News 2/13/26

Top News

Health data exchange vendor HealthMark Group acquires Purview, which offers a cloud-based medical imaging sharing solution.

Reader Comments

From T-Bone: “Re: overused phrases to stop using. ‘Dropped’ is an eye-roller for me.” Me too, especially when it strays from podcast self-promotion, as in “new pod ep dropped” and drifts into ambiguity. If Spotify “dropped” a new AI DJ, did it launch one or scrap one? Thus the word is a contronym, meaning that it can mean one thing as well as the opposite (see: dust, clip, and sanction). “Dropped” was a hip-hop thing in the 1980s that referred to dropping the turntable’s needle onto a new LP track, adding no value over “released” either then or now.

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

My optometrist referred me to an academic medical center’s ophthalmology clinic to rule out glaucoma after noting minor blood vessel irregularities. The visit went well, the team was efficient and empathetic, and my eyes are just fine. The checkout person said I needed to return every six months, although I’m not sure why. Specialists seem to rarely let patients walk out without promising to return every 6-12 months even when no particular intervention is planned. I suspect that their motivation is clinical rather than financial and that they truly believe, as specialists, that every (insured) human would benefit from their ongoing supervision.

Sponsored Events and Resources

Live Webinar: February 18 (Wednesday) 2 ET. “From Blind Spots to Insights: Gaining Real-Time Visibility into Healthcare Risk.” Sponsor: CloudWave. Presenters: Jacob Wheeler, MBA, director of sales engineering, CloudWave; Mike Donahue, chief operating officer, CloudWave. Resilience starts with the ability to see clearly, across every endpoint, cloud workload, user, and clinical system. Join CloudWave’s cybersecurity leaders for an in-depth session on how real-time visibility transforms your ability to detect threats early, respond decisively, and strengthen resilience across the care ecosystem. Attendees will learn the practical steps that hospitals can take to move from reactive defense to resilient action.

Publication: HIStalk’s Guide to ViVE 2026 lists the activities of sponsors at the conference.

Contact Lorre to have your resource listed.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Healthcare services and insurance provider Harbor Health acquires Rippl, which offers a dementia care platform. Harbor Health raised $130 million in September 2025, while Rippl raised a $23 million Series A in October 2024.

Shares of Teladoc and Doximity fall after Amazon announces plans to expand same-day prescription delivery to 4,500 cities by the end of the year. TDOC shares have lost 65% in the past 12 months, while DOCS is down 66%.

Sales

• Western Missouri Medical Center will implement Meditech Expanse EHR.
• KPC Health will deploy Altera Digital Health’s Paragon Denali EHR in its seven hospitals in Southern California.
• Hillsboro Health (IL) will implement Oracle Health’s EHR, Clinical AI Agent, and Seamless Exchange.
• Tampa General Hospital chooses Agfa HealthCare’s Enterprise Imaging Cloud software as a service.

People

Providence promotes Maulin Shah, MD to SVP/CHIO.

Announcements and Implementations

Medicomp Systems announces AI enablement tools that use its clinically validated, structured knowledge base to ensure that AI-generated documentation and insights are evidence-based before they are incorporated into the EHR. Core elements include validating ambient listening output, retrieving clinical data by natural language or dictation, converting narrative text into structured clinical data, and improving the flow of poorly mapped or unstructured data. The company has also released a Model Context Protocol to expose its APIs to AI models while limiting unstructured AI output and removing LLM access to PHI.

Government and Politics

Alabama hopes to use federal rural health funds to deploy telerobotic ultrasound technology to address severe rural obstetric clinician shortages and high infant mortality, but clinicians and policymakers question its effectiveness and whether it can replace trained health workers. A small Canadian review found that the technology avoided patient travel 70% of the time, and nearly all patients said that they would use it again. Only 15 of 55 rural Alabama counties have hospital-based obstetric services, down from 45 in 1980.

Privacy and Security

A Utah state auditor finds that records of 2 million people that are electronically stored by the Department of Health and Human Services, including psychiatric treatment records from Utah State Hospital, are accessible to any employee who has system access, with no safeguards to prevent or log inappropriate viewing.

A TikTok celebrity who was injured while creating a travel video requests that his personal information not be published after an unnamed hospital where he was treated notified him that multiple employees improperly accessed his medical record. He also says that staff entered his treatment room while he was medicated to ask for selfies.

Sponsor Updates

• Cibolo Health chooses CloudWave as the preferred cybersecurity provider for its rural clinically integrated network members.
• WellSky announces GA of its WellSky Long-Term Care solution, powered by SkySense AI.
• Fulton County Medical Center (PA) will upgrade to Meditech Expanse in May.
• InterSystems wins four Global 2026 Best in KLAS awards, with TrackCare receiving Acute Care EHR in France, Asia, and Oceania and HealthShare recognized for shared care records in Europe.
• Five9 announces an expanded partnership with Google Cloud and a new joint Enterprise CX AI solution for large enterprises.
• Health Data Movers releases a new episode of its “QuickHITs” podcast titled “Pediatric Health Mergers & AI with John Henderson.”

Blog Posts

• The Managed Services advantage: Why more healthcare leaders are making the Shift (Altera Digital Health)
• AI trends shaping the Health IT Transaction Landscape (Healthcare Growth Partners)
• 2026 Mental and Behavioral Health Registry (MBHR) (Healthmonix)
• Cultivating the garden of leadership: Lessons for female leaders in growth, resilience, and boldness (Cardamom)
• How Healthcare Leaders Can Stabilize Performance Today While Transforming Care for Tomorrow (Impact Advisors)
• LincTV: Now in Epic Toolbox (Lincata)
• How nurses at Berkshire Health Systems harness peer-driven change to improve patient care (Meditech)

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
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Sponsorship information.
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EPtalk by Dr. Jayne 2/12/26

JAMA Network Open published an interesting Original Investigation last month that set out to answer the question: “Are greater levels of generative artificial intelligence (AI) use by US adults associated with greater levels of depressive symptoms?”

The authors surveyed 20,000 adults. Of those, 10% reported daily use of generative AI tools and 5% said they use it multiple times per day. Higher levels of AI use were linked to increased depressive symptoms, especially in certain age brackets. The authors note that additional research is needed to understand the nature of the association and differences in impact.

AI truly is everywhere, but I was surprised to see it on the new RealFood.gov website that replaced MyPlate.gov. Users who post a question are redirected to the Grok AI tool.

I took advantage of a preloaded sample question that addresses the challenges of eating non-processed foods when the closest food source is a gas station and an individual is on a fixed income. The answer also recommends that users consider food stamps, food pantries, and other community-based options.

Some of our government health leaders are promoting animal fats as healthier options so I decided to poke the AI bear and asked whether animal fats cause heart disease. Grok sided with existing data that suggests that higher consumption of meat, dairy, and eggs is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Score one for Grok in keeping with established mainstream science.

I asked Grok what happened to MyPlate. I was impressed that it clearly identified those who are responsible for the new approach, none of whom are physicians, nutritionists, or dietitians. Grok noted criticisms of the “return to a pyramid format that was abandoned partly because it was harder for people to interpret compared to the simple plate model.”

It also offered a follow-up question that compared the old guidelines to the new. It also identified critics, including Harvard Nutrition Source, Stanford, and public health groups, and their concerns, such as the scientific process that was employed.

