Oracle Adds Ambulatory Clinics to AI-Powered Digital Assistant Platform

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AI has spread to another aspect of the life sciences industry.

Oracle announced that it has made its Oracle Clinical Digital Assistant available to ambulatory clinics in the U.S.¹ The platforms provides healthcare practitioners with services that utilize generative AI, clinical intelligence, voice assistance, and simplified workflows. The platform is designed to reduce the need for drop down menus and other navigational slowdowns. This should reduce the instances where an appointment with a patient is interrupted when the doctor needs to navigate through various menus in order to bring up relevant medical or scheduling information.

In a press release, Oracle Health and Life Sciences executive vice president and general manager Seema Verna said, “Practitioners spend upwards of 20-35% of their time on administrative work. This isn't sustainable and contributes to burnout. We need our providers focused on patient needs. Oracle Clinical Digital Assistant's groundbreaking AI technology solves this problem and brings the joy back to the practice of medicine and healthcare."

In the same press release, Oracle collected statements from HCPs who have used the platform in the field. This includes James Little, MD, a primary care physician at St. John’s Health, who said, “Oracle Clinical Digital Assistant is the most important EHR technology update that I am going to see in my career. Since the 1990's, EHR's have turned physicians into keyboard junkies. This will change that. Our physicians who have been using this technology have been able to document their patients' visit in real-time, allowing them to leave at the end of the day with good, quality notes. Time spent after hours documenting is no longer needed."

Dr. Ryan McFarland, family medicine practitioner, Hudson Physicians, said, “While building relationships is essential to understanding my patients and how to best treat them, it's difficult to do that sitting behind a computer screen. Oracle Clinical Digital Assistant has been a game-changer in this regard. I can simply talk to and focus on my patients, while in the background the system is capturing all the details, notes, and next-step actions. Not only does this lead to a better experience for me and my patients, but it has significantly diminished the time I take post-appointments or after-hours updating notes."

Oracle has also taken steps to protect digital healthcare users against cyber-attacks. In April, the company launched the Autonomous Shield initiative to help users migrate to its digital platform.² The company had recently spent a significant amount of resources to improve its platform’s cybersecurity features.

In a press release issued at the time, United Medical’s CEO and president Kemal Erkan said, “Recent events in healthcare have exploited vulnerabilities facing health systems around the world. Now more than ever, it's important for health systems to choose companies like Oracle that make security simple–easy to use, deploy, and operate. Our transition to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure has been seamless and gives us more confidence in the performance and security of our technology."

In the same press release, Verma added, “Cyberattacks represent an imminent and existential threat to healthcare worldwide. Our top priority is helping to keep our customers and their patients safe from the debilitating impacts of cyber-terrorism. With our clinical applications running on OCI, we provide our customers–big and small–with the same military-grade security that is used to protect the most sensitive data at some of the largest and most sophisticated businesses, national defense agencies, and governments around the world."

Sources

1. AI-Powered Oracle Clinical Digital Assistant Transforms Interactions Between Practitioners and Patients. Oracle Corporation. June 24, 2024. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ai-powered-oracle-clinical-digital-assistant-transforms-interactions-between-practitioners-and-patients-302179594.html
2. Oracle Protects Healthcare Customers Against Cyberattacks. Oracle Corporation. April 23, 2024. Accessed June 24, 2024. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/oracle-protects-healthcare-customers-against-cyberattacks-302125192.html