Cerner lanches an app challenge to improve consumer access to health records

Cerner 2019 code App Challenge

Cerner launched the 2019 code App Challenge, inviting developers to advance consumers’ access to electronic health records (EHRs). Participants will join Cerner’s “pursuit of the next groundbreaking advancement,” with a focus on helping consumers easily access and understand health records.

By creating a single patient record with a complete picture of a person’s health and financial information, providers can engage people in meaningful and informed discussions to improve health and well-being. Following health care’s digitization era, the focus is on shaping the future with a person-centered mission that requires joint efforts among developers, technology companies and provider organizations. Cerner’s platforms, technology and culture of openness emphasize the importance of collaboration to advance health care.

With the 2019 code App Challenge, Cerner encourages innovators to build apps on its platforms that further transform health care. Proposed apps must focus on consumers’ ability to access, understand and use health information in the EHR.

“We challenge innovators and organizations across the industry to join us in advancing interoperability, secure data exchange and consumer access to health records. People should be able to access and understand their own health information regardless of facility or EHR, which is why collaboration through open platforms and shared data is critical to our mission,” John Gresham, senior vice president of Health Networks at Cerner, said in a statement. “Putting the person at the center of care by improving consumer access to medical information encourages active participation in health care. Embedding consumer-centric apps in the EHR can drive patient engagement, increase awareness of health care costs and improve overall health outcomes.”

Innovation and collaboration are fostered through openness and transparency, exemplified by the launch of the Cerner Open Developer Experience (code) in 2016. The code program provides third-party developers with tools and resources to realize ideas and create software apps that can be embedded across all EHRs, not only Cerner’s platform. The Cerner code App Gallery now has more than 30 apps accessed by nearly 53,000 unique and active monthly users.

Submissions for the 2019 code App Challenge can be at any stage of development, from an idea to a working demo. Developers can create apps independently, as a team, or in collaboration with hospitals or health systems. The winning individual or team will receive a one-year membership to the code program, with Cerner engineers helping guide the app through the validation process. If the app completes validation, it will be added to the code App Gallery. The deadline for submissions is Aug. 16, 2019.