In keeping with the corporate, Oracle intends to affix TEFCA

Larry Ellison, chairman and co-founder of Oracle Corp., speaks during the Oracle OpenWorld 2017 conference in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Sunday, October 1, 2017.

David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

oracle announced Monday that it plans to join a new federally backed medical network designed to make it easier for clinics, hospitals and insurance companies to share patient data.

The network, called the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA), was launched in December. Oracle, which acquired medical records giant Cerner for $28 billion in 2022, is the latest major vendor to support TEFCA, alongside its main rival Epic Systems.

Oracle must be approved to join TEFCA, but its interest in doing so helps bolster the credibility of the emerging network. It also suggests that TEFCA could succeed in introducing a new standard for data sharing practices across the healthcare industry.

Exchanging medical records between different hospitals, clinics and healthcare organizations is a notoriously complex process. Health data is stored in various formats across dozens of different providers, making it difficult for doctors and other providers to easily access all of their patients' relevant data.

“This is just a natural next step,” said Seema Verma, executive vice president and general manager of Oracle Health and Life Sciences, in an interview with CNBC. “We’re not into information blocking. We don’t have that reputation.”

Oracle's competitor, Epic, has long been accused of being slow to advance interoperability efforts, and Oracle hasn't shied away from taking the company to task. In a May blog post, Ken Glueck, executive vice president at Oracle, wrote, “Everyone in the industry understands that Epic CEO Judy Faulkner is the biggest obstacle to EHR.” [electronic health record] Interoperability.”

“Epic hopes that today’s announcement from Oracle Health shows that they are finally ready to take interoperability seriously – and deliver the technology that patients and providers deserve, rather than making distracting, untrue statements,” Epic said in a press release on Monday.

Several companies and organizations have previously attempted to streamline healthcare information sharing, but TEFCA was designed to help bring all of these stakeholders together at a national level. The network's primary goal is to finally standardize the legal and technical requirements for the exchange of patient data.

The main groups participating in health data exchange through TEFCA are called qualified health information networks, or QHINs. These networks participate voluntarily – they are not paid – and must go through a two-step approval process to ensure they are eligible and have the necessary technical infrastructure in place.

Oracle announced Monday that it would begin the process of becoming a QHIN. Seven QHINs, including Epic, are now live on TEFCA.

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