As a family physician with a keen interest in the literature, I’m concerned at how this paradigm minimizes fiber. If flipping the guidelines were a scientific study, I’m not sure it would make it past Institutional Review Board approval. So many of us feel like we’re living in an unregulated science experiment.

I asked Grok its thoughts on the links between red meat, fiber, and colon cancer. It gave me a deep dive into exactly how red meat contributes to colorectal cancer risk and the protective nature of fiber. At least I have some facts in my head for the next patient who comes in asking about their diet, because I won’t be recommending the new guidelines without extensive discussion of context and validation.

Amazon One Medical has introduced a new beta feature to help patients navigate their lab results. The Health Insights functionality, which is included in the One Medical membership, provides commentary on 50 standard blood work results while grouping tests together by health domains such as cardiovascular and immune function. Users complete a questionnaire, then the tool generates a wellness score and offers evidence-based lifestyle recommendations with scientific references. I’m not a subscriber, but I would be interested in hearing from anyone who has had a chance to check it out.

Given the number of health systems and care delivery organizations in the US, it seems like someone is always merging, acquiring, or separating. The M Health Fairview brand will be retired from a subset of hospitals in 2027 as part of a new agreement between the University of Minnesota and Fairview Health Services. The deal, which was approved by the university’ board of regents on January 30, shifts the partnership from a joint clinical enterprise to an academic affiliation.

Healthcare administrative types may be familiar with the nuances of those structures, but I doubt that the majority of patients who live in the communities that the organizations serve will understand what the shift means.

The groups will still work together with regard to the University of Minnesota Medical Center. However, details of the agreements that impact the respective physician groups are not yet public. In short, the university will maintain control of academic and research functions, while Fairview will be responsible for hospital operations.

Relations between the two organizations have been strained for a number of years. The university opposed a merger between Fairview and Sanford Health, after which Fairview opposed the university’s push to merge with Essentia Health. The Minnesota Attorney General became involved, triggering facilitation and mediation efforts. The new agreement will be in force for 10 years compared previous partnership’s 30 years.

Speaking of branding, Texas Health Resources has inked a deal to buy naming rights to Texas Health Mansfield Stadium. It includes “prominent branding throughout the stadium, a refreshed logo and a new digital presence… while also laying the foundation for a wide-ranging collaboration focused on community health initiatives.”

The hospital president and CEO indicated that the facility “will serve as the central wellness hub for the entire Mansfield community.” Given the fact that stadiums are typically closed and locked when teams are not in play, it will be interesting to see how it becomes a wellness hub. 

The article mentioned that Texas Health will be the facility’s “Official Health Partner” and “will collaborate on initiatives designed to promote healthier lifestyles, including community programming and enhanced food and beverage offerings that emphasize more nutritious options.” Hide the jumbo nachos and the foot-long corn dog, y’all.

The ASTP meeting kicked off earlier this week, with a focus on the intersection of health IT and the priorities of the US Department of Health and Human Services. Main stage sessions include titles such as “Health Technology for Transparency and Affordability” and “Making America Healthy Again through Technology + Care.” Breakouts covered standards, data exchange, and of course information blocking.

I’m interested to hear from anyone who attended, and in particular, from people who attended previous meetings. How was the attendee mix compared to the past? Were topics handled similarly? What was the overall mood? Leave a comment or email me.

Email Dr. Jayne.

Morning Headlines 2/12/26

Voxira AI Agent Developer Secai Raises $6.2M Series A to Scale Healthcare Automation

Healthcare AI company Secai will use new Series A funding to expand its Voxira and NoteGen solutions across Canada and the United States.

Telehealth stocks pressured as Amazon Pharmacy expands prescription delivery

Shares of Teladoc and Doximity dip on the news that Amazon will expand its its same-day prescription delivery service to 4,500 cities by the end of this year.

TEFCA, America’s National Interoperability Network, Reaches Nearly 500 Million Health Records Exchanged as HHS Leverages Technology and AI to Lower Costs and Reduce Burden

ASTP/ONC announces at its annual meeting that 500 million health records have been exchanged through TEFCA, an exponentially significant jump from the 10 million exchanged as of January 2025.

Healthcare AI News 2/11/26

News

An India-based newspaper reports that AI tools make it easier to create fake paper prescriptions by generating authentic-looking documents from simple prompts and altering the images of legitimate prescriptions. The report notes that weak pharmacy enforcement and verification practices make it easier for people to obtain prescription medicines without a doctor’s examination. The newspaper notes that the practice would not work in the US and Canada because prescriptions are sent electronically prescribers directly to pharmacies, which verify the patient’s identity.

An AI-enhanced surgical navigation system is linked to a spike in patient injury reports, including misidentified anatomy and instrument misguidance, with Johnson & Johnson’s Acclarent TruDi logging at least 100 incidents after its 2021 AI upgrade versus seven in the prior three years. Studies find that AI-enabled devices are recalled more often than traditional ones, while the FDA cautions that adverse event reports are incomplete and do not prove fault.  Federal staffing cuts have reduced the number of scientists who are working in AI device oversight at the FDA.

Business

India-based hospital operator Superhealth launches SuperOS, a self-developed, agentic AI-powered platform that it says can manage an entire hospital’s clinical and operational work. The system includes intelligent appointment-length scheduling, ambient AI listening with automated order entry, pharmacy and lab inventory management and scheduling, cloud-based imaging and analytics, patient monitoring, medication management, and a “magic discharge” feature that generates a discharge summary and bypasses multi-department approval processes.

Research

Researchers find that large language models often repeat medical misinformation when it is worded authoritatively and embedded in realistic clinical notes. The authors conclude that model safety improvements will probably come from enhancing guardrails rather than increasing model size or using more sophisticated prompting methods.

A 200-employee, single-company study finds that implementing AI intensifies work rather than reducing it. Optional use of enterprise AI tools was associated with expanded job scope, use during breaks and meetings, and increased multitasking. Experts say that companies may welcome those gains, but warn that employees could make more mistakes, experience burnout, and see erosion of work-life balance. The authors recommend that employers define how they want employees to us AI, build intentional pauses into workflows, pair human judgment with AI at key points, monitor workload and address burnout, and eliminate low-value tasks instead of instead of just boosting output.

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
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This Week in Health Tech 2/11/26

Morning Headlines 2/11/26

Garner Health Raises $118 Million to Close the Healthcare Quality and Cost Gap; Reaches $1.35 Billion Valuation

Patient navigation and doctor quality analytics platform vendor Garner Health raises $118 million in Series D funding that values the company at $1.35 billion.

Solace Raises $130 Million Series C to Make Healthcare Advocacy a Standard of Care in the US

Tech-enabled healthcare navigation and patient advocacy company Solace Health announces $130 million in Series C funding, bringing its total raised to $211 million.

Health Gorilla Publishes Engagement Summary Demonstrating Transparency, Integrity, and an Effective Governance Process

Data-exchange vendor Health Gorilla releases a summary of the good-faith actions it has taken to reassure stakeholders in the wake of a lawsuit brought against it by Epic, OCHIN, and several health systems.

News 2/11/26

Top News

Patient navigation and doctor quality analytics platform vendor Garner Health raises $118 million in Series D funding that values the company at $1.35 billion.

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

HIStalk sponsors that are participating in HIMSS26: send me your details and I’ll include them in my guide to the conference. The ViVE version of the form is still live, with results so far here.

