Allegheny Health Network and Johns Hopkins Medicine will expand an existing collaboration to focus on women’s health, pulmonary disease and lung transplantation, the organizations announced today.
This new expansion will create one of the largest coordinated research programs for gynecological and obstetrical health research programs in the country.
AHN and Hopkins will be able to combine data from tens of thousands of patient interactions, including deliveries, gynecologic surguries and ambulatory visits, a news release said.
Dave Hall, vice president of enterprise partnerships at Highmark Health, said AHN delivered around 8,100 babies last year. Combining services with Hopkins, which delivered more than 9,000 babies last year, creates one of the largest research populations in the country.
“These two incredibly comprehensive women’s health programs are coming together,” Hall said. “I think the upside here is very profound.”
Dr. Allan Klapper, president of Wexford Hospital and chair of the AHN Women and Children’s Institute, said women’s health services at AHN have grown every year. The system has expanded research and care for post-partum depression, perinatal mood disorder and substance abuse disorder in pregnancies, Klapper said. In 2019, AHN delivered about 400 more babies than in 2018, while improving the quality and experience of care.
“There is almost nothing that a patient can’t get in our system in terms of women’s health care,” said Klapper.
The collaboration with Hopkins takes that growth a step forward, Klapper said, making AHN competitive not just regionally, but nationally. It creates a “think tank” to find innovative improvements to health care, he said.
“This gives patients in Western Pennsylvania an opportunity that not many marketplaces have,” he said.
Pregnant AHN patients will also have access to the Johns Hopkins Center for Fetal Therapy, a program for diagnosing and treating rare fetal conditions in the womb. AHN specialists in obstetrics, maternal-fetal medicine, neonatology and pediatrics will work with the Hopkins team.
“The collaboration provides a direct line of communication so we can bounce these ideas off one another, so we can collaborate for the patients who need that specialized care,” Klapper said.
For the pulmonology collaboration, AHN and Hopkins will conduct research on precision medicine approaches to treating chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The disease affects about 3 million patients in the U.S. each year, AHN said in the news release.
Anil Singh, system division director for pulmonary critical care, allergy, immunology and sleep at AHN, said this aspect of the partnership revolves around sharing data and using a machine-learning algorithm.
“So we can really learn about this patient population,” Singh said.
AHN patients with advanced lung disease will also have better access to the Johns Hopkins lung transplant program. Singh said that the current process for arranging lung transplants is inefficient and difficult for patients. When Singh sees a patient who may qualify for a transplant, he sends them to Hopkins. There, they may spend up to a week performing the same tests and answering the same questions they already had at AHN. Often, Singh said, he will have no idea if the patient ended up getting the transplant.
Under the new collaboration, AHN will facilitate all the necessary medical tests for potential lung recipients, saving patients a trip to Baltimore in the event that they don’t qualify for a transplant. AHN physicians will also have weekly phone calls with the transplant team in Baltimore to discuss patients and make a collaborative decision for who will receive the surgery.
“There will be constant communication betweent the transplant team and ourselves,” Singh said. “They know exactly what’s happening with the patient. They know where they stand.”
While AHN does perform liver, kidney and heart transplantation, the network does not have the capability to do lung transplants. That’s why this partnership is so important, Hall said.
There are no plans to build new clinics or facilities at this time. Overall, the expanded partnership is aimed at keeping care local — bringing Hopkins resources to AHN patients, rather than the other way around. If a woman wants to get involved with a Hopkins clinical trial, that can be more easily facilitated, said Stephanie Waite, AHN strategic communications advisor. If she wants to seek a second opinion on a medical issue, AHN can help arrange a video call.
“It’s all about bringing these services here,” Waite said.
The organizations have collaborated on cancer care for about five years, according to a news release, providing Pittsburgh cancer patients with access to second opinions and clinical trials at Hopkins.
“Collaboration among leading institutions truly is essential to health care innovation and improving quality of care for the patients and communities we serve,” Cynthia Hundorfean, AHN president and CEO, said in a statement.
Teghan Simonton is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Teghan at 724-226-4680, [email protected] or via Twitter .
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January 16, 2020 at 05:08AM
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Allegheny Health Network expands partnership with Johns Hopkins to women's health - TribLIVE
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