From The PACS Designer: "Re: stackable switches. When constructing a network, developers use Ethernet routers and switches to create the user networks of PCs. Now, there is a new 3com switch being advertised that provides better redundancy. When connected to each other through a stack, they provide hot swappable units to insure networks remain up during component failures." Link.
From The Skeptic: "Re: Siemens. To Leyden, you are absolutely right – Siemens’ HIS days are numbered. Their experiment with Clinical PowerPoint didn’t conclude with a good outcome. But knowing Cerner as well as I do, I would not laugh all the way to Leeds or to any other location on this planet. Modules that are supposed to be ’seamlessly’ integrated are NOT. Interfaces are inconsistent, like they originated from different vendors. Users need to document the same info again and again. If I had the resources and courage, I would short their stock."
From Attendy: "Re: Epic’s UGM. Mr. HIStalk, are you attending?" No, I’m not an Epic user.
From Dave: "Re: Eclipsys. Eclipsys laid off its entire Alliance team today (Thursday) that focused on its best clients." Unverified.
From Epic Calculator: "Re: Epic revenue. Revenue per Employee at Epic is a bit over 153k (using the data published on HIStalk). It is OK, but not stellar or in anyway spectacular. Software companies go from 150K for the SMALL ones to 220k and up for the LARGE ones. Just some food for thought for the potential investor out there." Thanks, I meant to run the calc myself. I’m a little surprised that they don’t excel there. Meditech’s at $131,000 by my calculation, low in the range.
Yes, I’m laboring on Labor Day. Apropos, yes?
Listening: The Makers, angry garage-glam, Stones meet Stooges. And one of my favorites, long defunct Moxy Fruvous: witty, harmonizing Canadians (they play it serious on the greate Thornhill, although some old-time fans couldn’t handle the change).
A trustee of Regional Medical Center (SC) questions the hospital’s choice of Cerner over Meditech, complaining that at $12 million vs. $4.5 million, "I don’t think we got the low bid, folks." The CIO claims that Cerner underbid Meditech overall, $11.9 million vs. $12.1 million (that’s hard to believe). Some trustees complained that they didn’t get to go to Kansas City to see Millennium first hand, which would seem to indicate some misunderstanding of the role of a trustee.
Not surprising except to those who think healthcare is free if you don’t feel like paying: clinics are dropping patients who aren’t paying their bills, many of them with self-chosen high deductible plans who knew the risk of paying out of pocket going in. I believe it’s safe to say that, very soon, it will be the rule rather than the exception to make patients pay for care upfront since so many refuse to pay afterward.
A liberal group’s blog draws a savage but amusing parallel between McCain VP pick Sarah Palin and failed congressional candidate Jeanne (Mrs. Neal) Patterson: "She came off looking like a Tupperware lady who had read too much Ayn Rand."
Bayfront Health System (FL) is looking for a RN-Clinical Informatics/Transformation Leader. Since nobody ever seems to finish transforming, it’s probably a good gig.
Another example of Microsoft’s desperation and/or willingness to litigate rather than innovate: they apply for and receive a patent for "Page Up/Page Down." Maybe they’ll send out a little trademark symbol for your keyboard keys.
Asian doctors are turning cell phones into a mini Wii Fit. COPDers walk to software-driven music that optimizes their lung capacity, with reports going back to doctors. One-year hospital admissions were 22 of 24 in the control group, but only 2 of 22 in the control group.
There’s a new text ad to your right from the folks at Sun, which now owns the database that powers the Internet, MySQL. The ad mentions FairWarning, an interesting sounding EHR surveillance tool for privacy issues. I hereby contribute my more memorable product name, Snoop Doppler, or for the appliance version, the Britney Box.
