Our commitment to innovation, precision medicine, and advancing healthcare coupled with our rural, loyal population provides our researchers with an extraordinary environment for research.
Geisinger is one of the country's "most wired" healthcare companies with an electronic health record (EHR) in all outpatient clinics, patient portal and other digital means of delivering care. The EHR database contains information on more than three million patients, with data going back over twenty years. These records are utilized by clinicians for both inpatient and outpatient records with integrated electronic scheduling, clinical lab and radiology system.
Beginning in 2007, Geisinger began the MyCode Community Health Initiative at the direction of the external Scientific Advisory Board in recognition of the role genomics would play in the future of medicine and Geisinger's focus on individualized medicine and care.
Real-time unfettered access to data from disparate sources, including an electronic health record (EHR) system, accelerates translational research and provides the foundation for comparative effectiveness studies. Geisinger has created a comprehensive enterprise-level data warehouse.
The Investigator Initiated Research Operations (IIRO) office provides project management services for research projects, as well as mentorship and consultation support for investigators (e.g., clinicians, fellows, residents) who are developing a research project. Researchers are not required to consult with IIRO, but our staff is eager to provide help to those who seek it.
Geisinger’s Human Research Protection Program (HRPP), integrates the activities and functions of Geisinger Institutional Review Board (IRB), Office of Research Compliance (ORC), Office of Sponsored Projects (OSP), and other review units through oversight, education and quality assurance activities, including program administration. The HRPP seeks to assure the rights and welfare of research participants and promote excellence in all aspects of human subjects research.
Directed by Myra Wilkerson, MD, the Geisinger Medical Laboratories (GML) consist of a highly standardized and integrated network of seven hospital laboratories and more than 50 regional site laboratories. Testing in this "distributed laboratory" utilizes shared laboratory information system (LIS) test codes from standardized testing methodology across several different-sized networked instruments on a wide-area network.
Recent census data indicate that, with the exception of two counties, the out migration rate is just under four percent every four years. This stable population provides unique opportunities for longitudinal research. Geisinger's service region has a higher proportion of elderly, both over 70 and over 85, than the United States population.
Geisinger Health Plan (GHP) is the insurance component of Geisinger. Begun in 1985, GHP is headquartered in Danville, Pa. GHP has received national recognition for providing high-quality, affordable healthcare benefits.