News 2/19/10

From Pliny: “Re: Herb Smaltz, CIO of Ohio State University Medical Center. He is leaving the job on February 28 to run an OSU spinoff, Health Care DataWorks.” The company offers an off-the-shelf, pre-loaded data warehouse.

From Keanu: “Re: CCHIT. Has anyone heard of CCHIT events at HIMSS? Isn’t it a bit odd that they haven’t posted a town hall or something? With all the sessions on Meaningful Use, you would think they would have something to say.”

From The PACS Designer: “Re: disease outbreak alerting. The population of high quality healthcare apps for the iPhone keeps expanding. Outbreaks Near Me, an app introduced in 2006, recently created an iPhone version for mobile users. Software developer Clark Freifeld and epidemiologist John Brownstein started HealthMap in 2006 and designed Outbreaks Near Me for Childrens Hospital Boston."

From IKnowPlenty: “Re: AHA. Every day, more news comes out undermining Al Gore’s global warming hypothesis. For AHA’s upcoming Leadership Summit, they’ve added Newt Gingrich to share the stage with Gore. Now if we could just get someone who actually understands healthcare.” Newt makes good money from his Center for Health Transformation, so he must know something. In fact, he’s running an American People’s Online Health Summit as a counterpoint to President Obama’s meeting and most likely as an early step in a 2012 run for President (that’s my guess, anyway, now that his presumed opponent is obviously vulnerable).

Eclipsys announces Q4 results: revenue up 5%, EPS $0.07 vs. $0.06. Non-GAAP EPS of $0.17 beat expectations of $0.12.

Mary Horan, MD, chief of staff of Northwest Hospital (WA), will present “Med Rec: It Doesn’t Have to Hurt” at the AHA booth at HIMSS on Tuesday, March 2 at 3:30 p.m. She will talk about the use of MedsTracker from Design Clinicals, who will also offer private demos by request (at HIMSS or otherwise).

Picis announces a new version of ED PulseCheck and the launch of LYNX CareBridge, a documentation solution for medical necessity.

The Adoption/Certification Workgroup of HHS’s HIT Policy Committee will examine the safety of healthcare IT systems at an all-day meeting (warning: PDF) next Thursday from 9 until 3 Eastern. Executives from Cerner, Epic, and the VA will present, along with Ross Koppel, David Classen, and ePatient Dave (among others). You can participate remotely here without pre-registering. That should be interesting.

Thanks to Access, a new HIStalk Platinum Sponsor (actually Double Platinum, since they are also a Platinum Sponsor of HIStalk Mobile). The Sulphur Springs, TX company offers solutions that address patient flow, electronic forms, electronic signature, an e-Forms Repository, and portals that connect to media such as fax, e-mail, images, and universal documents such as EKG strips and other device output. We found out about each other when I did an HIT Moment with VP Chuck Demaree last week, which taught me stuff I didn’t know about electronic patient signatures and the capabilities of the Universal Document Portal for populating the EMR with data from biomedical equipment or even other applications. Being a barbeque connoisseur, I would find a reason to visit them at their place and then drop by Big Smith’s Bar-B-Q, but if that’s a stretch, they will be at Booth 4333 at HIMSS. Thanks to Access for its support of HIStalk and HIStalk Mobile.

Speaking of HIStalk Mobile, my colleague David Brooks is filling up his dance card to visit companies with mobile offerings (actually, he’s already got 20 appointments for Monday and Tuesday, so lay claim to Wednesday while you can). If you have the coolest mobile solution on the market, David says he will make time for you. I should also mention the fourth Founding Sponsor of HIStalk Mobile, 3M, which joins Vocera, Voalte, and another company not quite ready to be named. We really appreciate it.

I guessed wrong on the 2010 Grammy winner that MEDecision will bring to its HIMSS party. It’s Colbie Caillat, who has charted several times with some good pop tunes. Live video here. Their event is 6-9 Monday night at the Georgia Aquarium, It’s open to everybody, including those coming to the HIStalk reception who will need to leave early to hit Max Lager’s by 7:00. RSVP here to see Colbie.