Gustav is headed toward the Gulf Coast at this writing, just what New Orleans doesn’t need. The former Charity Hospital, now University Hospital, still has its electrical systems in the basement and it’s sitting in a natural depression. Labor Day hurricanes are always nasty, it seems. Here’s a positive thought to those in its path, especially those hospitals that, as always, are the beacon of safety and healing for those affected. While everybody else hunkers down with their families, hospital workers leave theirs to help strangers. The final 85 unclaimed Katrina bodies were symbolically buried Friday just ahead of the Gustav evacuation.
BIDMC will share its patient portal data with Microsoft’s HealthVault.
Mt. Sinai (NY) will redesign its smartcards to follow CCR standards, hoping other hospitals will do the same to allow exchange data (is that a RHIO in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me?)
Meditech-owned Prowse Farm, a historic site in Canton, MA, is throwing a fundraising doo-wop outdoor concert on on Saturday, September 13. Funds will be used for development of its museum and education center. I’m a big doo-wop fan and seeing Gene Pitt and the Jive Five alone should be worth it. See the live video of "My True Story" here although "These Golden Rings" and "Do You Hear Wedding Bells?" are better; they changed to soul music later, charting with "What Time is It?". I don’t know of any doo-wop group whose entire lineup contributed like the Jive Five’s. Epic’s campus gets a lot of attention, but this view of Meditech’s from Prowse Farms (by ophis) is more interesting if you like history and non-flat ground.
Hawaii Medical Center files bankruptcy after Siemens Finance declines to extend its $5.5 million loan.
London trust hospitals are apparently gearing up to seek damages from BT and/or Cerner over system problems.
I hope you have (or had) a nice holiday. Thanks for reading.
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From Violet Baudelaire: "Re: RHIOs/PHRs. Are the goals so different between the RHIOs and PHR vendors that they will stay separate, or do you envision a time that they will merge? From a data collection perspective, are they not collecting mostly the same information from/to providers and payers, but only organizing and distributing it for different audiences and users?" The biggest differentiator of PHRs is that they give patients a place to record their own information, but certainly that function could be rolled up into RHIOs (and nobody in their right mind really expects patients to do that anyway). The biggest value of PHRs is potential direct-to-consumer advertising, so PHRs will desperately try to stay separate, hoping that RHIOs and system vendors don’t build the equivalent capabilities into their systems and squeeze them out of the revenue picture. That’s my guess, anyway.
From Tad Paoli: "Re: Howard Industries. Point-of-care cart manufacturer. 600 illegal aliens were arrested and the plant shut down." The newspaper stories rattled of a bunch of odd stuff made there, but I didn’t realize they did carts. The Mississippi plant is where fellow workers applauded as the illegals were hauled off by immigration, Legal workers claimed the illegal workers were getting preferential treatment and even the union was recruiting them. The company’s site indicates that the Howard Medical division sells computing and charting stations, COWs, scanners, and mobile devices.
From Blond Adonis: "Re: Epic. You buy the idea that Judy does not own a controlling interest in the company? And you are smoking what?" Pork shoulder, preferably over hickory, while watching college football (it’s back!) and drinking a Yuengling.
From Paranoid Googler: "Re: HIStalk search. Did you change the search engine on the back end from Google? And on a different note – regarding the guy who is so busy he wants you to write less, I bet I am as busy as he is and I want you to write …more. Actually, the size of the blog as it is today is just perfect, and don’t let any annular muscle tell you otherwise." Ha … he said "annular muscle." Before today’s redesign, there was an old search box on the upper left (it had always been there) that didn’t do a Google search. The one in the right column was a Google site search. Now, the Google one is the only one left since I had the other one removed. Jeez, that was confusing.
From Lance Tenor: "Re: free cataract surgery in India. Even as 29 people were fighting to get back their vision at Joseph Eye Hospital in Tiruchirapalli after cataract surgery, 34 more people, who also underwent the operation at the same hospital, were admitted to Villupuram government hospital after they complained of blurred vision." Nine will lose their eyesight permanently, leading protestors to break into the hospital and trash it. The culprit is preliminarily identified as infected saline ophthalmic solution. It reminded me of an old story about traveling con men in India who would claim to cure cataracts. They would poke the eyes of patients with a briar or stick and drain out the fluid. Patients could miraculously see again, they paid the con men, the con men skipped town, and the patients went blind right after since draining the milky fluid is a temporary solution and the eye poking caused even worse damage.
