Zesty partnership will see patient portals offered to Cerner NHS clients

A recently announced reseller deal will see Zesty offer its patient portal to existing Cerner clients.

As part of a new value-added reseller agreement, NHS trusts which are Cerner clients can access Zesty’s patient portal under their existing contractual arrangements with Cerner.

The partnership will also extend to the two companies collaborating on a new patient engagement solution to help NHS trusts deliver quicker and easier to access online services for patients.

The collaboration, covering UK and Ireland, will build on Cerner’s current patient portal solution Healthelife and Zesty’s integration capability with Cerner’s electronic health record, Millennium.

The joint development will create a new localised UK patient portal product that merges Cerner’s clipboard capabilities with Zesty’s patient questionnaires and embed them directly into clinical workflows.

James Balmain, joint-CEO of Induction Healthcare, said: “It is a landmark moment for Zesty to be selected by Cerner in the UK and Ireland to jointly develop patient engagement solutions for NHS hospitals.”

Zesty’s patient portal is used to help trusts make it easier for patients to view and manage their outpatient appointments and correspondence online.

Speaking about the new patient portal to be developed with Cerner, Balmain told Digital Health News, that “quite a few companies are doing remote monitoring, but together we will be delivering data right back into Millennium clinical workflow”.

He added: “Patient facing services and patient engagement tools are a much greater focus for buyers than they were just a few years ago.”

Distie Profit, Managing Director of Cerner UK, added: ” Helping patients become more engaged and empowered through access to their health information allows them to receive care remotely and better manage their health.”

Profit said that the announcement demonstrated Cerner’s commitment to interoperability and open standards like Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR).

Cerner’s integration with Zesty also featured in last week’s Apple Health Record announcement, where Zesty’s patient portal is being used by Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Trust to enable enrolment.