Oracle Health has announced a collaboration with Nashville-based Meharry Medical College designed to help students and residents spend more time with and better understand their patients. The company said it will also assist with research to further precision medicine, health informatics and population health. 

WHY IT MATTERS

The new health technology education and research innovation hub and community care and wellness center in Nashville will leverage Oracle's cloud-based and artificial intelligence-driven clinical tools to provide hands-on training and experiential learning opportunities, the company said in a recent announcement. 

As one of the nation’s four historically Black academic health science centers, this is a "pivotal moment" for Meharry, which has provided mission-driven care for nearly 150 years, according to Dr. James E.K. Hildreth, the college's president and CEO.

"By combining our expertise with Oracle Health’s innovative technology, we will forge a path that other institutions and communities can follow," said Hildreth in a statement. 

The partners said they will engage community stakeholders to ensure their work aligns with and is shaped in collaboration with regional healthcare providers, public officials, health plans, and community and patient advocacy organizations working to improve health and access to care in the region.

THE LARGER TREND

Nashville's health disparities by race and income are reportedly wide. NashvilleHealth and Metro Public Health Department revealed concerning statistics when the two partnered in 2019 to conduct the first countrywide health survey in more than 20 years. 

According to Dr. Bill Frist, former U.S. Senate Majority Leader from Tennessee, writing for Forbes in August, the healthcare services capital of the U.S. – so named by the Nashville Healthcare Council – has "a shocking paradox."

"Our citizens have on average some of the poorest health in the entire country compared to similar-sized cities," he said in his story about how NashvilleHealth, which he is the founder and chairman of, 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 critical fifth aim for the aspirational IHI-developed framework, which organizations look to in their pursuits to improve healthcare delivery. 

The COVID-19 pandemic "brought long-overdue and much-needed attention to the lack of health equity in the US and around the world," he wrote about the new imperative in JAMA.

"All four dimensions of the quadruple aim were compromised by health equity considerations," Mate explained to Healthcare IT News last year.

ON THE RECORD

"This collaboration transcends education and will create a model for more compassionate, equitable and community-centered care allowing everyone access to the care they need and deserve," said Hildreth in a statement.

"Our collaboration with Meharry Medical College is helping further our mission to transform the entirety of the healthcare industry," added Seema Verma, executive vice president and general manager of Oracle Health and Life Sciences. 

"The research, technology and skills we are cultivating will not only benefit the Nashville community but will have broad reach as students enter the workforce, applying the insights and understanding they’ve gained to shape the future of healthcare around the world."

Andrea Fox is senior editor of Healthcare IT News.
Email: afox@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.