Pardon our dust as the site changes, but hopefully you’re noticing some benefits even though we’re not quite finished. The smoking doc graphic is smaller, the top links are now horizontal to push articles further up on the page, the comments work better, and the page loads faster. Next step: resized ads.
The potential class action lawsuit against McKesson that alleged drug price-fixing (along with First DataBank) has been dismissed by a federal judge. That was a huge exposure that could have been disastrous.
I saw no announcement, but I noticed that LingoLogix, the natural language processing company we profiled in April, has been acquired by Cerner. Or at least I think it was: the August 1 announcement was on their site this morning, but is gone now (but the commented out HTML below from their main page proves it). The contact page also says Cerner. Hey, I’d be proud of it. Maybe Cerner found them through HIStalk.
I don’t get the ‘tude: the local paper in SD headlines the locals who were "stung" because Medicare accidentally overpaid them and now wants the money back. "Somebody who did this (made the error) should pay it back," said one recipient who already spent the money.
Jobs: Director, Clinical System Architecture (WA), EMR Implementation Associate (MA), Cerner CPOE Consultant (any location), SeeBeyond/Sun Health Systems Integration (any location). Sign up for weekly job blasts.
Cisco buys Linux-based Microsoft Exchange alternative PostPath for $215 million, saying it will add e-mail and calendaring services to WebEx, another Cisco acquisition from last year. PostPath was pretty aggressive about claiming its 100% compatibility with Exchange and was getting traction there, so surely Cisco will spank Microsoft a little by continuing to sell it for that purpose. I know several hospitals that are running it, finding it exactly the same as Exchange except for the price.
Nortel announces its "office on a stick" product (Nortel Secure Portable Office) that puts authentication, a VPN, and a virtual desktop on a USB key. When the key is removed, data and applications are removed with it.
I haven’t research it thoroughly, but this desktop remote control software can be downloaded free for personal use. A lifetime business license is $699. Pretty cool, maybe, for remote support or team projects.
A New Zealand health network bans iPhones, citing security risks and admitting that doctors aren’t happy about it.
Heartland Health, trying to clamp down on identify theft and insurance fraud, requires patients to show photo ID each time they appear for treatment. I think they’re in Missouri, but the goobers at the local paper are apparently so agog at the concept that someone from more than five miles away might be reading their site that they don’t put their location on it anywhere.
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From Former Road Warrior: “Re: Misys/Allscripts. I have friends working at both of these companies. Each camp seems to believe their products will survive the merger and the sunset products will come from the other company. Meanwhile, salespeople are being told to expect some territory changes as the two sales teams are merged. Glad I don’t work at either company right now.” I am with you there. I read the following comment in the Raleigh area business journal: “The company also has strongly hinted that local layoffs should be expected, with Misys CEO Mike Lawrie telling analysts the day the deal was announced that they could ‘let your imagination run wild’ about potential synergies in the Triangle.” I’d be running wild all the way to Kinko’s to clean up my resume.
From Scott Shreve: “Re: Perot and Medsphere. HIStalk just recorded its 1.5 millionth hit. Besides the snarky commentary, HISTalk (and the lovely new addition of HERTalk) has continued to gain readership with its deadpan commentary that is always dead-on. As the readership has grown, the quality of the tips and the accuracy of the insight has also increased. I believe nearly everyone with a need to know turns to HIStalk when they need to know.” We thank Scott for the shout-out, which he made recently on his Crossover Health blog. Scott also makes an interesting prediction that Perot will buy Medsphere.
