Morning Headlines 3/6/26

Introducing Amazon Connect Health: Agentic AI for healthcare, built for the people who deliver it

Amazon Web Services launches Amazon Connect Health, an EHR-integrated agentic AI healthcare operations solution that is based on the company’s Amazon Connect cloud contact center platform.

Oracle plans to lay off thousands of employees due to AI data center buildout expenses

Oracle will reportedly lay off thousands of employees in the next few days as the company addresses the cost of building AI data centers and reviews whether it could replace some workers with AI.

CVS Health and Google Cloud announce new strategic partnership to reimagine healthcare consumer engagement and experiences

CVS Health and Google Cloud launch Health100, an agentic AI-powered digital health platform that manages health across pharmacies, insurers, and providers.

News 3/6/26

Top News

Amazon Web Services launches Amazon Connect Health, an EHR-integrated agentic AI healthcare operations solution that is based on the company’s Amazon Connect cloud contact center platform.

The system can verify patients, schedule appointments, summarize EHR records, transcribe doctor-patient conversations to generate draft clinical notes, and generate after-visit summaries.

Amazon says that UCSD Health saves 1 minute per call by using Connect Health, while Netsmart’s rollout of it increased ambient documentation adoption by 275%.

Reader Comments

From Fact Checker: “Re: Rehoboth McKinley Christian Health Care Services and Epic. The LinkedIn write-up by CEO Wayne Gillis is not accurate. They use the old Cerner / Oracle system.” His post says that “we” went live with Epic 18 months ago, then saw costs balloon because of default workflow decisions during configuration, after which they did some analysis that led to setup changes. Eighteen months ago, in September 2024, he was still working for Great Falls Health Network, which has a single 20-bed hospital. He joined Rehoboth McKinley a couple of months later and will leave the organization amicably effective next week. I emailed him to ask for clarification about which hospital was involved. 

From Buoyancy: “Re: Q-rounds virtual queue app for rounding notifications. It’s an interesting idea for improved family and staff engagement. However, based on 20+ years of doing inpatient attending rounds, they never go as you expect, they are typically interrupted, and sometimes run over time. When you get to a patient’s room, they might be off the floor getting a test or procedure or other factor that prevents you from seeing them in sequence. Rounds can also be interrupted by various emergencies or demands. Even if you put a tracking device on the attending to provide a bus stop-style time estimate, I doubt it would be accurate no matter how hard the team tries to stay on schedule.”

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

Welcome to new HIStalk Platinum Sponsor CognomIQ. CognomIQ is a unified, end-to-end semantic data management engine built by healthcare, for healthcare. CognomIQ resolves the problem of dirty data to provide one source of truth for your AI initiatives, clinical operations, research, and enterprise reporting. Our platform curates, cleans, validates, semantically restructures, and leverages inherent business intelligence to produce real-time visualizations that drive insights. With exceptional reach, speed, resource efficiency, and cost savings, CognomIQ supplants overlapping capabilities of more than two dozen tools that are patchworked together in data environments today. In production for over four years with an NCI-designated cancer center, the company has launched commercially to make the complex data world simpler for all healthcare. Visit them at HIMSS26 at Venetian Level 1 – 11724. Thanks to CognomIQ for supporting HIStalk.

I found this CognomIQ overview video on YouTube, on which also resides the company’s spectacular earworm music promo.

Sponsored Events and Resources

Publication: HIStalk’s Guide to HIMSS26 lists the activities of sponsors at the conference.

Contact Lorre to have your resource listed.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Remote patient monitoring vendor Health Recovery Solutions acquires Rimidi, whose platform combines remote patient monitoring with chronic disease management tools. Rimidi founder and CEO Lucienne Ide, MD, PhD will join Health Recovery Solutions as chief medical officer.

Grow Therapy, which offers a therapist marketplace and back-end provider services, raises $150 million in Series D funding.

HCA says in an investor conference that it worked with Palantir to use AI to summarize medical records for physicians and to prepare claims denial appeals. The company says that its Timpani automated scheduling and staffing system, which uses AI to predict staffing needs and was also developed with Palantir, is being used in 80 hospitals. HCA adds that another internally developed tool has reduced length of stay by 2%.

Oracle will reportedly lay off thousands of employees in the next few days as the company addresses the cost of building AI data centers and reviews whether it could replace some workers with AI. The rumored cuts will affect multiple divisions. Oracle will post Q3 results on Tuesday, March 10.

People

Hearst names David Delaney, MD (Optum) president of First Databank.  

Announcements and Implementations

OpenEvidence launches Doctor Dialer, which lets clinicians place calls using a customizable caller ID, send and receive secure messages and faxes, leave straight-to-voicemail messages for patients, and automatically generate clinical notes.

Enterprise AI security vendor Mindgard reports that it manipulated Doctronic, the AI doctor chatbot that Utah is piloting to autonomously manage prescription refills, into acting as a “bad doctor” that spread vaccine conspiracy theories and recommended amphetamines for social challenges. It also generated SOAP notes that contained significant errors. Mindgard says that its red team exposed Doctronic’s system prompt, which allowed them to bypass the chatbot’s guardrails.

CVS Health and Google Cloud launch Health100, an agentic AI-powered digital health platform that manages health across pharmacies, insurers, and providers. CVS Health says that the platform will serve as the conduit for pharmacist-led care management and will allow developers to build applications around the service through an open ecosystem.

Rhapsody releases Axon, an interoperability workflow automation system that provides AI-powered guidance and agentic actions.

Mednition introduces Kate for Kids, which helps ED nurses in non-pediatric EDs triage patients.

Privacy and Security

France-based healthcare software vendor Cegedim Santé confirms that a cyberattack late last year allowed hackers to exfiltrate 15.8 million patient records. The attack involved the company’s MonLogicielMedical (MLM) mobile clinician application.

Other

Interoperability guy Brendan Keeler takes a deep dive into murky waters of a viral Epic-bashing video that was created by an influencer whose previous beef tallow pitches and flatulence-on-my-wife-prank cinematic triumphs drew a few hundred views versus millions when he railed about delays in processing Social Security disability claims, which he blames on Epic. The video sends viewers to a recently formed disability group which in turn is connected to law firms and lobbyists that, theoretically you understand, could have a financial interest in the process. “Ry the seller” and Mrs. Ry begged viewers to buy their pathetic merch so they could afford to purchase a house, which ironically might end up belonging to Epic if they think he’s worth the trouble of sending lawyers knocking on its door.

Sponsor Updates

• Resilience Care partners with InterSystems to integrate its oncology remote-monitoring platform with hospital systems using InterSystems IRIS for Health.
• WellSky expands AI capabilities within its next‑generation WellSky CarePort Referral Intake solution.
• Black Book Research releases its “2026 Prior Authorization & Interoperability Readiness Benchmark Report.”
• Pyramid Healthcare extends its use of Netsmart’s platform across its substance use, mental health, and recovery services.
• Surescripts releases its “Annual Impact Report 2025.”
• NextGen Healthcare integrates DrFirst’s RxInform prescription engagement solution with its enterprise EHR.
• FinThrive offers the “2026 Transformative Trends Report.”
• Health Data Movers releases a new episode of its “QuickHITs” podcast featuring GeneDx COO Bryan Dechairo.
• Linus Health will present new findings on digital risk scores for dementia and patient-centered endpoints at the International Conference on Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Diseases and Related Neurological Disorders March 17-21 in Denmark.
• Meditech congratulates The Aga Khan University Chief Data Innovation Officer Farhana Alarakhiya on receiving the 2026 HIMSS Changemaker in Health Award in the category of Global Patient Innovator.
• MRO CISO Richard Weiss wins the 2026 DallasCISO Corporate Orbie Award.

Blog Posts

• On the horizon: How AI is transforming healthcare workflows even more (Altera Digital Health)
• Top 15 population health management software solutions (Arcadia)
• 5 Surprising Ways Payer-Provider Collaboration is Actually Working (Canopii Collaborative)
• Women Innovating Health IT: Laura Kreofsky (Ellkay)
• Beyond the Buzzwords: A Data-Driven Framework for Contact Center AI Roadmaps (Five9)
• Southern California Social Care Summit: Highlights from the Golden State (Findhelp)
• AI Governance: The Only Realistic Solution to Shadow AI (Fortified Health Security)
• ViVE Los Angeles: Good Energy, Valuable Conversations, and a Strong Focus on Accountability (Get-to-Market Health)
• Healthcare IT and the Workforce: Addressing the Skills Gap and Preparing for the Future (Impact Advisors)
• Why ‘delay’ is the silent partner in bad debt: Promoting timely responses to questions patients ask (Inbox Health)
• 3 Questions to Consider When Choosing a New EHR Vendor (Med Tech Solutions)

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
Get HIStalk updates.
Send news or rumors.
Follow on X, Bluesky, and LinkedIn.
Sponsorship information.
Contact us.

EPtalk by Dr. Jayne 3/5/26

A health system that went live on a system-wide EHR five years ago with promises to upend its best-of-breed strategy is sending notices that it is finally migrating its laboratory systems. The lab migration project has been underway for quite a while, although it seems like communication to end users is just beginning.

The first communication explained the what and why of the project. It also outlined the communication cadence, so that people can be on the lookout for more information as the go-live gets closer.

I suspect that the team is planning to over-communicate for two main reasons. First, no one likes surprises. Second, many physicians, especially those who are community-based rather than being employed by one of the health system’s entities, likely assume that the project has already been completed and aren’t anticipating changes.

We will see how the communications unfold as go-live approaches. I’m sure that the finance folks will be glad to stop paying maintenance to multiple vendors.

The hot topic around the virtual physician lounge this week was an article in Nature Medicine that looks at how ChatGPT Health performed at triaging medical emergencies. ChatGPT Health, which launched in January of this year, was designed specifically to handle consumer-driven, health-related queries.

The authors submitted a set of 60 clinical vignettes across multiple clinical domains and conditions to the chatbot and to a panel of three physicians. The physicians triaged them based on clinical guidelines and their own expertise.

The tool underperformed. It failed to correctly identify one-third of non-urgent cases and nearly half of emergency cases. It recognized stroke and anaphylaxis as emergencies, but failed to refer the user to the emergency department for the life-threatening conditions of diabetic ketoacidosis and impending respiratory failure.

Other scenarios tested biases, such as when family or friends minimize a patient’s symptoms.

The ability to appropriately generate crisis intervention messages was unpredictable. Interventions appeared more often when cases discussed suicide generally than when the discussion included a description of a specific method of self-harm.

The authors conclude, “Our findings reveal missed high-risk emergencies and inconsistent activation of crisis safeguards, raising safety concerns that warrant prospective validation before consumer-scale deployment of artificial intelligence triage systems.”

User access to ChatGPT Health is limited by waitlist. Parent company OpenAI says it will make it widely available when it has finished validating its safety and reliability.

I’m surprised by the tool’s poor performance. Triage protocols have been available for many years and are commonly used by nursing staff in primary care offices. I wonder if the model was trained using any of those references or if those weren’t included because of intellectual property concerns.

We’re partway through the spring conference season, with ViVE in the rearview mirror and HIMSS on the horizon. A fair amount of alcohol flows at health tech conferences and it’s not just during the after-hours parties. It seems like happy hour events on the show floor are an expectation rather than an exception. A timely piece in The Harvard Gazette examines the effects of binge drinking on the digestive system.

Authors of the study, which was published in November, found that a single episode of binge drinking, which they defined as four drinks in a two-hour period for women or five for men, can make it harder for the small intestine to keep bacteria from entering the bloodstream. The research was performed in mice with the alcohol administered by gavage, which is the research equivalent of a beer funnel. I’m going to have a hard time keeping that imagery out of my mind next week when I see people hitting the cocktail circuit at HIMSS.

