Dive Brief:
Oracle Health will apply to become a Qualified Health Information Network under the federal government’s health data exchange framework, the technology giant said Monday.
TEFCA, or the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement, uses QHINs — which can represent dozens or hundreds of health systems, public health agencies, payers and health IT vendors — to support health information sharing, according to the HHS’ Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy/Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT.
To get official designation, QHINs have to complete technology and security testing and agree to the data sharing rules before being onboarded. TEFCA went live in December with five QHINs, and two more organizations were approved early this year.
Dive Insight:
TEFCA, a major initiative for healthcare data interoperability, sets technical requirements and exchange policies for companies to pull together clinical information sharing networks across the country.
Organizations interested in becoming QHINs — serving as the “backbone” of network connectivity — have to complete an application and onboarding before they sign the common agreement, according to the ASTP/ONC. But once they’re officially designated, healthcare groups participating in the QHIN can query and receive data from any other QHIN.
Oracle is currently a member of the CommonWell Health Alliance, a QHIN that was officially designated in February. As Oracle applies and moves through the QHIN process, it will continue to participate in the CommonWell exchange, the company said in a press release.
Oracle’s network is being designed to support data types that aren’t usually available in other exchanges, like X-rays or MRIs, the company said. Advancing health data exchange and the variety of information available is key to utilizing emerging artificial intelligence capabilities, Oracle added.
The technology giant expanded its presence in healthcare more than two years ago with its more than $28 billion acquisition of one of the largest electronic health records vendors, Cerner. The Cerner segment has been a headwind for the company, executives said on earnings calls late last year and this spring. But they promised the unit would soon return to growth.
The company is also managing an embattled EHR rollout at the Department of Veterans Affairs, which began before Oracle acquired Cerner. New deployments of the record have largely been on hold for more than a year to improve system reliability and performance.
But healthcare is still a major focus for Oracle. In April, Chairman and Chief Technology Officer Larry Ellison said the company wants to move its headquarters to Nashville, Tennessee, placing it near other healthcare companies like HCA Healthcare.
