Oracle Cerner has been working on interoperability for years and announced new efforts in recent months since its $28.4 billion acquisition by Oracle.
Seven points:
- Oracle Cerner is a founding member of the CommonWell Health Alliance. The CommonWell Health Alliance aims to advance interoperability by connecting systems nationwide and making health data widely available.
- Most recently, the CommonWell Health Alliance announced that it would apply to become one of the first qualified health information networks as part of the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement. TEFCA is part of the 21st Century Cures Act passed in 2016 that aims to establish a nationwide EHR exchange.
- Sam Lambson, vice president of interoperability at Oracle Cerner, called the move "a leap forward in achieving our vision for interoperability."
- On June 9, Larry Ellison, chair, co-founder and chief technology officer of Oracle said it plans to create a unified database for patient information. "Together, Cerner and Oracle have all the technology required to build a revolutionary new health management information system in the cloud," Mr. Ellison said. The database would have anonymized data from hospitals, clinics and providers across the U.S. and provide up-to-the-minute information about patients' personal health as well as public health statistics.
- Oracle Cerner uses network connections and nationwide exchanges to give clinicians access to information and data sharing.
- Oracle Cerner has also created the EHR analytics solution, dubbed the Lights On Network, which provides data-driven analysis to help understand which interoperability methods are used across organizations.
- In December 2021, Hans Buitendijk, director of interoperability strategy at Oracle Cerner joined the National Health Information Technology Advisory Committee. The committee provides recommendations to the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology on policies and standards, as well as implementation criteria.