A fair amount of literature shows that younger generations are consuming less alcohol than older groups such as Gen X and Baby Boomers. Given the amount of alcohol-fueled bad behavior that I’ve seen during my time in the industry, that’s probably a good thing.

Speaking of HIMSS, I’ve got my trusty sneakers packed so I can stroll the exhibit hall in comfort, but I’m also taking my dancing shoes for after-hours sparkle. I’ll be making at least one trip to the Bellagio to catch the fountains after dark, since they are my favorite of the excesses found on the Las Vegas Strip.

I will be stopping by the booths of our sponsors (anonymously, of course) and looking for the best booth décor and of course footwear. Stay sharp during those booth shifts and save your cell phones for scanning badges, sharing party invitations, and emailing me your cute shoe pictures.

From Jimmy the Greek: “Re: AI tools in remote meeting platforms. My organization allows us to use them to create transcripts and summaries. It’s been helpful, but I literally laughed out loud when this turned up in a recent recap of a section that the AI tool titled ‘Product Staffing Woes and Teen Sleep’”: 

Robert and Susan discussed Susan’s staffing challenges, with Susan noting she was down to 1 3/4 of her intended six developers. Robert offered to support, but explained he couldn’t help directly. Robert then shared his personal experience with his teenage son‘s morning routine difficulties, leading to a discussion about teenage sleep patterns and morning habits. The conversation concluded with Robert introducing the topic of the next big project.

Pre-meeting small talk is common, especially in organizations where meetings don’t start on time. Seeing it memorialized highlights how much time is actually spent talking about topics that aren’t moving the organization forward. If you’re seeing a lot of these types of items in your summaries, it might make sense to disable the feature that automatically starts recording and transcription, and instead, manually start the process when you are ready to begin the meeting.

What’s the most amusing thing you’ve seen in an AI-generated meeting transcript? Leave a comment or email me.

Email Dr. Jayne.

HIStalk’s Guide to HIMSS26

Agfa HealthCare

Booth 2225

Contact: Kara Clarke, director of marketing, North America
kara.clarke@agfa.com

At HIMSS26, Agfa HealthCare will showcase its vision for “One Platform” Enterprise Imaging, a cloud-ready, SaaS-enabled approach designed to simplify complex imaging ecosystems; strengthen interoperability; and support secure, resilient clinical and IT workflows. What’s new includes continued advancements in its unified Enterprise Imaging platform; zero-footprint streaming technology for fast, full-fidelity image access anywhere care is delivered; and RUBEE Workflow Orchestration with embedded, vendor-neutral AI capabilities that streamline enterprise worklists and enhance diagnostic confidence without adding workflow friction.

Visitors to the booth can participate in personalized, one-on-one product demonstrations to explore real-world use cases and modernization strategies. Visitors are invited to connect with the team on Wednesday, March 11, during a Belgian Beer Tasting event. The speaker lineup will also feature a Main Stage session, “Defining Your Cloud Enterprise Imaging Strategy,” with Tampa General Hospital Senior Director of IT Steve Johnson and Agfa HealthCare Director of Enterprise Imaging Strategy Charles Morris, who will offer practical insights into cloud transition and enterprise-wide imaging transformation.

AGS Health

Contact Matt Bridge to arrange a meeting.

Contact: Matt Bridge, SVP of strategic solutions
matthew.bridge@agshealth.com

AGS Health is more than a revenue cycle management company — we’re a strategic partner for growth. Our distinctive methodology blends award-winning services with intelligent automation and high-touch customer support to deliver peak, end-to-end revenue cycle performance and an empowering patient financial experience.   

We employ a team of 15,000 highly trained and college-educated RCM experts supporting customers across diverse care settings and specialties, including nearly half of the 20 most prominent US hospitals and 40% of the nation’s 10 largest health systems. Our thoughtfully crafted RCM solutions deliver measurable revenue growth and retention, enabling customers to achieve the revenue to realize their vision.

Altera Digital Health

Booth 4431

Contact: Lindsey Honig, marketing communications manager
lindsey.honig@alterahealth.com

A global healthcare IT leader, Altera Digital Health develops and elevates technology that brings next-level healthcare within reach. At HIMSS26, we’re excited to showcase how our AI and EHR advancements help healthcare organizations navigate their top challenges while supporting the human moments that matter most for patients, providers, and their communities.

Visit booth 4431 as EVP of AI Ben Scharfe provides crucial guidance on maximizing AI’s value while managing new liabilities in his educational theater session, “AI Unbound: Agentic workflows and deregulated risk,” on Wednesday, March 11, from 1:00–1:10pm.   

Join our in-booth happy hour on Tuesday, March 10, from 4:30–5:30pm to meet Altera solution and subject matter experts while enjoying complimentary beverages and light fare. For our full theater schedule and to learn more about Altera’s presence at the event, visit our events page.

Arcadia

Booth 2447

Arcadia Customer AMAs 
Stop by our booth for live “Ask Me Anything” sessions with Arcadia customers and hear directly from the people using our solutions every day. Ask your questions, learn from real-world experiences, and get an honest take on what it’s like to work with Arcadia – from peers who’ve been there.    

Sips and Socks 
It’s back! Don’t miss one of the most anticipated moments of the conference – our annual Arcadia HIMSS sock reveal. Stop by the booth to grab a drink and score a pair of our 2026 socks. Arrive early – these fan favorites are first-come, first-served, and they will go fast!   

Speaker Sessions
Tuesday, March 10, 4:00-5:30pm   
Wednesday, March 11, 4:00-5:30pm    
“Improving Medicaid Outcomes with Digital Equity and Nutrition Support,” Tuesday, March 10, from 11:00-11:30am, Level 3, Murano 3304  
“Artificial Intelligence in Action: Clinical Process Maps Get Modern,” Tuesday, March 10, from 11:00 – 11:30am, Level 5, Palazzo D

Visit our HIMSS page to learn more.

Artera

Booth 6421

Contact: Adrianna Hosford, chief communications officer and head of marketing
Adrianna.Hosford@artera.io
833.234.9355

Artera is the proven agentic healthcare company, leveraging a decade of deep expertise to support 2 billion patient communications annually. Our solutions empower humans and AI agents to work together to fix patient communications across text, phone, and web, unifying the entire patient journey – from scheduling and intake to billing and more. Trusted by over 1,000 healthcare organizations (including specialty groups, FQHCs, large IDNs, and federal agencies), Artera directly increases staff efficiency, boosts patient engagement, and improves the provider bottom line, helping patients get the care they need with simplicity and speed.   

2B+ Annual Comms. | 200M+ Patients | 10yrs Experience | FedRAMP High in Process | www.artera.io

Join us at HIMSS to experience our fully autonomous AI agents in action – we’ll demonstrate how these agents manage a range of complex workflows (scheduling, FAQ resolution, appointment management, and more) to reduce staff burden and improve the patient experience.

Stop by our booth to connect with our experts and explore strategies for optimizing patient access, implementing AI-driven patient communication and much more. Plus, when you schedule and attend a meeting with an Artera team member, you’ll receive a $25 Amazon gift card. As an added bonus, you’ll be entered to win an iPad Pro in our post-event raffle. Schedule a meeting with our team at booth 6421 here.

Cardamom

Contact Adam Dial to arrange a meeting.

Contact: Adam Dial, chief customer officer
adam@cardamom.health
608.469.6154

The Cardamom team is excited to attend HIMSS! Reach out to connect with us during the event.    Cardamom is a minority-owned, technology-forward health IT professional services company serving healthcare providers, payers, and health IT organizations. With a team-based, AI- and automation-first approach focused on committed outcomes, Cardamom helps customers more effectively use data, analytics, AI, and applications to improve care quality, reduce costs, and enhance patient and provider experiences. Cardamom is also committed to growing industry talent by hiring high-potential team members without prior health IT experience and providing comprehensive training and mentorship to deliver industry-leading results. For more about Cardamom, visit https://cardamom.health.

CereCore

Booth 6126

Contact: Phil Sobol, chief customer officer
Phil.Sobol@CereCore.net
855.276.9112

CereCore works behind the scenes to empower hospitals and health systems with IT services. Need to drive operational efficiency, improve financial outcomes, and uncover more bandwidth for your IT team? Our experts understand the major EHR platforms inside and out. Tap into support desk solutions that will result in happier users and providers.

For the second year, we earned a top KLAS Research rating in managed IT services, and we were the only vendor whose clients responded “Yes” 100% of the time when asked if their managed IT services provider exceeded expectations.      

Facing an EHR transition that requires additional expertise? CereCore partners with healthcare organizations across the US and globe to provide comprehensive EHR consulting, IT and application support, technical professional and managed services, strategic IT consulting, and advisory services. Our hospital operations experience means we can help you create customizable roadmaps for RCM optimization, overcome talent shortages, and maximize your HIT investment.      

Get a healthcare IT assessment and benefit from an outsider’s perspective, because the cost of not knowing often far exceeds the investment in finding out. Connect with us at HIMSS and find meaningful change with CereCore’s healthcare IT managed services.

Clearsense

Booth 1058

Contact: Kara Freeman, senior director of revenue operations
kfreeman@clearsense.com
612.747.2134

Stop Legacy Bloat: Clearsense Delivers the Blueprint for Cost Optimization at HIMSS26   
Gartner reports that cost optimization is now the top priority for health system CIOs. Yet, while application rationalization is a powerful driver of savings, it remains healthcare’s most underutilized strategy. At HIMSS26, Clearsense will demonstrate how health systems are transforming legacy application decommissioning into a disciplined, repeatable engine for sustained cost reduction and operational modernization.   

Visit booth 1058 to see how Clearsense helps health IT leaders move beyond simple archiving to build a governed, trusted data foundation that:   

• Delivers recurring cost takeout: Eliminate ongoing maintenance, infrastructure, and TSA expenses through structured application rationalization and active archiving programs that generate sustained operating expense savings.   
• Strengthens security and compliance: Reduce legacy application risk by retiring redundant and unsupported systems while preserving secure, audit-ready access to retained clinical and operational data.   
• Creates an AI-ready core: Consolidate fragmented historical data into a centralized, governed archive – establishing a reliable foundation for advanced analytics and scalable AI initiatives.   

In addition, Clearsense will officially unveil its AI strategy at HIMSS26, integrating intelligence across the platform to drive faster operational execution while delivering a more intuitive, insight-driven experience at the point of care.   

Schedule a meeting with the Clearsense team by clicking here!

Clearwater

Booth 10001-07 in the Cybersecurity Command Center

Contact: John Howlett, SVP and chief marketing officer
773.636.6449

You’ll find Clearwater exhibiting in the Cybersecurity Command Center at booth 10001-07, where our team will be showcasing how healthcare organizations can proactively manage cyber risk, protect patient data, and strengthen compliance across increasingly complex digital ecosystems. Stop by to learn how Clearwater helps healthcare leaders:  

• Reduce cyber risk across clinical, operational, and third-party environments.  
• Navigate evolving regulatory and compliance requirements.  
• Build resilient, security-first digital health programs.   

Also, be sure to catch our session “Healthcare AI Governance & Risk Management: Securing Innovation Without Slowing Care” in the Cybersecurity Command Center on Wednesday, March 11, from 10:00-10:20am. Clearwater VP of Consulting Solutions & Strategy Dave Bailey will be joined by Onvida Health CISO Blaine Hebert for a discussion of how to harness AI innovation while managing new and evolving risks.

Clinical Architecture

Booth 5753

Contact: Jaime Lira, VP of marketing
jaime_lira@clinicalarchitecture.com
317.580.8400

Clinical Architecture delivers scalable data quality and transformation solutions that help healthcare organizations turn complex, inconsistent data into trusted, actionable information. Our solutions support providers, payers, life sciences companies, and public agencies with tools to standardize data, assess quality, and enable reliable exchange.

