As part of its collaboration with Amazon Web Services, Cerner is developing technology to target healthcare issues including high hospital readmission rates and clinical documentation burdens, according to the EHR vendor's CEO and Chairman Brent Shafer.
Mr. Shafer highlighted Cerner's ongoing work with AWS during the 2019 AWS re:Invent conference in Las Vegas on Dec. 3. The Kansas City, Mo.-based EHR vendor selected AWS as its preferred cloud provider in July.
Here are three things to know about Cerner's partnership with AWS, according to Mr. Shafer:
1. To help reduce financial waste and patient readmissions, Cerner is using de-identified patient data to determine what factors cause return hospitalizations. The company recently applied machine learning to its historical data migrated to AWS to create a model that allows clients to identify patients at risk for readmission.
2. Cerner recently used the model to help one of its post-acute healthcare provider clients predict patients at risk for readmission from a rehabilitation facility back to the hospital. After using the model, the health system achieved its lowest readmission rate in more than 10 years.
3. Cerner and AWS are creating a digital virtual scribe to help reduce the amount of time physicians spend on documenting patient information.
"Working with AWS will allow us to capture doctor-patient interaction and integrate it directly into the electronic workflow of the physician," said Mr. Shafer. "This new advancement will help doctors and providers spend less time filling out forms and more quality time with their patients."
Cerner also created a new platform on AWS that aims to support data scientists in developing and managing machine learning models.