Oracle unveils new AI-powered electronic health record system.

• On Tuesday, Oracle unveiled a new EHR with advanced cloud and AI features.
• Since acquiring Cerner for $28 billion in 2022, Oracle's latest EHR update is its most significant health-care product development.
• Oracle's new offering could aid its standing in the intensely competitive EHR market, where it has been struggling to keep its foothold in recent years.

On Tuesday, the company unveiled its latest electronic health record, marking its most significant health-care product update since acquiring Cerner for $28 billion in 2022.

A digital version of a patient's medical history, known as an electronic health record (EHR), is updated by doctors and nurses over time using complex and cumbersome EHR software. Despite its complexity, EHR software is now an essential component of the modern U.S. health-care system.

Oracle's new EHR system utilizes cloud and AI technology to simplify setup and navigation, eliminating the need for menus and drop-down screens. Doctors can easily access information by asking questions with their voices, allowing them to focus more on patient care.

Seema Verma, executive vice president and general manager of Oracle Health and Life Sciences, stated in an interview with CNBC that the role is not just a scribe or an assistant, but almost like having a resident.

Oracle's new offering could aid its position in the highly competitive EHR market, where it has been struggling to maintain its foothold in recent years. In 2023, Oracle recorded its largest net hospital loss on record, while its top rival, Epic Systems, was the only company to see a net increase in acute care market share, according to a report from KLAS Research.

In fiscal 2023, Oracle's total revenue was boosted by $5.9 billion from Cerner, while Epic generated $4.9 billion in revenue last year.

Since Oracle acquired Cerner, the new EHR has been under development. However, it was not constructed on top of Cerner's existing infrastructure. As a result, current Cerner customers will need to decide whether to migrate to the separate system.

""When we examined the Cerner technology, we realized that it was necessary to start from scratch, so we're introducing a completely new product to the market," she stated."

Oracle's senior vice president for product management in clinical and health-care AI, Suhas Uliyar, demonstrated the new EHR to CNBC. He displayed how a doctor could quickly get up to speed, respond to messages, and fill prescriptions before a busy day of patient visits.

Physicians will have access to a simple browser-based EHR interface that displays a search bar and a chronological list of appointments. They can use the microphone in the search bar to ask questions like "How many openings do I have for today?" or "How many new patients do I have on schedule for today?" and receive an AI-generated answer within seconds.

When a doctor clicks on a patient's chart, they can access AI summaries and detailed explanations of their medical history. They can view changes since the patient's last visit, including new medication, lab results, clinical documentation, past treatments, risk factors, messages, allergies, and vitals.

The doctor can utilize the microphone to inquire about patient-specific details, such as whether the patient has experienced panic attacks or shortness of breath, if they have undergone a CT scan for lung cancer and have their vaccinations up to date, or which antibiotics have been used to treat their urinary tract infection.

"Uliyar stated, "The entire history and records are being reviewed, providing me with a precise response without having to sift through 15 documents.""

The EHR's AI can learn the doctor's habits, including their preferred medications and refills, through voice-activated questions that can build on one another, even if the doctor makes mistakes or doesn't phrase questions correctly.

If a doctor needs more information or wants to verify an AI-generated answer, they can click on the citation and review the original record, according to Uliyar. Additionally, answers that contain medication dosage information or other evidence-based recommendations will link to validated databases, he stated.

Oracle has been enhancing its existing Cerner customers' experience with the product by introducing new features, including its Clinical Digital Assistant, which is already integrated into the new EHR.

In June, Oracle made Clinical Digital Assistant publicly available with the goal of streamlining the documentation process for doctors.

Clinical Digital Assistant can be accessed by physicians via an app on their phone, and they record patient visits by hitting a button. After stopping recording, Oracle's AI automatically generates a clinical note based on the appointment, eliminating the need for doctors to write it manually.

Uliyar stated that approximately 70 customers are currently utilizing Clinical Digital Assistant, and the company is presently developing a comparable tool for nurses.

The Clinical Digital Assistant is already integrated into the new EHR, so customers do not need to worry about integration. Additionally, the tool will continue to be available as a standalone product that is EHR-agnostic, Uliyar stated.

Oracle's new EHR early adopter program will commence next year, and the company will collaborate with customers to determine the customizations required. As Oracle has been transitioning its healthcare clients to the cloud, this should simplify the EHR implementation process, according to Verma.

""Our EHR will address long-standing health care problems, which we view as highly disruptive to the market," she stated."

Mark Moerdler of Bernstein says that Oracle has been a "hidden story" as they transitioned to the cloud.