West Virginia Universitys health care organizations are conducting aName the Systemcontest for the new campus-wide health information system. The winner of the contest will receive a laptop computer.

Over the next several years, all patient information at WVU Hospitals in Morgantown and University Health Associates will be merged into a single system. The project is currently called theEpic Projectbecause Epic Systems Corp., of Madison, Wis., will design and install the computer software.

The WVU Epic Leadership Team (ELT), wants to change the name to reflect what the health information technology system does.Our goal is to bring together all of the information required to provide each WVU patient with the care he or she needs,said Ann Chinnis, M.D., executive director of the Epic project and associate dean for clinical informatics.We want all of our providers to have all the information they need, on all of our patients, all the time, at all of our sites of care. This will allow us to improve health care quality, safety and outcomes.

The new system will perform the following functions as well as many others for UHA and WVUH : clinical documentation, clinician order entry, decision support, results reporting, registration, scheduling and billing.

The rules of the contest are as follows:

The name should reflect the unifying nature of the projectbringing together multiple systems and bringing together WVUH and UHA . It should also reflect the projects goals to improve their health outcomes, improve patient safety and save time and inconvenience for patients and caregivers. It should also be unique to WVU .

Anyone with any connection to health care at WVU employees, students, faculty, staff, patients and former patientsis eligible to enter and win. (ELT members are not eligible)

All entries should be made by e-mail by August 10 to lawrencel@wvuh.com

The ELT will select the winner

First prize is a laptop computer. There is no second prize, but ELT will recognize clever entries that did not make the final selection.

This contest is similar to one WVU Hospitals ran in the early 1990s to name

a new computer system. The winning name,CHIP,an acronym forComputer Handling Information for Patientsbecame part of the hospitals culture and is immediately recognizable by everyone who has worked at WVUH in the last 14 years. CHIP , like many other systems across UHA and WVUH , will be retired when the new system is implemented.