Sponsored Events and Resources

Live Webinar: February 18 (Wednesday) 2 ET. “From Blind Spots to Insights: Gaining Real-Time Visibility into Healthcare Risk.” Sponsor: CloudWave. Presenters: Jacob Wheeler, MBA, director of sales engineering, CloudWave; Mike Donahue, chief operating officer, CloudWave. Resilience starts with the ability to see clearly, across every endpoint, cloud workload, user, and clinical system. Join CloudWave’s cybersecurity leaders for an in-depth session on how real-time visibility transforms your ability to detect threats early, respond decisively, and strengthen resilience across the care ecosystem. Attendees will learn the practical steps that hospitals can take to move from reactive defense to resilient action.

Publication: HIStalk’s Guide to ViVE 2026 lists the activities of sponsors at the conference.

Contact Lorre to have your resource listed.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Synthpop, which specializes in healthcare AI for diagnostics, fertility, and durable medical equipment workflows, announces $15 million in Series A funding.

Sales

• MultiCare Health System (WA) selects Ambience Healthcare’s AI platform for documentation, coding, and clinical workflows.
• M Health Fairview (MN) will implement Nabla’s ambient AI assistant and dictation software.

People

Marshall Health Network (WV) promotes David Quirke to chief digital and information officer.

Agfa HealthCare names Christopher Thompson VP of sales east for North America.

Danny Gladden, MBA, MSW (Oracle Health) joins Streamline Healthcare Solutions as chief clinical officer.

AssureCare promotes Parth Shah, MBA, MRes to SVP of customer success and enterprise AI delivery.

Andy Brailo (Premier) joins R1 as chief commercial officer.

MPulse names Brian Higgins (Clarity Software Solutions) chief architect and promotes Erin Kowalow to EVP of product delivery.

Ambience Healthcare appoints Mike Valli (Symplr) chief revenue officer and chief value officer.

Announcements and Implementations

Warm Valley Health Care (WY) goes live on Oracle Health.

Government and Politics

The VA’s latest inventory of 138 active AI use cases finds that its EHR Modernization Program is looking at five separate use cases for the technology, including a clinical agent that will be integrated with its Oracle Health-based system. The department is also incorporating the technology into its suicide prevention efforts.

Rajput Kuldeep Singh, the former CEO of remote patient monitoring vendor Biofourmis, is charged in Singapore with several counts of falsifying company invoices to inflate revenue figures. He left Biofourmis in August 2023 and later founded OutcomesAI, which raised $10 million in seed funding in October 2025. Biofourmis was acquired by competitor CopilotIQ in October 2024

Sponsor Updates

• AdvancedMD offers a new case study titled “How AdvancedMD Helped Televero Behavioral Health Fortify Its Financial Health.”
• CereCore releases a new podcast titled “The Dual Perspective of a Rural CMO and CMIO.”
• Cardamom will present at Oregon HFMA’s Winter Workshop February 12 in McMinnville.
• SlicedHealth is named #3 on the UGA 2026 Bulldog 100 list.
• CloudWave will sponsor the MUSE SOCial Community Peer Group Event February 18 in Covino, CA.

Blog Posts

• Scaling Behavioral Health: What a Unified EHR Should Deliver (Netsmart)
• Physician Leader on Why Healthcare Needs Doctors at the Decision-Making Table (CereCore)
• The hidden cost of poor contract management in healthcare (Altera Digital Health)
• The healthcare data lake vs. other data storage structures (Arcadia)
• California Collaborative (Canopii Collaborative)
• 76% Critical, 20% Ready: The Massive Execution Gap Revealed at CHIME25 (Clearsense)

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 2/10/26

Synthpop raises $15 million Series A to scale AI that makes healthcare more human

Synthpop, which specializes in healthcare AI for diagnostics, fertility, and durable medical equipment workflows, announces $15 million in Series A funding.

Ireland to begin procurement for a national electronic health record

Health Service Executive, Ireland’s health and social services provider, will begin looking at vendors for its National Electronic Health Record program.

The Sequoia Project Publishes Guidance on Standardized Privacy & Consent Approaches for State Government and Health Care Organizations

The Sequoia Project publishes “Operationalizing Automated Consent: Actionable Guidance for Health Care Providers, Payors, and Other Health Care Organizations” and “Guidance to States: Legislating Technical Standard Definitions for Existing State-Sensitive Health Data Laws.”

Consensus Cloud Solutions, Inc. Provides Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Results; Releases Q1 2026 and Full Year 2026 Guidance

Digital cloud fax technology vendor Consensus Cloud Solutions sees a slight uptick in Q4 revenue and a slight dip in full-year revenue.

Curbside Consult with Dr. Jayne 2/9/26

Most of us have figured out by now that it’s difficult to spend a day without using some kind of AI-powered tool. I was a fairly early adopter of the Amazon Echo devices after receiving one for a gift. I used them until recently to control some of the lighting in my home. (RIP, Wemo smart home devices.)

I mostly use the Alexa assistant to get quick answers to straightforward questions, such as “What is the temperature?” and “What is the forecast?” so I can do a little planning before I drag myself out of bed in the morning. In the kitchen, I primarily use it for timers or to play music while cooking. I haven’t been impressed by the “skills” that it offers, however.

A couple of weeks ago, I started receiving teasers to upgrade my device to new voices and personas. I held out since I didn’t want to be a beta user. Ultimately, I gave in and was pleased to find a somewhat sassy voice that is officially described as “grounded” or “easygoing.” It reminded me of one of my favorite audiobook narrators, so I decided to give it a try.

Over the last few days, I’ve noticed some quirks. I’m not sure if it’s specific to the voice I selected or if something is going on with the cloud services, but Alexa started giving me more information than I was asking for. Instead of simply giving me the current temperature and the forecast high, it added commentary like “it’s going to be a great day” or something similar.

Then I noticed it providing information that seemed disordered. For example, telling me that the current temperature was 38F with a forecast high of 47F, but that it currently feels like 44F, which just doesn’t make sense. It also tells me that tomorrow’s forecast high will be in the 40s when the Weather Channel thinks it will be a dozen degrees higher.

Tonight, I was thinking about some travel plans and asked Alexa what the correct time zone is for Nashville since I can never remember and was multitasking. Alexa confidently told me that “Nashville is in the Central Time Zone,” but went on to offer information that I didn’t ask for and told me the time. Since I’m on Central time, I was surprised that it was wrong.

I was curious to see what Alexa would say if I called out an incorrect answer. It replied, “You’re right, I should have been more specific. Nashville, Tennessee is indeed in the Central Time Zone.” I had to specifically ask the time and it finally answered correctly.

It’s one thing for a system to provide inaccurate information in response to a question, but it’s another to offer incorrect information that wasn’t even asked for.

I’ve seen some positioning for virtual assistants, including Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, as general purpose tools that can help the elderly age in place and manage daily routines. They are also supposed to be helpful for reducing social isolation and providing voice-activated medication reminders. What happens, however, when those tools don’t do the right thing? What happens when the tools are confused about what time zone they’re in and it leads to a patient taking medications more than once? In that situation, a simple non-AI alarm app might be more reliable and provide greater safety for patients.

Later in the day, I found an email from Amazon listing how “Early Access” customers made Alexa+ better, including such items as being more responsive during chats, a better sense of when you want to engage, and that it “adapts to your vibe” by learning and adjusting to the user’s communication style.