And speaking of the HIStalk reception, thanks to sponsors Encore Health Resources, Evolvent, and Symantec. In fact, I notice that Ivo must have liked the looks of Max Lager’s since he’s hosting a Healthlink Alumni Pub Night there Sunday night.

Inga and I have done some good interviews that I’ll be posting each day for the next several. I want to get caught up before HIMSS and then feel free to collapse immediately afterward.

And Inga has obviously been a busy lady, putting together HIT Vendor Executives on HIMSS10, which features some fascinating executive predictions about the conference. How she got the top people at 42 companies to share their thoughts is beyond me (charm, I’ll assume).

Noteworthy Medical Systems is chosen by The Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers (NJ) to power the Camden Health Information Exchange.

Strange: disgraced former Tour de France winner Floyd Landis, stripped of his title for doping, is the subject of a French arrest warrant for trying to hack into the anti-doping agency’s lab system to prove their results can’t be trusted.

General Dynamics wins a five-year contract worth up to $154 million to support the Army’s MC4 battlefield EMR.

Wacom launches a pen-on-screen display for healthcare professionals who need to annotate images.

An odd survey result: over 50% of Americans think other people’s health is going in the wrong direction, but only 17% said their own is. A third of respondents give themselves an A in the major health categories, while more than 90% of doctors grade them a C or lower. No amount of technology is going to fix that perception problem.

Jackson Memorial Hospital (FL) will lay off over 1,000 of its 12,000 employees, trying to avoid missing payroll by May.

You can tell HIMSS is upcoming. The fluff news is everywhere, but all the good stuff is being held to announce from Atlanta.

E-mail me.

HERtalk by Inga

Orion Health will use Merge’s Cedara WebAccess technology to bring images and information into its Orion Concerto Physician Portal.

The ONC selects Acumen Solutions to implement a cloud computing CRM and and project management from Salesforce.com. The solution will be used across all RECs nationally to help manage interactions with medical providers.

The ONC, by the way, names Joy Pritts, JD as its first chief privacy officer. Pritts will work with David Blumenthal to advise on privacy, security, and data stewardship issues. She was formerly on the faculty at Georgetown University.

athenahealth makes Fast Company Magazine’s “Fast 50” list of the world’s most innovative companies. I noticed that PatientsLikeMe and GE were also in the top 50, while Sermo, Kaiser Permanente, and Walgreens made the “also-ran” list.

Here’s something that sounds fun. Buzz Aldrin will be at the MMR Information Systems booth, taking commemorative photos with HIMSS attendees. Look for him March 1st, complete with a moon surface background in the Sea of Tranquility. If you participate, be sure to send us a copy.

EHR adoption in physician offices is up 3% over last year, according to a survey of 180,000 doctor offices. The numbers suggest a 36% adoption rate, with doctors using EHRs primarily for electronic notes. Not surprisingly, the larger the practice, the more likely the practice uses EHR. Hospital or healthcare system-owned practices are also more likely to EHRs that physician-owned groups.

A few sponsor updates:

• MED3OOO will incorporate data management and analysis tools into its MED3OOO Quality Management Suite. The application will be integrated  into MED3OOO’s InteGreat EHR to facilitate clinical data collection, help providers in determine HCC and PQRI scores, and meet other P4P reporting requirements.
• Sage Healthcare appoints Tony Ryzinski SVP of marketing. He previously worked for Misys in a similar role.
• MedAptus announces an expansion of its consulting services team to help providers and hospital to optimize financial and operational performance.
• e-MDs President and CEO Michaels Stearns, MD agrees to serve as board president of the newly formed Texas e-Health Alliance.
• Shore Sound Health System (NY) plans to undergo an accelerated activation of Eclipsys’ Sunrise Enterprise suite at two of its hospitals.
• Marietta Dermatology Associates (GA)  select the SRS hybrid EMR for its 13 providers.
• Sunquest completes a seven-hospital implementation at Cleveland Clinic.

I’d like to think that first there was Inga, then there was Barbie. Mattel introduces Computer Engineering Barbie, who carries a smartphone, a Bluetooth, and a laptop, plus wears stilettos. Any resemblance to me is pure coincidence.

E-mail Inga.