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September 24, 2009 News 12 Comments

 humedica

From Been There: “Re: Humedica. It’s a good thing they raised $30 million because with a CEO, CMO, CTO, CFO and five vice-presidents (among just 40 employees), they might be a touch top-heavy. One other observation: no VP of Sales. I hope their solutions sell themselves.” Humedica, a “next-generation health care informatics company”, launches itself in a blaze of buzzwords. I don’t know any of the people on the board or management team, but it’s got a lot of investment people in charge, especially from Leerink Swann (one of the companies that provided its $30 million in seed money). It sounds like they’re doing population-based data analytics stuff. I’m going to guess that the company was formerly Health Insight Technologies since I see some people and address overlaps. If so, that means they’re going to be selling de-identified patient data, which means they have to figure out how to get hospitals to give it to them. Hoping to cash in on Uncle Sam’s proposed effectiveness and outcomes studies, I’ll postulate, since they seem in an awfully big hurry to gear up.

From Fan of Mr. HIStalk: “Re: Accretive. They are backed by the same VC money as Exault, an HR outsourcer created form BP’s HR department that went public and was picked up by a big player. Ascension says, ‘We will give you 14 of our hospitals in Michigan to try this in at no cost to us. If you succeed, we will let your take over all of our RC functions. If not we can just ask you to go away. We have had more than one client curious and concerned about what Accretive might launch in the RC space. It is lucrative and prime for re-engineering."

From Carrie Ann: “Re: Newsweek’s Top 500 Green Companies rankings. I thought it was interesting who made the list and who was not on it. Equally interesting is the criteria they used (which is up to speculation and debate) as well as the categories said companies fall into. For instance, Cerner made the list under Technology yet McKesson is listed under Retail. Things that make you go hmmmm.” Here’s the healthcare list and technology is here. Cerner snuck in only because, being in the software business, it doesn’t create greenhouse gas, acid rain, or toxic emissions. Otherwise, it earned a 4.04 score (on a 100-point scale) for green performance reputation.

From Fuzzy: “Re: ACS. I work for ACS in their healthcare solutions division and there has been absolutely no word of a furlough, mandatory or otherwise. And we’ve no end in sight for the contract that I’m currently assigned to.”

eyeonbi

From BostonGuy: “Re: BIDMC. Interesting issue about ER physicians charging more at night.” SEUI’s organizers are making a fuss about the $30 ED surcharge for patients seen between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m., parking their billboard truck outside the Four Seasons where the hospital’s community leaders are meeting (a pretty swanky place for a hospital meeting — rooms start at $500).

From The PACS Designer: “Re: Linux desktop. Linux, the open source software platform, is finding more uses as developers build more applications using Linux as a server operating system. One area of growth for Linux is desktop applications, and one of the desktop systems that is free is Gnome. Gnome just released its latest version, Gnome 2.28, which adds support for Bluetooth devices, and should gain new mobile users who want a desktop view for their netbooks and phones.”

Jobs: System Analyst: SQL Server/Web Developer, CMS Operations Specialist, Epic Beacon Consultant, Java Developer.

I keep getting “you’re invited” e-mail blasts, urging me to attend one conference or another. I figure maybe I’m getting a VIP offer of free attendance for some reason. Nope – only after I’ve skimmed a mountain of marketing prose do I find that my “invitation” entitles me to pay the same exorbitant registration fee as everybody else.

British police appeal to the public to help find a man who stole two PCs from St. James Hospital last month. The new HP laptop and desktop contained “vital” radiotherapy software for cancer research that had not been backed up.

London Health Sciences Centre, stung by a whistleblower’s disclosure of an auditors’ report showing that its CIO had issued $3 million of no-bid contracts to friend, takes decisive action. It launches an investigation to find the whistleblower, saying the report was confidential. Not the smartest PR move I’ve seen.

Piedmont Healthcare expands its use of NextGen’s PM/EMR.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 Standard with Headset – $29.99 after rebate and pretty cheap shipping. Saw it in the ad and thought someone might be interested.