Honestly, I’m not impressed. As soon as I get some free time, I’m going to experiment with some of the other voices to see if they’re as problematic as the one I selected or if the entire system is just not meeting my needs any more.

Meanwhile, I’m starting to make a list of all the grossly inaccurate responses that I receive from AI tools. I recently read a novel that was based on a true story and asked an AI-powered search tool what happened to some of the main characters later in their lives. The answers should have been straightforward, since the characters I asked about were part of a World War II effort to project works from the National Gallery of Art by storing them at the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina.

Instead of providing facts, I got some wild speculation about the Gallery’s director, David Finley, which required visits to a couple of primary sources to fact check. As an upside for the next time I need a random nugget of obscure information, I now know that 40 cubic feet of Finley’s personal papers and artifacts now reside in the Gallery archives, including dried flowers, a cigarette case and lighter, and postcards from a honeymoon in Greece.

The Super Bowl is a big deal in the US. A lot of watercooler conversations happened at the end of the week around whether people had plans for the big event and which team they might be supporting. I was one of the people who don’t really have a connection to either team, but was really rooting for the combined squad of US Air Force and US Navy pilots who were slated to perform the pre-game flyover.

I have to say it did not disappoint. The seven-ship formation led by the B-1 was on point. Those of us with aviation geek tendencies knew there was more to come, and the US Navy livestream made our day as the camera panned back to catch the second B-1 approaching in full afterburner.

Having spent my career in medicine, I appreciate the fact that a seemingly short display like this is actually the end result of hundreds of hours of research, planning, and practice. It’s like one of those domino transplant surgeries where all the organs have to make it to the right patients in the right city at the right time with all the associated facilities and staff preparation.

The flyover planes originated in South Dakota and California. They were supported by refueling aircraft from Ohio, with everyone gathering nearby for the final maneuver. Each aircraft is supported by teams of maintainers who are in turn supported by other disciplines. Everyone is essential, much like in a hospital. Thousands of hours of training and education are behind each person’s ability to do their job when called upon. The pilots’ fist bump in the cockpit following the flyover was charming and I can only imagine how excited their families were to see that. (Photo taken from US Navy livestream).

If you partied for the Super Bowl, what was your favorite snack? Did your event include any heart healthy options, or was it all about Buffalo wings and pizza? Leave a comment or email me.

Email Dr. Jayne.

Readers Write: Virtual Nursing Thrives When Thoughtful Design Guides Implementation

Virtual Nursing Thrives When Thoughtful Design Guides Implementation
By Christine Gall, RN, DrPH

Christine Gall, RN, DrPH, MS is chief nursing officer of Collette Health.

Virtual nursing has quickly evolved as a force multiplier that is capable of addressing top pain points that are impacting care delivery, operations, quality, and patient experience. But as more health systems explore this model, outcomes have varied widely. Some organizations report measurable improvements in documentation time, throughput, retention, and workload relief. Others struggle to see benefits or encounter frustration at the bedside.

The difference rarely comes down to technology alone. It comes down to design. Successful virtual nursing programs begin with clear-eyed assessment. What problem are we trying to solve first? Throughput congestion? Night shift support? Documentation burden? The strongest programs anchor the initial design to a significant operational issue that is specific, measurable, achievable, and relevant.

Of equal impact is the identification of a leader and team that are ready for the responsibility of substantial workflow redesign. Virtual nursing models are more likely to succeed and scale when both factors are addressed and when the initial focus is narrow and well defined, setting up an iterative strategy that supports program expansion and scale over time.

Virtual nursing is also capable of delivering powerful, longer-term benefits like improved staff resilience and nurse retention, but those gains require longer timeframes to see improvement. Programs that try to solve multiple issues initially at launch often struggle, while those that sequence thoughtfully and use data-driven rapid cycle improvement to continually monitor success and iterative improvement are better positioned to scale successfully.

When organizations run into difficulty, it generally involves a failure to define attainable goals, a gap in stakeholder perception that creates barriers to acceptance and adoption of new workflows, and/or a failure of the new work processes to address the areas of concern without creating new burdens. In my experience, three design choices consistently determine whether virtual nursing lightens workload or adds friction:

Task Clarity and Workload Optimization

For bedside nurses, the value of virtual nursing is measured in minutes of administrative burden reduced and the expansion of impactful time spent with their patients. Programs succeed when they clearly define which tasks are moving from bedside to virtual roles. That may include time-intensive admission, discharge, and patient education activities, care coordination, and focused clinical oversight. But decisions regarding role and scope of the virtual nurse must be explicit.

When the virtual nurse’s role is not well defined and understood by the entire team, bedside teams experience little relief, and sometimes more duplication. A symptom of poor task clarity is an increase in the need for communication between the virtual and bedside staff. Well-run virtual nursing initiatives build in automated methods of communication directly into the workflows rather than requiring one-off, manual communication activities. Real value comes from task transfer, not task shadowing.

When programs invest in this level of clarity, bedside nurses increasingly recognize the impact, and barriers to adoption are mitigated.

Workflow Integration, Not Overlay

Many early virtual nursing implementations struggled because the virtual workflows were created as parallel processes rather than developing novel, integrated workflows. If virtual nurses document in separate systems, communicate through separate channels, or escalate through ad-hoc pathways, the bedside becomes the bridge between worlds, an experience that likely creates additional burden.

Integration, by contrast, means shared communication pathways, aligned documentation practices, clear escalation rules, and participation in unit workflows rather than operating in parallel but separate processes. When virtual nurses are embedded operationally, lines of workflow delineation are crisp and do not create new burdens for communication, coordination, or clarification.

Shared Governance and Co-Design with the Bedside

Virtual nursing is as much a cultural change as an operational one. How it is introduced matters. When bedside nurses are asked to adopt a model that they did not help shape, skepticism is a rational response. The programs that thrive invest in shared governance, inviting bedside teams into discussions and decisions about workflow redesign, task allocation, communication norms, and measurement. This transparent approach may not only produce more realistic workflows, but can also establish trust between virtual and bedside roles from the start.

Trust and shared responsibility for iteratively creating a robust care delivery model is the foundation for program stability, refinement, and scale. Connecting leaders and teams with the “what” and “why” before defining “how” a virtual care program will evolve is crucial to buy-in, acceptance, adoption, and ultimately ownership of the new processes.

Virtual Nursing as a Near-Term Workforce Solution

Unlike conventional software deployment, the success of virtual nursing cannot be measured by technical readiness alone. Integrations, reliability, and usability matter, but they are only one part of the equation.

Virtual nursing changes how work is distributed, how handoffs occur, and how clinicians collaborate. It is a care model that is built on an agile technology platform, not a rigid technology solution in search of a problem to solve. Successful virtual care models mature through continuous evaluation of outcomes and success metrics, data-driven iteration, and widespread dissemination of shared learnings.

It may be easy to forget that the workflows, staffing models, and best practices we consider routine took years to stabilize. This is an important perspective to remember as virtual nursing practice and integrations evolve. The nursing workforce has carried extraordinary strain for more than a decade, and many traditional solutions focus on long-horizon strategies, such as expanding education pipelines, addressing retention, or modernizing licensure. Those efforts matter, but will also require the full redesign of the model of clinical care delivery to effectively address the looming issues of the day.

