Dive Brief:
- The chief executive of Cleveland Clinic has joined Oracle’s board of directors as the technology giant expands its reach in the healthcare sector.
- Dr. Tomislav Mihaljevic, who has served as CEO of the academic medical center since 2018, was elected to Oracle’s board, effective May 6, according to a press release Tuesday.
- His appointment comes months after Oracle added another healthcare leader, former Quest Diagnostics CEO Stephen Rusckowski, to its board of directors.
Dive Insight:
Mihaljevic has worked at Cleveland Clinic for more than 20 years, joining the health system’s department of thoracic and cardiovascular surgery in 2004. He previously served as CEO of Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, and held a director position on health technology firm GE Healthcare’s board, according to the press release.
“Tom’s perspective will be invaluable as Oracle continues to help healthcare organizations use technology to improve outcomes for patients and providers,” Oracle CEO Clay Magouyrk said in a statement.
Mihaljevic’s election, which brings the size of Oracle’s board to 13, comes as Oracle has expanded its focus on healthcare.
The technology giant acquired electronic health record vendor Cerner for more than $28 billion in 2022. And last year, Oracle released a new artificial intelligence-backed EHR. The records system allows providers to use voice commands to navigate the EHR, which Oracle argues should lessen the amount of time clinicians spend digging through patients’ health data.
Oracle has also released other healthcare AI tools, including a clinical agent that assists with documentation and other tasks, and AI functionality in its patient portal.
However, Oracle still trails behind EHR vendor Epic when it comes to acute care hospital market share, and the technology giant has lost customers since the Cerner acquisition, according to a report published last summer by Klas Research.