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Data and research

We believe that providing data from clinical care for research purposes will continue to advance medical science, as well as ensure clinical research continues to advance health and care. For medical centres that choose to participate in clinical research, providing technology integrated with the EHR will ensure clinicians and researchers are given the best tools possible to be successful. Cerner is committed to closing the loop between research and clinical care provision, speeding the adoption time and maximising the value for society.

Cerner provides research solutions and services to support clinical sites and academic institutions. We bring a deep understanding of clinical systems, workflows and health data, as well as extensive experience in pharmaceutical, outcomes and health economic research. Through medical and economic analyses, researchers gain insights into the viability, safety, and efficacy of new and existing therapies. Principal investigators and research coordinators can use the Cerner EHR to facilitate and enhance their research activities.

FAQs

How is Cerner supporting researchers?

Cerner supports research in many ways. We help clients with data for clinical research, we provide dedicated research solutions for data and running research programmes, we provide clinical research expertise, we develop predictive algorithms often in collaboration with our clients, we have partnerships with universities and fund research in them.

EHR systems are rich repositories for research on patients but also on workflows for better managing the process of healthcare. Our clients regularly use data from our platforms to support their research or the research of others.

In the USA, we have a service called HealthFacts where clients using Millennium® participate to share anonymous data for research purposes. HealthFacts contains over 42 million patient records and there have been over 300 publications using this data, and researchers in the UK can access data marts for research purposes. Data can be extracted in anonymous format for the UK market to support research.

Clients are researching new intelligence and predictive algorithms using this data, validating in real populations, publishing in the peer reviewed literature and making available to healthcare organisations at large.

Cerner’s PowerTrials solution works with Cerner Millennium EHR to help run and manage clinical trial protocols. Given that some 85 percent of trials are delayed due to accrual challenges, one key advantage is making use of the data to increase patient recruitment, with the solution matching research to patients and patients to research. Most healthcare professionals are unware of research at their institution, and the solution not only creates this awareness, but also safeguards patients through flagging and alerting that they are on a trial. Study protocols are run in the EHR alongside normal care but with the opportunity to separate costs for individual research funding streams.

Cerner is working with clients to pioneer how to improve the clinical utility of genomics.

Our first area of focus is in the operation of a modern, complex molecular laboratory. We built a cloud-based solution, Cerner Laboratory Sequence, to drive this complex workflow and integrate with all the devices in the lab, both physical and in silico. By leveraging our strength and history in the traditional laboratory workflow, Cerner Laboratory Sequence is the clinical informatics bridge between the traditional laboratory and the molecular laboratory for orders and results. It is currently live with several clients in the US and we are exploring expansion into global markets with a Cerner cloud footprint.

Beyond the molecular workflow, Cerner is working with our clients to define the correct roles and data needed in the EHR to support genomic-driven precision medicine. Examples of this client-driven work include incorporating the genetic councillor into a formal EHR workflow, pilot projected around capturing a structured phenotypes and family history via third-party tools, and NLP-based extraction of phenotype via chart search.

For our EHR-based work with our clients, we are heavily leveraging a standards-backed approach via SMART® on FHIR® and CDS Hooks. Through significant investments both in our client infrastructure and associate thought leadership, we are developing a clear path and plan for third-party interests, such as a genomic content provider for pharmacogenomics, to integrate into the Cerner family of solutions. While some of the FHIR services (such as sequence for genomics) are very nascent, Cerner believes that this pluggable-architecture approach provides a scalable foundation for precision medicine for our clients.

Beyond enabling the laboratory and clinical workflow, Cerner is also driving the connections between the traditionally separate worlds of clinical data and research data. Leveraging our track record in supporting clinical research and population health, we are working with our clients produce scalable, secure aggregation and visualisation of healthcare data across clinical and research venues.

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