Virtual nursing is one of the most promising and actionable models that can reduce burden, increase capacity, and improve care in the near future, provided the foundational elements are fully embraced and executed. If we allow early friction and avoidable barriers to eclipse that potential, we risk discarding an approach that could meaningfully support nurses when eloquent solutions are urgently needed.

The opportunity is not merely to deploy technology, but to build a sustainable clinical workforce that is properly resourced and supported to deliver world-class care and elevate the patient experience of care.

Readers Write: Healthcare Needs a Data Liquidity Disruption

Healthcare Needs a Data Liquidity Disruption
By Sriram Devarakonda

Sriram Devarakonda, MSEE is co-founder and CTO of Cardamom.

Healthcare has long promised that data would transform research, precision medicine, and patient outcomes. Yet progress remains painfully slow. Data silos and fear-driven restrictions keep critical information trapped in systems that were designed more to contain than to share.

Real transformation in targeted care, population health, and clinical research won’t come from yet another interoperability initiative or API. It requires a more fundamental shift: a data liquidity disruption that treats data as something meant to move, not sit still.

What’s holding healthcare back?

Healthcare’s challenges have evolved dramatically over the past three decades, and they will continue to change just as profoundly in the decade ahead. Thirty years ago, the priority was basic connectivity: enabling continuity of care across disparate systems through point-to-point integrations, with HL7 playing a foundational role.

Ten years ago, the rise of web and mobile technologies demanded a modernized approach to interoperability, giving rise to newer API-based standards, such as FHIR, that enabled digital health innovation.

Today, and looking forward, the focus has shifted yet again. Healthcare’s most pressing challenges, from cancer to diabetes to Alzheimer’s, require the effective use of data and AI at scale, challenges that impact millions of lives and drive national healthcare costs. Solving them demands more than messaging standards alone. Our future cannot depend on HL7 and FHIR by themselves. It requires true data liquidity, real-time intelligence, and platforms that are designed for learning health systems.

Before we delve into how we prepare for the future, we should look at a few reasons that data liquidity is a challenge today.

• Proprietary mindsets. Healthcare systems and vendors have long viewed data as an asset to guard, not a resource to share. Competitive, contractual, and legal anxieties create barriers that go beyond technology. They are cultural and structural.
• Fragmented data standards. Despite progress with HL7 and FHIR frameworks, true standardization remains elusive. Data formats, definitions, and governance models still vary widely, making even “standard” exchanges complex and time-consuming to implement.
• Privacy and compliance fears. With HIPAA, GDPR, and a growing patchwork of state regulations, organizations often err on the side of caution. The result is a compliance-first posture that, while understandable, often stifles innovation and progress.
• Legacy infrastructure. Many health systems are still operating on decades-old IT foundations that were designed for billing and clinical care, not for modern data exchange. Retrofitting these systems to support real-time data liquidity is costly and complex.
• Sheer complexity of technologies. A large barrier to progress is the sheer number of different technology systems even within the same ecosystem. EHRs, ERPs, and countless vendor-managed applications add an additional layer of complexity that’s challenging to overcome.

Why a disruption is inevitable and necessary

Healthcare’s approach to data is slowing progress. Patients want connected experiences, researchers need faster access to data, and providers and payers are under pressure to deliver better outcomes.

Other industries already allow data to flow securely in real time, enabling smarter decisions and personalization. Healthcare must make the same shift, from owning data to stewarding it, and from locking it away to sharing it responsibly. Those who adapt will lead; those who don’t will fall behind.

Preparing for the data liquidity era

How can healthcare organizations prepare for the inevitable disruption?

• Invest in platforms, not point solutions. Healthcare systems must invest in modular, cloud-based platforms that allow for data to move freely and securely. That means creating enterprise-shared data access on modern data platforms that can evolve alongside transactional systems that are not frozen in time.
• Embrace interoperability as a strategy, not a checkbox. Compliance-driven interoperability creates connections, not capability. Treating data sharing as a strategic asset is what turns exchange into impact, fueling innovation, partnerships, and better care coordination.
• Move from data control to data accountability. As data moves more freely, data maturity becomes even more critical. Clear standards for data quality, consent, and usage help ensure that liquidity doesn’t come at the expense of privacy or ethics. AI has a large role to play here when it comes to interpretation and standardization.
• Standardize clinical workflows. The more healthcare organizations can standardize their clinical workflows and protocols now, the fewer challenges they will have later. Clear, consistent processes make it easier to adopt new tools, train staff, and share data safely.
• Align data strategy to business and clinical outcomes. Data liquidity drives real, downstream impact on both business and clinical outcomes. When tied to clear, measurable goals, such as reducing denials, accelerating clinical trial enrollment, or improving patient throughput, it becomes a powerful, provable source of ROI.
• Reimagine the patient’s role. Patients are no longer passive data points; they are active and willing participants. Giving them control over their health data and the ability to share it across providers, researchers, and care teams will accelerate innovation while fostering transparency, trust, and improved outcomes.

The ripple effects of data liquidity

When healthcare achieves true data liquidity, the impact will be profound. Researchers will be able to identify patterns across populations in days, not years. Providers can make more informed decisions at the point of care. Health systems will predict and prevent crises before they occur. Most importantly, patients will benefit from a system that understands them as whole individuals, not just episodes of care that are scattered across disconnected databases.

Healthcare is long overdue for the same data transformation other industries have already embraced, one that allows data to move freely, connect seamlessly, and create value wherever it goes.

The road to disruption won’t be easy, but it is necessary. The barriers to data movement have been standing for too long and the cost of inaction is too high.

Morning Headlines 2/9/26

Apple Is Scaling Back Plans for New AI-Based Health Coach Service

Apple is reportedly abandoning the delayed launch of a rumored virtual health coach app and will instead incorporate some of its planned features, such as gait analysis, into its Health app.

Chamber Raises $60 Million in Series A Funding to Drive the Future of Cardiology Value-Based Care

Value-based cardiology care startup Chamber announces $60 million in Series A funding.

VA’s latest AI inventory includes new suicide, EHR-focused use cases

An annual review of the VA’s use of AI finds that it is working on integrating a clinical AI agent with its new Oracle Health-based EHR, and that the technology is being incorporated into suicide prevention efforts.

Monday Morning Update 2/9/26

Top News

Apple is reportedly abandoning the delayed launch of a rumored virtual health coach app and will instead incorporate some of its planned features, such as gait analysis, into its Health app.

Reports indicate that the company realizes that it can’t match the features of the IPhone apps offered by Oura and Whoop.

Apple reportedly has shuffled the executive team that oversees its health technology efforts.

Reader Comments

From Not Listed: “Re: Becker’s ‘CIOs to know’ list. What does it mean, exactly?” It means that unnamed, likely early-career list writers can use Google and LinkedIn and call it “editorial research.” I suspect that some people nominated themselves, given bios that read as uncomfortably self-congratulatory. The list is a far cry from journalism or anything resembling science, but it is clever marketing since dozens of winners will publicize it with LinkedIn humble-bragging as if it means something. I don’t trust any award or survey result that doesn’t include defensible methodology.

From Diphthong: “Re: Harvard program. This just popped up on Facebook. If I wasn’t retired, I might sign up.” Harvard Medical School offers an eight-week, $3,000 online program titled “AI in Health Care: From Strategies to Implementation.” The description calls for 4-6 hours per week plus a capstone project in which the student pitches an AI-first solution to their employer. AI knowledge has a short shelf life, but people like putting a Harvard certificate on LinkedIn. Plus John Glaser is one of the faculty.

