Relationship status: The route for i.s.h.med is recalculated

At the DMEA, probably the most important trade fair for health IT in Europe, Oracle Cerner lifted the curtain on the latest health platform generation. The statements were not only exciting for INFORMATICS, but also for the customers, because "i.s.h.med® from Oracle Cerner cannot be ported to S/4 and will therefore no longer be available on an SAP platform in the future", says Peter Altreiter. The deadline for a switch to S/4 ends at the end of 2030, but Oracle Cerner presents solutions.

"Oracle Cerner is opening the way for clients to manage the
succession of the clinical system in a structured and
open-ended way beyond 2030."

Peter Altreiter, Managing Director INFORMATICS Healthcare

SAP has caused a major shock moment in the healthcare sector with the discontinuation of IS-H. This change affects not only the billing module IS-H, but also the medical module i.s.h.med. Until DMEA, customers assumed that as of 2027, an extension until 2030 for these two modules would only be possible by taking advantage of the extended maintenance. Oracle Cerner took care of this great uncertainty of customers and lifted the curtain at DMEA.

"Our new health platform focuses on people - whether they are citizens, patients or users."

Stefan Radatz, Vice President and Managing Director i.s.h.med Oracle Cerner Germany & Austria

The future of patient billing, the further path of Oracle Cerner i.s.h.med, a time schedule for a possibly necessary tender for a new solution - all these questions currently occupy the customers. Oracle Cerner made an effort at DMEA to give customers perspective by providing answers to these questions, specifically by presenting the health platform created by Oracle Cerner, a descriptive roadmap with a plan for the various development stages and deployments, and by promising a temporary extension of maintenance for i.s.h. med and ACM and the associated regulatory changes beyond 2030.

The timeline

The timeline for Oracle Cerner's new health platform was outlined as follows: Starting with patient administration, work on the new central healthcare solution is already in full swing. Subsequently, after the outpatient processes, the emergency department will also be mapped. Finally, the inpatient processes will create a complete image of the requirements needed in the clinical environment. The target date for this process was understood by INFORMATICS to be 2030.

KHZG mixes up the market

For i.s.h.med customers, the challenge is that the currently communicated date of the end of IS-H and i.s.h.med with 2030 results in a timely health platform tender/system search. However, if one looks at the current market, it becomes apparent that the project load of all consulting firms in the German-speaking region is extremely high. Triggered by the Hospital Future Act (KHZG), many facilities in Germany in particular are in a digitization phase - this is having an effect on the market.

What happens to IS-H?

In the context of SAP IS-H, the following deductions result for INFORMATICS customers: "All well-known HIS manufacturers are already working on billing integrated in the respective HIS systems. Based on S/4, there will be a GITG solution at least for Germany." To what extent an S/4 solution will be created for Austria has not yet been decided. Thus, although there are already initial insights in this context, there is not yet a finished solution that can be evaluated.

"Together with our customers and partners, we are taking the path to the next stages of digitization - and with enough time to make forward-looking decisions."

Stefan Radatz, Vice President and Managing Director i.s.h.med Oracle Cerner Germany & Austria

Commitment from Oracle Cerner gives customers time

Oracle Cerner's commitment to provide maintenance beyond 2030 allows customers to "see through" the current prevailing shortfall of experienced consultants and partners. In addition, this extended timeframe opens up a more meaningful assessment regarding the improvement of each product. INFORMATICS can recommend this way to its customers according to today's view, as the health platform market is generally perceived as very "stormy". The time gained can be used for the implementation of those activities which are necessary independent of the further health platform strategy.

The way is the goal

Whatever HIS strategy i.s.h.med customers pursue - a change in the ERP Core is inevitable. Thus, customers are recommended to push the separation of the ERP Core scenarios and to separate them from the clinical system. It can be assumed that Oracle Cerner would also like to position the in-house Oracle Fusion ERP with customers as an alternative to S/4. From INFORMATICS' point of view, it is therefore important that, irrespective of the ERP strategy, the side-by-side scenario should be completed by 2027.

What does this mean for our customers?

We understood Oracle Cerner's statements to mean that if the ECC i.s.h.med solution is operated on the Oracle OCI platform (on-premise and cloud), an extended maintenance period can be taken advantage of without entering into a commitment to the new health platform solution. The path becomes more difficult for HANA customers, as migration to OCI is not possible here without changing the database - but here, too, an option should be available through individual maintenance agreements.

"Who will provide working patient billing and when is only partially validly identifiable at this time - Oracle Cerner's maintenance capability buys customers time here."

Peter Altreiter, Managing Director INFORMATICS Healthcare

INFORMATICS opens up to Oracle strategy

In any case, INFORMATICS will open up to Oracle's strategy in order to support customers in the best possible way. The hope that there would be a healthcare future on the SAP platform has now finally been dashed. The path shown by Oracle Cerner offers customers beyond 2030 an opportunity to evaluate the developments of all health platform manufacturers in peace and thus delay necessary tenders.

The INFORMATICS team is currently preparing for the first trainings in the OCI environment. Thus, we continue to strive to live up to our credo "well advised" - even if our world is currently changing and this will now soon also affect the world of Oracle Cerner.

For details and questions, INFORMATICS is always at your disposal.