From Vendor Exec: “Re: ICD10 effect. I think ICD10 will be very hard on the older vendors. I would hope that most of the newer vendors planned for it (we did, as we knew it would come eventually). I think it will cause a squeeze on vendors more than anything, as it will have a significant cost associated with it. I do not think it will really hurt EMR sales, though, as I think the vendors will just have to suck it up and do it. I do think that it might push some clients into asking their hospital to help via Stark. In that way, I think it might help drive EMR sales.” While I’m sure most vendors have been planning for this change, I stand by my original assertion that we’ll see a number of product sunsets by companies supporting multiple similar solutions. Say goodbye to some of those oldies but arguably goodies (at least in the day) such as vintage Medical Manager and Misys PM.
From Wompa1: "Re: Duffy and Inga. She has a real retro sound to her music. I haven’t heard anything (recent) that comes close to her style. I might have to start listening to more Inga Radio.” Wompa1 is such the Renaissance man. On top of his regular thoughtful HIT commentary, he appreciates great music and has whipped out a follow-up Inga love sonnet (ok, maybe it’s not a love sonnet, but it made me feel loved nonetheless): “Inga the incognito, illuminating, intrepid investigator of industry intelligence. Tirelessly trudging through online tomes…”
There have been a few posts of late regarding standards (CCHIT and others.) It reminded me of a recent conversation with a friend who is in the EMR implementation trenches. As a vendor, the complexities of lab connectivity are giving him fits. The way he explains it, all parties agree that sharing lab data creates a more complete patient record (and presumably leads to better care.) However, each lab has its own set of standards, meaning each lab requires a unique interface. And because of mergers and acquisitions over times, the national labs typically have multiple products and a variety of “standards” (in other words, just because you have a Lab ABC interface functioning in Dallas does not mean it will work in Seattle because Lab ABC products may differ). The underlying issue is who pays for whatever changes are necessary to develop a standard and the required interfaces. Currently, he claims, there are no mandated standards, thus no pretty fix. So, I am left wondering if anyone can shed some light on this. Are lab standards an issue one of the various work groups is addressing? Are the labs on board?
And speaking of standards, the SEC is considering requiring all publicly listed American companies to move from US accounting standards to international model instead. That GAAP stuff always gave me fits when I was in college, so I say good riddance.
Carilion Health System (VA) makes the front page of the Wall Street Journal. Critics claim Carilion’s monopoly in Roanoke has led to care that costs as much as four times more than other regional providers. And if they turn to the local paper for solace, the big story there is that Carilion’s CEO was paid $2.27 million last year.
I went with some girlfriends this week to see the movie Mama Mia. It’s a total chick flick that left my pals and me dancing and singing on the way home. If you are guy wanting to understand the stuff of female fantasies (e.g. rekindled lost love, hunky men on remote Greek islands, looking glamorous while singing at the top of your lungs), then buy a movie ticket, sit in the back, and observe middle aged women letting loose.
Sage Software Healthcare names former Cerner VP Lindy Benton as COO.
It appears as if Google Earth has more uses than simply checking out your home on the Web (or your boss’s home). Olympic cyclist Kristin Armstrong details how she used the application to help with a gold medal (I included a photo of Kristin because I bet Mr. H overlooked this one on TV. If you missed his Inside Healthcare Computing editorial yesterday, he only noticed the beach volleyball babes).
The CHIME folks tell me that CIO registration is up for their 2008 Fall CIO Forum in Henderson, NV in October, despite concerns over rising travel costs. And for budget conscious vendors, CHIME has a new entry level Foundation membership option. The Associate level member is $20,000 a year, far less than the $75K Premier level. I suppose you can’t knock an organization for having high fees that prevent vendor membership from outnumbering the CIOs (like at HIMSS, for example). I have actually been to a CHIME meeting in the past and am sorry my own rising travel cost concerns will keep me home this year. They are a fun, smart bunch.
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CCHIT, The 800-Pound Gorilla
By Jim Tate, EMR Advocate
Yes, it’s true. There is a monster in the jungle and he is devouring all that is creative and laying waste to the brilliant small companies trying to lead the way in HIT development. Only the giant dinosaurs will be left the divide up the swamp once the blood bath is over. We are doomed, the sky is falling, and the Mayan prophecies of the end of the world are coming true.
