The second day of CHC19 kept attendees engaged with a keynote from Cerner CEO Brent Shafer, a dynamic lineup of education sessions and plenty of buzz on the Solutions Gallery floor.
Tuesday keynote highlights Cerner and AWS collaboration, new resources to advance health care
Day two of CHC19 began with a keynote from Matt Wood, vice president of artificial intelligence at Amazon Web Services (AWS). Addressing the crowd, and countless global Cerner associates watching from around the world via live stream, Matt talked about how the recently announced strategic collaboration between Cerner and AWS will enhance health care.
“It’s incredibly exciting to take the remarkably transformative technology in the cloud to collaborate with Cerner to build better products and improve outcomes for health care,” he said. “There’s an opportunity to migrate and modernize existing apps and also to build entirely new apps designed for the cloud.”
“It’s important to note what brings us together: a common purpose to make a difference.
— Cerner (@Cerner) October 8, 2019
Let’s renew our focus on achieving our collective goals. All of us, together.
Because we all believe health care is too important to stay same.” @BrentShaferCEO closes his #CHC19 keynote pic.twitter.com/2Vbf1w1BqM
Cerner Chairman and CEO Brent Shafer took the stage next to deliver the final keynote of the conference. He acknowledged many clients for all their recent accolades, including St Stephen’s Hospital, Atrium Health, Truman Medical Centers, King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre, Baptist Health South Florida, Geisinger, Jackson Health System, MU Health Care, Nicklaus Children’s Hospital, RWJBarnabas Health and UPMC.
Following the conference theme of Now/Next, Brent showcased how Cerner initiatives, such as the essential clinical dataset, Lights On Network and the opioid toolkit are making a difference in improving documentation burden, turning data into insights and combatting the opioid crisis.
He then shifted to what’s next for Cerner, outlining the company’s goals to be health care’s SaaS platform, the premier strategic health network partner and an acknowledged source for curated health data. He also announced several new projects including a next-generation cognitive health platform, a Cerner Millennium ® functionality called Seamless Interoperability, an intelligence tool to predict potential opioid abuse — where Brent challenged industry leaders to “eliminate 90% of opioid deaths by 2025” — and the Cerner Learning Framework, a web-based training portal for end-users that will be no charge for clients.
“Everything you hear today is the result of Cerner listening to you,” Brent said to the audience. “We’re taking actions to make your life easier and to improve patient outcomes. Additionally, we are reviewing current solutions to ensure they match your needs, and we’re looking at our partnerships to enhance value to clients."
Executive Summit gives leaders a chance to network and discuss top health care issues
Brent and Joanne Burns, Cerner senior vice president and chief strategy officer, opened the Executive Summit. During his remarks, Brent highlighted Cerner's new commitments and operating model.
“Our new operating model addresses how to do both the most urgent things and the things that will drive change five to 10 years from now,” he explained. “We’re starting to gain momentum, and you’ll see some big impact from this new internal framework over the next 18 to 24 months.”
Awesome story, @DoD_EHR, at Madigan Army Medical ED decreased LWOT, decreased door to doc time, increased volume by 30%, and easier to find labs and rads leading to better utilization. @Cerner #CHC19
— Jigar S Patel, MD (@JSPatelMD) October 8, 2019
Rick Pollack, president and CEO of the American Hospital Association, and Russ Branzell, CEO of the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME), each spoke about the priorities of their organizations and the work they are doing to support health care leaders. Then the pair joined Meg Marshall, Cerner director of public policy, for a panel focused on the current and future state of health care policy.
Before the networking lunch, Cerner Executive Vice President and Chief Client Officer John Peterzalek spoke to the group about the “why” behind the work Cerner is doing to advance care.
“Cerner is making the necessary move that we have to make as an industry to a cloud-enabled platform,” he said.
