News 12/7/11

Top News

Costco announces its entry into the PM/EHR software and services business through its partners, Etransmedia Technology, Inc. and Allscripts, moving from a test phase to full launch after experiencing high demand. Costco will offer the Allscripts MyWay PM/EHR along with hosting maintenance, support, training, implementation services, and unlimited claims processing for $499 per month. The company will have a booth at HIMSS.

Reader Comments

From Unibroue: “Re: Kaiser MU-payment mishap. The doctor who did not receive her MU incentive because Kaiser mistakenly claimed it is now making progress towards collecting her money. After a couple of attempts, she connected with the right person at Kaiser, they have corrected the registration issue, and the doctor should now be able to have her payment processed correctly.” Many thanks to our great readers who offered advice and contact names to help this doctor straighten things out.

From Fancy Schneider: “Re: HIStalk’s reputation. I was recently in a meeting at a hospital and HIStalk came up. Someone commented that it was the only place where they could get real information in an industry that is swamped with vaporware.”

From Bob Coli, MD: "Micky Tripathi’s First-Hand Experience with Patient Data Security Breach. This is the best overview of a PHI security incident that I have seen to date. Every word is valuable to consumers, healthcare professionals, and everyone else in America striving to achieve maximally secure and efficient data portability and fully interoperable HIE.” Other readers concur with Dr. Coli, with some urging that Micky’s post be “mandatory” reading and naming it HIStalk’s “Post of the Year.” Even Mr. H, who is parsimonious with his praise, called Micky’s piece “outstanding” and suggested that if there were Academy Awards for blog posts, that this one would be a shoo-in. The cost of the breach (above) should get your attention, after which you can read the article here.

From Dave Miller: “Re: University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. Some news for HIStalk. Our RFP scoring committee has recommended Epic. We still have to nail down funding and get the contract done, but the die is cast.” Dave, who is vice chancellor and CIO at UAMS (cool license plate) says they will replace Eclipsys Sunrise and Medipac on the inpatient side and Logician and Signature for ambulatory, plus a bunch of miscellaneous systems. Dave’s an old friend of HIStalk who has kept in touch since his days at University of Chicago Medical Center.

From Benzyl: “Re: PQRS. Do you see the number of submitting practices increasing or decreasing this year? What about hospitals? It seems that submissions slowed down after the incentive was reduced from 2% to 1% this year, or maybe other programs are getting the attention of practices.” Readers, chime in with your comment if you like.

From Long-Time Reader: “Re: HIT spending. I was wondering if you know what percentage of total healthcare spending HIT represents? Awesome site!” I’ll again go to readers who might a data source since I don’t know that I’ve seen an HIT-specific number that’s more precise than the typical “technology” that covers medical equipment.

From Gladys Kravitz: “Re: Cape Coral Hospital (FL). I was told by someone who works there that their Epic go-live didn’t go well, taking two hospitals down for several days. The person said administration was responsible since they didn’t go for the ‘deluxe’ Epic package from Epic and tried to manage the implementation on their own.” Unverified.

From Dadudadu: “Re: HIStalk. I hate to draw the comparison, but your statement about doing what you love and the money will follow sounds a lot like the philosophy of Epic. That intangible sense of purpose, unadulterated by the naked self-interest introduced by the pursuit of money or power or fame is, of course, what makes this website so great. And results, paradoxically, in more Money, Power, and Fame than you want. Be honest, what pays more at this point: HIStalk or your day job? Regardless, kudos to you for finding what you love, and doing it well so we all can benefit from it. Thanks.” One thing I should have added to my statement is that you almost have to work for yourself to either (a) do what you really love in the way you want to do it, and (b) reap money, power, and fame, since by definition, corporate employers fully expect to arbitrage the difference in what you’re worth vs. what they pay you, laying claim the great majority of that difference by rebating tiny raises and bonuses to encourage your occupational inertia for their continued benefit. I admire Epic for at least appearing to have something other than their corporate bottom line front and foremost, although it’s rare that good-sized companies can create and maintain a “we just want to do good work” philosophy, especially after the founders step aside (no different than when humbly wealthy self-made parents leave their fortunes to bratty, entitled children.) It’s probably empowering to have a lot of money, but I’m just as empowered by not needing much of it. If I ever quit my day job, which I admit contemplating on occasion, my questionably achievable goal would be to work for myself instead of someone else for a change.

