In what has been an ongoing trend over the past year, two healthcare IT giants are joining forces to help physician practices adopt healthcare technology.

The latest collaboration, announced Oct. 19, has the Cerner Corporation and CDW Healthcare partnering to offer Cerner’s electronic health records system to CDW clients beginning November 1. Company officials say this is the first time Kansas City, Mo.-based Cerner has agreed to offer its complete suite of ambulatory solutions through a national channel partner.

“While adoption of EHRs in the U.S. marketplace has been slow, many physicians will look to implement EHRs in the next 24 months due to the HITECH provision in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act,” said Mike Valentine, executive vice president of worldwide client organizations for Cerner, in a press release. “Our collaboration with CDW Healthcare provides our clients a single touch point for technology expertise, solutions guidance and deployment services, enabling them to focus on what matters most – providing quality patient care and improving the financial health of their practice.” 

Passed by Congress earlier this year, ARRA includes financial incentives for healthcare providers who adopt healthcare IT and prove “meaningful use.” Company officials say many physician practices have neither the financial means nor the technical expertise to properly invest in technology.

“Physicians and their IT teams have real dollars at stake for meeting the 2011 meaningful use requirements in the federal stimulus package,” said Bob Rossi, vice president of Vernon Hills, Ill.-based CDW Healthcare. “For the first time, physician practices seeking to adopt EHR solutions can benefit from the combined expertise of two industry-leading technology providers. By combining our industry knowledge and the breadth of our product offerings with Cerner’s world-class clinical solutions, we can provide customers with the end-to-end support necessary to pursue successful EHR implementations.”

The Cerner-CDW deal is the latest in a series of collaborations designed to push electronic medical records and related software into physician practices, which generally have been slow to adopt healthcare IT. Other partnerships or mergers have included Allscripts, with both Henry Schein Medical Systems and Cardinal Health; Perot and Dell; McKesson and Craneware; and Hyland and Valco Data Systems.