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‘Doing more for less and with less’: Turning to IT
February 2023—As this year’s guide to anatomic pathology computer systems was taking shape, CAP TODAY publisher Bob McGonnagle met online with representatives of five companies and with John Sinard, MD, PhD, of Yale University School of Medicine. They talked about the cloud, CPT codes, training of pathology informaticians, and artificial intelligence, for which the time frame in pathology is far longer than it’s been portrayed, in Dr. Sinard’s view.
“It will start to impact the careers of some of our trainees, but it’s probably a 10- to 20-year time frame before it plays a major role,” he said.
The view of Joe Nollar of Xifin: “Speculation that AI will someday replace pathologists is completely overblown,” though it will help to triage cases and mitigate risk.
Their full conversation, which took place Dec. 20, 2022, follows.
Last year we talked about Oracle’s acquisition of Cerner, which led to a discussion about the cloud, its advantages, and how it seems to have entered into a prominent point of desire for customers and vendors alike. Joe Nollar, what has changed in the past year? Have you seen this deepening? And have you seen evidence from the Oracle-Cerner combination that’s of importance to the anatomic pathology marketplace?
Joe Nollar, associate vice president of product development, Xifin: The merger is an opportunity for Cerner to leverage Oracle assets to a great benefit. But it’s a long process to bring the entities together in a meaningful way, so we haven’t fully seen its impact. What I’ve seen pick up steam is people on older platforms migrating to cloud-based solutions from traditional, locally hosted environments. There’s a lot of activity in the AP sector moving from traditional on-premises systems to the cloud.
Chad Meyers, can you comment on where the Oracle-Cerner combination and the cloud stand a year later?
Chad Meyers, MBA, vice president/service line manager, global anatomic, molecular, and digital pathology solutions, Clinisys: To Joe’s point, it’s going to take time, and Cerner still has a large focus on the EHR versus the laboratory information systems space where Cerner started. They’re working to bring those two companies together, especially with their Veterans Affairs contracts and others.
We’re seeing more health systems’ chief information officers looking at their overall cloud strategy, doing five-year planning, and in some cases working with third-party partners like Accenture to plan how to move their IT assets to the cloud, including the EHR and other systems. The Cerner-Oracle deal combined with Epic’s release of Hyperdrive, a Web-based client that can better support a cloud-hosted version of Epic, is a catalyst for them to look at their overall footprint and say, If I can move my EHR to the cloud, I should plan to move the rest of my ancillary systems to the cloud.
Continue reading …
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