Cerner and McKesson join US alliance

Six heavyweight electronic medical records vendors have announced plans to develop common interoperability standards to create a new national set of core services.

Cerner and McKesson are among the companies involved in the US supplier-led initiative, which will see a range of rival EMR firms work together to develop new standards to provide interoperability and patient identification services.

The focus of the Commonwell Health Alliance will be to develop standards-based national open services that enable patients to be easily matched; consent management; and locate and link patient records across care locations.

Details of the planned developments were unveiled at the HIMSS 2013 trade show in New Orleans.

During 2013, the alliance will aim to create a large multi-supplier proof of concept, with a full launch of services in 2014.

In addition to Cerner and McKesson, the vendors involved in the initiate are Allscripts, Athenahealth, Greenway, and RelayHealth, representing more than 40% of the US market. One notable absentee from the line-up is Epic.

“We believe the industry needs to step up to the challenges of interoperability,” Neal Patterson, co-founder, chairman and chief executive of Cerner, said in a press release.

“If we can rise to the challenge as an industry, we have a chance to deliver a golden era of health care.”

John Hammergren, chairman and chief executive of McKesson, meanwhile said “The formation of this alliance takes health care a step closer to broad industry interoperability.”