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

HIStalk sponsors that are participating in HIMSS26: send me your details and I’ll include them in my guide to the conference. The ViVE version of the form is still live, with results so far here.

I provided several common phrases that companies use to signal more optimism than their business results warrant, but these are the winners. I’m always surprised when a company spins “rightsizing” as an insightful long-term tactic rather than a desperate attempt to save the sinking ship by jettisoning valuable cargo and crew. I’m less skeptical of a CEO or COO hire since, as with sports coaches, they can sometimes turn an unfocused business around. Other C-level hires, no.

New poll to your right or here: What is your first reaction when a long-time W-2 employee starts a consulting business? Mine is that enthusiasm peaks with the LinkedIn announcement and before the realization that the most common incoming mail is bills rather than checks, but I’m interested to hear if readers see it differently. For those who have done it, did you expect to stick it out, or was it intended to avoid a resume gap while looking for a new job? I’m also curious about the reaction of former industry peers when you try to sell them services, which seems uncomfortable at best and unsuccessful at worst.

Ms. M’s third-grade magnet STEM class in Pasadena, CA reports on their use of agriculture programming kits that HIStalk readers provided via Donors Choose donations. They have built solutions for farmland auto-irrigation, greenhouse temperature and humidity monitoring, and farmland protection devices.

Sponsored Events and Resources

Live Webinar: February 18 (Wednesday) 2 ET. “From Blind Spots to Insights: Gaining Real-Time Visibility into Healthcare Risk.” Sponsor: CloudWave. Presenters: Jacob Wheeler, MBA, director of sales engineering, CloudWave; Mike Donahue, chief operating officer, CloudWave. Resilience starts with the ability to see clearly, across every endpoint, cloud workload, user, and clinical system. Join CloudWave’s cybersecurity leaders for an in-depth session on how real-time visibility transforms your ability to detect threats early, respond decisively, and strengthen resilience across the care ecosystem. Attendees will learn the practical steps that hospitals can take to move from reactive defense to resilient action.

Publication: HIStalk’s Guide to ViVE 2026 lists the activities of sponsors at the conference.

Contact Lorre to have your resource listed.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Doximity reports Q3 results: revenue up 10%, adjusted EPS $0.46 versus $0.45, beating Wall Street expectations for both but sending shares down nearly 40% in after-hours trading as investors reacted to tepid guidance and rising marketing and AI development expenses. DOCS shares have lost 68% in the past 12 months. The company’s market capitalization is down nearly $15 billion from its peak just after its June 2021 IPO. CEO Jeffrey Tangney said in the earnings call that the medical AI market is “noisy, crowded, and rapidly expanding,” that its tools are among the most used by physicians, and that he expects hospitals to more vigorously enforce the “wild west” of AI.

A Wall Street Journal venture capital report warns that new health AI offerings from OpenAI and Anthropic will pressure health AI startups to deliver their promised measurable results and to clearly differentiate themselves. At the same time, the report says that the big company products could validate AI’s value to health systems, which could then create opportunities for smaller vendors.

Announcements and Implementations

Nova Scotia’s IWK Health Centre stops performing outpatient blood work and sends patients elsewhere due to problems with its newly implemented Oracle Health system, which is displaying all online appointments as unavailable.

Aetna launches a digital-first onboarding experience for members using Rich Communication Services text messaging. RCS uses IP instead of cellular voice channels, which enables transmission of high-resolution images, real-time typing and read receipt indicators, group chat, and branded, verified messaging for companies.

Privacy and Security

A former Nuance employee faces additional federal charges related to allegations that he downloaded 1 million Geisinger Health patient records to a personal device after Nuance fired him in 2023. Geisinger and Nuance settled a class action privacy lawsuit related to the incident for $5 million in November 2025.

KFF Health News reports that hospitals are unsure whether they should advise immigrant patients about a recent requirement that gives Immigration and Customs Enforcement access to Medicaid data.

Security researchers find that 414 AI agent skills that are available on OpenClaw’s ClawHub Marketplace – including the most-downloaded one that automates functions on X – contain malware that steals crypto credentials, API keys and browser passwords. They urge users not to run any skills on a work computer, but didn’t offer suggestions on how employers can protect their systems when employers inevitably do it anyway.

Other

I will assume that none of the self-proclaimed gurus from the site above specializes in attention to detail. Hims & Hers is making headlines, including misspelled ones, for two reasons: (a) its hard-sell Super Bowl commercial titled “Rich People Live Longer” that urges consumers to buy its lab tests and compounded GLP-1 medications; and (b) a crackdown by FDA and the Department of Justice on the company’s sale of unapproved, compounded GLP-1 drugs, including its just-announced knockoff of a Wegovy tablet that originator Novo launched just weeks ago. UPDATE: Hims & Hers announced Saturday that it it will stop offering its version of the Wegovy tablet days just after its launch following “constructive conversations with stakeholders,” not to mention an alarming downward slide in share price. It’s not clear why the company thought it was immune to FDA’s clear warning that it would take action against companies that mass market compounded products of trademark drugs.

Sponsor Updates

• Black Book Research analysis find that rural and critical access hospitals are entering a consequential health IT decision cycle, with purchasing decisions heightened by the newly announced federal Rural Health Transformation Program awards.
• Nordic releases a new “Designing for Health” podcast featuring Lisa Kilgore.
• SlicedHealth will exhibit at the AHA Rural Health Care Leadership Conference February 8-11 in San Antonio.
• TrustCommerce, a Sphere company, will exhibit at Payments MAGnified February 17-20 in San Diego.

Blog Posts

• Healthcare Cybersecurity Basics: What CISOs Worry About at 3 A.M. (Clearwater)
• 10 Financial Metrics Every Healthcare CFO Must Master (FinThrive)
• Rethinking Claims Processing: Why It’s More Than Just a Core Admin System (Impact Advisors)
• Hospice Medicare Audit Readiness: Proactive Steps to Avoid Denials (Netsmart)
• 3 ways a strategic partner can strengthen your IT staffing operations (Nordic)
• How to Shift RCM from a Process to a Strategic Function in 2026 (Nym)
• The hidden cost of recoupments in healthcare – Q+A with Cleveland Clinic + SCA Health (Waystar)

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 2/6/26

2026 Best in KLAS Awards – Software and Services

KLAS posts its “2026 Best in KLAS: Software and Services” report with Epic, Athenahealth, Chartis, Optimum Healthcare IT, and Impact Advisors taking top honors in several respective categories.

Accenture Federal Services Selected to Support the Mission-Critical Modernization of Veteran Health Records for the Department of Veterans Affairs

The federal government awards Accenture Federal Services a multi-year contract of unspecified value to support the VA’s implementation of Oracle Health.

ASTP/ONC Announces Selection of Nationwide Pilot Programs to Improve Behavioral Health Data Exchange

ASTP/ONC chooses nine pilot sites to test behavioral and physical health integration data exchange standards.

News 2/6/26

Top News

KLAS posts its “2026 Best in KLAS: Software and Services.” Some results:

• Epic won overall health system suite for the 16th consecutive year, plus awards in 11 individual market segments. Scores: Epic 89.7, Meditech 76.7, Oracle Health 63.3.
• Athenahealth topped the Overall Independent Physician Practice Suite and four market segment awards. Scores: Athenahealth 83.4, NextGen Healthcare 68.6, Greenway Health 64.6.
• Chartis was named top firm in Overall IT Services.
• Optimum Healthcare IT topped the Overall Implementation Services Firm.
• Impact Advisors was top Overall Healthcare Management Consulting Firm.

