a medical informatics pioneer and now Intermountain's chief quality officer, in the news relaese. "It's hard to describe that contribution, not just to Intermountain, not just to the medical profession, but to the patients that we serve. Frankly, building on Homer's foundation, we're now on the cusp of a massive transformation of care delivery."

Warner's work combining computers with the practice of medicine began in the mid-1950s, using the devices for decision support in cardiology at LDS Hospital, according to a biographical summary in the release.

Two decades later, Warner worked with his colleagues to launch LDS' HELP system for computer-assisted decision support; that system has been operational for 40 years. Warner has served as a senior member of the Institute of Medicine and as president of the American College of Medical Informatics.