Cerner, AWS Work to Reduce Patient Re-Admissions and Time Spent Documenting Patient Visits

New virtual scribe helps physicians capture more info in shorter time

KANSAS CITY – December 3, 2019 – Cerner Corporation today announced its plans to assist clients to further lower re-admission rates for patients, reduce health care waste and help cut the amount of time physicians spend documenting patient visits. At the 2019 Amazon Web Services (AWS) re:Invent in Las Vegas, Cerner CEO and Chairman of the Board Brent Shafer addressed some of health care’s biggest challenges, and ways Cerner is combatting them. Shafer was joined on stage by AWS CEO Andy Jassy who introduced him to tens of thousands of business and IT professionals.

“For 40 years, Cerner ushered in health care’s digital age by moving medical data from paper charts and manila folders into electronic health records,” Shafer told the audience. “As we enter into a new era of digital transformation, our work with AWS will lead a wave of breakthrough innovations focused on making health care better and clinicians’ work easier.”

Globally, the health care industry spends more than $7 trillion each year, with the U.S. accounting for nearly half of that spend ($3.5 trillion). The American Medical Association recently estimated that a quarter of all U.S. spending – nearly $1 trillion – is wasted on unnecessary follow ups to doctor’s appointments, overtreating patients and gaps in digital information caused by people seeking care from different doctors and health systems over a lifetime. Cerner is working to reduce this financial waste by leveraging de-identified patient data to help make early determinations of what is causing return hospitalizations. The insights that Cerner unveils will give physicians the resources to make more informed decisions on treatment approaches, thereby helping reduce patient re-admissions.

As an example, a Cerner client—one of the largest providers of post-acute health care in the U.S.—recently asked for help predicting the patients at risk of being re-admitted from a rehabilitation facility back to the hospital. By applying machine learning to historical data migrated to the AWS Cloud, Cerner created a model that helped the health care system reach the lowest re-admission rate in more than a decade and sent more patients directly from rehabilitation to their homes.

Earlier this year, Cerner announced its focus on addressing macro trends in health care, including physician burnout. During his keynote, Shafer also addressed a challenge many physicians face, the time it takes to document patient visits. Reports have shown that physicians spend more than half of their days documenting patient information. Shafer announced that Cerner is developing a digital virtual scribe, working with Amazon Transcribe Medical, to help reduce the documentation burden.

“The digitization of health care has inadvertently caused an increase in documentation for physicians,” said Shafer. “Working with AWS will allow us to capture doctor-patient interaction and integrate it directly into the electronic workflow of the physician. This new advancement will help doctors and providers spend less time filling out forms and more quality time with their patients.”

Cerner’s focus on developing leading-edge technology will help shape health care of tomorrow. Recently, Cerner reached an important milestone, it’s 500^th issued patent. The new patent, featuring voice-activated documentation, captures important details shared between the clinician and patient, further showcasing the company’s focus on leveraging voice inputs and natural language processing to reduce the physician’s burden of documentation.

“As we work to transform Cerner, we’re relentlessly seeking innovation and new ways to deliver faster, more scalable, more secure solutions to our clients and patients – it’s part of who we are,” said Shafer. “We live in a connected world and are working with others like AWS to solve the quadruple aim of health care – improving the health of individuals and populations while reducing costs and increasing clinician satisfaction. And it’s just the beginning of this exciting new venture.”

SOURCE: Cerner