Electronic Medical Record - Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare’s Methodist North Hospital is Memphis’ first private hospital to launch a fully integrated electronic medical record (EMR) system. Methodist North’s EMR system, OneChart, has been in development since 2002, and the implementation of OneChart’s Electronic Medical Administration Record (eMAR) and Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) marks the beginning of seamless patient care.

The eMAR and CPOE allow physicians and caregivers to access patients’ complete medical records, including their medical history, medications, allergies, test results, vital signs and other medical information, via secure, password-protected computers at the bedside and throughout the hospital.

Faith and Health – In 2007, Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare announced the creation of a Center of Excellence in Faith and Health. To be housed at the system’s flagship hospital, Methodist University Hospital, the COE in Faith and Health is an interfaith, collaborative center of research, innovation and training. Working with partners both locally and all over the world, the center will identify and link local community faith resources; provide support and resources to clergy; enhance the patient experience within the walls of the hospital; and support collaborative research with international experts on faith and health – all with the goal of improving the wellbeing of the patient before, during and after the hospital experience.

In the past two decades a growing body of evidence has emerged that shows that patients who are active participants in a worshipping community have significantly better health outcomes. Other studies indicate that patients in hospitals receiving skilled spiritual care are able to be released more quickly and return less often than those receiving either no spiritual care, or untrained spiritual care. The Center of Excellence in Faith and Health reflects solid medical evidence that the link between faith and health is important long term patient outcomes. The center is a tool that will help us understand better so that our practice and implementation of this area of knowledge is as systematic and excellent as we expect to achieve in other more traditional areas of medical science. After a generous $1 million founding gift, fundraising is under way for this COE.

Virtual Brain Tumor Board – To level the global playing field for brain tumor patients, Methodist University Hospital, home to one of the busiest neuroscience institutes in the country, began offering an innovative breakthrough in medicine by live webcasting a series of monthly multidisciplinary meetings for medical professionals to discuss the most complex brain tumor cases. The first program of its kind, the Virtual Brain Tumor Board expands on the universal tumor board concept by providing a platform where a multi-disciplinary team of experts made up of various specialties within the neuroscience field including neurosurgeons, pathologists, clinical and medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, neuro interventional radiologists present and review challenging clinical cases and collaborate together to create the best treatment plan for each patient.

Living Donor Transplants - Every year more people register on the United Network for Organ Sharing's waiting list than there are organs available. To help answer that need need, the Methodist University Hospital Transplant Institute emphasizes its living liver and kidney organ donor program.

Robotic Surgery – Methodist North Hospital and Methodist University Hospital both have da Vinci surgical robotic systems in place, allowing physicians to perform complex and delicate procedures with more clarity and more effectively while offering the patient the most minimally-invasive surgery possible. Patients typically have reduced complications, hospital stays and recovery time.

LightSpeed VCT 64 Slice Scanner - The first of its kind installed in the Memphis area, GE Healthcare's LightSpeed( Volume Computed Tomography (VCT) system offers the most advanced technology in the world.

The LightSpeed VCT scanner provides sharper, clearer images and revolutionizes diagnostic speed for patients here in the Mid-South. Now radiologists can capture the image of an organ in one second, perform whole body scans in ten seconds, and capture images of a beating heart in just five heartbeats.

Awake Craniotomy - Allen Sills, M.D., is the only neurosurgeon in Memphis who performs this procedure for some patients with tumors located in areas of the brain that control speech and movement. The patient is awake and asked to make verbal responses and to move their extremities. For more about the Methodist Neuroscience Institute,

Webcasting - Methodist Healthcare hosts several live surgical webcasts every year that allow patients and referring physicians to view surgical procedures and learn more about them. Webcasts are interactive so viewers can e-mail questions to the narrator and have their questions answered. Previous webcasts include: total knee replacement, GliaSite radiation therapy for brain cancer, vegas nerve stimulation, METRx herniated disc repair, and arthroscopic rotator cuff repair. All webcasts are archived on the Methodist Website.

METRx - The METRx(tm) MicroDiscectomy System is a minimally invasive surgical system used to repair herniated discs. It provides access to the spine through a narrow tube placed through a small incision in a patient's back. Benefits include outpatient surgery rather than two to three days in the hospital, smaller scars of one inch rather than up to four inches, and a shorter recovery time allowing patients to get back to their normal routine much faster. Seventy to 80 percent of patients who need herniated disc surgery are candidates for the METRx(tm) system.

MERI - The Medical Education and Research institute is a non-profit entity funded by Methodist Healthcare, Semmes-Murphey Neurologic and Spine Institute and Baptist Memorial Health Care Corp. It is a research site and teaching facility where physicians can learn new techniques and learn how to use new devices.

Memphis Regional Gamma Knife Center - only such center in a wide service area surrounding Memphis, including Mississippi, Arkansas, Missouri and Southern Kentucky that uses an outpatient procedure to treat patients with inoperable vascular lesions and certain brain tumors. The equipment housed in the center does not involve any cutting, but targets over 200 beams of gamma radiation directly to the tumor site. The individual radiation beams do not harm the brain tissue as it passes through, however once the beams meet at the targeted area, they intersect to become an extremely powerful tool for destroying abnormal tissue and lesions.