The second half of the summit included a presentation on intelligence and innovation in health care from John Brownstein, chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital. Andrea Hendricks, Cerner senior director of diversity and inclusion strategy, moderated a panel discussion on the importance of diversity in health care featuring Cie Armstead of the American College of Healthcare Executives, Suja Chandrasekaran of CommonSpirit Health and Cletis Earle of Kaleida Health.
Building a better digital consumer experience
More and more, consumers are demanding better health care experiences that mirror the services they’re receiving in other industries. In this power session, David Bradshaw, Cerner senior vice president for consumer and employee solutions, and Jessica Oveys, Cerner lead solution strategist, talked to leaders from patient engagement platform GetWellNetwork, payment software company Simplee and patient access solution Kyruus about how strategic collaboration and an open and innovative architecture can elevate patient engagement and satisfaction.The conversation gave attendees insights into how a multi-faceted approach that incorporates virtual care, outreach, health and wellbeing, and improved access strategies can create a personalized, curated experience that drives seamless care.
What a great session listening to @rickpollack and @CHIMECEO speak about the now/next of healthcare and healthcare policy. Oh and @MegMarshallHIT is an absolute facilitation pro! #CHC19 #NowNext #Together https://t.co/nBYEeWRACS
— Nate Kelly (@Nate_Kelly1) October 8, 2019
“We are trying to build a more robust experience that generates results,” Jessica said. “We have a relentless focus on enhancing both user and consumer experience.”
A conversation on harnessing the power of the cloud
The collaboration between AWS and Cerner was the topic of discussion in this power session with Dr. Shez Partovi of AWS and Mike Nill, Cerner vice president and COO. The two thought leaders talked about how the power of cloud and health care data will bring significant benefits to the industry, such as advancing innovation, reducing clinician burnout and increasing consumer engagement.
“We intend to apply this cloud-based innovation and technology to all of our solutions, not only those that are clinically based. This means revenue cycle, analytics, security and more,” Mike said.
Dr. Partovi added that machine learning could be a game-changer in the issue of who should be responsible for data reconciliation, and Mike shared that Cerner is testing voice commands for Powerchart that could ease the burden on clinicians.
“It's no secret that data reconciliation is a debate in who should do the work: is it the nurse, or is it the doctor?” Dr. Partovi said. “Sometimes, the machine can do it. We should start looking at how machine learning can help solve our "thousand cuts" problems, and empower us as caregivers to focus on tackling the bigger problems."
Revenue cycle strategies for a healthier bottom line now and tomorrow
Great to get annual #CHC update from @paulweaverux on the great work he & his @CernerUX team are doing on improving the user experience to make Millennium simple, safe & a pleasure to use. HUGE task given the complexity but reassuring to see year on year progress #CHC19 @Cerner
— Dermot O'Riordan🇬🇧🇮🇪🇪🇺 #StopTheCoup (@dermotor) October 8, 2019
Brenna Quinn, Cerner senior vice president of revenue cycle management, talked to a panel of innovation health system leaders about how market shifts are shaping the future of revenue cycle management and the consumer experience. The discussion — which included Becky Fisk of North Kansas City Hospital, Ken Baxter of Children’s Hospital Orange County, Lynne McCone of Christiana Care Health System and Don Paulson of Cerner — centered on regulatory pressures, the role of technology and preparing for change.
Don shared his thoughts on why organizations should consider a more consumer-centered approach to revenue cycle.
‘The best strategy we could do was understanding that we can’t expect our patients to change,” Don said. “Instead we needed to change the strategy of how we reach our patients and use the tools we have to allow us to do that.”
Regarding the role of the provider, Becky offered insights on how revenue cycle is driving better outcomes at her organization in the areas of quality, cost and efficiency.
“We’re allowing dedicated time to focus on managing the population,” she explained. “We’re looking at models of intensive primary care such as home visits, behavioral health care and more.From the patient perspective, we're looking at care standardization. Patient education and proactive measures will empower the patient to manage their own care.”
To learn more about what’s happening at Cerner Health Conference this week, be sure to follow #CHC19 across social media and check back each day for a wrap up of the hottest topics being discussed.
