To get an idea about the growth prospects for connected healthcare, look at the deals happening in recent months. The latest evidence is Oracle’s interest in Cerner Corp., the electronic medical records and data analytics firm that’s been making headlines lately.
News of talks between Oracle and Cerner came to light on Thursday (Dec. 16), with The Wall Street Journal reporting that a rumored $30 billion price tag would make the Cerner acquisition its biggest ever — yet more proof of Oracle’s intention to own a bigger slice of healthcare.
The data and cloud computing giant already has a sizable footprint in the healthcare space, with vertical solutions addressing finance and operations, insurance administration and analytics.
Cerner specializes in electronic health record (EHR) and data analytics, with innovations like its Essential Clinical Datasets tool advancing the use of patient data for better clinical outcomes.
Should a deal happen, Cerner’s EHR expertise combined with Oracle’s processing could create a massive cloud-based healthcare analytics and innovation powerhouse.
In August, Cerner appointed former Google Health chief Dr. David Feinberg as its new CEO. During keynote remarks at Cerner’s annual conference in October, Feinberg said, “Usability of technology is just the beginning, not the true promise of the digital age. Fixing the EHR is our first job. The pipes are laid through 40 years of digitization, which is wonderful. But now we have to make it easier to get the right information to the right people at the right time.”
Big Tech and enterprise software firms clearly see themselves as part of the future healthcare landscape, with Microsoft acquiring speech recognition artificial intelligence (AI) firm Nuance Communications earlier this year. That deal also centers on EHR, data and analytics.
Google’s healthcare plans have hit some snags, but Google Chief Health Officer Karen DeSalvo told CNBC in October that the company is “still all-in on health.”
See also: Videoconferencing Platforms Leaning Into Telehealth for Utility and Growth
Digital healthcare information is at a premium during the pandemic era.
PYMNTS’ recent study on the connected digital economy notes that “many have grown accustomed to using websites, apps, podcasts, telehealth appointments and even social media to gather data and inform decisions about their personal health. Our research shows that 40% of consumers now use websites or apps to access their personal health information, for example, and 37% use wearable technology to do the same.”
Get the study: The Connected Consumer in the Digital Economy: Who Wants to Live in a Digital Connected Economy — and Why?
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