The prospect of getting stimulus money has brought new HIEs out of the woodwork, so here’s yet another: Camden Health Information Exchange (NJ). Noteworthy Medical Systems will run it, I’ve heard.

A British shoplifter is arrested after a judge questions the veracity of her doctor’s note that claimed she couldn’t appear because of an appointment. Said the judge, “I have never seen a doctor write that clearly.”

The customer service director of a UK Internet service provider sends out a mass marketing e-mail pitching the company’s new billing system, but accidentally attaches a CSV file with full information on all the nearly 4,000 people who had signed up for it, including their contact and logon information. Among those whose information was contained in the file were a local hospital and New Scotland Yard.

Susan Neimeier joins medical device connectivity vendor Capsule Tech as chief nursing officer.

Red Hat announces Q2 numbers: revenue up 12%, EPS $0.15 vs. $0.10, beating estimates for both revenue and earnings. Nice.

E-mail me.

HERtalk by Inga

From My Fair Lady” “Re: KLAS appoints UPMC to board. This should be interesting. With UPMC owning a stake in dbMotion, how can they possibly be unbiased in their approach to interoperability platforms?”

From Joe Wilson: “Re: CEP America Chart off. Here is some clarification from the CIO of California Emergency Physicians – MedAmerica. Though Picis was quickest with regard to timing, they were missing two of the six elements of the case. Since CEP gave the cases out in advance, timing was far less important than having a complete chart. CEP declared Wellsoft the ‘winner’ by five seconds based on both quality and timing.”

From Alex DeLarge: “Re: foreign healthcare. Remember A Clockwork Orange? We ought to make all our legislators read these anecdotes and then challenge them to keep repeating that our healthcare is the best in the world.” 

sun life

Sun Life Family Health Center (AZ) selects the browser-based InteGreat EHR for its six clinics. InteGreat is a division of MED3OOO.

The 180-provider Jackson Physicians Alliance (MI) inks an agreement with Cielo MedSolutions to purchase licenses for Cielo Clinic software.

The SEC charges two men with running an $8.6 million insider trading scheme in connection with Dell’s recent agreement to buy Perot. One of the men, who has done work for Perot, apparently got wind of the pending Perot acquisition. Less than three weeks ago, he and a buddy then purchased over 9,000 Perot call options. The SEC was not amused.

It’s been the best of times and it’s been the worst of times for IT provider InfoLogix. The company announces a new contract with Albert Einstein Healthcare Network (PA) to develop Web-based eLearning software to support its EMR implementation. InfoLogix also releases word that it received a deficiency letter from NASDAQ stating that it no longer meets the minimum $1.00 per share requirement for continued listing, though they have until March 15, 2010 to regain compliance.

Hewlett-Packard retires the Electronic Data Systems name, renaming it HP Enterprise Services.

central ct

The Hospital of Central Connecticut selects Ingenious Med’s IM Practice Manager for electronic charge capture.

The Ottawa Hospital partners with EDCO to implement its Solarity and Solcom  products to digitize, store, and route paper documents electronically.

Former MinuteClinic CEO Michael Howe joins MEDNETWorld.com’s board of directors. Interestingly, Howe also is the former CEO of Arby’s, which may or not come in handy when dealing with HIEs.

LibertyHealth (NJ) launches EDIMS’s nursing documentation and charge capture systems. The health system implemented EDIMS’s CPOE and physician documentation systems in March.

Outpatient Surgery Center of Jonesboro (AR) selects ProVation MD software to document GI procedures.

Halfpenny Technologies’ new Web-based portal allows physicians to order lab procedures and view results.

Vermont Information Technology Leaders and Allscripts reveal plans to enter into a strategic alliance. Allscripts will extend preferred pricing to Vermont physicians, with both organizations focusing on providers in small practices or rural areas.

kolosky

Doctations appoints Jerry Kolosky chief operating officer. He was a VP for 3M Health Information Systems.

The Washington Health Information Collaborative extends grants to 34 physician practices, health clinics, and hospitals in small and rural communities across the Pacific Northwest. Providers will receive up to $20,000 each to invest in IT to improve health care. First Choice Health is contributing $500,000, the largest single donation.

