Dive Brief:
- Cerner and Salesforce are teaming up to enable greater patient participation in healthcare decision-making via cloud-based population health solutions.
- The collaboration — announced Monday at HIMSS18 — integrates Cerner’s HealtheIntent Big Data platform with Salesforce’s Health Cloud and Marketing Cloud in an effort to support enriched consumer and provider engagement.
- The integrated solution is aimed at meeting growing provider demand for enterprise-wide customer relationship management capabilities, Cerner said. It is also designed to support health system call centers, service operations, provider network management, marketing and other enterprise needs.
Dive Insight:
“We have digitized EHRs and are now aggregating and enriching this data for clinical and engagement insights through applied intelligence,” Cerner President Zane Burke said in a statement. “The next phase of the process is to modernize the way our industry personalizes and interacts with people in their communities. The power of these combined technologies will support an improved consumer experience and enhanced clinician communication, as well as materially advance the quality of care while reducing the total cost.”
The collaboration comes as more hospitals and health systems are moving their EHRs, data centers and other activities to the cloud. Advantages include lower cost, quicker implementation and more flexibility with upgrades and future enhancements.
The global healthcare cloud computing market is on track to hit $35 billion by 2022, according to BCC Research. Fueling adoption of cloud computing is heightened demand for 24/7 access to patient data, images, reports and other health information.
Patient engagement is also hot right now, with that market projected to reach $18.7 billion over the same time frame. An Accenture survey also released at HIMSS18 showed more and more patients willing to use digital health technologies for their care.
During a recent earnings call, Burke said HealtheIntent ended 2017 with 144 unique clients. Population health bookings grew 42%, while revenue increased 20%, he added, predicting further growth going forward.
Cerner’s population heath push would appear a good fit with Salesforce, which last summer launched new Health Cloud features aimed at improving care coordination across diverse care teams. Health Cloud Employer allows clinicians to engage with other care teams from any device anywhere. Concurrent Care Plans lets multiple care teams collaborate on multiple care plans for patients with comorbid conditions. It also clarifies who has access to patient data.