UC San Diego Health, West Health Launch 'Accelerator' To Ensure Timely Care

SAN DIEGO, CA — UC San Diego Health and West Health Wednesday announced the launch of a six-year, $40 million initiative intended to build a health coordinating model to improve outcomes for patients across the region and possibly the country.

The West Health Accelerator will run at UC San Diego Health and is designed to allow UCSD doctors to keep the same standard of care and personalization regardless of location.

"By 2030, one in five Americans will be aged 65 or older and this demographic shift will dramatically increase the need for easily accessible personalized health care," UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla said. "The Accelerator will help UC San Diego Health meet local and national demand as it opens new locations across the San Diego region."

The project begins across UC San Diego Health's three hospitals and multiple clinics, with an eye to sharing results with health systems across the country.

"Every person deserves coordinated, timely and reliable care, no matter where they are in their health journey," said Shelley Lyford, CEO of West Health. "Together with UC San Diego Health, we are designing a new, tech- forward national model for how health systems deliver on that promise, built on the university's clinical and research prowess, strengthened by everything we've learned across every West Health Accelerator nationwide."

UCSD Health and West Health have collaborated on care for more than a decade including opening California's first accredited senior emergency care unit -- the Gary and Mary West Emergency Department at Jacobs Medical Center at UC San Diego Health in La Jolla.

"UC San Diego Health finds itself at a pivotal moment in its growth," said Patty Maysent, CEO of UC San Diego Health. "As we expand our geographical footprint and lifesaving medical and surgical programs, the Accelerator will help us to continuously design and deliver coordinated, timely and reliable care across multiple hospital campuses and ambulatory clinics, and when possible, at home, aided by wearable technologies."

According to the university health system, the Joan & Irwin Jacobs Center for Health Innovation at UC San Diego Health -- a dedicated center focused on the ethical development and deployment of technology to improve patient care -- will form the backbone of the project, allowing the Accelerator to expand mission control, an around-the-clock coordination hub that uses technology, data and the health system's electronic health record to "ensure patients are seen and cared for at the right time and in the right environment."

Founded by Gary and Mary West in 2006, West Health is a family of nonprofit, nonpartisan organizations.

— City News Service