With the PIQXL Gateway, our implementation of the emerging Patient Information Quality Improvement (PIQI) framework, we provide a score-based, real-time view into patient data quality, pinpointing gaps like missing, invalid, or non standard elements so you can remediate quickly. By improving data integrity and compliance, we empower organizations to power analytics, strengthen decision-making, and advance value-based care with confidence.    

Be sure to attend “Enhancing Healthcare Data Quality: Digital Measurement Standards and the PIQI Approach” on Monday, March 9, from 11:20am-12:00pm, Level 5, Palazzo L. Our CEO, Charlie Harp, will be presenting on a panel with NCQA CTO Edward Yurcisin and Levitt Partners Principal Ryan Howells.      

Visit us at booth 5753 for a live demo of the PIQXL Gateway and see how data quality can be objectively scored and improved using the PIQI framework. We look forward to seeing you in Vegas!

CloudWave

Booth 6235

Contact: Christine Mellyn, VP of marketing
cmellyn@gocloudwave.com
508.251.8899

Visit CloudWave, the healthcare data security experts, at booth 6235 for an interactive, informative experience! Our team of experts will be available to discuss important topics such as cybersecurity, cloud solutions, compliance, and more. In addition, we’re excited to offer a hands-on tabletop card game that immerses you in incident response and cybersecurity strategies. Using the Backdoors & Breaches deck of expertly designed cards, players will simulate real-world cyber incidents, sharpen response skills, and gain a deeper understanding of modern cyberattack techniques.      

We’ve got a lot happening:    

• Win a Prize! – Participate in raffles at the conclusion of each day. You don’t need to be present to win!  
• Ask Questions, Get Answers – Visit our solution stations and speak with our experts about how CloudWave can help address your IT and cybersecurity challenges.    
• Meet with Our Team – Request a personal meeting (customersfirst@gocloudwave.com) with us to discuss your unique needs.    
• Tabletop Simulations – Join us for hands-on simulations and take home your own card deck, plus a bonus gift if you complete the game.

CognomIQ

Booth 11724

Contact: Bonny Roberts, VP of customer success
Bonny.Roberts@CognomIQ.com
614.565.7884

Healthcare Data Sucks. CognomIQ can UNsuck it. One end-to-end platform replacing more than two dozen SaaS tools like Snowflake, DataBricks, PowerBI, Tableau, ESRI, Datavant, TriNetX, and more. Save seven-figures per year immediately with a 15X speed increase or we’ll refund 100% after the first year. We’re that confident. Come by booth 11724 on the AI Trail and tell us to UnSuck it! We’ll brand you with swag.

Concord Technologies

Booth 1461

Contact: Liza Marie Hayward, marketing program manager
lhayward@concord.net

Concord is the market leader in Intelligent Data Exchange for the healthcare industry, securely processing over 4 billion pages of protected data every year. Our portfolio includes AI-powered fax and document workflows, Intelligent Document Processing, and Straight-Through Processing of patient data into the EHR. With 30 years of proven expertise, Concord empowers healthcare organizations to eliminate manual workflows, improve operational efficiency, and enhance the delivery of care.   

We hope you’ll join us for some of our activities throughout HIMSS:   

• Tuesday, March 10: Attend our Main Stage session, “Rethinking Interoperability: Is it time to trust LLMs over standards?” from 2:40–3:10pm.   
• Wednesday, March 11: Concord-sponsored Happy Hour in booth 1461 from 3:00-5:00pm.   
• All exhibition hall hours at booth 1461: Race to win in our Simulator Challenge. Put yourself in the driver’s seat and take a few laps around the track in our in-booth race simulator. Take your place on our leaderboard after you pass the checkered flag!

CTG Health Solutions

Booth 3516, Venetian Level 2​

Contact: Sarah Blafer, marketing team lead, demand generation
Sarah.Blafer@ctg.com
860.942.2180

CTG, a Cegeka company, delivers IT and business solutions that enhance digital agility. With 55+ years of experience – and 35+ years in healthcare – we empower healthcare organizations to modernize systems, improve performance, and advance digital initiatives through innovative services and modern technologies. We’ve supported 1,000+ healthcare organizations, including children’s hospitals, health systems, and academic medical centers. Our expertise spans EHR implementation and managed services, cybersecurity, ERP, cloud, infrastructure, IT/application support, and clinical optimization. Combining local market knowledge with 10,000+ Cegeka Group professionals in 15+ countries, we serve healthcare and other high-growth industries. For more information, visit us at booth 3516.

DrFirst

Booth 3243

Contact: Erin Hall, director, event strategy and experience
eleasehall@drfirst.com
216.650.7687

Meet with DrFirst at HIMSS! Behind every prescription is a tangle of benefit checks, prior authorizations, and pharmacy back-and-forth. Meet with us at HIMSS to see how DrFirst cuts through the complexity within the prescribing workflow before problems start.      

Prior authorizations are resolved right away, not days or weeks later. Coverage and cost are visible at the point of prescribing. Prescriptions arrive at the pharmacy ready to fill. Automated text messages keep patients engaged and on therapy. The result: Fewer abandoned prescriptions, better patient outcomes, and less administrative burden.

To learn more, don’t miss the session featuring Magnolia Regional Health’s Ben Long, MD showing how SMS text notifications reduced odds of CHF readmissions by 6% on March 12 at 8:30am in Palazzo D, Level 5.

Let’s chat in Las Vegas!   

About DrFirst
For 25 years, healthcare IT pioneer DrFirst has empowered providers and patients to achieve better health through intelligent medication management. The company has won over 25 awards for excellence and innovation, including Time’s list of the “World’s Top HealthTech Companies of 2025,” recognizing the company’s medication management solutions and integrated workflows that make every step of the patient journey easier, from first prescription to ongoing adherence. DrFirst solutions help 100 million patients a year and are used by more than 450,000 prescribers, 71,000 pharmacies, 270 EHRs, and over 2,000 hospitals in the US. To learn more, visit DrFirst.com.

Ellkay

Booth 5423

Ready to build the future of healthcare? Ellkay is a trusted enterprise data management partner, driving innovation and connectivity across the healthcare ecosystem.   

Join us at HIMSS26! We will have daily coffee bars and Happy Hours on Tuesday and Wednesday at booth 5423. Come get a drink and discuss how your organization can transform care delivery through true interoperability and data management solutions.

FDB

Booth 3235

Contact: Sammy Keating, product marketing manager
Sammy.Keating@fdbhealth.com
802.343.2619

At FDB (First Databank), we’re proud to be the leading provider of drug knowledge that helps healthcare professionals make precise, confident medication decisions. At HIMSS26, we’re bringing our theme, “Intelligence to Free Your Mind,” to life – showcasing how our medication intelligence, built on decades of trusted drug knowledge and delivered in patient-specific clinical context, helps reduce cognitive burden, restore focus, and strengthen both human and AI-enabled workflows.   

As healthcare organizations look for safe, scalable ways to adopt AI and automation, we’re excited to introduce new innovations at booth 3235. We’ll be featuring FDB MedProof MCP, our AI-native server that standardizes governance and access to medication intelligence across AI-enabled systems. We’ll also highlight workflow advancements like FDB Script Agent, an AI-enabled prescription automation agent designed for ambulatory settings, and FDB VerifyAssist, an inpatient pharmacy order verification assistant designed to help hospital pharmacists quickly spot orders that need closer review.   

Attendees can also explore how our trusted solutions – FDB MedKnowledge, FDB Targeted Medication Warnings, FDB AlertSpace 2.0, Pharmacogenomics CDS, and FDB Meducation – support health systems in improving medication safety, reducing non-actionable alerts, and delivering truly patient-specific decision support and education. We’ll also be showcasing FDB Vela, our modern e-prescribing network built to power resilient, connected medication workflows.

While you’re at our booth, join one of our daily micro-sessions covering topics like agentic workflows, medication reconciliation, and pharmacy order verification. And of course, we’re creating space to recharge and connect. We’ll be hosting “Calm Continues at Happy Hour” on Wednesday, March 11, from 4:00 to 5:30pm at our booth, with beer, wine, soft drinks, and light bites. Throughout the conference, stop by for complimentary chair massages, infused water, themed giveaways, and a chance to win a Theragun Mini (3rd Gen) portable massage device. We’re looking forward to connecting with you at HIMSS26!

Five9

Kiosk 3264-04

Contact: Roni Jamesmeyer, director of industry marketing
roni.jamesmeyer@five9.com
972.768.6554

Five9 helps healthcare organizations reimagine patient engagement by unifying every interaction – voice, digital, and automated – on a single intelligent platform. Our HIPAA-compliant cloud contact center integrates seamlessly with Epic, Cerner, and Salesforce, enabling real-time access to scheduling, patient data, and care workflows.    

By combining advanced AI, automation, and workforce optimization, Five9 empowers patient access teams, care coordinators, and revenue cycle staff to reduce wait times, improve access to care, and deliver faster, more personalized experiences. The result is a smarter, more connected patient journey – from first contact through follow-up – driving higher satisfaction, lower operating costs, and better outcomes.   

Five9 will be located in kiosk 3264-04 in the Patient Experience & Wellness section and in a large booth located at Enterprise Connect at the Caesars Forum. We will have a booth raffle on Wednesday for everyone! Five9 and Pindrop will host a dinner at Ruth’s Chris on March 10 – please ask for an invitation!

Fortified Health Security

Booth 11302

Contact: Rachel Bryant, marketing coordinator
rbryant@fortifiedhealthsecurity.com
904.316.3310

Join Fortified Health Security at HIMSS26 to explore the latest in digital health innovation, cybersecurity, and healthcare transformation. Fortified is built for healthcare, offering tailored solutions to help you address your unique challenges, navigate the ever-changing legislative landscape, and work alongside you to create a stronger cybersecurity posture.  

Tee off HIMSS26 with us at Top Golf Las Vegas on March 8, or connect with our team at booth 11302 and enter our daily giveaway. Get all the details to secure your spot here. We look forward to seeing you in Las Vegas!

Health Data Movers

Booth 4935

Contact: Brooke Foster, marketing coordinator
brooke@healthdatamovers.com
847.404.0326

Health Data Movers is hosting our second annual Vivas Las Datas Happy Hour and Raising the Stakes for a Cause poker tournament! Hosted by Health Data Movers and CitiusTech, as well as the Kansas and Greater Kansas City HIMSS Chapters, the Vivas Las Datas Happy Hour brings together healthcare leaders for a relaxed opportunity to unwind, reconnect, and talk about what’s next in healthcare data. No sales pitches. No panels. Just great people, great drinks, and great conversation. Join us at Chica at The Venetian Las Vegas on March 10, from 5:00-7:00pm. Space is limited, so be sure to save your spot. RSVP here.    

Raising the Stakes for a Cause will be a night of fun and friendly competition, all while supporting the Michael J Fox Foundation. Get ready to show off your poker skills and enjoy a great time with fellow attendees. Don’t miss out on this exciting event for a great cause! Join us in The Poker Room at The Venetian Las Vegas on March 10, from  8:00-11:00pm. Space is limited, so be sure to save your spot. RSVP here.

Lincata

Booth 1365

Contact: Adam DeRocher, chief revenue officer
adam.derocher@lincata.com
712.541.9132

Lincata’s Bedside Operating System (OS) transforms hospital televisions into digital experience tools that launch MyChart Bedside TV directly in-room. It’s simple. LincTV by Lincata, coupled with MyChart Bedside TV, existing TV screens, cameras, microphones, and other equipment helps health systems create the foundation for smart room capabilities and virtual care. LincTV consists of a proprietary set-top box and purpose-built MDM that provides flexibility, scalability, security, and ease of deployment. More than TV. Make it LincTV.

