University of Missouri Extends Partnership with Cerner
The University of Missouri (MU) in Columbia has announced plans to extend and deepen its relationship with Kansas City-based healthcare technology vendor Cerner Corp. through 2025.
In 2009, Cerner and MU formed the Tiger Institute for Health Innovation. (The tiger is the university’s mascot.) Its projects have included creating e-visit technology, integrating calculators into the EHR and developing a consumer-facing mental health app. This year the Tiger Institute launched OpenNotes, a function that gives patients access to their clinic notes through the MU Healthe patient portal.
The extension with Cerner will allow the institute to focus on new initiatives, including:
• Redefining patient engagement through mobile health care.
• Developing a comprehensive population health strategy and network to better position MU Health Care to lower costs while improving the health of Missourians and their care.
• Facilitating the role of health information technology in academic medical center research.
• Helping MU Health Care and other providers transition to value-based payment models.
• Developing a Tiger Institute Value Creation Office to identify cost-saving opportunities.
A new Tiger Institute Leadership Academy will invite industry peers for on-site visits and education. Last year, the Tiger Institute hosted visitors from around the globe, including physicians and medical executives from Australia, France, China and Intermountain Healthcare.
"Together, we’ve seen the Tiger Institute emerge as a national leader in health information technology, and we look forward to a new decade of bigger and bolder innovations that have already made our relationship a model for the modernization of our nation’s health care system,” said Cerner CEO Neal Patterson in a prepared statement.
MU Health Care said its technology partnership with Cerner allowed it to reach HIMSS Analytics’ Stage 7. It was the first academic medical center and the ninth health system in the country to meet Stage 2 meaningful use standards.
MU Health Care consists of the 360-bed University Hospital and Clinics, Ellis Fischel Cancer Center, Women’s and Children’s Hospital, the Missouri Orthopaedic Institute and the Missouri Psychiatric Center, all based in Columbia, as well as 51 clinics. MU Health Care is a part of University of Missouri Health System, which also includes the MU School of Health Professions, the MU School of Medicine, the MU Sinclair School of Nursing and University Physicians practice plan.
