The MU Health System recently received an award of $13.3 million from the Health Care Innovation Awards in order to better its primary care for patients who have Medicare and Medicaid. The award will be put toward a project titled “Leveraging Information Technology to Guide High Tech High Touch Care” in the next three years.

LIGHT2 is intended to create a more enhanced program for the MU Health System. The health care team will be trained in advanced health information technology, evidence-based treatment planning and a specialized workforce to coordinate better care between the patients and the health care team, according to the Health Care Innovation Awards website. This new project is estimated to save about $16.9 million.

MU was honored to receive the award and the LIGHT2 project will have many positive outcomes, Health System Vice Chancellor Hal Williamson said.

“The LIGHT2 project will help health care providers and their patients communicate more effectively to achieve better health outcomes, better health care and lower health care costs,” Williamson said. “It has the potential to be a model for the nation.”

Missouri’s grant was among $1 billion the Health Care Innovation Awards distributed across the nation. The awards are granted to contenders who are looking to be more innovative than other health care systems. Williamson said he thinks the MU Health System’s strength as an academic medical center was one of the strong factors in the system winning this award.

“These strengths include multidisciplinary teams of physicians, researchers and clinicians from MU Health Care and the schools of medicine, nursing and health professions, plus our strong public-private partnership with the University of Missouri and Cerner Corporation through the Tiger Institute for Health Innovation,” Williamson said.

The MU Health System has been constructing better facilities for its patients since 2009. The new Ellis Fischel Cancer Center and Patient Care Tower are both to be completed in 2013. Along with this grant, the system will now have faster and more innovative health care to provide Missourians, said Joanne Burns, chief information officer for MU Health Care and executive director of the Tiger Institute for Health Innovation.

An estimated 420 workers will be trained with the new information and technology and a total of 30 jobs will be created throughout the LIGHT2 project. Job titles will include those of a project coordinator, a business manager, three health information analysts and 18 health care coordinators.

“Being selected to receive this award from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is a true testament to the hard work and dedication the University of Missouri has shown,” Burns said.