From Elroy: “Re: Streamline Health. Acquiring Interpoint Partners, to be announced next week.” Unverified. Streamline does document management, while the Atlanta-based Interpoint Partners offers business intelligence and analytics. Streamhealth’s President and CEO Robert Watson, who took the job in February 2011, was previously a director of Interpoint. That adds credibility to the rumor.

From The PACS Designer: “Re: NPfIT Roundable. The UK’s NPfIT has had its ups and downs, but they are still looking to the future and have assembled a group to talk about it.”

From LanMan: “Re: Cerner. Buying IP blocks from now-defunct Borders? What for? And I heard this from a Brit publication?” Actually you could have heard it here since I mentioned it on December 2. At $786K, it was supposedly the second largest transfer of IPv4 addresses after Microsoft bought $7.5 million worth from also-defunct Nortel. IP addresses are about to become harder to obtain and more expensive with the advent of IPv6, which is replacing the current IPv4 as it runs out of available addresses. Cerner could be buying the addresses for resale, but I would speculate that it’s just ensuring that it will have enough for its own use for the foreseeable future, or perhaps to avoid expensive network infrastructure upgrades that IPv6 addresses will require.

From Lyssa Neel: “Re: native EMR apps for the iPad. Our app, VitalHub Chart, sits on top of Cerner PowerChart and makes data available to clinicians in a native iOS interface. Please take a look and let me know what you think.” Lyssa, whom I notice sports an impressive PhD in computer science from MIT, is CTO for VitalHub. Their product was developed at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto. Cerner users, what do you think?

From Early Girl: “Re: Microsoft Health Solutions Group. Some kind of announcement involving GE Healthcare will be made this week, either GEHC acquiring HealthVault and/or other MSFT products or some kind of marketing agreement.” Unverified.

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

Travis Good is on the ground at the mHealth Summit, so you can check out his reports on HIStalk Mobile. He says attendance is an impressive 3,500.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Healthcare quality improvement firm Avatar International acquires HR Solutions, a human capital management consulting firm that specializes in clinical engagement.

Streamline Health posts a Q3 profit of $296,000, up 212% from a year ago. Revenue fell 4% to $4.3 million.

Health Tap raises $11.5 million in Series A funding, raising its total to $14 million. It provides an online community where anyone can ask questions to US-based physicians at no charge. The company says that 6,000 physicians are participating so far, attracted by the “gamification” of earning reputation points for answering questions or agreeing with answers provided by other doctors. Big-name investors in the 12-employee company include Eric Schmidt (Google) and Ester Dyson.

SAIC reports Q3 numbers: revenue flat, EPS –$0.27 vs. $0.46, but exceeding analyst earnings expectations by a penny after excluding one-time items. The company said it paid $190 million in cash to acquire Vitalize Consulting Solutions in July 2011.

Sales

QuadraMed RCM client Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County (WY) chooses QuadraMed’s Computerized Patient Record and Quantim Electronic Document Management.

The San Diego Beacon Community selects Santech’s SanText SMS platform to send text messages to parents for appointment reminders and to inform them of their children’s immunization needs.

Lehigh Valley Health Network (PA) selects Orion Health’s HIE for its 50+ hospitals, clinics and health centers.

Association of Ontario Health Centres signs a 10-year contract with Canada-based EMR vendor Nightingale Informatix, which says it will earn $9 million in revenue in the first three years.

Mary Crouch joins Orchestrate Healthcare as its Meditech Practice Manager. She was previously with Laughlin Memorial Hospital (TN).

Tad Jacobs, DO, CMIO of Avera Medical Group (SD), is promoted to chief medical officer.

TriZetto names Pierre Samec, formerly of Expedia, as EVP/CTO.

Announcements and Implementations

The Greater Houston HIE announces the formation of its collaborative HIE network, which includes representation from over 60 hospitals across 14 counties.

St. Francis Hospital & Health Services (MO) announces plans to launch its Epic EHR on March 31, 2012.

Aintree University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust implements CCube Solutions’ electronic document management system, powered by Kodak production scanners and Kodak Capture Pro Network Edition imaging software.

gloStream will integrate clinical decision support from DiagnosisOne into its EMR.

Trustwave announces MyIdentity, a cloud-based two-factor authentication solution that supports five mechanisms (digital certificates, one-time SMS message passcodes, voice call-back, pushed login alert to mobile, and a mobile app that generates a one-time password.)