Med Tech Solutions

Booth 5448

Contact: Shana Tachikawa, director of marketing
stachikawa@medtechsolutions.com

Med Tech Solutions (MTS) is a managed services provider delivering comprehensive IT and EHR support to healthcare organizations nationwide. With a singular focus on healthcare technology, MTS empowers clients with IT and EHR managed services, cloud hosting, 24/7 help desk, and revenue cycle solutions, along with tailored software and security offerings. With Stoltenberg Consulting now part of the MTS family, MTS expands this reach with deep Epic, Oracle Cerner, NextGen, ECW, and Meditech consulting; staff augmentation; go-live support; and legacy system services. Together, MTS and its brands help healthcare providers optimize technology, streamline operations, and enhance patient care across full IT lifecycles.   

Elicit greater value from your EHR investment. Ensure long-term success of your EHR program across organizational growth. Leverage skilled, flexible, EHR-certified resources to cost-effectively fill IT expertise gaps with:    

• EHR Service Desk  
• EHR-Certified Staffing  
• Legacy EHR Managed Services 
• EHR Data Archiving  
• EHR Data Integration  
• Go-Live Support  
• M&A Systems Alignment      

Backed by 3x Best in KLAS standing for Partial IT Outsourcing, maximize your EHR’s full potential. Schedule an executive meeting with Med Tech Solutions in booth 5448!

Medcurio

Booth 222

Contact: Joe Lovato, director of customer solutions
joe@medcurio.com
503.704.3920

Medcurio helps health systems access and act on their EHR data in real time, without waiting months for integrations or settling for partial interfaces. Its VennU platform installs inside the customer’s environment and gives teams direct, governed access to the data they already own. The result is faster insight, faster action, and fewer workarounds. VennU is used to power dashboards, alerts, automations, and any downstream workflows that depend on complete and timely EHR data. Customers decide what data is accessed, who can use it, and how it is applied, with full auditability and security controls. Nothing leaves the customer’s control.   

Medcurio has been invited by InterSystems to showcase its technology live at their booth. We’re demonstrating how we’ve made it incredibly simple to get ANY data – in real time – out of the EHR. Not limited to: FHIR, HL7, latent or batch-based data. This is true real-time access without the traditional constraints.   

We’ll be giving live demos of our cutting-edge platform. If your organization has ever struggled to extract real-time data from your EHR, stop by!

Medicomp Systems

Booth 5435

Contact: James Aita, director of strategy and business development
marketing@medicomp.com
703.803.8080

Medicomp delivers the industry’s only physician-curated universal data foundation, transforming healthcare data into trusted intelligence through Quippe, its evidence-based Clinical Intelligence Engine. Quippe connects information across domains, normalizes every input, and validates AI outputs to ensure accurate, interoperable insights at the point of care – fueling innovation, improving accuracy, and unlocking the full value of clinical data.   

Medicomp will be showcasing entirely new functionality that streamlines clinical workflow, combining technologies like ambient listening, natural language processing (NLP), and Model Context Protocol (MCP); and leveraging its universal data foundation and knowledge graph to deliver the efficient, intelligent, clinical workspace that clinicians have been craving.     

The gap between data and understanding is probably costing you – in denied claims, compliance penalties, technology ROI, clinician burnout, and patient safety risks. Stop by the Medicomp booth to learn how your systems can benefit from:   

• Clinically-validated LLM outputs. 
• Diagnostic intelligence that understands context, is evidence-based, and makes disparate data computable.  
• Clinical-grade agents based on a universal data foundation.   

Solve the data reliability problem with diagnostically intelligent clinical data solutions. To learn more, visit Medicomp.com.

Meditech

Booth 5031 and Interop+Smart Experience Pavilion booth 12623

Contact: Rachel Wilkes, AVP of marketing
rwilkes@meditech.com
781.774.4555

Join Meditech in booth 5031 to see firsthand how the intelligent Expanse platform is turning innovation into impact for health systems of all sizes – from small rural hospitals to large IDNs. Visitors will hear directly from clinicians and see demonstrations of the Expanse EHR platform in action. See how the Expanse platform strengthens patient engagement, leverages AI to unburden staff, and enables connected care across all healthcare settings.

Meditech will also host daily Lunch & Learn sessions in the booth. Attendees can enjoy a complimentary lunch while hearing from Meditech and customer experts on the following topics:

Monday, March 10
”The Intelligent Application of AI,” from 12:45-1:05 pm.
”Meditech Expanse: A Foundational Platform for Innovation,” from 1:30-1:50pm.

Tuesday, March 11
”Efficiency Unleashed: The Intelligent EHR in Practice,” from 12:15-12:35pm.
”Empowering Patients Beyond the Clinic,” from 1-1:20 pm.

Wednesday, March 12
”Intelligent Interoperability in Action,” from 12:15-12:35 pm.
”Create, Share, Grow with Greenfield,” from 1-1:20 pm.

Outside the booth, Meditech customers will present their latest innovations and real-world experiences, successes, and strategies in educational presentations covering a wide array of topics, including nurse retention strategies, data-driven approaches to rural population health, and more.

You can also visit Meditech in the Interop+ Smart Experience Pavilion at booth 12623 to see how the company’s intelligent interoperability solutions empower patients and their care teams with complete, unfettered access to health data. Experience three dynamic demonstrations running daily: The Connected Clinician, The Empowered Patient, and The Interoperable Enterprise. Each demonstration will follow the patient journey to illustrate how Meditech Expanse, alongside partner solutions, transforms interoperability into a true force multiplier for care.

Attendees can also hear directly from Meditech and healthcare leaders at the Interop+ Smart Theater:

• Tuesday, March 10: “Orchestrating the Payer-Provider Care Team for Rural Health Resilience,” from 11:45am–12:05pm.
• Wednesday, March 11: “From Conversation to Cash Flow: AI and the Future of Revenue Integrity,” from 10:15–10:35am.
• Thursday, March 12: “Powering Rural Health Through Open, Intelligent EHR Innovation,” from 10:15–10:35am.

See Meditech’s HIMSS event page for a full listing of sessions.

Nordic Global

Booth 631

Contact: Rebecca Whaley, head of marketing
Rebecca.Whaley@nordicglobal.com

Join Nordic, a global leader in healthcare transformation, at #HIMSS26 in booth 631 to explore the future of healthcare technology. Enjoy free, all‑day coffee at our booth and meet the Nordic team to discuss how we can support your workforce and operational priorities for 2026. We’ll also be unveiling our new look at our HIMSS brand launch party.    

Highlights:    

• Enjoy free, all‑day coffee and meet the Nordic team at booth 631.    
• Join us at the Buzzed After Dark Networking Reception, sponsored by Nordic, on Sunday, March 9, from 9:00pm-12:00am.    
• Donut panic. Fewer apps are possible. Grab a free donut and learn about application portfolio management with Nordic and our partner Clearsense on Monday, March 10, from 10:00–11:00am at booth 631.    
• Connect with Nordic and Workday at the FQHC Happy Hour on March 10, from 5:00–6:00pm at the B Bar at the Wynn. (invite only)    
• Join us as we officially launch Nordic’s new brand during Under the Nordic Star, a client and partner reception, sponsored by Clear and ServiceNow, on March 10, from 6:00–9:00pm. at La Cave Bar + Restaurant at the Wynn.    
• Meet Nordic CMO Craig Joseph, MD, author of “Designing for Health,” to explore why human‑centered design matters in healthcare on Monday, March 10, from 1:00–2:00pm and Tuesday, March 11, from 10:00–11:00am at booth 631.    
• Join Nordic for a networking happy hour during the HIMSS Chapter Social hosted by HIMSS Wisconsin on March 11, from 4:00-5:30pm at booth 631.    

Visit our event page to see what Nordic is doing at HIMSS and book a meeting with our team!

Optimum Healthcare IT

Meeting Room MP11356

Contact: Larry Kaiser, chief marketing officer
lkaiser@optimumhit.com

Best in KLAS, Overall Implementation Firm, Optimum Healthcare IT will be at HIMSS. You bring your goals and outcomes, we will bring the strategy and team to make it happen. Optimum’s comprehensive service offerings include enterprise application services; digital transformation; and workforce management, which features our Optimum CareerPath skill development program. Backed by a leadership team with extensive expertise, we deliver tailored healthcare consulting solutions to diverse organizations.   

HIMSS Highlights  
Meeting Room MP11356 
AWS Demos March 12
AWS Booth: UC Davis Health – Primary care scheduling reduces no-shows effectively. Patient verification streamlines appointments, enhances revenue.           
Wrapt Health: Oncology scheduling with predictive rescheduling modeling. Reduces cancellations, minimizes medication waste costs. 
Microsoft Demo March 10 at 10:00am, March 11 at 11:10am, and March 12 at 12:50pm.
Microsoft Booth: Deliver secure, high-performance clinical workspaces in AVD – anywhere.
Reception on March 11 at 6:00pm. Contact your Business Development Executive for more information.

PerfectServe

Booth 1665

Contact: Jenn Corcoran, senior marketing manager
jcorcoran@perfectserve.com
802.379.5352

Struggling with after-hours coverage, missed handoffs, or “Who’s on call?” confusion? At HIMSS, PerfectServe is offering complimentary 15-minute workflow reviews for healthcare leaders who want to identify gaps in their communication and scheduling processes – and leave with clear, practical next steps. During the 15-minute Workflow Review, we’ll: 

• Walk through your current communication and scheduling workflow. 
• Identify failure points that create delays, burnout, or risk. 
• Highlight opportunities to simplify, automate, or integrate with your EHR. 
• Share how peers are addressing similar challenges.   

You’ll leave with: 

• A clearer picture of where things break down. 
• Practical ideas you can take back to your team. 
• A benchmarked perspective from other health systems.   

Who should book time: 

• CMOs, CIOs, COOs 
• Clinical operations leaders 
• IT leaders responsible for clinical communication 
• Physician and nursing leadership 
• Scheduling managers   

Why PerfectServe? 
PerfectServe helps health systems accelerate speed to care by bringing communication and scheduling into a single, EHR-integrated platform. We help organizations: 

• Create a single source of truth for staff scheduling. 
• Enable secure, role-based care team communication. 
• Power a reliable clinical contact center. 
• Finally answer, with confidence, “Who’s on call right now?”   

For more, visit our dedicated event page.

Praia Health

Contact Conrad Swanson to arrange a meeting.

Contact: Conrad Swanson, VP of sales
conrad@praiahealth.com

Praia Health is the patient experience orchestration platform for health systems. We help health systems attract, engage, and retain patients by supercharging their portals and digital tools with seamless, personalized journeys in one platform. The result is higher retention, lower costs, and measurable ROI.   

Praia Health was named Best in Show at the HIMSS26 Emerge Pitch Competition, winning in the Health Systems: Address Hospital Capacity Crisis category. Praia Health CEO Justin Dearborn will be presenting during the HIMSS Emerge Innovation Pitch Competition: Best-in-Show Solutions for Hospital Systems Challenges on Wednesday, March 11, from 11:50am-12:35pm. Team members will also be available throughout the conference to share more about our patient experience orchestration platform.

Rhapsody

Booth 4832

Contact: Michelle Blackmer, chief marketing officer
michelle.blackmer@rhapsody.health
404.974.5060

Simplify interoperability, accelerate EHR integration, and get your data foundation ready for what’s next. That’s what teams do with Rhapsody – purpose-built for healthcare and trusted by 1,900+ organizations worldwide. Best in KLAS for 17 years.    

Stop by booth 4832 for live demos of Rhapsody Axon, the industry’s first healthcare integration agent embedded in Rhapsody and Corepoint Integration. See how AI-powered integration reduces friction, shortens build cycles, and moves from kickoff to go-live faster.    

Connect with our experts to explore how you can:  

• Integrate with EHRs across your ecosystem.  
• Modernize legacy environments while supporting FHIR, APIs, and HL7.  
• Strengthen person identity and terminology data foundations.    
• Build an agent-ready interoperability layer.   

Then, join us Tuesday, March 10, from 6:30-8:30pm at Brera Osteria (St. Mark’s Square at The Venetian Resort, Grand Canal Shoppes), to continue the conversation.

