Monday Morning Update 9/26/16

Top News

GE Healthcare launches Five.Eight, an accelerator (not to be confused with the Athens, GA rock band) for global healthcare startups aimed at improving outcomes for the estimated 5.8 billion people in the world who don’t have access to quality, affordable care. The accelerator hopes to enroll 10 companies in its first program, each of which will work with GE on developing scalable products for potential distribution or integration into GE’s portfolio. Seed funding of up to $5 million per startup may also be available.

India-based Tricog is the first member of the new accelerator. The startup has developed technology to help ED physicians diagnose heart attack patients within minutes, decreasing time between symptoms and treatment and increasing survival rates.

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

It’s Hillary Clinton in a landslide with heavy HIStalk reader turnout. Maybe I’ll run it again after the debates. New poll to your right or here: continuing last week’s poll, which health IT salesperson LinkedIn credential would most impress you?

Welcome to new HIStalk Platinum Sponsor Ivenix. The Amesbury, MA-based company has transformed IV infusion delivery from the decades-old technology of competitors to the connected world to improve patient safety, eliminate workflow inefficiencies, and protect the hospital’s bottom line by reducing adverse events. The Ivenix Infusion Management System measures and adjusts IV flow rate in real time and supports mobile viewing of infusion status and alarms, integrating with the EHR to auto-program and auto-document. Adaptive technology eliminates the need for ongoing calibration, while software and security updates along with drug library updates are delivered without removing devices from the floors. Ivenix addresses the challenges of increasingly complex dosing regimens, the demand for EHR integration, and infusion technology-related patient safety issues. Thanks to Ivenix for supporting HIStalk.

I found this video that describes the benefits of the Ivenix Infusion Management System, including eliminating nurse time spent manually documenting IV pump information in the EHR.

Last Week’s Most Interesting News

• Epic announces a number of new offerings and initiatives at its annual user group meeting, which attracted 18,000 attendees.
• The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative donates $3 billion to “cure, prevent, or manage all diseases by the end of the century.”
• Private GPs in England offer third-party video visits as an alternative to long appointment wait times, with NHS footing the bill.
• The entire board of Cairns Hospital in Australia resigns following an unpopular and over budget Cerner rollout.
• Appalachian Regional Healthcare (KY and WV) brings the computer systems of its several hospitals, pharmacies, and clinics back online after nearly three weeks of downtime caused by a malware attack.

Webinars

September 27 (Tuesday) 1:00 ET. “Put MACRA in your Workflow – CDS and Evolving Payment Models.” Sponsored by Stanson Health. Presenters: Anne Wellington, chief product officer, Stanson Health; Scott Weingarten, MD, MPH, SVP and chief clinical transformation officer, Cedars-Sinai. Reimbursement models are rapidly changing, and as a result, health systems need to influence physicians to align with health system strategy. In this webinar, we will discuss how Stanson’s Clinical Decision Support can run in the background of every patient visit to help physicians execute with MACRA, CJR, et al.

October 13 (Thursday) 2:00 ET. “Glycemic Control During Therapeutic Hypothermia.” Sponsored by Monarch Medical Technologies. Presenter: Tracey Melhuish, RN, MSN, clinical practice specialist, Holy Cross Hospital (FL). Using therapeutic hypothermia (TH) as a method of care can present risks of hyperglycemia, hypoglycemia, and blood glucose variability. Maintaining safe glucose levels during the cooling and rewarming phases of TH reduces the risks of adverse events. Tracey Melhuish, author of “Linking Hypothermia and Hyperglycemia,” will share best practices for optimal glucose control during TH and the success Holy Cross Hospital sees while using a computerized glucose management software.

View previous webinars on our HIStalk webinars YouTube channel.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Nebraska pulls out of the federal health insurance exchange, leaving Nebraskans with extremely limited purchasing options when open enrollment starts November 1.

TierPoint will spend $20 million to build the first phase of a 90,000 square-foot data center in Dallas.

Announcements and Implementations

Canopy Health, an accountable care network formed out of an affiliation between California-based UCSF Health and John Muir Health, selects financial risk management and population health services from Conifer Health.