HIStalk sponsors that were named as winners in the Best in KLAS report:

• Agfa Healthcare (PACS small, universal viewer imaging, vendor neutral archive).
• Artera (patient communications).
• Clearwater (security and privacy consulting services)
• Findhelp (social determinants of care networks).
• FinThrive (insurance discovery).
• Fortified Health Security (security and privacy managed services).
• Impact Advisors (overall healthcare management consulting firm, data and analytics services, human capital consulting).
• Meditech (acute care EHR and patient accounting, small).
• MRO (release of information).
• Optimum Healthcare IT (overall implementation services).
• PerfectServe (clinical communications in ambulatory and post-acute care, physician scheduling).
• Rhapsody (integration engine).
• Waystar (patient access).
• Wolters Kluwer (infection control and monitoring, pharmacy surveillance, patient-driven care management, patient education).

Reader Comments

From Banty Rooster: “Re: job changes. Please announce the formation of my new consulting business.” I suspect that readers share my lack of interest when someone exits a long corporate career, often because of a decision they did not make, and announces that they are now a solo consultant. I pass because the industry impact of that “business” is minimal and the audience is mostly personal acquaintances who already know. Many of these entrepreneurial bursts end quietly with a return to salaried work when demand fails to materialize or travel becomes intolerable. Consulting as a skill and business endeavor is not necessarily predicted by a management career, and many shingle-hangers discover that their former influence came from their title, not their personal brand. It’s tough to leave a big paycheck and benefits to start out with no clients, pipeline, or income.

From Sierra Mister: “Re: NavvTrack. Has gone out of business.” The website of the health system fleet management solutions vendor, which was spun out from Henry Ford Health in 2019, goes to 404. LinkedIn shows that co-founder and CEO Daniel Siegal, MD, COO/CFO Heather Grisham, and VP/CTO Pratik Agrawal all left the company in August 2025.

From Nobodyyouknow: “Re: Waystar. Gearing up for another acquisition? A large number of legacy team members are being promoted to VP.”

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

Welcome to new HIStalk Platinum Sponsor Medcurio. 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. Unlike traditional interoperability approaches, Medcurio does not rely on slow pipelines, brittle custom builds, or transaction-based APIs. Teams can surface operational, clinical, and financial signals as they occur, not days or weeks later. What typically takes months can be stood up in days.Medcurio is used to power dashboards, alerts, automations, and/or 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. For organizations serious about real-time operations, analytics, and AI, Medcurio provides the data foundation those efforts usually lack. Thanks to Medcurio for supporting HIStalk.

I downloaded Lotus Health’s app to give their 24×7 free primary care service a try. I was waitlisted, but I completed the registration and intake form and gave the chatbot a spin for a made-up medical issue. The process was well designed and the chatbot’s advice and plan were sound even if not much different than what ChatGPT offered. I’ll be interested to see how the most important part works, the handoff from chatbot to human physician when warranted. What I will be looking for: (1) how the service collects medical records; (2) how the lab test and prescription generating process works; and (3) how the video visit feels compared to an in-person one, especially for a continuity of care perspective. I experimented with an online service a few years ago and was underwhelmed because it felt like symptom Whac-a-Mole, where the faceless physician jumped overly quickly to a diagnosis and prescription from the limited set of drugs he was authorized to prescribe for a limited set of conditions. Lotus Health’s LinkedIn shows just nine company employees or contractors, none of them with any medical background, but it claims to be using doctors from Stanford, Harvard, UCSF, and Johns Hopkins. If you’ve used the full Lotus Health service, tell me more. The question of “how does a free service make money” will likely be answered with paid advertising, a freemium model, and partnering with insurers and employers.

Sponsored Events and Resources

Live Webinar: February 18 (Wednesday) 2 ET. “From Blind Spots to Insights: Gaining Real-Time Visibility into Healthcare Risk.” Sponsor: CloudWave. Presenters: Jacob Wheeler, MBA, director of sales engineering, CloudWave; Mike Donahue, chief operating officer, CloudWave. Resilience starts with the ability to see clearly, across every endpoint, cloud workload, user, and clinical system. Join CloudWave’s cybersecurity leaders for an in-depth session on how real-time visibility transforms your ability to detect threats early, respond decisively, and strengthen resilience across the care ecosystem. Attendees will learn the practical steps that hospitals can take to move from reactive defense to resilient action.

Publication: HIStalk’s Guide to ViVE 2026 lists the activities of sponsors at the conference.

Contact Lorre to have your resource listed.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Lotus Health AI, which offers free 24×7 primary care using patient data, AI diagnostics, peer-reviewed evidence and guidelines, and clinician review, raises $41 million.

People

Amit Mathradas, MBA (Nintex) joins Five9 as CEO.

Gozio Health hires Jay Kleinman (TechCXO) as chief revenue officer and Michele Forlenza (Prealize Health) as VP of client success.

Bayhealth hires Thomas “Mac” Marlow, MBA (UT Southwestern Medical Center) as VP/chief digital and information officer.

Announcements and Implementations

Epic releases AI Charting, which uses ambient listening to draft visit notes and suggest orders, as part of its Art AI for clinicians.  

A small study finds that primary care physicians who used Eko’s digital stethoscope correctly diagnosed moderate to severe valvular heart disease with 92% sensitivity versus 46% using a traditional stethoscope.

Government and Politics

The federal government awards Accenture Federal Services a 4.5-year contract of unspecified value to support the VA’s implementation of Oracle Health. The company will provide integration services, lead standardization across VA facilities, and oversee federal-community interoperability.

RCM services vendor Gryphon Healthcare will pay $2.9 million to settle claims related to its July 2024 cyberattack that exposed the patient information of one of its customers.  

ASTP/ONC posts a draft of USCDI Version 7 for public comment.

ASTP/ONC chooses nine pilot sites to test behavioral and physical health integration data exchange standards.

Former Ole Miss football All-American tight end Rufus French is convicted of fraudulently billing Medicare and the VA $200 million. The Department of Justice says that he used overseas call centers to pressure elderly Americans, including patients with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia, to provide their insurance information and consent to receiving unnecessary orthotic braces that were ordered by doctors and nurse practitioners who worked for sham telemedicine companies who never contacted the patients.

Other

A Health Affairs article says that healthcare’s AI bubble needs to burst in a dot-com-like “coming clinical correction,” citing these reasons:

• Most enterprise AI pilots fail to deliver financial returns and usually don’t survive beyond pilots.
• Health systems are touting AI deployments as innovation, but the projects often involve products from vendors that are surviving only because of investor funding.
• Many AI vendors will fail but will continue to operate as zombie operations that bill hospitals under existing contracts, but don’t spend the money to keep their algorithms current, exposing hospitals to liability for errors.
• Companies that offer crucial technologies that don’t involve AI are forced to squeeze AI into the products unnecessarily to attract investment.
• AI products are being deployed in the absence of evidence.