SlicedHealth

Contact Jason Whiteaker to arrange a meeting.

Contact: Jason Whiteaker, regional VP, channel partnerships
jason.whiteaker@slicedhealth.com
901.493.3110

SlicedHealth is a payer contract revenue intelligence platform designed to help hospitals, health systems, specialty practices, and surgery centers navigate payer complexity and secure the revenue they’ve rightfully earned. Through AI-driven contract modeling and real-time analytics, SlicedHealth identifies underpayments, denial patterns, and price transparency gaps while bringing clarity to complex payer agreements.   

Our team will be onsite at HIMSS meeting with healthcare finance and revenue cycle leaders focused on reimbursement strategy and contract performance. To connect during the conference, please reach out directly to Jason Whiteaker (jason.whiteaker@slicedhealth.com) to coordinate a time to meet and discuss how revenue intelligence can drive measurable financial impact in 2026 and beyond.

Sonifi Health

Booth 2861

Contact: Jared Allen, SVP of sales
jallen@sonifihealth.com
801.386.1450

Sonifi Health provides industry-leading, interactive patient engagement technology proven to improve patient outcomes and staff productivity. The EHR-integrated platform is designed to anticipate the needs of patients and clinicians, infusing the principles of hospitality into care experiences. As part of Sonifi Solutions, Inc., the company supports more than 300 million end user experiences annually. Learn more at sonifihealth.com.

Surescripts

Booth 1139

Contact: Kate Giaquinto, PR manager
kate.giaquinto@surescripts.com
603.548.5273

Join Surescripts at the forefront of healthcare innovation and learn how we can inform and accelerate decisions to keep patient care on track.   

Connect with us at HIMSS26 in booth 1139 to discover how we can partner to:   

• Deliver clinically appropriate prior authorization decisions faster. 
• Empower the healthcare ecosystem with intelligence and interoperability. 
• Add real-time cost and care intelligence to existing workflows.

Tegria

Booth 4802

Contact: Berit Rhody, Manager, Events and Engagement
berit.rhody@tegria.com

Tegria is a global healthcare consulting and services company that partners with provider and payer organizations to transform healthcare. Tegria’s global team of more than 1,000 experienced professionals has helped drive meaningful change for more than 650 provider and payer clients across North America and Europe. Tegria has been ranked and recognized in consecutive Best in KLAS reports, including a #2 ranking in the “2026 Best in KLAS: Software & Services” report for Overall IT Services Firm and Best in KLAS recognition for Payer IT Consulting (2025) and Application Hosting (2024).   

Join us for some engaging sessions while you are at HIMSS :  

“Lunch & Learn: How Leading Health Systems are Closing the Access Execution Gap” on Tuesday, March 10, from 12:30-1:45pm on Venetian Level 1, Casanova 601. As patient access becomes a strategic driver of financial performance and growth, health systems must move beyond scheduling to optimize the entire patient journey. This session shares executive insights and real-world examples to help organizations strengthen foundational access metrics, align strategy with execution, and turn digital access into a sustainable enterprise advantage. Register here to reserve your spot.

“Don’t Gamble on ROI: Win Big with Change Management” on Wednesday, March 11, from 12:00-12:20pm in the Business Ops Pavilion, Level 2, Hall C, booth 4400. Healthcare organizations often struggle to achieve lasting value from technology investments because the challenge lies not in the systems, but in how change is managed. In this session, KLAS Research and Tegria will introduce a proven change management framework that helps leaders drive adoption, protect ROI, and sustain workforce and patient trust throughout transformation.

“Denied No More: A Revenue Recovery Playbook” on Wednesday, March 11, from 2:00-2:30pm on the Connect Theater Stage. This session explores how a data-driven approach can uncover hidden patterns behind costly bundled procedure denials, including specific service combinations and payer behaviors. Through a real-world case study, attendees will gain practical strategies to reduce denials, improve billing accuracy, and strengthen overall revenue cycle performance.

View full details for all of Tegria’s HIMSS26 sessions on our event page.

TruBridge

Demo station 23 in Microsoft booth 2812

Contact: Shane Smith, sales consultant
Shane.Smith@trubridge.com
502.671.9292

TruBridge empowers rural and community healthcare with tech‑enabled solutions designed for their realities. With 45+ years of experience and 1,500+ clients, we deliver RCM, EHR, coding, analytics, and data tools.    

Join us at demo station 23 at booth 2812 to learn more about Microsoft Dragon Copilot embedded within TruBridge Notes. We will host demos on:  

• Tuesday, March 10, from 12:30-2:50pm 
• Wednesday, March 11, from 3:10-5:30pm 
• Thursday, March 12, from 9:30-11:20am

TrustCommerce, a RevSpring company

Booth 1624

Contact: Ryne Natzke, chief commercial officer
rynen@spherecommerce.com

Visit TrustCommerce, a RevSpring company, at booth 1624. For over 25 years, TrustCommerce comprehensive patient payment solutions have earned the trust of the country’s largest healthcare organizations. Now, together with RevSpring, we’re expanding integrated payments and accelerating innovation in financial engagement, combining Best in KLAS patient financial experience solutions with enterprise-grade gateway capabilities and deep integrated payments leadership.    

Four reasons you won’t want to miss us:   

• See how you can transform the way you process payments using TrustCommerce integrated solutions. Experience secure and compliant payment processing, anytime and anywhere – all while being seamlessly connected to leading EHRs like Epic, Veradigm, and AthenaIDX.       
• Together, with RevSpring, you can have a more simplified payment ecosystem. End-to-end visibility enables reduced vendor complexity, improved reconciliation, and a more consistent patient payment experience across pre-service, point-of-service, post-service, and back office.    
• See our patient-friendly digital payment experience that proudly supports digital wallets such as Google Pay, Apple Pay, and PayPal.       
• Learn about partnership opportunities. Ask us how to integrate TrustCommerce payment solutions with your digital health software to drive revenue, reduce risk, and increase workflow efficiencies.        

Swing by booth 1624 for a coffee, recharge with fresh juice, catch a live demo, and charge your phone while you’re there!

Visage Imaging

Booth 3753

Contact: Brad Levin, general manager, North America
blevin@visageimaging.com
540.454.9670

Visage is not only leading imaging’s move to the cloud, we’ve defined it. Visage is delivering Visage 7 | CloudPACS, an AI Optimized Enterprise Imaging Platform purpose-built and proven. Visage 7 | CloudPACS provides unparalleled speed, interpretation efficiency, and much needed relief from the current challenges facing radiologists, clinicians, and imaging IT professionals.   

At HIMSS26, Visage will be demonstrating our latest Visage 7.1.20, including Visage Chat+, Visage 7 | Digital Pathology, and Visage Ease VP for Apple Vision Pro, as well as our latest work-in-progress efforts for Visage 7 | AI. Join us at booth 3753 and enjoy the best gourmet coffee available at HIMSS26, with coffee beans carefully roasted by Visage staff.

Morning Headlines 3/5/26

UnityAI Raises $8.5M to Expand an Autonomous AI Workforce for Healthcare Operations

UnityAI, which offers a healthcare agentic AI platform, raises $8.5 million in Series A funding.

Health Recovery Solutions Acquires Rimidi to Expand Remote Care Programs

Remote patient care company Health Recovery Solutions acquires Rimidi, which offers remote patient monitoring and chronic disease management services.

Guideway Care Acquires Waypoint Healthcare Solutions to Expand Enterprise Patient Activation Intelligence Solution

Patient engagement company Guideway Care acquires competitor Waypoint Healthcare Solutions.

Grow Therapy Raises $150 Million in Series D as It Solidifies New Flagship Partnerships

Online mental healthcare provider Grow Therapy announces $150 million in new funding, bringing its total raised to $328 million.

Healthcare AI News 3/4/26

News

Oura is testing a women’s health AI model for its smart ring that allows users to ask questions about reproductive health. The feature is an enhancement to Oura Advisor, which analyzes health trends, visualizes collected data, and creates health plans.

Quest Diagnostics adds an AI-powered chat feature to its patient app and portal that answers questions about lab results.

Business

UnityAI, which offers a healthcare agentic AI platform, raises $8.5 million in Series A funding.

OpenEvidence launches Doctor Dialer, which lets clinicians place calls using a customizable caller ID number, send and receive secure messages within the OpenEvidence app, send and receive faxes, leave straight-to-voicemail messages for patients, and automatically create clinical notes.

GenieMD announces a health chatbot that offers free healthcare guidance and connects users to a board-certified doctor for a paid telehealth visit if needed.

Other

A California doctor warns patients that emails linking to a video offering $45 telehealth visits with him via WhatsApp are a scam. The video is an AI-generated fake that uses images of him and a colleague, and recipients, many of them older patients, are asked to provide payment information to schedule an appointment.

A retired pediatrician testifies in Rhode Island Family Court that he asked ChatGPT if physicians can prescribe medications for themselves or family members as he faces scrutiny in a contentious trial over grandparents’ visitation rights. His  son-in-law alleges that the grandfather’s medical advice and prescribing practices contributed to his wife’s death and harmed their child. He also filed a complaint with the state department of health that accused his in-laws of engaging in Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy by prescribing excessive amounts of drugs to his wife and daughter to make them dependent on them.

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Readers Write: How AI is Helping Providers Navigate Regulatory Uncertainty

How AI is Helping Providers Navigate Regulatory Uncertainty
By Mindy Fortson

Mindy Fortson is COO of Experian Health.

Healthcare organizations have always had to navigate change. But lately, it may feel like the ground is constantly shifting, with The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) being the latest example.

While its full impact won’t be felt until next year, many providers who were surveyed say that they are not prepared and expect major challenges with eligibility and billing.

For many revenue cycle teams, this uncertainty may be creating real anxiety in day-to-day operations for staff who are already overextended. They must prepare for stricter eligibility checks, increased reporting mandates, and the likelihood of more patients cycling in and out of coverage. Providers are turning to AI not as a futuristic concept, but as a stabilizing force that brings consistency, clarity, and efficiency to increasingly complex operational demands.

Providers are asking these questions about OBBBA, and responsible AI-driven support may help answer them.

How Will Providers Know Which Patients Are About to Lose Coverage?

One of the most immediate concerns surrounding OBBBA is coverage volatility. The Congressional Budget Office anticipates that 11.8 million individuals could lose health insurance over the next decade due to policy changes, including new community engagement requirements and more frequent eligibility reviews. For providers, the challenge is not only that coverage may change, but that it may change quickly and unpredictably, creating instability at the front end of the revenue cycle.

That raises an urgent operational question: How do we identify coverage risk early, before it turns into denied claims or uncompensated care?

Many eligibility workflows are manual and fragmented and were not built for this level of change. Revenue cycle teams are already balancing staffing shortages, rising claim denial rates, and growing payer complexity.

AI solutions can help providers build more consistent operational foundations. They can identify accurate patient information, automate eligibility and insurance discovery checks, flag incomplete documentation, and lessen the burden of manual tasks.

Denials are likely to become a bigger pressure point under OBBBA, especially when coverage status changes between scheduling, registration, and billing. When teams are already stretched thin, even small documentation gaps can quickly turn into delayed reimbursement and rework. Operational consistency will be one of the most important safeguards providers can build in the years ahead.

Are Providers Ready for a Surge in Self-Pay and Uncompensated Care?

OBBBA is expected to increase the number of patients moving into self-pay categories, which is a group that already represents the highest share of bad debt write-offs. Loss of coverage doesn’t mean that patients stop needing care. But it does mean that providers face greater financial unpredictability.

Providers are asking: How do we maintain financial stability while patient responsibility grows?

Many providers need more reliable ways to understand patient populations, anticipate payment challenges, and engage patients with clearer payment options earlier in the process. AI-driven solutions can bring structure to this complexity by analyzing large amounts of patient data, demographic indicators, and billing patterns to support segmentation and reduce guesswork in collection strategies.