Sydney-based Macquarie University’s MQ Health campus partners with Emory Healthcare (GA) to launch the country’s first remote intensive care unit monitoring program using technology from Philips.

Technology

MSN Healthcare Solutions incorporates SyTrue’s NLP OS operating system and AdvancedBI’s business intelligence tools into its new NLP-based analytics offering for radiologists.

VitreosHealth adds predictive risk models for identifying gaps in care, mental health conditions, and patient motivation to its population health management analytics engine. Models for palliative care will be rolled out towards the end of the year.

Research and Innovation

AHRQ looks for peer-reviewed, patient-centered outcomes research findings related to geriatric care shown to have improved patient outcomes for potential investment in broader dissemination and implementation. 

I missed this a few weeks ago: The National Science Foundation awards Rice University mechanical engineer Marcia O’Malley a $1 million, three-year grant to develop a tool that will track the movement of a surgeon’s operating tool and emit a vibration if his or her technique is deemed too rough. (No details are given as to how “rough” will be determined.) O’Malley says the tool will combine virtual reality with real-time touch feedback that will hopefully make the process of learning how to perform delicate surgeries easier.

Privacy and Security

Care New England Health System pays a $400,000 HIPAA fine for neglecting to update its BA agreement with Woman & Infants Hospital (RI), for which it provides IT system technical support and information security. The lack of updated documents came to light when WIH reported the loss of unencrypted backup tapes containing the PHI-filled ultrasound studies of 14,000 patients. WIH ended up paying a $150,000 fine for its role in the breach.

Other

Iliuliuk Family and Health Services, the only clinic serving Alaska’s extremely remote Unalaska Island (which also happens to be one of the country’s busiest commercial fishing ports), launches virtual consults via satellite technology with Anchorage-based providers at Providence Alaska Medical Center. The local news reports that the service will connect mainland ED physicians with clinic staffers to treat injuries “among the Bering Sea crabbing fleet made famous by the Discovery Channel show ‘Deadliest Catch.’”

Sponsor Updates

• Experian Health will host its Financial Performance Summit October 5-7 in Nashville, TN.
• Patientco releases its annual State of the Industry Report.
• PatientMatters will exhibit at the Arkansas Hospital Association Annual Meeting & Tradeshow October 5-7 in Little Rock.
• PerfectServe will exhibit at ANCC 2016 October 5-7 in Orlando.
• Lexmark Healthcare submits a formal pledge of commitment to interoperability.
• Sagacious Consultants makes a charitable donation to Tri 4 Schools to help extend its Exercise to Achievement after-school program.
• The SSI Group will exhibit at the AAHAM ANI 2016 conference October 5-7 in Las Vegas.
• Summit Healthcare and ZeOmega will exhibit at InSight 2016 September 27-30 in San Antonio.
• Sutherland Healthcare Solutions will exhibit at the HFMA NJ National Institute October 5 in Atlantic City.
• Navicure receives number-one rankings in client satisfaction and client loyalty across three Black Book RCM survey categories.
• Valence Health will exhibit at the Georgia Society for Managed Care Conference October 5-7 in Young Harris, GA.
• ZeOmega releases a video, “SignalHealth Deploys Advanced Care Directives Repository Through Jiva HIE.
• ZirMed ranks first for end-to-end RCM in the 2016 Black Book Report for the fifth consecutive year.

Blog Posts

• Healthcare & Kitchen Table Economics (PatientPay)
• What testing an airplane & obstetrics have in common (PeriGen)
• Back to School – PMD at Academic Institutions (PMD)
• Common FWA Overpayments Your Automated Claim Editing System May Miss (Verscend)
• What You Need to Know: Proposed Federal Fiscal Year 2018 ICD-10 Code Updates (VitalWare)
• Headsets in healthcare? It’s virtually guaranteed. (Voalte)
• Our unconquerable soul (Xerox)
• Avoiding Waste: Practicing at the Top of Your License (Zynx Health)

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jennifer, Dr. Jayne, Lt. Dan.
More news: HIStalk Practice, HIStalk Connect.
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