Oracle Cerner

Cerner (now officially Oracle Cerner following a massive acquisition) is the primary, historical rival to Epic in the enterprise hospital market. While Epic dominates the absolute largest academic medical centers, Cerner holds a massive footprint across a vast array of mid-sized health systems, community hospitals, and notably, massive government contracts (including the highly publicized, ongoing deployment for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense). With Oracle's acquisition, Cerner is undergoing a massive transformation to integrate with Oracle's formidable cloud infrastructure and enterprise ERP capabilities. The core strength of the Cerner Millennium platform is its immense clinical depth and its ability to handle highly complex, multi-facility hospital operations. The platform provides incredibly specialized modules for virtually every department in a hospital, from the emergency room (FirstNet) to the intensive care unit, oncology, and the surgical suite (SurgiNet). It provides physicians and nurses with highly detailed, real-time clinical dashboards that pull data from connected medical devices (like bedside heart monitors) directly into the patient's electronic chart, ensuring critical care decisions are based on the most up-to-date physiological data. Cerner is also highly regarded for its population health management platform, HealtheIntent. This massive data analytics engine allows health systems to aggregate data from multiple different EHRs, claims feeds, and pharmacy systems to identify high-risk patient populations, track chronic disease outcomes across a community, and proactively manage care to prevent expensive hospital readmissions. For health systems seeking a highly clinical, enterprise-grade EHR with massive analytical capabilities and deep government compliance, Oracle Cerner remains a formidable titan.