WellSpan Health’s York Hospital implements AeroScout’s Wi-Fi solution for asset tracking.

In case you missed it,we posted an interview with athenahealth’s Jonathan Bush on HIStalk Practice yesterday. Bush, in his ever-amusing, passionate, and irreverent way, gives the low-down on the company’s new program that guarantees athenaclinical users six months’ free service if  they fail to qualify for government stimulus money. Here’s a sample: “I believe that every single doctor that we give a proposal to on athenaClinicals will actually make more cash as a result of being on athenaClinicals than not. I couldn’t say that for (the last) five years, and I still can’t say that about any of the other software products that I’ve seen.” While you are over on HIStalkPractice, sign up for e-mail updates so you don’t miss any other cool stuff.

inga

E-mail Inga.



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Currently there are "12 comments" on this Article:

  1. Technical comments:

    – There’s a bucket of CPT codes for after hours services. Technically speaking, an ER would be *under*coding if they weren’t using them. I have no idea about BIDMC, but not using the codes is potentially illegal *and* definitely foolish.

    – Linux has worked with Bluetooth for years. I doubt your poster meant it to sound like Linux just showed up at the Bluetooth table. It’s just that the new Gnome release has integrated the longstanding Bt package.

    I’d love to see the Nerd Venn Diagram I fit it into.

  2. In response to the post by Fuzzy – I too used to work in the same division of ACS. Don’t worry, you won’t know you’re being laid off until the day it’s done. Better hope your assignment doesn’t end. Word is, three weeks on the bench, and you’re laid off. That’s just what “they” say though. Save your pennies.

  3. If KLAS ever carried any credibility, it is now zero. The financially conflicted allegiances throughout the HIT industry will come back to haunt it. Its slick current appointee is well known for this.

    By failing to consider patient safety in any of their machinations and ratings, these industry promoting trade groups are essentially worthless.

  4. Frank,

    I was going to title the post New Gnome Release but wanted to focus on the subject of a free desktop application and used Linux Desktop to give readers a more specific title even though Bluetooth has been part of Linux for some time in other applications.

  5. “Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 Standard with Headset – $29.99 after rebate and pretty cheap shipping. Saw it in the ad and thought someone might be interested.”

    To anyone who remembers the 1968 “Assignment: Earth” Star Trek episode with Robert Lansing and the typewriter that takes speech input, I guess we’ve achieved that. So, where’s warp drive and time travel??

  6. To: My Fair Lady

    It is really too bad (and very obvious) that you don’t understand the integrity of KLAS. I know beyond a doubt that KLAS is VERY fair and objective in all of their reporting. Having UPMC on their board will have absolutely no effect on ANY results published on ANY vendor.

  7. If all of you that were making totally unfounded comments about KLAS understood how KLAS obtained it’s results, you would probably feel pretty stupid. ALL KLAS results are totally based on input from the vendor’s clients. With a fairly complex scoring system, KLAS only tells it like it is.

  8. Does any one care about patient care and safety any more?
    Is this all about making money?
    Where is did your conscience go?
    Who said that all of the gizmos you report on are safe?

  9. I always wondered why Captain Kirk had to announce the Star Date at the beginning of all his logs – wouldn’t the computer be able to figure that out for him?

    Sounds like the same folks designing EHRs designed parts of the Enterprise.

  10. Saw the post above on Humedica – (fka Health Insight Technologies). In my earlier life as an analyst, I got to know its CEO, Mike Weintraub when he was running Pharmetrics, a company that did episode-based analysis for pharma. I introduced him to IMS Health and, then as a banker helped sell Pharmetrics to IMS. He created a good amount of value and lead a good organization then.
    I’ve also known CMO, Paul Bleicher – founder of clinical trials software vendor, PhaseForward for a number of years – the two of them (esp Paul) know pharma data as well as any I’ve met. I expect Michael is running sales, good group of investors, and Northbridge has made money with Weintraub before (typically best predictor of success).

    So, buzzword heavy site aside, I’d say this is one to watch.

    Ben Rooks







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