News 6/22/11

Top News

The VA awards The Informatics Application Group a $5 million contract to serve as the custodial agent that will manage a proposed open-source development program for VistA.

Reader Comments

From Anon: “Re: ONC. Recently cancelled a number of print and Web ad contracts. They have instructed their ad agency to work with 10% of their original million-dollar budget.” Unverified.

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

Vince Ciotti is loving all the comments, stories, and even corrections he’s getting to his HIStory series. He gave the OK to run his e-mail address for anyone who wants to get in touch. 

Thanks to the following sponsors (new and renewing) and long-term advertisers that supported HIStalk, HIStalk Practice, and HIStalk Mobile in May. We appreciate their support.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

PwC acquires Implementation Specialists (ISH).

athenahealth’s Jonathan Bush and Ed Park are among a group of angel investors and VC firms investing in HIT start-up Kyruus. The company’s software platform compiles data from public and private sources to create predictive analytics and professional profiles on physicians. Sound big brother-ish.

Misys doesn’t have much healthcare presence these days, but for those who still follow the company, it confirms that a potential buyer is interested in acquiring the company at a valuation of $1.4 billion.

Sales

North Idaho Health Network picks MobileMD to provide HIE services for five hospitals and 305 physicians.

People

PatientKeeper president and CEO Paul Brient wins the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award for New England and is now eligible for consideration for the national award.

Former Ingenix VP Tom MacDougall joins Curaspan Health Group as the company’s first CTO.

Prognosis Health Information Systems appoints William M. Conroy to its board. He was CEO and president of Initiate Systems until IBM acquired the company in March 2010.

University Health Care System (GA) names Leslie Clonch as VP/CIO. He was previously with Doctors Hospital at Renaissance (TX).

Announcements and Implementations

The University of Kansas Hospital goes live with 240 evidence-based order sets using Zynx Health’s clinical decision support solutions. The ZynxCare tools are deployed via KUMD’s Epic EHR.

Accenture and MOH Holdings announce that the first phase of Singapore’s National EHR system is now live.

The data warehouse appliance product of Health Care DataWorks earns EHR Modular certification for calculating and submitting inpatient and ambulatory clinical quality measures.

Yuma Regional Medical Center (AZ) gets a mention in the local paper for its $70 million Epic implementation.

Cooper University Hospital (NJ) says it’s the first in the country to transmit real-time clinical information for dialysis patients in the ICU. iSirona’s  medical device connectivity software sends the information to the hospital’s Epic system, allowing doctors to monitor the effectiveness of dialysis treatments from any location. They’re planning something similar for vent patients.

Government and Politics

CMS will use predictive modeling to fight Medicare fraud. It’s the same sort of risk-scoring technology that credit card companies use, but modified to analyze Medicare claims. That reminds me of the time VISA called me to see if I really did purchase several hundred dollars worth of goods and services at a strip club (the answer was no.) I wonder if Medicare will start calling up 70-year-old men to verify whether they indeed had procedures performed to sever their vasa deferentia?

The National Library of Medicine launches MedlinePlus Connect, a free service that allows health organizations and providers to link patient portals and EHRs to MedlinePlus.gov for consumer health information. Providers can meet one of the 10 menu set criteria for Meaningful Use by linking to it.

An India-born weight loss doctor who took in $25 million from billing insurance companies for questionable weight loss treatments makes the FBI’s Most Wanted list. The complaint says the doctor’s five clinic locations billed for tests not needed or not performed, allowed employees to hand out controlled substances without asking a doctor, and dressed up unlicensed personnel and passed them off as nurses. He got in trouble a couple of years ago for insider trading.

Technology

SAP is apparently offering an EMR.

Other

Several health systems and a few HIT vendors earn spots on ComputerWorld’s 100 Best Places to Work in IT 2011. Top health systems include Kaiser Permanente (16), Texas Health Resources (19), and Lehigh Valley Health Network (20). Recognized vendors include Cerner (27), Quest Diagnostics (70), and Compuware (86).

NextGen will host a webinar this Thursday called Tips from a Physician on Transforming Your Practice Through Meaningful Use. The physician presenter has already led 29 doctors achieve Medicare Meaningful Use.

Weird News Andy proclaims himself Sad News Andy because  of this tragic story from the UK: a top orthopedic surgeon hangs himself in the garage of his estate, reportedly after making a relatively minor surgical error.

Fallon Clinic (MA) joins Atrius Health. Both are Epic users.

Odd: a man gives a bank teller a robbery note demanding $1, then sits quietly waiting for police to arrest him. The reason: he’s unemployed, ill, and has been turned down for disability and Social Security. He’s hoping the court puts him away for several years (and says he’ll do it again if not) so he can receive medical care, after which he plans to collect Social Security and move to the beach.

Ohio Public Radio covers electronic medical records, with Dr. Gregg as one of the guests along with folks from ONC and Ohio Health Information Partnership.

Sponsor Updates

• CynergiskTek and its partner Diebold will exhibit their enterprise security solutions at next week’s HFMA ANI 2011 conference in Orlando.
• ADP AdvancedMD is sponsoring at this week’s Utah Promontory HIE and Technology Connectivity Conference in West Valley City, UT.
• Emdeon expands its services portfolio with the acquisition of Chapin Revenue Cycle Management, a provider of hospital-based revenue cycle services.
• GetWellNetwork’s chief outcomes officer David W. Wright is appointed to the board of directors for the American Nurse Credentialing Center.
• TeleTracking Technologies will host a free conference on automating transfer center operations August 17-18 in Nashville.
• HMS Direct, a subsidiary of Healthcare Management Systems, will expand its data center capacity by utilizing hosting services from Peak 10 Inc.
• Thomson Reuters’ Pharmacy Xpert  and Clinical Xpert CareFocus earn ONC-ATCB modular certification.
• Medicity announces that its ProAccess technology has received ONC-ATCB modular certification.
• Benefis Health System (MT) selects NextGen Ambulatory EHR, PM, and HIE technology for more than 80 physicians at its hospital-owned practice.
• Access releases a new version of its on-demand forms applcation.
• QuadraMed and Elsevier align to combine Elsevier/MC Strategies ICD-10 e-learning suite with QuadraMed’s ICD-10 Countdown Program.
• Elsevier also signs an exclusive partnership with The Quality Group (TQG) to market TQG’s Health Care Series, a customized process improvement training solution for healthcare professionals.
• McGraw-Hill Higher Education and Greenway Medical Technologies announce an online HIT course for colleges and universities. Integrated Electronic Health Records: An Online Course and Worktext for Greenway Medical Technologies’ PrimeSUITE will be offered through McGraw-Hill’s Connect Plus teaching solution.
• OptumInsight (Ingenix) collaborates with InstaMed to offer CareTracker Payment Connect, an electronic bill payment service for patients.
• Billian’s HealthDATA will exhibit at HFMA ANI 2011 in Orlando next week. Check in on Foursquare and show it to the booth reps and they’ll give you a Starbucks gift card.

Contacts

Mr. H, Inga, Dr. Jayne, Dr. Gregg.