Weekender 7/12/19

Weekly News Recap

• Corepoint Health and Rhapsody merge.
• Waystar acquires Digitize.AI.
• OmniSys acquires Strand Clinical Technologies.
• Provident St. Joseph Health and Microsoft announce plans to turn a Seattle-area hospital into a Microsoft-powered “hospital of the future.”
• IBM closes its $34 billion acquisition of Red Hat.
• ONC announces that Executive Director Steve Posnack, MS, MHS will become deputy national coordinator when Jon White, MD steps down in mid-August.
• Providence St. Joseph Health says it plans to create a billion-dollar business from its Engage, Bluetree, Epic Community Connect, and other non-clinical projects, also noting that it will replace Meditech in its acquired hospitals that are using it.

Best Reader Comments

As a customer, we had contractual requirements to stay at Current or Current-1 versions, 20+ years ago. IIRC, you could still run on even older versions but there was a maintenance fee premium to pay then. I’ve always thought this type of agreement struck a fair balance. It allows customers to keep the doors open and lights on even under difficult conditions. Meanwhile it creates a clear incentive to stay current and shows that the vendor places significant value on doing so. (Brian Too)

Another hospital of the future! Guess we were overdue for another new one. Twenty years from now if someone as industrious as Vince Ciotti wants to write the next history of EMR/HIS, all they will have to do is take Vince’s PowerPoints and put in the new vendor names. I hate too say it, but after 40+ years in the healthcare IT world, information technology can’t reform healthcare. People created this mess and only people (not computers, software, AI, or blockchain) can fix it. (Frank Poggio)

As a physician, I am sure you’d like it much more if someone else input factors about your patient into the EHR. Preferably someone who is not two steps removed from the source of the information. How about the patient? Citing Neal Patterson as Mr. H did just today, make the patient truly part of the team, not just an observer through a read-only portal. (Harry Solomon)

The intense rivalry among EHR venders made Epic, Allscripts, Meditech, and the others to push their limits to give providers the tools save lives, make patients healthier, and standardize processes. The healthcare industry would not been the same if it weren’t for Neal and his life’s work. His legacy reaches beyond Cerner. It’s deep within the clients, competitors, and his many protégés. R.I.P. Mr. Patterson. (King Solomon)

Providence would be far better off buying minority stock in a company and collecting dividends or getting an ROI after an acquisition. Hospitals do not know how to run for-profit tech companies. They do not have the stamina or the unique management acumen. The old adage of “stick to your knitting” really applies here. I guarantee in about 3-5 years they will have either closed it down or sold it off at a loss. (Frank Poggio)

Watercooler Talk Tidbits

Readers funded the DonorsChoose teacher grant request of Ms. H in Texas, who asked for math manipulatives for her kindergarten class. She reports, “I want to start off by saying thank you for choosing my project to donate to. The students have really enjoyed the learning materials. I use the new resources during guided math time with my students who need enrichment for adding and subtracting. We use the materials so that the students would be able to add and/or subtract with objects or manipulatives. I have also used the materials in stations. When I told the students that they where getting new materials for stations, they were all super excited. When the students saw the materials, they were shouting with joy.”

Flatiron Health’s 34-year-old CEO Nat Turner, who sold his oncology tech company to Merck for $1.9 billion in early 2018, buys a $19.5 million New York City penthouse.

A former developer of theme park ride robots is developing teaching simulators for Boston Children’s Hospital, creating robotic trainers for practicing cleft palate surgery, gunshot wound treatment, and abdominal surgery.  

Dell Medical School researchers develop a scheduling system to accommodate its new clinic model in which patients who need to see multiple doctors remain in one office and the clinicians come to them. The medical school staff used mathematical models of actual patient visits along with clinician interviews to eliminate the multiple visits and extended time required when patients are referred in the Musculoskeletal Institute at UT Health Austin. 

American Airlines apologizes to Tisha Rowe, MD, MBA and promises to hire a chief inclusion and diversity officer after a flight attendant insisted that she cover herself on a flight from Jamaica to Miami. She founded telemedicine provider The Rowe Network, sells online nutrition consultations, and wrote an inspirational book for girls book titled “B is for Bossy.”

Another attention-seeking idiot makes a video involving licking something and placing then it back on the shelf, this time a 30-year-old woman who recorded her 10-year-old daughter licking a tongue depressor and then placing it back in the jar in a Florida clinic’s exam room. The pair are shown in the video pointing to the “please do not touch medical supplies” sign, then captioning the resulting Snapchat video, “Don’t tell me how to live my life.” The mother, who explained that “I was just being silly with my kids,” was charged with felony tampering with a consumer product.

In Case You Missed It

• News 7/12/19
• EPtalk by Dr. Jayne 7/11/19
• News 7/10/19
• Curbside Consult with Dr. Jayne 7/8/19
• Neal Patterson’s Final CHC Speech – November 16, 2016
• Monday Morning Update 7/8/19

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