These tools can also identify potential charity eligibility and help providers better anticipate which patients may struggle to pay. Many providers need more predictable workflows for both staff and patients in an increasingly uncertain coverage environment.

How Will Providers Navigate Additional Operational Complexities?

OBBBA introduces a new layer of operational complexity. Each state will implement the provisions of this law differently. Providers will need to understand both state and federal rules to ensure compliance. Eligibility may hinge on employment hours, participation in training programs, or exemption status that can change month to month. Documentation may be incomplete, delayed, or interpreted differently across states.

For providers, the question becomes: How do we confirm coverage status with confidence when eligibility itself is more dynamic?

The risk isn’t only that patients lose coverage. It’s that coverage appears active at one point in the process and changes before a claim is adjudicated. That creates exposure to retroactive terminations, denials, and rework that strain staff.

Managing this kind of volatility requires more than manual verification. AI can help monitor eligibility timelines, flag missing or inconsistent documentation, and prompt earlier intervention when redetermination windows approach.

In addition, providers need access to broader, more complete data than a single insurance record. They will need to know the correct order of benefits if a patient has more than one insurance and whether they are likely to qualify for Medicaid if they appear uninsured. Eligibility may increasingly depend on data elements that providers have not traditionally needed to consider, like employment status or volunteer activities and income verification.

AI can help pull together these disparate data points and support more consistent front-end decision-making, especially when eligibility is dynamic and documentation requirements are evolving.

As implementation unfolds, operational consistency will depend on building workflows that can adapt to these requirements without adding unnecessary friction for staff or patients.

Preparing Now Means Building Stability into Core Workflows

Providers don’t need every answer today, but they do need to be asking the right questions:

• Which patients may fall through coverage gaps?
• How will self-pay growth change financial exposure?
• Where are administrative processes most vulnerable?

In a time of constant change, providers are searching for stability and workflows that are clearer, more consistent, and less reactive. AI, applied thoughtfully and responsibly, can help bring that stability into the revenue cycle. This technology is one of the best ways to ease administrative strain and help staff focus on what matters most.

This Week in Health Tech 3/4/26

Readers Write: All I Needed to Know to Disrupt Healthcare I Learned from “Seinfeld,” the Epilogue: The Summer of George

All I Needed to Know to Disrupt Healthcare I Learned from “Seinfeld,” the Epilogue: The Summer of George
By Bruce Brandes

Bruce Brandes, MBA is co-founder and board chair of WhaleHawk and CEO of Mindyra Health.

In 2014-15, I authored a seven-part blog series at the encouragement of Mr. HIStalk to reflect on my years of lessons learned in this industry through the satirical but surprisingly parallel lens of the greatest sitcom of all time.

Posts like Do The Opposite, And You Want to Be My Latex Salesman, and Yada Yada Yada were intended to reorient the mindset of how healthcare solution companies approach their go-to-market activities.

Similar to my TV friend Larry David as he wrapped “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” over a decade later, I felt compelled to pen this as a bit of an epilogue to my old HIStalk series, while also illuminating a next-generation path forward as we rethink commercial relationships in healthcare.

Unlike George Costanza, I was not special enough to get hired at PlayNow, nor was I Penske material. Instead, over the past 10 years, I’ve been fortunate to have had firsthand experience in growing transformational healthcare companies, including Livongo, Teladoc, Care.ai, and Stryker.  

Operating a healthcare organization has never been more difficult. Financial pressures, dizzying technological advances, workforce challenges, and daily policy uncertainty are among a litany of existential issues. Consequently, every solution company needs to completely reimagine how it discovers, approaches, engages, and closes new business. More importantly, the focus on value, outcomes, and building enduring relationships is paramount. Who knows more about enduring relationships than Jerry, Elaine, George, and Kramer?

Through “Seinfeld” wisdom, combined with my career journey, I’ve developed an understanding of how healthcare executives prioritize investments, navigate buying decisions, and set partnership expectations. Moreover, I’ve discovered the secrets, strategies, and tactics of successful solution companies and their most effective sales leaders and account reps.  

Go-to-market in healthcare takes too long and costs too much. Reps commonly prioritize the wrong accounts, engage at the wrong time, and make a pitch that sounds like everyone else’s and is more focused on what they want to sell than the problems their prospect seeks to solve.

Like George Costanza’s invention of the IToilet (only “Curb” loyalists may get that reference), the power of agentic AI and a treasure trove of digitized industry data are creating a better way to make your life easier.

I see many healthcare sales reps using ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, etc. to help them conduct market and account research. My question is, does this actually help or hinder a solution company’s go-to-market success?

Are we simply accelerating unwanted outreach? Does rogue, individualized use of generic LLMs exacerbate the inconsistency of a company’s approach and messaging? Is decision-making in healthcare different enough to warrant a more customized approach?

I contend that using generic LLMs for some research is OK, but the findings are superficial and insufficient if you aspire to improve the overall ROI you are getting on your sales and marketing investment.

We must train LLMs to more deeply understand how selling and decision-making in healthcare is different from any other industry. Sales cycles are long because, more often than not, the optimism of a sales rep does not reflect the realism facing buyers. LLMs must be customized to create sales acceleration agents that are deeply trained in our industry dynamics, on each specific account, and on each individual decision maker, contextualized to the unique solution and best practices.

Three key agentic deliverables will ensure the focused, efficient path to growth every company seeks while enabling a more collaborative relationship with clients.

Know WHERE to Go

Is your go-to-market plan rooted in legacy marketing investments, dated market data subscriptions, and antiquated sales enablement tools? Smarter market segmentation must refine your ideal customer profile at a much deeper level than “academic medical centers” or “community hospitals with 250+ beds.” Real data intelligence is informed by patterns across an array of less obvious variables, such as operating metrics, financial trends, workforce dynamics, governance, leadership histories, community influences, etc. so you don’t waste time chasing accounts that will likely never make a buying decision.

Know WHEN to Engage

How well do you understand the priorities of your prospects and honestly assess your solution’s relevancy, respectfully not persisting when your offering is not a fit or the timing isn’t right? A custom healthcare LLM can continuously monitor tens of thousands of digital healthcare-specific data sources — across government reporting, podcasts, industry news, policy trends, videos, clinical journals, financial filings, and social media — and correlate those insights with the context of your value proposition. That allows you to be the first to make timely connections when a potential buyer would be most receptive to your outreach.

Know HOW to Win

Are all of your reps consistently engaging in a way that is hyper-personalized, but rooted in your proven best practices? Too often, companies lead with spam emails, unwanted LinkedIn messages, trade show chocolates, texts, and unsolicited calls that waste time and money while detrimentally littering our industry and damaging your brand. Proper use of modern agents will create customized playbooks that guide informed, personalized conversations and organizational insights that demonstrate your diligence and expertise that will save time for your best reps to manage more accounts and ensure that every rep performs more like your best reps.

George Costanza once warned that “A George divided against itself cannot stand.” Take heed, and rethink how engaging healthcare-specific, custom LLM-trained agents can reduce ineffective sales and marketing efforts to catalyze a new approach for growth, leading to a less-cluttered industry and better outcomes for all.

Readers Write: AI Can’t Feel Emotions, But It Can Be Designed to Care

AI Can’t Feel Emotions, But It Can Be Designed to Care
By Richard Mackey

Richard Mackey, MBA is CTO at CCS.

AI-assisted chronic disease management is becoming a reality. Some of the biggest AI companies have set their sights on healthcare with the launch of solutions like ChatGPT for Health and new personal health data management tools like those offered by Claude from Anthropic.

Chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease, and depression require not just medical oversight, but consistent engagement, trust, and behavioral support. AI tools are starting to offer just that, both inside and outside of the traditional care environment.

Still, if those AI interactions feel cold, impersonal, or judgmental, they can drive disengagement, the opposite of what’s needed to improve long-term patient outcomes.

Done poorly, AI can amplify the very problems that it is supposed to solve. Done well, empathetic AI becomes a force multiplier, extending the reach of human care, building trust at scale, and helping people feel supported, even when interacting with a “machine.”

When Empathy Is a Design Challenge

Empathy in AI isn’t about simulating emotions or pretending to be human when it’s not. AI shouldn’t try to be human, but it does need a native understanding of the emotional context of the interaction and an ability to respond in a way that feels respectful, supportive, and authentic. In other words, empathy in AI is a design problem, one that spans data, UX, language, and intended purpose.

Consider the example of a patient managing type 2 diabetes. If a patient stops using their continuous glucose monitor, a typical automated system might flag it as noncompliance. But an empathetic AI agent that is trained not just to process the data but also to understand human behavior might recognize subtle signals in the data that indicate emotional burnout or socioeconomic barriers, and adjust the tone of outreach accordingly. That could mean offering reassurance instead of reminders, or escalating the case to a human clinician or social worker for follow-up.

Striking the right tone and balance in the design of communication with the agent, seeking to understand or offer encouragement, for example, will make a meaningful difference in whether a patient reengages or shuts down.

The ROI of Empathy

In value-based healthcare, where providers and health plans are financially accountable for outcomes, empathetic AI that is embedded in chronic disease management workflows can have measurable impact. AI can use sentiment analysis or behavioral cues to help identify patients who are at risk of disengagement or decline, triggering proactive interventions from human outreach staff.

AI can also handle routine administrative tasks with appropriate tone and timing and without clocking out at the end of an eight-hour shift, freeing up human clinicians to focus on complex, relationship-based care that fosters engagement and sustains motivation.

The result is fewer hospitalizations, higher therapy adherence, improved satisfaction scores, and ultimately, better chronic experiences and better health outcomes at lower cost.

Designing for Trust in the Age of Automation

As AI becomes more embedded in the healthcare ecosystem, its ability to convey empathy in a transparent way must be a priority. Research has already shown that it’s possible, with human respondents identifying AI responses as more empathetic and engaging across scenarios ranging from crisis situationsand cancer care to everyday communications from healthcare providers.

The consumer world is quickly operationalizing this approach, with companies like beauty brand Sephora and airline Qatar Airways scoring accolades for their AI assistants’ optimal blend of digital efficiency, personalization tools, and engagingly empathetic personality. As companies like OpenAI and Anthropic turn their attention to healthcare, they are likely to lean into a similar empathy-first approach to assist individuals with healthcare-specific tasks.

The key to success will be maintaining transparency and trust in the AI-powered healthcare ecosystem as we leverage the technology’s seemingly near-limitless potential. The bottom line is that we don’t need AI to have feelings, but we do need it to understand ours, especially when and where support and care is needed most as a patient.

Morning Headlines 3/4/26

TPG Partners with Findhelp to Expand Access to Essential Services for Underserved Populations

Social care technology vendor Findhelp secures $250 million in new funding.

KeyCare Raises $27.4 Million to Scale their AI-Powered, Epic-Based Virtual Care Solution for Health Systems

KeyCare, an Epic-based virtual care company, raises $27.4 million in funding.

Quantum Health Acquires CirrusMD to Advance Healthcare Navigation with Physician-Led Virtual Care

Employee-focused healthcare navigation company Quantum Health acquires virtual care provider CirrusMD.

FDA Warns 30 Telehealth Companies Against Illegal Marketing of Compounded GLP-1s

FDA sends 30 telehealth companies letters warning them against making false or misleading claims about compounded GLP-1 products offered on their websites.

News 3/4/26

Top News

Findhelp secures $250 million in new funding.

