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Oracle unveils offline EHR for remote care settings
Oracle Health Community Care offers offline EHR access to support remote and in-home care delivery in areas with limited broadband or unreliable internet connectivity.
Oracle announced yesterday the general availability of Oracle Health Community Care, a mobile, cloud-based extension of its Oracle Health Foundation EHR system. Designed for use in mobile, home-based and rural care settings, the platform enables care teams to securely access, update and synchronize patient data without a reliable internet connection.
This offline functionality is especially important in areas with limited digital infrastructure. According to an FCC report, 22.3% of Americans in rural areas and 27.7% in Tribal lands lack access to fixed 25/3 Mbps broadband, compared to just 1.5% in urban areas.
Community Care is an offline-first tool that allows nurses, social workers, dietitians and other providers to access comprehensive patient charts and clinical information when network connectivity is limited or unavailable. When connectivity is restored, data is automatically synced to the main EHR.
The system also includes route mapping and team collaboration tools to enhance care coordination and operational efficiency in the field.
"Care settings are increasingly moving from a centralized environment to a model that incorporates home health, mobile venues and rural environments where consistent network connections are not always available," Seema Verma, executive vice president and general manager at Oracle Health and Life Sciences, said in a company press release. "With Oracle Health Community Care, we are delivering comprehensive patient health records to caregivers in the field so they have the information they need to provide quality care anytime, anywhere."
Rural EHR adoption and interoperability gaps
The launch of Oracle Health Community Care comes amid well-documented disparities in health IT access and digital health adoption between rural and urban care providers.
For instance, a 2024 BMC Health Services Research study found that only 64% of rural physicians used certified EHR systems, compared to 74% of urban clinicians. Rural providers also had 21% lower odds of adoption.
The study also identified a persistent gap in interoperability performance, with rural clinicians scoring an average of 3.5 points lower than urban providers on CMS's Promoting Interoperability metric. Contributing factors included extreme hardship status, small practice size, and practicing in Health Professional Shortage Areas -- all of which were linked to reduced EHR adoption and data-sharing capabilities.
While Oracle Health Community Care is not the first mobile EHR solution with offline capabilities, it distinguishes itself through deep integration with Oracle's enterprise EHR system, built-in route mapping and communication tools and a strong focus on supporting remote and in-home care within the U.S. healthcare system.
For organizations seeking a field-ready, cloud-based EHR extension designed to operate in low-connectivity environments, Oracle's platform stands out as one of the few enterprise-scale solutions purpose-built for that challenge.
Alivia Kaylor is a scientist and the senior site editor of Pharma Life Sciences.