Kansas City-based health IT giant Cerner has chosen to partner with Amazon Web Services as the company looks to enable its customers with more cloud-based services and tools.
The deal makes AWS the preferred cloud provider of Cerner who will use the cloud computing platform to power new health-oriented innovations that are intended to improve clinical experiences and increase efficiency through the use of AI and machine learning.
The collaboration will boost the business of both companies against the backdrop of tech giants like Amazon, Google and Microsoft vying for healthcare market share in the industry’s shift to cloud-based infrastructure.
Cerner is positioning the collaboration as part of the company’s larger digital transformation from its core business as an EHR provider into a service provider utilizing the reams of data collected within those systems.
“Our work with Amazon and AWS is a key component for the next chapter at Cerner,” Cerner CEO Brent Shafer said in a statement
“As we work to transform Cerner, we are joining forces with Amazon and AWS to help fuel our strategy of making Cerner more agile in order to deliver faster, more scalable and secure solutions to clients and patients.”
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
The company has already worked with Amazon on a number of initiatives including its HealtheIntent population health management software, which allows clinicians to exchange and share data at scale.
Through the use of Amazon SageMaker, the tech company’s machine learning platform, Cerner has built and implemented systems to help researchers use anonymized patient data to build predictive models and algorithms.
“Health care and life sciences companies trust AWS with their mission-critical workloads, knowing that they can securely and easily invent new ways to interact with their patient populations and quickly scale the approaches that are effective,” AWS CEO Andy Jassy said in a statement.
“AWS is providing Cerner with the broadest portfolio of innovative analytics and machine learning services that will empower them to gain new clinical and business insights that have the potential to transform patient care delivery.”
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