The company’s consumer-facing connected safety net,, which does not require users to register, facilitates referrals to community-based services for critical needs such as food, housing, utility assistance, and transportation

Reader Comments

From NewMexicoFNP: “Re: Rehoboth McKinley Christian Health Care Services. CEO Wayne Gillis describes on LinkedIn how his hospital’s labor costs increased by $400,000 per month after its Epic go-live, He blames inefficient workflow design and governance decisions that were made during implementation. His team identified five major drivers of waste — duplicate documentation, excessive inbox alerts, unused order sets, inefficient medication reconciliation steps, and time-consuming chart navigation. They eliminated redundant configurations, reduced alert noise, streamlined order sets and med rec clicks, and improved chart access to reclaim $287,000 per month in labor costs, modestly above their pre-implementation baseline.” His most interesting point is that the changes they made to save $3.4 million per year involved undoing “best practice” recommendations.

From Harlan: “Re: FDA breakthrough designation for AI tools. There are no measurable endpoints in adaptive AI that learns from interactions, so what is being validated, the model, the training, or the company’s governance process? Post-market monitoring and version control will matter more than pre-market review. It doesn’t do any good to certify a snapshot that is deployed as a moving target.”

Sponsored Events and Resources

Publication: HIStalk’s Guide to HIMSS26 lists the activities of sponsors at the conference.

Contact Lorre to have your resource listed.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

KeyCare, an Epic-based virtual care company, raises $27.4 million in funding. The company will use the proceeds to expand its AI capabilities and to continue scaling its platform.

Bloomberg reports that Oracle Health EVP Sanga Viswanathan and SVP Suhas Uliyar are leaving the company, although its sources seem to be anonymous Reddit posts. Some of those Reddit posts also claim that SVP/Chief Health Officer Bharat Sutariya, MD, MS has left. Bloomberg notes that SVPs Quais Taraki, Ofer Michael, and Max Romanenko departed the company recently.

Q-rounds, which offers an app that notifies patients, nurses, and family members of the status of clinician bedside rounds, announces $1.8 million in funding. The company launched in 2018 in partnership with the University of Minnesota and M Health Fairview.

Arrive Health and DoseSpot combine to create Interra Health, which offers software to support prescribing for providers and patients. Bain Capital Tech Opportunities serves as the majority owner of the new company. DoseSpot CEO Josh Weiner becomes CEO of Interra, while Arrive Health CEO Kyle Kiser becomes a board member and senior advisor.

Sales

• The Allina Health Minneapolis Heart Institute selects Innovaccer’s Story Health virtual specialty care and patient monitoring platform.
• Ardent Health will implement Hellocare.ai’s AI-assisted virtual nursing, telehealth, and virtual patient safety monitoring modules.

People

Wolters Kluwer promotes Stacey Caywood, MBA to CEO and executive board chair.

John Nicolosi, PharmD (LucyRx) joins Judi Health as chief administrative officer.

Clear promotes David Bardan. MBA to SVP/GM/head of healthcare and gov tech.

Announcements and Implementations

Healthcare service desk operator Ellit Groups implements Talkdesk’s Healthcare Experience Cloud.

CoxHealth (MO) goes live on Epic.

Starkey Ranch ER & Hospital (FL) implements Juno Health’s EHR.

No-code business application development platform vendor Knack launches Knack Health, a platform for creating internal tools, patient-facing forms, and operational workflows.

Government and Politics

The VA will expand its use of ambient scribe technology, developed by Knowtex and Abridge, from 10 pilot sites to 130 medical centers, with assistance from software and AI development companies Rise8 and Thoughtworks.

The FDA grants breakthrough device designation to RecovryAI’s physician-prescribed post-operative recovery Virtual Care Assistants.

Privacy and Security

CancerX and Clearwater launch the CancerX Cybersecurity Mark program to ensure that oncology-related technologies meet enterprise-grade security standards before they are deployed within health systems.

Other

Lee Health (FL) CEO Larry Antonucci, MD, MBA details the health system’s efforts to unify its treatment plans for sickle cell patients, including the creation of a sickle cell patient registry and personalized sickle cell action plans that are embedded in its EHR. The tools support 400 patients.

A VA study of 12,000 patients with chronic kidney disease finds that those whose care was managed virtually by a nephrologist had a 15% lower mortality rate than those whose care was managed solely by a primary care provider. The same set of patients also exhibited significantly higher rates of medication adherence.

Sponsor Updates

• VectorCare launches its Open API 2.0 and an integration with Bambi, which offers software for non-emergency medical transportation.
• First Databank connects its FDB Vela EPrescribing Network with Photon’s digital prescription marketplace.
• CereCore offers “The Buyer’s Guide to IT Managed Services: Your Guide to Smarter Healthcare IT Decisions.”
• Philips Capsule launches its Device Driver Interface Library to verify compatibility of devices with its medical device integration solutions.
• CloudWave appoints Brian Lamberger as general manager of cybersecurity solutions.

Blog Posts

• Preventing Denials by Navigating the Complexities of Notice of Admission (NOA) (AGS Health)
• The human side of AI: How small steps can empower, not replace (Altera Digital Health)
• Care management software: Overview and 10 options for 2026 (Arcadia)
• Top Occupational Medicine EHR Software in 2026 (Bizmatics)
• The Mechanics of Medication Management: Conversations at ViVE (DrFirst)

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
Get HIStalk updates.
Send news or rumors.
Follow on X, Bluesky, and LinkedIn.
Sponsorship information.
Contact us.

Morning Headlines 3/3/26

Interra Health, created through the merger of DoseSpot and Arrive Health, ushers in a new era of transparency for patients and providers

Arrive Health and DoseSpot combine to create Interra Health, which offers software designed to enhance the prescribing process for patients and providers.

An app that answers ‘When will the doctor be here?’ raises $1.8 million

Q-rounds, which offers an app that notifies patients, nurses, and family members of rounds, announces $1.8 million in funding.

Ease Health Emerges from Stealth with $41M from Andreessen Horowitz to Redefine the Operating System for Behavioral Health

Behavioral health software startup Ease Health raises $41 million in Series A funding.

Revology Launches Strategic Revenue Cycle Partnership with Margaret Mary Health

Margaret Mary Health transitions (IN) 53 staff members to employment with Revology, its new RCM vendor.

Curbside Consult with Dr. Jayne 3/2/26

Clinical informatics is a broad subspecialty. Board certification requires being knowledgeable across a broad range of domains. The American Board of Preventive Medicine, which along with the American Board of Pathology can grant certification, distills it for its website:

Physicians who practice Clinical Informatics collaborate with other health care and information technology professionals to analyze, design, implement and evaluate information and communication systems that enhance individual and population health outcomes, improve patient care, and strengthen the clinician-patient relationship. Clinical Informaticians use their knowledge of patient care combined with their understanding of informatics concepts, methods, and tools to: assess information and knowledge needs of healthcare professionals and patients; characterize, evaluate, and refine clinical processes; develop, implement, and refine clinical decision support systems; and lead or participate in the procurement, customization, development, implementation, management, evaluation, and continuous improvement of clinical information systems.

The description doesn’t specifically describe patient-facing tools, but it does cover individual health outcomes, improving patient care, and building the patient-physician relationship. These goals are easier to accomplish when clinicians have tools at our disposal that help patients understand their own health situation and provide education and information.

Plenty of other entities are trying to grab our patients’ attention, which can lead to interesting conversations in the exam room as we work to counter medical misinformation or try to lead patients to consider evidence-based care plans.

I was surprised to see a study in Communications Biology this week that looked at direct-to-consumer testing. The results of tests that look at the microbiome of the digestive system varied dramatically among laboratory providers. The authors sent identical stool samples to the vendors, but each identified different bacterial levels, and only three of more than 1,200 bacteria were consistently identified across all the reports.

It wasn’t just variability between single samples that were sent to multiple facilities, but also among identical samples that were sent to the same facility. For one set of samples, the lab identified one submission as “unhealthy,” while two identical submissions were “healthy.”

The authors hoped to better understand the consistency and reliability of direct-to-consumer testing, which is not required to comply with the same level of regulations that traditional clinical laboratories must meet. Many of these tests fall under the category of “wellness” rather than being designed to diagnose a specific condition. Many physicians find the term “wellness” irritating because it has been used to hawk everything from unregulated botanical substances to jade eggs that are to be placed in the vagina to enhance sensuality (they are also an infection risk and may cause pelvic floor dysfunction, so those are a “no” when patients ask.) 

The authors found that bacteria in the genus Clostridium had the most variability in the reports. Three labs failed to detect it in one or more samples, and one reported it at five times the expected level.

The authors attribute the variability to different reference databases, reporting cutoffs, sample processing protocols, testing methods, and quality control standards. One of their goals was to make a point that just because a direct-to-consumer test is popular doesn’t mean that it is accurate, and that patients should understand the limited evidence that is behind such tests.

As a middle school science fair judge, it is an issue when three identical runs of the same experiment give different outcomes. For those who are curious, the paper details how exactly they prepared the identical specimens, all of which were obtained from a single donor.

Some direct-to-consumer tests get a lot of attention and often lead to patients arriving at the office of their primary care physician, asking us to treat something that isn’t actually a problem. I’ve seen multiple people bring in salivary hormone test panels that aren’t evidence-based and also allergy testing results that can be downright dangerous if not handled appropriately.

I enjoy working with patients who are engaged and want to take action, but these visits often lead to lengthy conversations that may not fit in the typical busy primary care schedule. Also, patients are almost universally unaware that at-home tests are not of the same level and quality as those that we would order in the office or during a virtual visit.

The authors call on the industry to take concrete steps to improve the transparency and interpretation of gut microbiome testing. These could also be applied to other types of testing. Specifically, they call on labs to address the idea of clinical validity and whether testing yields data showing correlation or causation with respect to a given health factor.

They also call for improved analytical performance in the testing process, maximizing both accuracy and precision. They go further to recommend that the industry work with testing companies and other stakeholders to create guidelines for testing, which would improve the validity of testing as well as the confidence of consumers who seek it.

Although patient-directed stool testing isn’t something you typically hear much about, research like this highlights some of the opportunities for clinical informatics experts to lend their knowledge to the task. We can help identify if a population-level issue  needs to be investigated, perform qualitative and quantitative research to understand the scope of the problem, support researchers as they seek data and information around the topic, and identify how the findings might be used to improve patient care.

We can also configure the tools at our disposal to help identify which patients would benefit from such testing, configure clinical decision support systems based on new evidence, and automate the creation of treatment plans based on the results while delivering effective patient education along the way.

Many of my colleagues think that clinical informatics team members just build order sets and flowsheets in the EHR all day. They don’t necessarily have exposure to all the different types of healthcare technology we can employ and how it can have an impact on the patients and communities that we serve.

As more of us enter the field, we should be able to provide that kind of education and exposure to our specialty. Our colleagues should know what we can do, just as they know how a cardiologist or pulmonologist can contribute to the care team.

What’s the most interesting clinical informatics project your team has done? Has your group built any tools that address direct-to-consumer testing or management of those results? Leave a comment or email me.

Email Dr. Jayne.

Readers Write: Healthcare’s Seasonal Surge is Upon Us. Is Your Health System Ready?

Healthcare’s Seasonal Surge is Upon Us. Is Your Health System Ready?
By Dusti Browning, RN

Dusti Browning, RN, MSN is VP of growth and client solutions for Conduit Health Partners.

Seasonal surges happen every year, and 2026 is particularly brutal. The flu was already associated with 120,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths by the end of 2025.

The winter months often bring with them a tidal wave of respiratory viruses, influenza, RSV, and COVID. Clinicians expect them. But while these spikes in patient volume are predictable, too many health systems find themselves in a challenging supply-and-demand environment that can negatively impact patient care and the bottom line.

A recent report found that 60% of nurses are experiencing a significant uptick in patient volume and case complexity amid the current flu season. As seasonal surges collide with ongoing emergency department (ED) overcrowding and staffing shortages, health systems face mounting pressure to find scalable, practical solutions.

The national report surveyed 64 nurses, half working in triage and half in transfer centers, and found that 70% of nurses believe that offering 24/7 virtual nurse triage prevents unnecessary ED visits. In fact, additional industry data points to an ED avoidance rate of 72 to 76% over the past two years, meaning nearly three out of four triage encounters are resolved without an ED visit.

