Monday Morning Update 3/19/18

Top News

Despite technical problems that delayed business on the German stock exchange by an hour, Siemens AG raises $5.2 billion in its Healthineers IPO. Funds will be used to invest in molecular diagnostics and to acquire US-based health IT startups.

Reader Comments

From Lizzie Borden: “Re: Theranos board and advisors. It looks like at least one member of the infamous company’s scientific advisory board is getting proactive about making sure industry insiders know she’s distanced herself from the company.” The Washington University School of Medicine has indeed assured the media that professor Ann Gronowski left the Theranos board at the end of last year, even though the company’s website still lists her as a member. Sources report that two other advisers still remain on the SAB, which was formed in 2016 to lend credibility to the company’s under-fire efforts.

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

Thanks to those who responded to “What I Wish I’d Known Before … Taking My First Hospital IT Executive Job.” I can’t say I’m surprised at how frequently hospital politics came up.

The next installment of the series is your chance to help future patients and caregivers learn from your past experiences in the hospital or ED.

Meditech was the favorite in a highly unscientific poll that mostly garnered votes from IP addresses associated with the vendors listed.

New poll to your right or here: How far along are EHRs in delivering a "comprehensive health record" that paints a full patient picture?

Webinars

April 5 (Thursday) 1:00 ET. “Succeeding in Value-Based Care Via a Technology-Driven Approach.” Sponsor: Health Fidelity. Presenters: Adele L. Towers, MD, MPH, senior clinical advisor, UPMC Technology Development Center; Adam Gronsky, director of advisory services, Health Fidelity. Success in value-based care requires a thorough understanding of how risk-based payment models work. To prosper in this data-laden era of care, providers need to manage their patient populations holistically rather than through a collection of individual episodes and be able to accurately identify, document, and report risk scores. Given the stakes, is your provider organization adequately set up to take on and succeed in managing risk? In this webinar, learn how technology-enabled risk capture optimization is helping providers succeed in risk-based payment models.

Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre for information.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Mazars USA opens a new office in Los Angeles.

Decisions

• Tri Valley Health Center (NE) will go live with Meditech on May 1.
• Morristown Medical Center (NJ) will go live with Epic in June.
• Northside Regional Medical Center (OH) will switch from Cerner to Meditech in June.

These provider-reported updates are supplied by Definitive Healthcare, which offers a free trial of its powerful intelligence on hospitals, physicians, and healthcare providers.

People

CNBC reports that Amazon has hired Taha Kass-Hout (Trinity Health) to head up healthcare project business development on its Grand Challenge team. Also known as the 1492 Lab, Amazon’s team stealthily launched last year to focus on projects related to medical records management and access, though not much has been heard from them since. Much is being made of the fact that Kass-Hout was the FDA’s first chief health informatics officer.

Announcements and Implementations

In Bermuda, the Hospitals Board integrates eForms from Access with its Cerner EHR at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital and the Mid-Atlantic Wellness Institute.

Medication management vendor DrFirst deploys FDB’s new Opioid Risk Management Module as part of its support of Nebraska’s PDMP. In January, Nebraska became the first state to require tracking of all prescription drugs.

Other

This sounds a bit Big Brotherish to me: Herman Miller introduces a smart office chair that, when paired with its smart desk and app, gives employers insight into how long workers spend at their desks, times of highest productivity, and whether they’ve gone to the restroom or left for the day.

Sponsor Updates

• Parallon announces a reseller agreement with Cerner.
• CommonWell Health TV interviews Redox Chief Customer Officer Devin Soleberg.
• ROI Healthcare Solutions launches the ROI Resource Group.
• Santa Rosa Consulting adds an analytics migration program to its business intelligence and analytics services.
• Philips Wellcentive will exhibit at the Population Health Colloquium March 19-21 in Philadelphia.
• Wolters Kluwer publishes its annual report.
• QuadraMed will celebrate Health Information Professionals Week, March 18-24, by providing HIP swag to any healthcare organization registering for a Lunch-N-Learn by March 30.
• Maryland Lt. Gov. Boyd Rutherford visits DrFirst’s headquarters to learn how the Rockville, MD-based company is fighting the opioid epidemic with Maryland-based partners MedChi, CRISP, and UMSOD.

Blog Posts

• How Healthcare’s Digital Transformation Can Drive Better Patient Engagement (Salesforce)
• Ambulatory Surgery Center Industry Updates and New Analytics Tool (The SSI Group)
• What Keeps a Hospital CIO Up at Night? (Summit Healthcare)
• Next-generation sequencing at scale: Guided variant assessment (Sunquest Information Systems)
• Surescripts Commends Congressional Leadership as EPCS Act Gains Traction in Senate, Following House Bill (Surescripts)
• Healthcare Marketing with HIPAA (SymphonyRM)
• Presumptive Eligibility for Charity Care: The Risk of Presuming Your Hospital is Compliant (TransUnion)
• A Training Revolution: Visage 7 Powers UF Health’s SIMulation (Visage Imaging)
• Close clinical communication gaps and avoid risks. (Voalte)
• Strengthening Patient Safety and Engagement Through System Standards (Vocera)
• A 10-Point Plan for Smart and Secure Electronic Communications with Patients (WebPT)
• Less clicks and more data at the point of care? It’s true. (Philips Wellcentive)
• 4 Pitfalls of Searching the Internet for Health Answers (WiserTogether)

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
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