That seems to be the belief of those who rant and rave against the presence of the CCHIT.
I beg to differ. I remember all too well when there were NO STANDARDS. I remember physicians being completely at the mercy of salesmen with slick demos (now they are at least somewhat less subject to the snake oil speech). I remember the industry making minimal progress on interoperability until it became a standard. I remember when there was no forward pathway that gave any indication of where EHR development was headed.
Say what you will about the CCHIT. I have found it to be an extremely transparent organization that is helping level the playing field and make it safer for clinicians to take the plunge into electronic records. In my experience, the staff at CCHIT has been incredibly responsive and helpful providing answers and directing me to clarifying resources. They set the standard on credibility. Certainly more open, helpful, and responsive than any major EHR vendor I have every contacted for support.
So there it is. You can throw stones if you wish, but you ignore them at your own risk. The CCHIT is here and is becoming ingrained in the road that lies before us. As Dylan said, “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows."
ICD-10 Risk Assessment
By Art Vandelay
Discussion around this topic will benefit us all.
With the changes to the ICD-10 coding scheme, I have classified our systems into four categories – highest risk, moderate risk, low risk and no-risk.
I determined the categories by considering a few areas of risk: (1) the perceived impact to their applications’ architectures; (2) perceived capability of the vendor to handle these types of changes based on past experience with HIPAA and Y2K; (3) the vendor’s ability to share a plan for ICD-10 (few have been thinking ahead); (4) the vendor’s use of ICD-9 in application and interface logic, such as order checking rules and code-to-procedure checking rules); and (5) the use of discrete ICD-9 or groups of ICD-9s to drive key reports.
After considering the areas of risk, our main ancillaries (pharmacy, surgery, pathology, radiology) and revenue cycle add-on products are in the highest-risk category. Also in the category is our EHR. This was only due to the decision rules around the EHR and the way the department-focused portions of the EHR are used. It could be much worse here if we were using more reporting or decision rules. The revenue cycle add-on products are the most troubling. These include claims scrubbing, coding rules, and charge edits.
In the moderate risk category are our revenue cycle, scheduling, medical records, and decision support products. The revenue cycle vendor has a decent plan in place.
The low-risk category includes many of the biomedical and patient education applications. These applications do not have much logic associated with a diagnosis. They also do not send interpreted data outside of the system. Some raw data without diagnoses is sent.
The no-risk category includes our enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and document imaging system.
ICD-10 also enables the HIPAA-compliant claim attachments. We have not performed this risk analysis, but believe our EHR product will help. My fingers are crossed.
Because of this change, the independent physicians may start to approach the hospitals for some EHR-Practice Management system donations under the Stark and Anti-kickback law changes. This will place the hospitals in the unenviable position of thinking about themselves and their projects versus keeping the physicians happy. It could also impact the forms, order sets, and other data to be built in these applications because there are more possibilities to consider.
We have added ICD-10 contract language to our list of the usual items we negotiate with both our systems and medical devices. This mirrors our HIPAA and Y2K language.
Soarian Financials
By Clinton Judd
Last week, Otis Day clarified his positive comments regarding Soarian development to say he meant Soarian Clinicals, not Soarian Financials (SF). He went on to say, "I do agree that Siemens is looking to improve short-term and milk INVISION. And why should Siemens care, or the customer, for that matter? If the customer is happy (and paying their invoices), where’s the problem? Does Mr. Judd suggest this is a negative situation?"
Soarian Cynic answered this in Monday’s HIStalk by detailing how his hospital has waited six years for SF and they were recently told to wait at least two more (and asked to extend INVISION for at least five more, just in case). This is two years before SF is ready for them to start implementing. Hospitals have been hurt by the delay. They have been sold on the functionality to come in SF and, as a result, accepted that INVISION would stop being enhanced (not sunsetted, but few significant enhancements in years).
