Oracle Health announced a partnership with Nashville-based Meharry Medical College to lend a hand students and residents spend more time with and better understand patients. The company said it will also assist in research to further advance precision medicine, health informatics and population health.
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT
Nashville’s fresh Health Technology Education and Innovation Center and Community Care and Wellness Center will leverage Oracle’s cloud- and AI-powered clinical tools to provide hands-on training and experiential learning opportunities, the company said in a recent announcement.
According to Dr. James E. K. Hildreth, the college’s president and CEO, this is a “pivotal moment” for Meharry, which has been providing mission-focused care for nearly 150 years as one of the nation’s four historically black academic health sciences centers.
“By combining our expertise with Oracle Health’s innovative technology, we will create a path for other institutions and communities to follow,” Hildreth said in a statement.
Partners said they will engage community stakeholders to ensure their work aligns with and shapes regional health care providers, public officials, health plans, and community and patient advocacy organizations working to improve health and access to care in the region. in cooperation with them.
A BIGGER TREND
Health disparities in Nashville by race and income are apparently wide. The Department of Public Health Nashville Health and Metro released statistics on how the two companies collaborated in 2019 to conduct the first study nationwide health examination in over 20 years.
According to Dr. Bill Frist, former U.S. Senate Majority Leader from Tennessee, writing in August, there is a “shocking paradox” in the health care services capital of the U.S. — so named by the Nashville Health Care Council.
“Our citizens have, on average, the worst health status in the entire country compared to cities of similar size,” he said in his report history how NashvilleHealth, of which he is founder and CEO, is aligning resources to advance health equity.
Two years ago, Dr. Kedar Mate, president and CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, suggested health equity as a key fifth goal of IHI’s aspirational framework for organizations to pursue in their efforts to improve healthcare delivery.
The Covid-19 pandemic “has brought long-overdue and much-needed attention to the lack of health equity in the U.S. and around the world,” he wrote about new imperative IN .
“All four dimensions of the Quadruple Aim have been challenged by health equity considerations,” Mate explained last year.
ON RECORDING
“This collaboration goes beyond education and will create a model for more compassionate, equitable and community-centered care, enabling everyone to have access to the care they need and deserve,” Hildreth said in a statement.
“Our partnership with Meharry Medical College helps advance our mission to transform the entire healthcare industry,” added Seema Verma, executive vice president and general manager, Oracle Health and Life Sciences.
“The research, technology and skills we develop will not only benefit the Nashville community, but will have broad reach as students enter the workforce, using the knowledge and understanding they gain to shape the future of health care around the world.”