At HLTH ’23, Google Cloud revealed a significant milestone in its collaboration with Hackensack Meridian Health, announcing the commencement of the healthcare provider’s cloud and data modernization journey.
In a strategic move, Hackensack Meridian Health has migrated its first non-production Electronic Health Record (EHR) workload from its on-premise environment to Google Cloud, with ambitious plans to transition additional EHR workloads over the next three years.
This transition, initially introduced at HLTH ’22, stands to empower the healthcare network to drive innovation securely while gaining efficiencies and laying the foundation for the adoption of transformative technologies such as analytics and artificial intelligence (AI).
Kash Patel, EVP, and Chief Digital Information Officer for Hackensack Meridian Health, emphasized the positive impact of this migration, highlighting increased agility, improved reliability, and enhanced security. He emphasized the pivotal role data plays in modernizing healthcare and how having all EHR workloads and significant data sources on Google Cloud will unlock valuable insights and enable the introduction of new services fueled by analytics and innovation.
The migration journey commenced with the movement of the EHR Playground workload, a vital software environment enabling educational use cases such as onboarding residents and nursing students to practice order placements and patient note writing without actual patient data.
As more workloads transition to Google Cloud, Hackensack Meridian Health anticipates seamless integration of processes, ultimately enhancing both clinician and patient experiences. Additionally, this migration will facilitate convenient access and analysis of data from diverse sources, leveraging Google Cloud’s AI and machine learning offerings to develop critical predictive capabilities aimed at improving community health.
Today’s development builds upon the broader partnership between Hackensack Meridian Health and Google Cloud, initially unveiled in 2021, encompassing the utilization of AI, data analytics, productivity software, and more. In August of the current year, Hackensack Meridian Health further showcased its utilization of Google Cloud’s generative AI tools to enhance both caregiver and patient experiences.
Aashima Gupta, Global Director of Healthcare Strategy & Solutions for Google Cloud, commended Hackensack Meridian Health’s data-centric approach, emphasizing the vital role of data in comprehending a patient’s healthcare journey.
Aashima Gupta highlighted how the migration of EHR workloads to the cloud signifies an improvement in connectivity for healthcare organizations, liberating them from the management of IT infrastructure and allowing a heightened focus on their core mission — serving patients and communities.
Google Cloud’s steadfast commitment to data governance and privacy policies ensures that customers retain control over their data. Particularly in healthcare settings, patient data access and usage are safeguarded through Google Cloud’s robust infrastructure and secure data storage, aligned with HIPAA compliance.
The responsible application of generative AI further reinforces responsible usage, enabling customers to monitor and review model outputs and leverage safety guardrails and model documentation for responsible utilization in their unique use cases and contexts.