If hospitals had known in 2005 that they wouldn’t have an integrated contracted management system or an integrated EMPI until 2012, they may well have solved their revenue cycle challenges with Eclipsys’ Sunrise Financials (formerly SDK) or they might have invested in bolt-ons to INVISION to get them the process improvements they sought. Waiting for Soarian Financials has frozen some hospitals with respect to patient access and revenue cycle improvements at a time when they desperately need to improve and be efficient. CIOs (particularly ex-CIOs) have been hurt by the Soarian delays, too.
Despite still collecting high-margin INVISION fees, Siemens has been hurt, too. For example, Monday’s HIStalk mentioned Oregon Health Sciences’ (OHSU) implementation of Epic to replace A2K and LCR (A2K is OHSU’s name for INVISION). Siemens lost a very big customer there to Epic. Soarian simply wasn’t ready to compete with Epic and a number of other very large accounts nationwide have or will make the same decision to stop waiting and go with Epic. Similarly, I have heard (second-hand) that MedSeries4 has lost a number of customers to Meditech in recent years. Perhaps Soarian would have helped there too.
The difficulty with Soarian Financials isn’t because there aren’t a whole lot of good people trying hard. Siemens has invested a ton in this effort (I think SMS started the effort in 1998). The challenge is that Siemens is replacing INVISION.
INVISION certainly has its weaknesses and shortcomings, but customers have done a lot with it. It is surprisingly flexible and open to integration, if you have the skilled resources. This flexibility will make (has made) it very hard to replace. It’s the hospital’s billing system, so any replacement has to do everything INVISION does plus more. SF not only has to be a super, everything-to-everyone solution, but it effectively has to be backward-compatible too.
Oh, and it needs to keep up with the market too. Ten years ago, it didn’t need a patient portal for billing and self-scheduling, but it needs one now. Five years ago, it didn’t need registrar score cards; it needs them now. Three years ago, it didn’t need a patient payment estimator, but it needs one now. These are all bolt-ons Siemens’ customers keeping connecting to INVISION and now want in SF or require SF to integrate to.
The goal line for Soarian Financials keeps moving back. I don’t envy SMS/Siemens for having to create a replacement to INVISION.
Siemens has done much better with Soarian Clinicals, as Otis Day commented on. Soarian Scheduling is more like SF; at least one regional medical center de-installed Soarian Scheduling after just months of use for scheduling radiology.
When Soarian Financials is finally ready (however ‘ready’ is defined), the next challenge for Siemens and its customers will be the conversion process. Implementing SF is a massive, long project — a 24-month effort? It is supposed to replace the entire revenue cycle, soup to nuts. Everything. Siemens probably still has 400-500 hospitals using INVISION. How many can they convert/implement a year? If they can do 50 a year (one a week), they’ll need 8-10 years. That’s IF they could do 50 a year. If anyone has heard Siemens’ answer to this conversion/implementation effort, I’d be interested in what they think they can do.
So, Soarian Cynic, if I were your hospital’s CFO, I’d either sign up for five more years of INVISION (maybe get a better price for seven years) and beef up your bolt-ons (there are great solutions available to enhance your access/revenue cycle processes).
From Truthtailor: "Re: Dairyland. At Dairyland’s User Group conference this week, they officially announced the acquisition of APS, making them the largest HIS provider to community hospitals. Also, they have re-branded — they are now Healthland." That news isn’t on the company’s site and the old name is still there. Too bad … they could have gotten some nice exposure in conjunction with the announcement. I see they have registered healthland.com, even though there’s no site there yet. Lots of companies use that name, so hopefully they’ve set some cash aside to fight off the inevitable ceasing-and-desisting.
From Bavarian Pretzel: "Re: German engineering. It seems the old ossified politics-of-obstruction SMS camp has taken over from the Germans. If we had some solid German leadership and engineering, perhaps Soarian would actually soar."
