News 6/21/07

From Seimore Skinner: “Re: Piedmont security audit. On the front page of this week’s Computerworld is an article on the HIPAA Security Audit at Piedmont. No real new information, but I thought it was cool Mr. HIStalk scooped ’em. They also provide a link to the auditor information request list. Keep up the good work!!” Thanks. A reader sent me the OIG’s list of requested documents, which I ran on April 20. I’m not bragging (well, maybe a little), but loyal readers make it nearly certain that, when it comes to healthcare IT, you’ll read the good stuff here first. Test that theory for the information you’ve valued over the past few months: how many times did it come from elsewhere? I’ve even got great sources in Europe, so you were able to read about the Misys announcements here (in the discussion forum) at around 8:00 this morning (which I hastily posted from work), long before those sleep-in journalists got around to it.

From Blindsided Vendor: “Re: the consultant you mentioned. Many folks in the industry know he has had his particular favorites for years. I know of many of his own projects that are currently faltering. When we become involved in an account he’s consulting with, we run for the hills as his choices are always the same.” I removed names and comments because it’s not really fair to single anyone out, but you know the usual consultant caveats like these. Inga’s comment: “To your point suggesting consultants may have a bias towards one product or another … well, of course. But if a consultant doesn’t have an opinion (bias) then what value is the consultant?” Ah, the condundrum.

Thanks to Matthew Holt, who took up for HIStalk in his mention of some top 100 healthcare blog list (congrats to his The Healthcare Blog at #8.) “More seriously, it’s a fun list, but probably the leading blog in all of health care (certainly in term of revenue generation), HIStalk, isn’t on it.” Thanks, Matthew. Returning the favor, don’t forget about the Health 2.0 conference Matthew’s putting on in San Francisco on September 20. He’s got all kinds of big names on the agenda, including folks from Google, WebMD, Microsoft, Yahoo, Kaiser, and Allscripts. Pssst: register within a week and put in code HISTALK and you’ll get $50 off the registration fee, plus Matthew will owe me, which is always good.

Speaking of blogs: a grateful nod to Paul Levy for mentioning HIStalk in a recent posting (“full of news and opinion from the domain of health care information technology.”) Why that’s impressive: Paul is President and CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston (John Halamka’s boss). His blog has really cool stuff, which I like to think he writes himself since it’s so folksy and smart. He actually responds to blog comments. A classic post: Do I Get Paid Too Much?, openly talking about his million-dollar salary. And you CIOs might become jealous of John Halamka: does your boss proudly put your IT annual report on his website and conclude with “Now you see why I love this guy.”?

Now here’s an unusual item, which I’ve got many reasons not to post (it’s a free ad and takes advantage of an unpleasant situation.) On the other, it may help some of the folks who have left Healthvision recently. “NextGen is recruiting top sales, marketing, project and product management, training, and product development talent for our interoperability team. We would be interested in fielding resumes of those recently displaced HealthVision employees. Aside from our well-known NextGen ambulatory EHR product, NextGen also offers an award-winning suite of RHIO/interoperability tools. The NextGen Community Health Solution (CHS) enables the exchange of patient data between providers, specialists, hospitals, payers, labs and pharmacies. Our NextMD product provides patient to physician connectivity including secure messaging, patient driven data entry, and medication management. Resumes may be sent to: jobs@nextgen.com.” This is a special case, so please don’t ask me to post other listings here. I was torn, but decided to err in favor of those who are out of work.

The Misys news wasn’t good this morning, other than fairly healthy margins. Healthcare sales are in a freefall and Mike Lawrie is still saying the products aren’t competitive. Worst of all, whatever R&D money that the stepchild hospital division was getting will be cut even more to try to save the physician practice business. Rumor: the ClearPractice offering was canned because of the effort that would have been required to make it CCHIT-certifiable. Must have been way out there.

EHRConsultant is offering a free download of EHR Scope Summer Edition (warning: PDF). Very nicely done.

Gartner places the Ensemble integration system from InterSystems in its Magic Quadrant for application infrastructure.

New Hanover Regional Medical Center (NC) is kicking off some McKesson Horizon projects. For some reason, their IS business plan (warning: PPT) is posted on their website. If you’re a CIO looking for ideas on how to communicate IT strategy and tactics to colleagues, it’s worth appropriating. Good job by Avery Cloud’s team. The swimmer’s lane analogy was a bit overwrought, but it gets the point across. CIOs need to be able to articulate strategy this clearly to non-IT types uninterested in the ugly details.

QuadraMed announces the M5 release of its products. The stock bucked a down-market trend today after that news yesterday, rising 1.6%.

William Beaumont Hospital chooses Advanced Clinical Software’s StudyManager software for clinical trials management.

Sutter Health gives CalRHIO $1 million, meeting part of its bond requirement to donate $8.5 million to small and rural networks.

Millionaire self-proclaimed man of the people Michael Moore’s healthcare film “Sicko” is (or was) available all over the Internet in its entirely, including YouTube. If your hospital isn’t bracing for public outcry, you might want to prepare just in case. I’m not a fan, but he has many, just like pro wrestlers and Jackass movies.

Pro basketballer Dikembe Mutombo is buying a smartcard-driven EMR for a hospital in the Congo. The supplier: Inter-Card Biometrics of Washington, DC.

News, rumors, chit-chat: e-mail me.

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