National Recognition Achieved by Wilmot's Eric Snyder for Trailblazing Information Technology Innovations

The University of Rochester's Wilmot Cancer Institute has made significant strides in enhancing patient care, clinical trials, basic science, health equity, and its own operations, thanks to the development of a groundbreaking medical analytics platform called Hyperion.

Hyperion, a centralized, integrated medical analytics platform, consists of a vast data warehouse and a custom security framework. The platform was designed to find changes in the data warehouse in real-time and to reliably and accurately aggregate information from multiple sources, with minimal human intervention.

Eric Snyder, the director of Informatics at the Wilmot Cancer Institute, has been at the forefront of this innovation. Snyder's mantra is to simplify the complex and speed up the process by which data can be made useful for physicians and scientists. His dedication to this mission has not gone unnoticed. Recently, Snyder was invited to make three presentations at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) 2022 annual meeting, the biggest professional organization in the field.

The Wilmot IT team, a diverse group of professionals, played a crucial role in the development of Hyperion. The team includes a math professor from a regional college, a machine-learning engineer with artificial intelligence expertise, and an individual with a Silicon Valley background in imaging processing. Their collaborative efforts led to the creation of a geospatial mapping tool called CANVAS, designed for the layman, to study Wilmot's patient population and its unmet needs.

The Wilmot team also developed homegrown, high-performance virtual reality software for physicians to view and discuss complex data with the wave of a hand. The Wilmot IT solutions employ enterprise-level data, including electronic medical records for cancer patients, and data from other Medical Center sources such as pathology.

Eric Snyder negotiated with Dell so that Wilmot could establish its own servers for storing and maintaining cancer-related data. This decision, combined with the comprehensive auditing tools Snyder built, ensures that every action is monitored, no matter how small.

The Wilmot Technology and Innovation Group's efforts have been recognised with a "gold" award in the 2024 National Digital Health Awards for its proprietary Hyperion platform. Furthermore, Snyder was invited to address the issue of diversity in hiring practices at HIMSS, reflecting the group's commitment to inclusivity.

The close coordination between the medical center and Wilmot has been instrumental in expanding capabilities for both entities. James Forrester, M.S, associate vice president of IT Technology and chief technology officer at the medical center, acknowledged this collaboration, stating, "The close coordination between the medical center and Wilmot helps both entities expand capabilities."

In a time when the demand for healthcare IT professionals is at an all-time high, Snyder emphasises the importance of broadening or altering the usual skill set required for these jobs. This approach, he believes, can lead to increased creativity, particularly in light of "The Great Resignation."

The Wilmot Technology and Innovation Group, led by the University of Rochester, continues to push the boundaries of what is possible in healthcare and research, demonstrating that innovation can indeed transform the landscape of medicine.