From Freddy Mae: "Re: Emageon. Anyone who wants the story can go to the investor’s page to access all SEC documents. Message boards feature interesting opinions, some very well reasoned, but they are only guessing. When — or if — Emageon gets new owners will be a decision of its board." Link. The company sounds like gangbusters on the Investor Presentation on that page.
From Peter Potamus: "Re: HIStalk. Write less, I’m a busy man." I bet you’re no busier than I am. All you have to do is read (try writing and see how long that takes). If you don’t have a few minutes three times a week to get fully up to speed on everything that’s happening (and likely to happen) in the industry, then you probably won’t be busy for long.
From The PACS Designer: "Re: teamwork. While the so-called fight over who owns PACS and other systems can get acrimonious, it really should be focusing on teamwork amongst the various players in IT and the departments. One way to break down silo walls is to have department members and IT personnel share some time each week in each others department to get educated on daily activities. Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center has a program called SPIRIT which addresses department problems and gets various others evolved to solve a problem that can help other departments as well. Paul Levy, CEO of BIDMC, posted a piece on ‘Lean is not about dieting’ on his Running a Hospital blog that gives you an idea of what the program is all about." Link.
Listening:
Australia’s IBA Health, which bought iSoft and its big-everywhere-but-here Lorenzo hospital system, says the new version due out in November will be opened up to outside applications developers.
One of the folks at Pragmatic Marketing, a regular HIStalk reader, saw my mention of the book Tuned In (which I said I was going to buy once I hit $25 in Amazon stuff to earn free shipping) and sent copies to Inga and me. Its premise is that vendors have to connect with the general public (not customers or salespeople) to identify problems whose solution is likely to be profitable. Like most books of its type, it sometimes stretches its arguments a bit, but I liked it because it’s refreshing. I enjoyed the Understand Buyer Personas chapter. The book also echoed something I’ve been saying for years: vendors spend too much time letting existing customers drive product development instead of soliciting fresh solution ideas from the non-customer public (example from the book: if you had interviewed Walkman users in the pre-iPod days, none of them would have said, "Invent an iPod." They would whine about the buttons or something trivial while Steve Jobs and Apple ate your lunch). I skimmed it closely, but it’s worth a more detailed read that I’ll be giving it shortly.
The TEPR people launch the Center for Cell Phone Applications in Healthcare, which they somehow turn into the obligatory acronym but make it C-PAHC. I don’t like acronyms, but especially those that are contrived to spell out something that they really don’t spell out at all (hint: pick a name short enough not to need an acronym and you won’t have to force-fit one). They’re already hawking membership and conferences, one of which is in India. MRI has one of those fake blogs that’s just a place for unnamed editors to post press releases.
Right as we talk here about the minimal influence that Revolution Health has had on healthcare (and its own profits), Modern Healthcare’s readers vote Steve Case as the most powerful person in healthcare. All kinds of regrettable quotes fawn on about Steve’s vision, how he’s going to reform the system, and how he has a huge impact on health IT throughout the entire world (he’s no Bill Gates, that’s for sure). Judy Faulkner is 50 spots below Steve (huh?) Steve Lieber is #92. Deb Peel is #72 (#4 last year). Careful readers will note that those named swing wildly from year to year: Case wasn’t even on the list last year (and hasn’t done much since). Brailer was #1 in 2004, then skipped town. It’s just another cheap magazine trick to sell ads with and lure readers with breezy reading and pretty pictures, right up there with People’s "Most Beautiful People" or any article that features a "By the Numbers" sidebar for morons.
My Inside Healthcare Computing guest editorial this week (coming out Wednesday): The Olympics as a Project Management Lesson: Those Chinese Would Have Had Your Clinical Systems Live By Now. Here’s a sample of the highly analytical thought leadership I exhibit there in weekly prose: "In fact, I might be the only American who didn’t watch any of the Olympics, other than a little of the women’s nude … uhh, beach … volleyball (I think the US beat some other teams, but I’m not really sure since they kept running back and forth under the net while I was distracted)." The newsletter people will be happy to sign you up for a subscription or sell you The Best of Mr. HIStalk, Vol. 2, which, disappointingly, has resulted in no offers of a Hollywood script deal, a one-man Broadway show, or groupie liaisons. Well, it’s early.