Caristix launches Cloak, which strips patient-identifiable messages from HL7 data for creating sample messages or clinically valid data for testing. The company, which was featured in HIStalk Innovator Showcase in November, offers a seven-day free trial.

Innovation and Research

Microsoft Research is applying spam-fighting techniques to the analysis of HIV cells, finding similarities in how viruses mutate as they attack the immune system and spammers who fine-tune their payloads to bypass spam filters.

mHealth Alliance announces its Top 11 in 2001 Innovators Challenge. Winning apps include pregnancy surveillance, voice-powered information retrieval, diagnostic tools for telemedicine, counterfeit drug detection, patient teaching, physician collaboration, patient communication, baby tracking, and care reminders. Above is a demo of an smart phone-based EMR developed by Martin Were MD, MS of Regenstrief Institute for HIV treatment and control in Kenya.

IRobot, the company behind the Roomba vacuum cleaner, applies for a patent for AVA, a five-foot-tall robot with a “head agonistic design” that can accommodate tablets or smart phones.

Other

The board chair for Maryland eCare says that mortality rates have fallen 30% across hospitals that have implemented its telehealth systems that supplement ICU coverage at rural hospitals.

CPSI pays $9.5 million for its new Mobile, AL corporate headquarters, which includes 16.5 acres and 135,500 square feet of office and warehouse space. The company had been leasing 13 buildings in the same office park.

EHRrtv publishes its MGMA interview with the always entertaining (and interestingly-attired) Jonathan Bush of athenahealth. He’s like no other CEO out there.

Aetna and ProHealth Physicians (CT) say that their four year Provider Collaboration program has resulted in 37% fewer inpatient hospital days on a risk-adjusted basis and 35% few hospital readmissions.

CPSI, Cerner, GE Healthcare, and Picis earn top client satisfaction scores in Black Book’s ranking of inpatient EHR vendors, obviously reaching vastly different conclusions than KLAS.

The Leapfrog Group includes 65 hospitals (including 18 Kaiser facilities) on its list of Top Hospitals, based on the delivery of quality care.

An article in Wired magazine called Apple’s Secret Plan to Steal Your Doctor’s Heart is not particularly focused or convincing, but a fun read. I couldn’t figure out its conclusion other than (a) doctors like using an iPad because it saves them time; (b) hospitals seem to be warming up to them; and (c) Steve Jobs had a small interest in healthcare after trying unsuccessfully to develop a Pixar CT imaging system. Like many articles these days, it seems  highly analytical and fresh until you think about precisely what you learned and realize that it wasn’t much.

Sponsor Updates

• Elsevier introduces Procedures Consult App for iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch.
• Adler Hey Children’s Hospital and Liverpool Women’s Hospital (UK) select Perceptive Software’s ImageNow electronic document management system.
• Wolters Kluwer Health announces its acquisition of Medknow PVT Ltd, expanding its open access publishing business.
• Capital Health (NJ) goes live on Wellsoft EDIS in its four emergency departments.
• dbMotion announces the 2012 schedule for its Insights into HIE seminar series.
• Michael O’Neil, founder and CEO of GetWellNework, moderates a discussion on mHealth and the role of patient education and monitoring medical compliance at this week’s mHealth Summit.
• Qualcomm Life Inc. and AirStrip Technologies collaborate to offer mobile monitoring to home health providers and patients.
• Capario launches a streamlined payer enrollment process.
• Teradici combines Imprivata OneSign Virtual Desktop Access with its PCoIP Firmware release 3.5.0 to offer virtual desktop access via access cards and ID badges.
• A Practice Fusion press release discusses five top trends and surprises in HIT for 2011.
• In a December 12 Webinar, South Jersey Health System CIO Thomas Pacek  will share how MobileMD is helping his organization’s physician network to grow and coordinate patient care.
• Nebraska Health Information Initiative announces that physicians are now sharing patient immunization information with NESIIS through the HIE’s Axoloti-powered platform from OptumInsight.
• San Diego Business Journal profiles Awarepoint and its four new RTLS patents.
• Vibra Healthcare (PA) selects PatientKeeper Physician Portal and Mobile Clinical Results for its long term acute care hospitals nationwide.
• Forst & Sullivan awards AT&T its Competitive Strategy Leadership Award for its approach to mHealth.

Contacts

Mr. H, Inga, Dr. Jayne, Dr. Gregg.