With hundreds of vendors showcasing their products and solutions in the exhibit hall, there's much to see and learn. Here's the latest from EHR giant Cerner, direct from company president Zane Burke, who answered three questions for Clinical Innovation + Technology.

Q: Interoperability has been a major topic over the past year. What has Cerner done since the last HIMSS conference to drive interoperability?

We believe openness and interoperability continue to become increasingly important. This benefits Cerner because of our long-time commitment to interoperability and open systems. This commitment was recently advanced by our launch of the Cerner Open Developer Experience, which is an open site designed to enhance collaboration with third-party and client developers with SMART® on FHIR® applications. We believe this open platform has the potential to unlock future cutting-edge solutions that could benefit not only our entire client base, but the industry. Attendees can also visit our exhibit in the Interoperability Showcase at HIMSS.

We’re also pleased to announce more than 250 unique Cerner client sites have gone live on CommonWell, a testament to the momentum we’ve seen toward true, patient-centric interoperability of personal health information.

Q: The company recently announced the launch of code_ . What can booth visitors learn about the initiative and what are your goals for code_ during the conference?

We hope to enhance collaboration with third-party and client developers on SMART® on FHIR® apps. code_ is a digital experience designed to meet market expectations of open communications, robust API documentation, provide clearly defined guidelines and access to tools that enable innovative app development. Fifteen new SMART on FHIR apps are in development or in production and will be showcased in the Cerner booth. We want to expose attendees to the site and have them explore the variety of apps on interactive touch screens, including EnrG|RheumTM by xG Health Solutions, the VisualDx® Clinical Decision Support App and RxCheck by RxREVUTM.

Q: How is Cerner helping its clients manage the transition from volume to value?

We can point to our success of HealtheIntent solutions. Clients who have already adopted them are getting great value and have become examples for the industry for how technology can enable a transition to quality- and value-based reimbursement. 

A good example of this was captured with Advocate Health Care’s success at using the HealtheIntent platform to gather more than 60 different clinical and transactional data sources and use predictive algorithms to predict risks, improve patient care and control costs.