Oracle Health debuted a revamped digital platform for patients with an artificial intelligence assistant that can explain medical records in plain language and assist with scheduling appointments.
The data and technology company teased the launch of the AI-enabled patient portal at its Health and Life Sciences Summit last September.
The AI-powered Oracle Health Patient Portal is now generally available in the U.S,. the company announced Wednesday. The new offering combines the ease-of-use and simplicity of a consumer application with a highly secure and comprehensive integration with the Oracle Health electronic health record (EHR), executives said.
Through the AI-powered platform, patients can quickly review and share their medical records and easily connect with providers. It also offers AI-assisted appointment scheduling and health insights integrated with the EHR.
The solution also enables patients to ask questions and receive clear, plain-language explanations of diagnoses, test results and treatment options.
“Our AI-powered Oracle Health Patient Portal is built from the ground up to help patients understand, manage, and improve their health,” said Seema Verma, executive vice president and general manager, Oracle Health and Life Sciences, in a statement. “By making it easy for patients to navigate their care and communicate digitally, we’re also helping care teams reduce administrative burden and focus their time on what matters most: delivering the best possible care.”
A year ago, Oracle Health launched its next-gen EHR equipped with the latest AI and voice capabilities, which is designed to be easier for clinicians to navigate. It marked the first major upgrade to Oracle's EHR solutions since the company bought Cerner in a $28 billion deal in June 2022 to push deeper into the healthcare market and boost its cloud business. The company rebranded the Cerner business Oracle Health.
While building the new EHR, the company also has launched new health IT features for the existing platform such as a clinical AI agent that combines generative AI, clinical intelligence, multimodal voice and screen-driven assistance. That feature is embedded in the new EHR.
Health IT companies are racing to stay ahead of the competition and to keep pace with Silicon Valley in the AI market. Last August, Oracle Health rival Epic also unveiled its own AI-powered ambient clinical documentation tool along with other AI tools including an AI solution for patients, called Emmie to help patients schedule visits and then prepare for their medical visits.
Oracle Health executives said the AI tools are designed to give patients a better understanding of their medical records and a more effective and efficient means of engaging with their care providers.
The company said it built the patient portal using frontier models to help ensure it provides the most effective, up-to-date AI. "Since the portal is designed to augment the care team, not circumvent it, the system has strong guardrails that prevent the AI from providing diagnoses, medical advice, or treatment recommendations. When users request medical advice, AI encourages patients to consult their healthcare provider or, if they believe they are experiencing an emergency, to call 911 or visit the nearest emergency room," executives said in the press release.
To provide additional clarity for patients, AI-generated text is highlighted with a visual bar and cites the sources of its information. To protect patient privacy, no personal medical data is stored outside of the Oracle system or in third-party models, according to the company.
The portal is fully integrated with the Oracle Health EHR and reflects the actual care plan and documentation completed by the care team. Health data remains in the same secure clinical environment, and patients do not need to collect or upload their records into an external system to get answers to their medical questions. The portal also offers self-service tools to provide patients with clear, easy-to-understand summaries of their health, including recent visit highlights, key conditions, medications and outstanding tasks—such as preparing for upcoming visits, completing labs, and managing follow-ups and screenings.
Using the system’s embedded, contextually aware AI capabilities, patients can ask questions directly within the portal to better understand their health information and view chart-based insights such as trends in labs and vitals over time. For example, patients can say, “Help me understand my cholesterol trends over the year,” or ask, “How am I managing my diabetes?” AI delivers responses in plain language, grounded in the patient’s health record, helping them better understand and manage their care, executives said.
Patients can also manage appointments using natural language. The AI contextualizes requests based on prior visits and providers and recommends appropriate clinicians and time slots.
Last September, during its Health and Life Sciences Summit, Oracle Health executives asserted its AI strategy is fundamentally different than other EHR companies, including its rival Epic.
"Oracle's AI isn't bolted on, it's built in. So it's like having GPS built into your car versus that older device that used to clip on your dashboard. It's connected to all of the cars, data, the speed, the fuel, the traffic, and it doesn't just give directions, it guides the entire trip safely and smoothly," Verma said during the summit.
At the event, Oracle touted its advances with agentic AI within its EHR and unveiled new capabilities for revenue cycle, prior auth, life sciences and clinical trial recruitment.