U of C establishes new centre focused on medical data to help improve health outcomes

The University of Calgary's Pulse Centre is using medical data to improve health outcomes.

The University of Calgary is hoping to improve patient care through a new centre that’s focused on medical data.

It’s called the Nelson Precision Medicine and Learning Health Systems Centre for Innovation -- or The Pulse Centre -- at the Cummings School of Medicine.

The centre gathers all of the data from medical tests, like medical imaging or ECGs and combines them with lab data and medication to help improve health outcomes.

The head of the centre believes this could help transform the way people get care.

“For a patient, it means that we’ll be able to deliver care more effectively, more efficiently for them,” said Pulse Centre director James White. “As they come into hospital, we’ll be making those diagnoses quicker and more effectively.

“But for people who are doing research, it allows them to discover new diseases and new ways to treat diseases far quicker than they have been able to in the past.”

The centre recently received a $12 million donation from a U of C alumni.

That funding will let them look at strokes, critical care, women’s health and more.