Oracle’s Latest Earnings Call Indicated Its Next Frontier: Healthcare

Oracle, a renowned technology and software giant, took a bold step late last year when it announced the acquisition of electronic medical record (EHR) company Cerner. This brave purchase showed a new, or perhaps rejuvenated, commitment to Oracle. It’s about rethinking the future of healthcare.

This week, at Oracle’s quarterly earnings briefing, the company’s top executives, including Oracle founder and CEO Larry Ellison, reiterated this commitment.

The company already has a significant presence in various aspects of the healthcare industry, especially through its robust cloud and software business. Ellison emphasized on the phone: We already have Tenet Health, Kaiser, Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, Northwell Health, Mount Sinai and Atrium Health. I can go to a long list of ERP and HCM wins in healthcare — they are all healthcare providers. Added some healthcare providers, mainly hospitals and clinics. “

However, Ellison has emphasized a larger pipeline in the future. I started by talking about hospitals and provide — people who provide healthcare. The healthcare industry is much larger than that. There are medical device manufacturers. There is a pharmaceutical company. There are payers, insurance companies and government agencies that are part of this healthcare ecosystem. As a result, we not only focused on providers such as hospitals and clinics, but also won a large ERP contract through SAP at J & J’s Johnson & Johnson. […] We are pursuing an entire integrated ecosystem with some great results. Obviously, it influenced our decision to buy Cerner. “

This ecosystem is a real challenge. As Ellison argues, American medical care is no longer just going to a doctor for treatment. The entire ecosystem has become very subtle nuances, complicated by related hospital systems, insurance and payer issues, rapidly evolving provider situations, drug development and delivery, and new care delivery models. Indeed, healthcare is not the same as it used to be.

This complex landscape is a major reason why there was no medical care in the United States. True confusion For decades. Although the way care is delivered has improved significantly and new interest in healthcare technology has increased, in reality, healthcare in the United States still has many problems.

Needless to say, many powerful forces tried to come up with a solution. For example, Haven Healthcare, a venture founded by Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase, aims to simplify access to and delivery of health care. The company was closed three years later, but shows that some of the biggest forces in the United States are becoming more and more confused by the challenges of the health care system.

Amazon took the issue into their hands and created Amazon Care as the entire healthcare ecosystem used by its employees, removing many of the nuances associated with traditional employer-based healthcare incentives. Now, after formalizing this system, Amazon is slowly rolling out its care infrastructure to the general public, providing new ways for people to get the care they need.

This is just one example of how businesses are investing billions of dollars in resolving the health crisis. Industry giants who have never experienced the core healthcare business understand that solving just a few of the healthcare puzzles is of great value to be created. For example, Best Buy, which has never actually done healthcare within its business, announced last year that it would pay $ 400 million to its digital healthcare platform, Current Health.

Oracle makes no difference in this adventure. The software and cloud products are already fully utilized by some of the world’s largest healthcare players, but Ellison explained at a news conference that they could grow significantly in the coming years. It’s a good place to roll up healthcare, a huge industry. No one has actually tried this so far, but it has all the elements. I have a payment piece. Automate many insurance companies. With HCM, you can help manage your employees. There is an ERP that helps you keep track of your inventory. Soon, Cerner will be available to help provide care to patients. So we will—and we have a clinical trial system for pharmaceuticals. We have an entire portfolio and interconnect all the elements so that the ecosystem can work efficiently for the first time. And in fact, the pandemic shows that we are in desperate need of such an integrated system. “

After all, the turmoil is imminent as these initiatives are emerging and healthcare continues to attract the attention of the world’s largest enterprises.