Forty health professionals, clinicians and journalists from France and Belgium attended a March 8 presentation and tour of Winship Cancer Institute at Emory Midtown. The group toured several key areas of Winship at Emory Midtown to learn about the unique and innovative ways that technology is utilized and leveraged throughout the 17-story cancer care center to provide patients the most effective cancer care and the best possible experience.

Affiliated with Catel, a French health tech innovation incubator, the group of visitors was comprised of physicians, pharmacists and chief information officers of hospitals and health systems overseas. Attendees enjoyed a panel presentation and Q&A session led by Ken Cardona, MD, FACS, associate chief medical officer of Winship at Emory Midtown.

“This tour helped us to bridge connections across the globe and have meaningful discussions around health care delivery models and technology innovations,” says Amy Breakstone, MPH, project administrator for Winship Cancer Institute. “I think Winship at Emory Midtown was selected and showcased for this event due to our innovative ‘Winship Way’ patient-centered care model, where we place patients at the center of care that is aligned with innovative cancer research and advanced technology to enhance the overall patient and provider experience.”

The facility’s Real-Time Locating System (RTLS) was one tech feature that intrigued the visitors.

“The French delegation was interested in seeing how we integrated the RTLS system into our daily operations to help with patient flow throughout the building. They were also interested in the KPIs we have developed to measure the system’s success,” says Breakstone.

Research informatics was another of the group’s key areas of interest, according to Ebonie Hardman, RN, MSN, MBA, assistant director of research informatics. She discussed Winship IT and Research Informatics Shared Resources offered to support researchers with the collection, storage, management and dissemination of data.

Some of the research technology tools offered include custom application development, data management services, population databases and consultation services.

“I also discussed our external partnerships with the American Cancer Society, Caris and Accenture: Microsoft GPT,” says Hardman. “They were most intrigued with our recent Accenture Large Language Model (LLM) Pilot. This project reduced the time of pathology report review for the purpose of case finding and classification for our cancer registry from 20 minutes to two minutes, with a 96% accuracy rate over seven different disease groups.”

The visitors also toured the pharmacy to see how pharmacy technology has created further efficiencies that lead to improved patient satisfaction and a better experience for clinicians as well, according to Ryan Haumschild, PharmD, director of pharmacy for Winship Cancer Institute and Emory Healthcare.

“The group was impressed with the way we leverage technology for the sterile compounding of immunotherapies and targeted therapies to ensure the highest standards of safety and sterility for our patients,” Haumschild says. “We also were able to share the innovative ways we are delivering medications to the patient care communities utilizing our medication elevators and inventory management system.” 

Attendees and presenters agree that the event was a success.

Breakstone says, “We received feedback from Dell and the French Catel delegation that they were excited to experience firsthand the patient-centric and technology-driven care at Winship and that the session and tour provided valuable insights into our transformative care delivery model at Winship Cancer Institute.”

“The collaboration at our recent event with Catel, Emory Healthcare and Dell Technologies exemplified the spirit of global innovation that 11TEN champions,” says Caleb Szubski, MBA, partner, 11TEN Innovation Partners, and executive lead for the Emory Healthcare Innovation Hub. “Seeing leaders from France’s health care and IT sectors engage with the cutting-edge advances at Winship Cancer Institute was a testament to our shared commitment to advancing oncology care.”

Szubski adds, “We discussed the transformative power of data in health care decision-making, explored real-time tracking technologies that promise to enhance both patient and provider experiences and examined innovative pharmacy operations. The energy and ideas exchanged here will undoubtedly resonate through our ongoing work, spurring innovations that cross borders and boundaries.”

Other panelists included Zachary Bercu, MD, RPVI, interventional radiologist and program director for interventional radiology and independent residencies of Emory Healthcare, and Nicole Bansavage, DNP, RN, OCN, interim VP of oncology nursing, oncology specialty director for Winship Cancer Institute.