The Big Data Transformation

Chapter 5. Cerner Scales for Success

When done right, big-data initiatives only grow bigger. It’s almost inevitable that one big-data success in your business will lead to more and more use cases being identified. In short: you need to be prepared to scale.

Cerner Corporation learned this with its Millennium^® platform. Based in Kansas City, Cerner’s health information technology (HIT) solutions connect people and systems at more than 20,000 facilities worldwide. Working together with its clients, Cerner is creating a future in which the healthcare system works to improve the wellbeing of both individuals and communities.

Cerner Millennium is the company’s electronic medical records (EMR) platform. It integrates nearly 60 solutions into a suite focused on electronic health record and clinical workflows. In most cases, Cerner provides Cerner Millennium to its customers as a hosted solution, running a considerable portion of the platform on HPE servers and storage.

To ensure Cerner Millennium delivers the rapid response and high performance its users have come to expect, Cerner has built some 2,000 response-time measurement system (RTMS) timers into the Cerner Millennium platform. These RTMS timers detect how long certain functions take. For example, how long does it take for a doctor to access or add patient information while in Cerner Millennium? Enter an order for medication? All these things are carefully tracked.

With permission from its clients, Cerner collects billions of ...