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- unify clinical, genomic and real-world data
- 01Oracle and AstraZeneca are collaborating to improve clinical trial matching for patients using AI and real-world data applications.
- 02The partnership aims to simplify enrollment and data collection in clinical trials, potentially reducing costs and making medicines more affordable.
- 03Oracle's health applications are designed to integrate with existing electronic health records (EHRs) without requiring complete system replacements.
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- 04Larry Ellison emphasized the need for better access to patient medical histories in healthcare compared to consumer shopping experiences.
- 05Ellison expressed a vision for significant advancements in cancer treatment within the next decade, highlighting the importance of broader access to clinical trials.
Oracle
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A patient can receive treatment for a serious illness without knowing that a clinical trial might be an option. Oracle’s proposed collaboration with AstraZeneca aims to close that gap by helping clinicians identify potentially eligible patients through the systems they already use.
In an exclusive conversation with Deployed at Oracle AI World in Las Vegas, Seema Verma, executive vice president and general manager at Oracle Health and Life Sciences, described patient matching as one of the basic problems making drug development difficult.
“One of them is just clinical trial matching, finding the right patient for the right trial,” Verma said.
Under the non-binding agreement announced recently, the companies plan to explore AI and real-world data applications combining AstraZeneca’s scientific expertise with Oracle’s health technology. They also propose using insights from research and routine care to inform future study design and safety monitoring.
Bringing the Trial to the Patient
Verma said the work is starting with M42. Beyond matching, the aim is to simplify enrollment and data collection, helping to “bring the trial to the patient” and make studies less expensive to conduct.
Reducing those inefficiencies could help address development costs and, ultimately, support more affordable medicines, she argued. The companies have not published recruitment gains or cost savings from the collaboration; they plan to establish shared governance and outcome measures to assess results.
M42 already has a separate relationship with Oracle Health. In September, the Abu Dhabi-based healthcare group announced plans to adopt Oracle Health Data Intelligence to unify clinical, genomic and real-world data, initially within its diabetes programs.
The announcement also described an existing integration of Emirati Genome Program data into electronic health records (EHRs), making pharmacogenomic information available to clinicians.
“And then we’re connecting clinical trials right inside the electronic health record,” Verma said in the exclusive interview with Deployed.
“So instead of having a normal electronic health record, we’re really bringing a system of intelligence to healthcare,” she said.
Ellison’s Question: Why Is Shopping Better Connected?
Larry Ellison, Oracle’s executive chairman and chief technology officer, challenged the technology industry’s priorities during his keynote and onstage conversation with Verma.
A creditworthy visitor to London, he said, could buy a $10,000 watch almost immediately, yet a hospital treating the same person after an accident might lack access to their medical history.
“I mean, is shopping really more important than the lives of our families? I hope not,” Ellison said.
The week's drug discovery, trials and health-system deployments. Wednesdays.
He also recalled doctors struggling to find his son’s X-rays at a hospital, eventually calling a systems specialist to navigate the software.
“If you can ask a question describing what you want to see, you should then immediately see it,” Ellison said.
Connecting Hospitals Without Replacing Everything
Ellison said Oracle’s new health applications are designed to work alongside existing EHRs, including competing systems, allowing hospitals to add specialty modules. He described using interoperability standards to access authorized patient and staff information, aiming to avoid lengthy data migrations.
In the keynote, he outlined early-adopter access beginning with the patient portal in November, with additional modules following through January.
Verma illustrated the operational connections through arranging surgery. Once a doctor and patient decide on an operation, the hospital needs appropriately qualified staff and the necessary supplies, linking clinical decisions with workforce management and supply-chain systems.
“All of those things have to happen in concert,” Verma said.
She described Oracle Fusion Claw as enabling customers to develop agentic workflows within Fusion applications. Oracle’s latest announcement describes controls over permissions and approval requirements, alongside records of actions taken.
The proposed benefit is coordinating the operational work needed to deliver the care that has been ordered.
Why Healthcare Is Personal to Ellison
Ellison linked his interest in healthcare to losing his mother to cancer while he was in college. His forecast for AI’s impact went considerably further than Oracle’s software plans.
“Most cancers will be gone in five years, and certainly in 10, they’re going to be gone,” he said.
He did not present clinical evidence establishing that timetable. Cancer includes more than 100 types of disease, according to the National Cancer Institute.
Ellison argued that advances in drug discovery would need to be accompanied by broader access to trials and treatment. He questioned concentrating studies in a small number of research hospitals, saying wider participation could provide a broader cross-section of patients.
Verma’s interview identified the practical requirement beneath that ambition: promising discoveries still need to be tested.
“But for all those new cures and treatments, they need to all go through clinical trials,” she said.
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