Sponsor Updates

• SlicedHealth posts Episode 1 of its price transparency guide podcast titled “What Hospital Leaders Need to Know About Price Transparency Enforcement in 2026.”
• Black Book Research releases findings from its “Q1 2026 Rural Transformation Readiness Survey” of rural, small, and critical access hospitals.
• Judi Health releases a new episode of “The Astonishing Healthcare Podcast” titled “Providing the Right Level of Guidance & Expertise in this Business is About as Hard as Driving Change, with Hannan Allen.”
• FinThrive promotes D’Wan Grimes to partner success manager.
• Health Data Movers will sponsor the NEECO Spring 2026 Conference March 31 in Waltham, MA.
• Healthmonix releases its 2026 MIPSpro Enterprise Qualified Clinical Data Registry, approved by CMS for the 2026 performance year.
• Infinx will present at the Oregon HFMA 2026 Winter Workshop February 12 in McMinnville, OR.
• LiveData will exhibit at the OR Business Manager Summit February 9-11 in Austin, TX.

Blog Posts

• OCR’s 2026 Cybersecurity Update to Healthcare: From Risk Analysis to Enforced Risk Management (Clearwater)
• Small steps become giant leaps: Reimagining how to approach innovation in healthcare (Altera Digital Health)
• ‘Best in KLAS for SDoH’: One Year is Potential, Five Years is Proven (Findhelp)
• Revenue on Autopilot: How Smarter Denial Management Reduces the Cost to Collect (FinThrive)
• Preparation Changes Outcomes In Ransomware Attacks (Fortified Health Security)
• Why Specialized Staffing Matters in Healthcare Technology (HCTec)
• 7 Mistakes to Avoid When Releasing Medical Records (HealthMark Group)
• The Digital Front Door Reckoning (Impact Advisors)
• The Provider’s Guide to AI Conversations (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 2/5/26

It’s been a couple of years since I’ve written much about digital therapeutics. The number of vendors in the space is small, and the market got quiet after Pear Therapeutics, the one I knew best, declared bankruptcy in 2023.

Digital therapeutics require a prescription and are regulated by the FDA. At the end of 2025, the US Food and Drug Administration announced a pilot program to encourage the use of these solutions. The Technology-Enabled Meaningful Patient Outcomes (TEMPO) model began accepting statements of interest in January. Under the model, a subset of medical professionals can prescribe digital therapeutics before they are officially approved by the FDA, with the resulting real-world data being used to potentially support their clearance.

One reason these tools failed to gain traction was the reimbursement landscape, which left developers unable to build a sustainable financial model. Some companies pivoted into the direct-to-consumer space and marketed their tools as wellness apps to avoid regulation.

The TEMPO pilot was developed by the FDA Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH). It is limited to prescribers who participate in the CMS Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation model for Advancing Chronic Care with Effective, Scalable Solutions (ACCESS). If you’re a providers who meets the acronym test and is planning to prescribe digital therapeutics, feel free to drop us a note.

A recent article in JAMA Oncology looked at the MyLungHealth tool, which can help identify patients who are eligible for lung cancer screening. The procedure is underused, with about 16% of eligible patients receiving the screening. The trial described in the writeup, which was conducted at the University of Utah and NYU Langone Health, showed how digital tools can help close gaps in care.

Lung cancer remains a leading cause of cancer deaths around the world. Screening is recommended for adults aged 50 to 80 years who have at least a 20 pack-year smoking history and who currently smoke or have quit within the previous 15 years. Barriers to screening include inaccurate or missing tobacco use history in patient records, missed opportunities to order screening, and lack of patient awareness.

The tool includes a patient education component with both videos and text-based content. Clinicians are alerted when patients engage. The study had 30,000 participants. Patients who received an intervention using a patient-facing tool integrated with the EHR patient portal completed more screening tests.

The authors noted that the end point of having a study ordered was a limiting factor. They encourage more research to look at strategies to ensure that patients complete the recommended CT scan. Props to them for also noting the need to test this approach in other care delivery settings, such as community-based primary care offices, to make sure that the findings are generalizable and to maximize impact.

They also noted the need to adapt the approach to address the needs of underserved patients, especially since patient portal use was required and rates of such use can be variable across demographic groups.

Most of the healthcare leaders who I talk to are trying to trim their budgets due to declining reimbursement and continued cost pressures. Vizient recently released data on healthcare expenditures and I was surprised to see that pharmacy costs are no longer the fastest growing expense category. Facilities and IT lead again, with IT hardware and software at a 5.66% inflation rate. IT services are close behind at 4.5%, with facilities management at 4.13%.

Other interesting tidbits: with the rise in medication use to treat obesity, bariatric surgery volumes are down 20%. The inflation rate for laboratory services is predicted to be less than 2%, which surprised me given the continued evolution of testing platforms and multi-result panels.

I work with a physician who is vocal about the tools we have for patient care. He is outspoken why AI is causing the downfall of civilization. He collects examples where AI tools have been wrong, specifically in situations where patient harm could have resulted.

His message of the week includes an example of uploading an image to identify a mushroom that a hypothetical patient might have eaten. The tool incorrectly identified it as being safe to consume, when in fact it was quite toxic. I’ve never been a mushroom hunter, but I’ve worked at a poison control center, so I hope that mycophiles and foragers are using multiple sources to confirm edibility before they sample their finds.

I appreciate his point of view and the fact that he provides interesting examples that make us think. But we’re not going to put this particular genie back in the bottle anytime soon.

One of my colleagues who is more accepting of AI told me about something called Moltbot, which apparently underwent a renaming in the time it took me to find time to research it. Now called OpenClaw, it’s an AI agent that goes beyond chatting and starts taking action. The solution is seeing rapid adoption given the fact that it’s free and runs locally. The tool can run using either ChatGPT or Claude models and can be assigned a vibe to embody as it goes about its work, which might involve executing commands or making changes to files.

The writeup in Scientific American had me chuckling as it noted that the tool “follows almost any order like a well-paid mercenary.” I’m curious about its potential, but leery of some of the risks as far as privacy and access. If you’ve given it a try, drop us a line.

One of our local care delivery organizations is looking to rebrand. I’m a little surprised because it has had no significant mergers or acquisitions that would indicate a responsible use of funds or a need to avoid confusion. It seems like more of a vanity project since the organizations have already been linked for decades.

They are apparently doing marketing outreach to local physicians, asking their opinions on logo and color combinations to see which have the most impact or best represent the partnership. I’m not sure if they’re also reaching out to patients for their opinions, but I would be curious to see how those might differ from those of the physician community.

Bottom line, however, is that this makes me a little angry. The organization’s cheapskate tactics have negatively impacted patient care in recent years. I wish they would spend the money on issues that directly impact patient care and improve the health of the community versus trying to look better than their competitors.

Has your organization been through a rebranding effort? Did it deliver the outcomes it promised or was it not worth the cost and effort? Leave a comment or email me.

Email Dr. Jayne.

Morning Headlines 2/5/26

Lotus Just Raised $41M

Lotus Health AI, which offers free 24×7 primary care using patient data, AI diagnostics, peer-reviewed evidence and guidelines, and clinician review, raises $41 million.

BeHuman Raises $4 Million Seed Round to Expand Equitable, AI-Driven Early Cancer Detection Nationwide

Virtual cancer screening and care coordination startup BeHuman raises $4 million in seed funding.

Salvo Health closes $8.5m for new chronic gut care model

Salvo Health, which offers a continuous care platform for gastroenterologists and their patients, raises $8.5 million in Series A funding.