On Thursday, the U.S. Olympic Committee announced that it will use an electronic health record system to manage care for athletes, staff and volunteers, eWeek reports.
The announcement marks the first time that USOC has used an EHR system to manage care.
Bill Moreau, USOC managing director of sports medicine, said, “We previously had to ship, sort and store palettes of paper records for each [Olympic] Games — those days are gone” (Horowitz, eWeek, 5/24).
About the EHR System
USOC will deploy GE’s EHR system and its medical record image viewing software (Walsh, CMIO, 5/24).
The system will contain medical data on 700 athletes competing in the Summer 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games, as well as almost 3,000 USOC staff members and volunteers (Miliard, Healthcare IT News, 5/24).
Physicians will be able to access the health records via tablet computers. USOC said the health IT tools will allow physicians to quickly access information about allergies and medications while treating athletes’ injuries (eWeek, 5/24).
Next Steps
USOC said it plans to continue its partnership with GE for several future Olympic Games, including the 2014 winter games in Russia and the 2016 summer games in Brazil.
Jan De Witte — CEO of GE’s health IT and performance solutions divisions — said the EHR system “is a platform that will stay with the USOC for the years to come” (Healthcare IT News, 5/24).