While hospitals and health systems can’t eliminate seasonal surges, they can anticipate them and implement systems that reduce strain.

Protecting System Capacity Remotely

The report found the most frequent patient concerns during the seasonal surge include minor respiratory symptoms, medication management, chronic disease follow-up, and low-acuity infections. Around 75% of nurses report that remote solutions help manage these issues effectively. This is significant given the challenges facing health systems during seasonal surges. A separate study found that 35% of patients that present to an ED during the winter months wait four or more hours for a bed.

Safeguarding capacity in today’s EDs is an imperative, with stats from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showing that 42.7 visits per 100 people start in the ED. As those numbers continue to increase, virtual nurse triage provides an alternative access point that is proven to reduce strain on health system EDs during seasonal surges.

Notably, the recent patient access and throughput report found that nearly one in three avoided emergency visits associated with nurse triage after regular clinic hours. This demonstrates that real-time clinical access can help patients reach the right level of care at times when they are more likely to turn to the ED. The end result is improved overall access to care, better outcomes, and lower costs. A measurable decrease in staff burden and burnout further strengthens the impact.

Enhancing Patient Experience

When seasonal outbreaks occur, capacity is at a premium, but so is staffing. Burnout continues to be rampant in healthcare. A recent survey conducted by The Harris Poll of 1,504 frontline health care employees revealed that 55% are looking for job openings, interviewing, or planning to switch to a new role in the next year.

While AI and automation are primed to ease administrative burdens in the coming years, the reality is that patients and families in distress often need to speak with a human being. When staff are lacking and already under immense strain, patient experiences are negatively impacted. Lengthy wait times to get to a professional or a frustrating technology-first approach can cause patients to turn to the ED out of desperation. Virtual nurse triage offers a more accessible, clinically appropriate alternative.

The patient access and throughput report found that roughly one in four nurses witness or suspect worsened outcomes due to delays in access or coordination. The findings reinforce the efficacy of virtual nurse triage to address operational challenges of seasonal surges and improve patient outcomes and experiences.

Readiness When Demand Peaks

The CDC predicts that flu activity could continue to rise in the coming weeks. Seasonal surges don’t have to mean bottlenecks and burnout. The data show what works: nurse-first, telephone triage reduces visits to the ED, eases the operational burden of overcrowded waiting rooms, and reduces the risk of worsened outcomes.

As health systems prepare for the next seasonal wave, integrating nurse triage into access pathways isn’t just operational. It is essential for protecting capacity, easing staff strain, and improving patient care.

HIStalk Interviews Guillaume Castel, CEO, PerfectServe

Guillaume Castel, MBA is CEO of PerfectServe.

Tell me about yourself and the company.

I have been CEO at PerfectServe for almost seven years. We have been working hard and making a lot of progress in driving value for our customers and our partners.

Almost seven years ago, we had a different vantage point on the constituents we serve, typically hospitals, health systems, and physician groups. Our commitment to them was that we were going to get the right communication workflows to the right people at the right time using the right channel. To accomplish all this, we went about acquiring and putting together four companies and then a fifth one.

If you fast-forward to today, we have more than doubled the size of our company. We are now 400-plus employees around the United States and Canada, along with some contractors outside the US. We have been deliberate about driving one big value proposition, which is accelerating speed-to-care across the continuum for all users and doing it from the cloud.

Doing all this the right way took some time. Integrating the pieces the right way took some time. But now we have a value proposition that resonates across diverse stakeholders in the United States, increasingly in Canada, and we are knee-deep in some really interesting conversations in Europe.

What does the clinical communication systems market look like, and how do EHR vendors fit in it?

We think of solving two reasonably evergreen problems. One is making sure that your workforce is optimized in the workplace and in the right place. Right people in the right place at the right time, clinicians and staff, to meet the demands of patients. Then once they are there, that they have an almost intuitive way of communicating and collaborating with one another. We are focused on those two big problems.

The second one leverages clinical communication capabilities. We have been ahead of the market in using logic, routing, and technologies to enable complex workflows for typically very large health systems. We partner with a ton of ecosystem vendors. We keep a catalog of 270 integration points with our competitors, with our friends, and obviously with the EHR companies.

I am proud to say that in many instances, we drive value with and for the EHRs with a number of our customers. Having this open-minded view of how to collaborate with clinical systems inside hospitals will continue to be important.

What metrics do health systems use to measure return on investment?

It has changed a lot. If you go back five to 10 years, it was throughput, length of stay, patient satisfaction, and physician and clinician productivity. Those metrics continue to be extraordinarily important for us to track. But now, what is always front and center on the minds of decision makers is clear and demonstrable ROI. 

We have put together a comprehensive platform that offers a lot of capabilities. Our conversation is, this is what we do at PerfectServe. Our Unite platform delivers value across the continuum for all of your users. We can help you with clinical communication issues. We can help you with provider scheduling issues. We can help you with your physician group and practice management issues. We are increasingly helping you with transfer center and operator console software issues. And last but certainly not least, we follow patients when they go home with well integrated patient and family communications.

This allows us to say, tell us what you are using today. Tell us all your scheduling systems across your various sites of care. Tell us about your pagers. Tell us about your sometimes point-to-point texting capabilities. Tell us about your old-school faxing capabilities. Tell about all the servers you have in the basement of your hospitals that are allowing you to power transfer centers.

We can rationalize all of that and drive almost immediate financial ROI for them. This has been a successful strategy for us. It does not exclude the clinical benefit that we drive, and we continue to be clinician-focused. But that immediate consolidation play with guaranteed financial ROI and tackling problems like physician and clinician burnout has been resonating for us in a way that we frankly did not fully anticipate five to seven years ago.

How is the industry looking at how provider scheduling impacts job satisfaction and burnout?

We continue to be surprised with the fact that there continues to be a need for fairness in how schedules are built. Fairness may be as simple as, “I don’t want to be on call three times this week,” or “I want to make sure that I can go attend my kid’s recital on Sunday. Therefore, take my preferences into account.”

Our technology allows administrators and sometimes physician leaders to make sure that all those preferences are taken into account when the schedule is being created, and that people feel that they have been heard. This concept of technology being leveraged to create fair and equal schedules, removing human bias and taking preferences into account, has led to health systems and large physician groups having higher retention rates with their clinicians over long periods of time.

We continue to refine that model. We make sure that when an administrator creates a schedule with our technology, it is a near-perfect schedule that requires as little human intervention as possible.

How are health systems and provider groups using technology to manage inbound communications?

It is going at a rapid pace. We are excited about solving, in partnership with some of our largest customers, this equation and algorithm for almost real-time alignment of patient-to-clinician supply and demand. You will see soon, and in fact a couple of instances are already live, the ability to flex the number of clinicians and support staff that you have in any given location based on the type of patients coming in and the acuity that they are presenting with.

That cannot be predicted six months ahead. You can build a really good schedule six months ahead, but day-to-day changes happen, and we need to be able to embrace that. Our technology is flexible and reflects near-realtime preferences. We can recalibrate who should be where and why.

It’s not as simple as saying that physician Guillaume is going to work from 8 to 4 in this location every Thursday. Sometimes it will be 7 to 3. Sometimes it will be 8 to 6. This alignment of supply and demand is paramount to the wellbeing and the financial health of all of our customers.

How has the role of contact centers changed?

This concept of a contact center is probably the least well-understood part of the hospital. It is the face of it. It is bidirectional. It is both outbound and inbound. It now requires vendors to be nimble with AI capabilities that support patients, their families, clinicians who call the hospital, and even ambulances that call the hospital with an important case that needs care teams to be mobilized in very short order.

The diversity of use cases that go through a transfer center or a contact center has changed a lot. We are proud to have a technology that powers that transfer center. When I think about the product that has driven the most momentum for us over the last couple of years, it’s probably that.

It’s this strategic control point, where you have agents who are trying to match incoming calls from a diverse set of stakeholders. It could be an ambulance, a patient, a family member, or a clinician calling from a physician group who is trying to get an update on their patients that have been admitted. We make sure that those agents can do their best work by having access to schedules and using proper routing and clinical communication to actually deliver a message that will get to the right person at the right time.

That is real innovation, real-time productivity, and true operational improvement for health systems. We are gaining a ton of momentum on that front, and we think that it’s a very big control point for the rest of our technologies.

How do you incorporate AI into your strategy and product roadmap?

We serve about a million users, and as such, we take our job seriously. We embrace AI, but we are also careful, because we cannot afford to make mistakes with models that are imperfect.

The way we think about AI at PerfectServe is twofold. One is internally, where we have embraced AI for the last two years. It has made us more productive. It has made us more efficient. It has made our people happier. There is no end in sight. We have appointed a person who runs AI across all programs at PerfectServe. We have a clear mission to make our company go faster.

Then you have AI applied to our capabilities that are customer-facing. A simple view that I believe is exactly right is that AI will help us get more out of workflow software by converting what was viewed as a workflow into actual work, enabled by agentic AI.

We have seen clear examples. If you are running a call center, you can definitely improve the experience by embracing AI at the first layer of triage levels so that the call gets to the right person in that transfer center, the right way, and with the right context. This is embracing AI in a way that makes an operational difference for the health system without putting at risk any of the clinical outcomes.

We are just starting there. We have a roadmap full of AI projects that are being applied to our work in the ambulatory setting, inside the operator console work that we do in health systems, and increasingly in our provider scheduling capabilities.

What are your lessons learned in leading the company so long and seeing it reach $100 million in annual recurring revenue?

Listen to customers. Invest in technologies that are differentiated, that can stand on their own, and that have real logic. We don’t invest in me-too products that are simple. We think that those will disappear fast.

Integrate your capabilities. Have an open mind to spending money to integrate with all the other vendors that hospitals and physician groups use. We will eventually prove to all of them that our products not only can integrate, but can also enhance the strategy they have already decided.

We had a breakthrough in 2022-2023 where we talked about putting together capabilities that had not been put together before. As recently as earlier this week, we see competitors following our strategy, and it makes us proud. We are focused on the next best thing that we will add to our roster of services and capabilities.

What makes me proudest is our people. We have more than 400 people who spend every day thinking about how they can make our customers better and how we can stitch together better solutions to drive value for them financially, operationally, and clinically. It has worked for us. We still have work to do, but it has been a great ride.

Have you seen challenged startups that might be ripe for acquisition that could help you expand your product?

We are super disciplined. The problem with the market right now is that there is a misalignment between startup valuation expectations and what we believe to be the actual embedded value in the asset that we are interested in. We look at four or five companies every week. When we find the right match between value, culture, and the people that are coming along with the technology, we will pull the trigger, and we will make sure that our customers are aligned with our strategy.

M&A is part of our strategy, and so is building new capabilities internally. We have a track record of doing that. The Healthcare Operator Console product is a good example.

If we pay attention to what our customers are telling us, and if we continue to have a mind pointed towards the future, we will put the right stuff together. That has worked well for us.

Consolidation of capabilities is only starting, and scale is going to matter. The track record is going to matter. Being secure for our customers and proving that every day is going to matter. Embracing AI, integrating, and making sure that we’re present for all stakeholders.

There’s a ton of momentum on the ambulatory side right now, with big multi-specialty groups that have clear enterprise-level software and AI needs. We are happy to be present there. We see very good synergies between those groups and the large health systems that we are lucky enough to have as partners.

We like our position. We work hard every day to make sure that we stay ahead. Research firms have been kind to us, and I think that we have earned it. Gartner has placed us at the top of the Magic Quadrant three years in a row, and we don’t take that lightly. We have had the same success with KLAS reports.

We are focused. We continue to pay attention to what the market is saying. We listen to our customers. We keep our culture. We believe that this is the right recipe for continued success.

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