Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1353232
71 CIO / HEALTH IT Highmark Health inks 6-year partnership with Verily: 6 things to know By Jackie Drees H ighmark Health, the parent company of Pittsburgh-based Allegheny Health Network, is building upon its tech partnership with Google Cloud through a six-year collaboration with the tech giant's sister company Verily, Highmark said March 2. Six things to know: 1. Highmark partnered with Google Cloud in December 2020 for its technol- ogy-driven healthcare model, Living Health. 2. e Living Health platform is built on Google Cloud and applies advanced analytic and artificial intelligence capabilities to Highmark's clinical and tech capabilities. Highmark created the model to digitally engage patients to pro- actively manage their own health and create personalized health plans with Living Health. 3. rough the partnership, Highmark will add Verily's digital care tools for managing chronic conditions, including congestive heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, to its Living Health model for patients and clinicians. 4. Verily and its analytics subsidiary Onduo will work with Google Cloud to integrate these chronic disease management tools into Highmark's Living Health model and the Living Health Dynamic Platform, which is being built on Google Cloud. 5. Highmark controls access and use of its patient data, and Verily will join the existing Highmark Health-Google Cloud Governance structure, which is the organizations' joint data ethics and privacy review structure. 6. e partnership also includes the development of a clinical insights plat- form and a joint test-and-learn process, which lets the organizations' proj- ect developers build evidence and clinical validation for new chronic disease tools added to the model. n Epic told employees to stop diversity, equity discussion groups, some workers say By Jackie Drees S ome Epic employees claimed the Verona, Wis.- based EHR company told them to stop holding discussion groups related to diversity, equity and inclusion during work hours and canceled a training session on identifying white privilege, the Wisconsin State Journal reported March 1. In a company statement emailed to Becker's March 1, Epic CEO Judy Faulkner said, "Since our company's founding, we have been committed to promoting a culture at Epic that appreciates and strongly supports diversity. We have always welcomed staff from all walks of life." Epic, which comprises 10,000 employees, does not have a chief diversity officer or other executive to over- see equity and inclusion within its workforce, according to the report. Instead, Epic has a diversity council that consists of five employees who all work in their regular full-time jobs at the software company. Epic launched the diversity council last year after national protests against racial injustice. Five employees who spoke to the Wisconsin State Jour- nal and one former employee said they worked beyond their assigned roles to try and make Epic's software and internal culture more equitable, and that their efforts were unsupported by management. The five employees spoke to the publication under the condition of anonymity. "There was always this sense that it's not important," said Emily Kwan, who was fired from her customer support position last fall. The five current employees also said Epic has canceled training opportunities on diversity, equity and inclusion without immediately replacing them. In a separate statement provided by Epic, Jesse McCor- mick, Epic diversity council member, said staff contribute and work on projects that aim to foster "an inclusive and equitable work environment" and that if employees have concerns, they can bring them to their manager or the diversity council. Epic employees are required to take a diversity and in- clusion course as part of orientation, and managers also must take a course on managing diverse teams, Ms. Mc- Cormick said. The company's trainers are building anoth- er course available to all employees in response to staff calls to prioritize equity and inclusion. "The course is designed to be relevant for each role, and it includes Epic-specific information for incident reporting and escalation processes, internal support and resources, and external resources like the Employee Assistance Pro- gram," Ms. McCormick said. n DOD adds 6,000 users to Cerner EHR By Jackie Drees T he Department of Defense onboarded 6,000 users to its Cerner EHR system during a deployment at medical centers in California, according to a March 2 news release. The project's lead contractor, Leidos, expects the EHR, dubbed MHS Genesis, to be fully deployed by 2023. The March wave of centers and users brings the total to 20,000 clinicians and pro- viders and 20 facilities across the Military Health Service live on the platform, according to a March 4 news release. The DOD is implementing the same Cerner technology that the Department of Veteran Affairs is rolling out. Once complete, the two systems will be interoperable. n