Getty Images/iStockphoto

Feature

How Meharry teamed up with Oracle for health equity data

The Oracle partnership mostly centers on better health IT interoperability, which Meharry said will fuel health equity data access.

Sara Heath
By
Published: 02 Dec 2024

Leaders at Meharry Medical College knew there'd be a lot of opportunity to innovate at the nexus of health equity and health technology when Oracle announced it was coming to town.

In an April announcement that took many in the technology sector by surprise, Oracle Chairman and Chief Technology Officer Larry Ellison said the company was moving its headquarters to Nashville, Tennessee, because the city is a healthcare innovation hub.

"It's the center of the industry we're most concerned about, which is the healthcare industry," Ellison said during a conversation with former Sen. Bill Frist at an Oracle Health event.

The announcement raised a lot of eyebrows, including for folks at Meharry who saw the move as an opportunity for partnership and innovation. When Oracle came to the historically Black college and university looking for trusted industry partners, leadership thought it might be a fit.

"For quite some time now, we've been making a significant impact on the underserved community," Dexter Samuels, Ph.D., the executive director of the Center for Health Policy at Meharry Medical College, said in an interview. "Our mission and our pledge is to make sure that we eradicate health disparities and make sure that we address health equity, and with this partnership, we will do that."

As many healthcare organizations have asserted over the past five years, addressing health equity requires a cultural and institutional commitment. Meharry has had that commitment since its founding in 1876, but it still faces headwinds as healthcare is in the throes of its digital transformation.

In order to do population health and health equity work, you need data, Samuels said.

"We understand the challenges that we have with health disparities and the health outcomes, particularly for the underserved," Samuels explained. "To address that, you really have to make sure that you have as much information as possible on the patient."

But the healthcare industry is crowded with numerous health IT and data solutions, and with limited health data interoperability, it's easy for that information to get gummed up.

Oracle and Meharry forge partnership

So it was good news to hear that Oracle was investing in Nashville as a healthcare hub, Samuels said, and that it wanted to partner with Meharry.

In October, the pair announced a nonbinding memorandum of understanding (MOU) outlining plans to establish a health information education and research collaborative, a health innovation hub and a community care and wellness center in Nashville.

The health information education collaborative and health innovation hub will be central to Meharry's goals of improving population health.

"The interoperability of the system is going to be important," Samuels asserted. "We have disparate systems, and so everybody has their own electronic health records. They need to talk to each other, and that's something that Oracle has pledged to do."

The education center is also key to Meharry's work as a medical college. By enabling more research, Samuels said there's an opportunity for student learners and providers to research best practices.

"On the Meharry side, we will establish a community clinic in close proximity to the campus," Samuels added, noting that Meharry is still in the process of determining the best location. "Meharry will also establish an accountable care organization, understanding that we have to have attributable lives, and then working directly with the health systems on how we can improve healthcare for all."

This partnership is still in its earliest stages, Samuels pointed out. The details of the MOU have been established, but in the coming weeks and months, Meharry will focus on community engagement.

"If you don't involve the community, you're going to fail, just to be quite frank," Samuels stressed. "We're trying to prevent any missteps and things that we may not be aware of. Oracle and Meharry cannot do this in isolation, so you have to have a multifaceted perspective and then really get to the meat of things of what we need to do to improve the lives and the health outcomes of our community."

Although currently centralized in Nashville and areas near Meharry's campus, Samuels envisions this partnership having a city-, nation- and maybe even worldwide ripple effect.

"This work isn't going to be just localized," he concluded. "It is not just going to be North Nashville or the East Bank. The plan for Meharry and Oracle is that the system that we establish and the changes that we're going to make is going to have really a worldwide impact."

Sara Heath has covered news related to patient engagement and health equity since 2015.

Dig Deeper on Patient data access