The Oracle Gambit, To Eclipse EPIC… In US Health Care Data Control… Is Not Coming As Easily As Mr. Ellison Hoped, Back In 2022.

As a rule, I think control of US health care data will not lead to any Armageddon — unless AI ends up making actual point of care decisions, without doctor input at the local provider level. That said, I do worry a fair bit about “data leakage”… to insurers, who then jack up premiums [in a back door form of “pre-existing condition” exclusions, person by person] — even though doing so is theoretically unlawful after the ACA of 2010 passed (or Obamacare, if one prefers).

And — as will likely be seen in future posts, I am deeply, abidingly skeptical of the ethics of the Ellison controlled company. I worry that he would sell out, in a heartbeat — to Trump or others — for enough money… even where he’s signed binding firewall contracts.

And thus, I do view with some suspicion the addition of two CEO level health care provider company executives to his Oracle board. Will this make the providers more… pliable, vis a vis Oracle’s world building ideas in big data / AI in health care delivery? We will keep a weather eye on all of it — but here is the latest, from HealthCareDive:

…Dr. Tomislav Mihaljevic’s appointment comes months after Oracle named another healthcare leader, former Quest Diagnostics CEO Stephen Rusckowski, to the board….

Mihaljevic has worked at Cleveland Clinic for more than 20 years, joining the health system’s department of thoracic and cardiovascular surgery in 2004. He previously served as CEO of Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, and held a director position on health technology firm GE Healthcare’s board, according to the press release.

“Tom’s perspective will be invaluable as Oracle continues to help healthcare organizations use technology to improve outcomes for patients and providers,” Oracle CEO Clay Magouyrk said in a statement.

Mihaljevic’s election, which brings the size of Oracle’s board to 13, comes as Oracle has expanded its focus on healthcare.

The technology giant acquired electronic health record vendor Cerner for more than $28 billion in 2022. And last year, Oracle released a new artificial intelligence-backed EHR. The records system allows providers to use voice commands to navigate the EHR, which Oracle argues should lessen the amount of time clinicians spend digging through patients’ health data….

Do stay tuned. Ellison and Musk have long struck me as similarly flawed human beings — on ethical / moral development dimensions. We shall see. Onward.

नमस्ते