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Today in Health IT, we're discussing CIOs on Oracle Health's new EHR.

I'm Kate Gamble, Managing Editor at This Week Health, where we host a set of channels and events dedicated to transforming healthcare, one connection at a time. I've spent the last 12 years interviewing healthcare leaders, and I'm excited to bring that knowledge into this community. Our partner in philanthropy is Alex's Lemonade Stand.

We've raised over 182, 000 thanks to the generosity of our partners and community. Join us by visiting our website, and in the top right hand column you will see the logo for our Lemonade Stand. Click on that and give today. So today we're talking about Oracle Health's new EHR, We Need Good Competition.

And I'm joined by Sarah Richardson, President of This Week Health 229 Executive Development Community. Sarah, thank you for joining.

Kate, thanks for having me, especially the day after Thanksgiving, where there is a lot of exercise that needs to mitigate my intake yesterday, for sure.

I'm right there with you.

So this article explores the perspectives of healthcare CIOs on Oracle Health's new EHR system and the competitive dynamics it introduces to the market. Some of the key takeaways include the desire for innovation and interoperability, and the need for competition to push vendors to improve. The CIOs who were interviewed emphasized the potential of Oracle's EHR to address current shortcomings in usability, adaptability, and customer service seen in established systems.

So let's break down some of those key points and why they're so compelling, starting with the need for competition, which I feel like is very timely.

It is timely because the new EHR system as a means to disrupt the current duopoly in the EHR market provides much needed competitive pressure. There used to be more of an equal footing in some of these spaces, and the scales continue to tip towards EPIC, and there has to be a space where Oracle can still be.

a viable competitor really to drive interoperability and innovation. When you consider the importance of seamless interoperability and innovation, these are two critical areas where existing EHR systems may fall short and they get Criticized for being cumbersome. CIOs hope that Oracle Health will offer more user friendly designs.

The customer service improvements are going to be really key as CIOs are seeking vendors with better customer support and responsiveness. in an area where existing systems receive significant critique. And I'll add on the adaptability and scalability component that when systems can adapt to varying organizational needs, whether large hospital systems or smaller providers, more and more merger acquisition, divestiture, the ability to quickly be able to integrate and seamlessly do so when you bring new Environments into your ecosystem is going to be key and it's an opportunity for a reinvention for Oracle.

They used to allow you to customize to a degree that became almost too burdensome to upgrade effectively And potentially this new competition could reshape the market by introducing more adaptable user focused solutions that. Drive better outcomes, create better efficiencies, and better patient engagement while keeping incumbent vendors accountable for higher standards.

Yeah, really interesting material. And one of the points I found pretty compelling was talking about user focused solutions and the need to align EHR development with frontline clinician needs. And we know that's critical to get that input, but it's not an easy task. And I know that based on the article, Oracle is going to make that a priority, but what can you tell us based on your own experience of that process, just as far as getting that input and being able to incorporate it?

Anytime you're going to ask somebody for input, feedback, perspective, et cetera, you need to be able to do something with that information. And having been a CIO who's worked on just about every single EHR that's out there, at least in the top 10, When you have a system that when you gather information from the user, you cannot fix or can't do anything about in an elegant manner, back to that hyper customized perspective, then people know that you care enough to ask.

And then you say, wow, that's going to be two year release from now. This is going to be XYZ point solution. It makes it harder to build that trust and accountability relationship with the organization when you're hampered by the technology itself. Bringing some of these new features and capabilities, especially from revenue cycle management, forward.

Oracle has an opportunity to gain wins through the user base because of the adaptability of what they're bringing forward, whether that's voice commands, faster way to find information, easier opportunity to future proof the organization. That is something that CIOs need because not everyone is going to do an EMR or EHR conversion.

It's either too costly, it may not make sense for the market that they're in as an example, and you as a practitioner always want to be able to bring the best solution forward with the significant investments you have made in many of these cases over several years and potentially decades.

Yeah, so really a lot to think about there. And another factor that I think is compelling is looking at how this new product's entrance could shape vendor strategies and healthcare IT investments. We spoke earlier, a few weeks ago, I think, about some of the concerns about Epic being a monopoly and how might this maybe change things around.

This could be a big step for Oracle if it goes the way that they want it to.

It can consider competition and why it's good, fosters innovation, drives improvement, creates better outcomes. It also pushes individuals and organizations to deliver higher quality and become more efficient and Continuously evolve, which you're seeing Oracle do as well. That's going to benefit the customer, that's going to benefit the employee, and it's going to benefit the patients by offering potentially more choices, lower costs, and better services. Those alone can help to stymie the flood of organizations that are converting over to new systems.

And also potentially ease some of the concern about monopolies with the DOJ getting involved. You want healthy competition out there. I used to work for, Fortune 100 healthcare systems where we specifically had one or more partners slash vendors in some of the spaces in order to keep them competitive with one another and bringing the best innovations and ideas forward to us.

And so it It wasn't uncommon to have two Pax vendors in the general ecosystem, knowing you picked one or the other for the market that you were serving, that always drove really healthy competition throughout negotiating, through contracting, through different capabilities. And we're seeing the same thing in the EHR space.

It's important to make sure that there is always somebody pushing you to be the best version of yourself.

Absolutely. And as far as evaluating emerging EHR solutions and the pressure that places on CXOs, particularly with so much pressure to do more with less, any kind of guidance or takeaways on how to approach that,

a couple of things that are important to consider are with.

Epic and Oracle being the dominant players in HIT. If the competition between them pushes both companies to develop these cutting edge solutions like advanced AI for clinical decision support, the patient engagement tools, and streamlined workflows that you and I discuss often, that's a win. The customer focus is paramount.

If you can have superior user experiences from improving EHR usability to enhance the patient experience. Interoperability between systems, as an example, it benefits the provider and it benefits the patient. And I'll end my perspective with the advancement of interoperability. The rivalry incentivizes investment and data sharing capabilities, such as EPIC's work with Care Everywhere and Oracle's commitment to open cloud enabled ecosystem.

That's what you want to see happening continuously, and that's where the balance in the conversation between the two will remain important over the next few years.

I definitely agree. And in so many aspects of life, sometimes a little competition is all it takes to really bring out one's skills and determination.

So really interesting. Thank you for your insights I always appreciate having you. Likewise,

consider this. If we've got better tools for patient care, better operational efficiency, which helps to guide regulatory and cybersecurity, it's a win across the board. I love seeing that. The competition helps others step up their capabilities and offerings as well.

So I love that we talked about this and definitely something to be watching.

For sure. So don't forget to share this podcast with a friend or colleague. Use it as a foundation for daily or weekly discussions on the topics that are relevant to you in the industry. They can subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.

Thank you for listening. And that's all for now.