What Oracle’s acquisition of Cerner could imply for massive tech in well being

Previously this 7 days company software large Oracle stunned the health care IT entire world when it declared its programs to acquire a single of the primary EHR programs Cerner for $28.3 billion. The news places Oracle on the map as a opportunity significant player in the well being know-how planet. 

“This was a deal that no a single noticed coming. Beyond that, I would say it puts Oracle quietly in the healthcare tech place for the initial time,” Paddy Padmanabhan, CEO of Damo Consulting, told HIMSSTV.

“Oracle has a presence by means of its ER fork out merchandise and its database choices, and so on, but this is the 1st time they are finding into the clinical software space. And they are executing that with the most significant acquisition by considerably that they have done, but also the most important acquisition of this 12 months in tech, and in typical 1 of the major acquisitions we’ve found in the tech area in sometime.” 

It is not the first time massive tech has entered the health care arena. About the very last quite a few decades the FANNG corporations have invested in the place. For instance, Google designed an EHR search software identified as Treatment Studios, Amazon commenced to offer virtual care companies and Apple developed an Food and drug administration-cleared ECG algorithm for its Observe. 

“There is a new player in town, and that player has declared their existence in a incredibly loud and persuasive way. But let’s also not neglect that big tech has had its very own set of difficulties in the final calendar year.

“A few of them actually took a action again, and the most noticeable a single is Google, where by David Feinberg employed to perform in advance of taking on the job of CEO at Cerner. And Google successfully shut down its health care company. There isn’t a healthcare business enterprise. Apple also experienced some setbacks in the major care business they had been launching,” Padmanabhan explained. 

“Amazon is pressing ahead. They appear to have consolidated all of their healthcare initiatives less than a single leader. They are receiving right into the major treatment room, which is a little something that other tech firms have averted. That is finding into the health care business, since marketing healthcare technologies and offering healthcare products and services are two completely diverse issues. Microsoft has experienced the most steady expansion, if you glimpse at all of these tech corporations.” 

The news also brings to brain a different key significant tech acquisition of a healthcare organization. 

“It has already happened and will proceed. Microsoft’s acquisition of Nuance is 1 instance,” Lee Shapiro, cofounder and running lover at 7wireVentures, wrote in an e-mail to MobiHealthNews.

“Electronic wellness data and billing devices are pervasive in the sector, so the subsequent frontier will be on leveraging the knowledge that arrives from these methods to increase well being. Oracle, with its experience in existence sciences, is effectively located to enable push some of these learnings. There are other massive-tech gamers that have also made development in healthcare that I hope will also be on the acquisition trail.”

There is also a question of this acquisition making Oracle a competitor to Nuance, a voice recognition and synthetic intelligence technology. In the acquisition announcement, Larry Ellison, Oracle’s chief technological know-how officer, brought up probable new capabilities in voice recognition. 

“With this acquisition, Oracle’s company mission expands to believe the responsibility to offer our overworked health care professionals with a new technology of easier-to-use electronic applications that permit obtain to data by using a fingers-free voice interface to safe cloud purposes,” Ellison stated in the press launch saying the news.

“This new era of professional medical details systems promises to reduce the administrative workload burdening our medical professionals, strengthen client privacy and outcomes, and decreased total health care prices.”

However, voice recognition is not something frequently affiliated with Oracle. 

“When we discuss about voice recognition engineering, Oracle is not the initially title that comes to intellect. There will be lots of thoughts that occur up in the months to unfold,”  Padmanabhan said. 

There are however a great deal of unknowns about what the acquisition will indicate for the business, but in the meantime the other key tech players will be looking at. 

“Now they are heading to have to contend with this really huge participant, and one particular that has pretty a dominant placement via just one particular one transaction,”  Padmanabhan mentioned. “So it is heading to set everyone on detect to say the least.”