By Jane Clabby

Korea’s Soon Chun Hyang University Hospital selected IBM over Hitachi and HP to provide an integrated hardware and software “smarter computing” platform that will enable them to improve the quality of electronic medical records data as well as speed access to that data across multiple locations. The goal is to integrate data in different formats and in different physical locations so that physicians can treat patients more efficiently and effectively.

The infrastructure platform will include IBM Power 780 and 740 systems with PowerVM virtualization, IBM System x3650 M3 systems as well as IBM System Storage DS8000 and IBM Storwize V7000 Unified Storage, and will be capable of handling up to 100TB of data.

According to IBM, this system is supporting the hospital’s “SU-III Project” which will result in a single electronic medical record (EMR) system with a single database that can be used by physicians, nurses, lab clinicians and insurance companies. This will enable the hospital to consolidate and manage patient records across their four locations and 2,920 beds, from a central location in Bucheon, improving hospital efficiency while minimizing costs. With the integrated, workload-optimized system, physicians will also be able to work collaboratively with access to a common set of patient data, improving patient care.