Hackensack Meridian Health’s Cloud and Data Modernization with Google Cloud Enhances Patient Care and Drives Innovation

Today at HLTH ‘23, Google Cloud announced that Hackensack Meridian Health’s cloud and data modernization is underway, and has now moved its first non-production electronic health record (EHR) workload from its on-premise environment to Google Cloud—with plans to migrate its other EHR workloads over the next three years. First announced at HLTH ‘22, Hackensack Meridian Health’s cloud migration strategy will enable the network to securely drive greater innovation and efficiencies, as well as provide the foundation for deploying new technologies like analytics and artificial intelligence (AI).

“Now that we’ve moved significant data, applications workload, and other IT resources from on-premise to Google Cloud, we’re seeing increased agility, improved reliability, and increased security,” said Kash Patel, EVP and chief digital information officer for Hackensack Meridian Health. “Data is at the core of how we are modernizing healthcare, and having all of our EHR workloads and other significant data sources on Google Cloud will help enable us to gain more insights from our data, and introduce new services based on analytics and innovation.”

Hackensack Meridian Health has started with migration of its EHR Playground workload, a software environment that enables onboarding residents and nursing students to practice placing orders, writing patient notes, and other educational use cases, without patient data. Over time, as more of these workloads are migrated over to Google Cloud, Hackensack will be able to better integrate its processes, ultimately improving the clinician and patient experience. It will also enable Hackensack to readily access and analyze data from multiple sources, leveraging Google Cloud’s AI and machine learning offerings to develop predictive capabilities critical for improving the health of the communities it serves.

Today’s news builds on Hackensack Meridian Health’s broader partnership with Google Cloud announced in 2021 that spans the use of AI, data analytics, productivity software, and more. And, in August of this year, Hackensack Meridian Health shared it is using Google Cloud’s generative AI tools to improve caregiver and patient experiences.

“Hackensack Meridian Health is unlocking the potential of data, connecting the dots in a patient's healthcare journey,” said Aashima Gupta, global director, Healthcare Strategy & Solutions for Google Cloud. “Migrating EHR workloads to the cloud means healthcare organizations are improving connectivity and no longer need to shoulder the burden of managing IT infrastructure and focus on what they do best—serving their patients and communities.”

Google Cloud’s approach to data governance and privacy policies are designed for its customers to retain control over their data. In healthcare settings, access and use of patient data is protected through the implementation of Google Cloud’s reliable infrastructure and secure data storage that support HIPAA compliance, along with each customer’s security, privacy controls, and processes. With Google’s responsible approach to generative AI customers have access to monitor and review model outputs and leverage safety guardrails and model documentation to enable responsible use in a customer’s use case and context.