PHNS names Dan Allison, formerly of EDS, as CEO. Chick Young steps down from that role, but sticks around as board chair.
The Allscripts-Misys merger or spinoff or acquisition or whatever it is (too complex for me, that’s for sure) will occur somewhere around September 26, this article predicts. I know you’ll be shocked, but Misys hints strongly that some of the locals will be Six Forked after the synergy shower starts spewing.
Wisconsin papers are enamored with Epics jobs, revenue, and culture, so here’s yet another installment. Factoids: 3,250 employees, $250 million payroll expense, $500 million revenue, a supposed Wall Street valuation of $1.2 billion (heck, even IDX was worth that to GE), and 98% of its 50,000 annual job applicants are turned away. Best factoid of all: Judy owns 43% of the shares, so even at that way-too-low valuation, that’s a cool $516 million (I’d always worry that the impatient spawn might slip something in the peanut butter).
Strange: if NASA ever sends astronauts to Mars (doubtful, given poor results so far and nearly limitless spending), communications will take too long to provide psychological counseling. Answer: software you can talk to, like an "interpersonal conflict widget." Sounds like that old Eliza software program.
A New Zealand woman dies after some sort of e-prescribing mixup in which she was given chemo meds with incorrect instructions. The software vendor punted, saying its product is like a typewriter and the doctor and pharmacist have to provide the judgment.
This is mildly interesting, though maybe marginally useful: a USP web page lets you type in a drug name, then lists reported errors confusing that drug with the others listed. I’m not sure why a group as authoritative as USP capitalizes generic names in its press release, though.
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Greenway Medical Technologies announces a 47% increase in sales in FY08.
IntelliDOT completes implementation of its wireless handheld BPOC products at Providence Healthcare Network (TX), integrating with Epic for the first time.
Samuel H. Adams is announced as new senior VP of sales for North America for Picis. Company co-founder Liz Popovich is now executive VP for international operations. Adams was president and CEO of St. Croix Systems and has had multiple roles at Lawson Software. Of course, I am curious about the beer and patriot connection. I wonder how many times a day Sam gets asked about that?
New to Inga Radio: Duffy (Welsh singer-songwriter, sort of Dusty Springfield-ish) and Sam Bush (bluegrass).
Nueterra Healthcare (KS) selects McKesson’s Paragon HIS and Horizon PACS systems for three new community hospitals.
More psychiatric hospital problems. After two Tampa General Hospital patients killed themselves, federal investigators find at least five patients sleeping in a psych unit hallway. The hospital isn’t talking, but a lawyer for the dead patients points to understaffing as a key problem.
Alabama state employees who don’t take care of their obesity or other health issues risk paying a $25 a month charge for health insurance.
The Washington Post has a piece on a growing trend for physicians to re-invent their practices to improve patient care. The article focuses on a couple of “micro-practices” that have used technology to improve wait times and patient care.
NextGen parent Quality Systems (QSI) announces that all three major proxy voting advisory services recommend that shareholders vote for all the QSI board nominees, saying that company performance suggests that change is unwarranted.
Streamline Health Solutions announces its Q2 numbers: revenue rose 51% and net losses fell from $1.1 million ($0.12/share) to $0.4 million ($0.05/share).
A former UW computer science professor is quoted as saying, “Epic Systems hires more people every month than all the biotech companies in Wisconsin combined." UW-Madison is trying to recruit more computer science grads to meet the area’s current and future needs.
USC Care Medical Group licenses several Lawson software packages. Here is an observation about the odd nature of press releases: Lawson just made this announcement though the deal was signed in May. Guess the PR department needed some good stuff to mention.
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