Cerner made several moves in 2020 to strengthen its data division as the Kansas City, Mo.-based health IT company looks to expand its core business beyond EHRs.
During Cerner's fourth quarter and full-year 2020 earnings call Feb. 10, Cerner President Don Trigg outlined some of the company's key growth initiatives for its data business and outlook for the future.
Mr. Trigg highlighted three strategic objectives Cerner will take to grow its data business, framed as "1,2,3 by 2023." The initiatives are: expand its Cerner Learning Health Network, move into new geographies in the U.S. and its five global focus regions, and win new buyers, including payers, employers and governments.
Five details:
1. Cerner's consumer business generated more than $175 million in booked revenue in 2020, growing more than 150 percent year over year. The company posted $780.1 million in net earnings for the year, up 47 percent from $529.5 million in 2019.
2. The company launched its Cerner Learning Health Network in February 2020 as a way to make de-identified clinical data more accessible for medical studies.
3. By 2025, the company aims to build its Health Network into a $1 billion business, Mr. Trigg said. In 2020, the network brought on 55 client members, representing almost 100 million patients and more than 500 million encounters.
4. Mr. Trigg also noted Cerner's new partnership with Elligo Health Research, a clinical trial research organization, to expand data and tools available to its Health Network clients and its $375 million acquisition of Kantar Health, the clinical research division of data and consulting company Kantar Group.
5. These partnerships, in conjunction with the innovation COVID-19 has spurred among the health IT industry, will help guide Cerner's data business, Mr. Trigg said.
"Before Covid, Real-World Evidence was beginning to disrupt traditional clinical trials," he said. "During Covid, regulatory response to the pandemic has accelerated this shift in how therapeutic discoveries are advanced. After Covid, Cerner's large provider client base, and first and last mile data expertise, offer us a compelling opportunity to reimagine this market."