Monday Morning Update 9/28/20

Top News

Allegheny Health Network (PA) and a Pittsburgh investor create AlphaLab Health, an innovation hub that will provide seed funding to companies that are involved in diagnostics, therapeutics, medical devices, and health IT.

The hub will be housed in the former Suburban General Hospital in Pittsburgh’s Bellevue community, which Allegheny Health Network has mostly closed since acquiring it in 1994, leaving only an urgent care center and outpatient clinics.

A predecessor organization to Allegheny Health Network was AHERF, which went from running just Allegheny General Hospital to Pennsylvania’s largest health system, which include acquisitions of Medical College of Pennsylvania and Hahnemann Medical College and their hospitals. AHERF filed bankruptcy in June 1998 in what was then the largest non-profit healthcare system failure with $1.3 billion in debt. West Penn Hospital  was merged with the Pittsburgh assets of AHERF to form West Penn Allegheny Health system, which struggled to compete with UPMC and eventually sold itself to insurer Highmark, which was anxious to strike a deal since its relationship with UPMC was deteriorating. Highmark Health remains AHN’s parent. AHERF’s Philadelphia-area hospitals were bought out of bankruptcy by Tenet in becoming that area’s first for-profit hospital chain.

Reader Comments

From CIO: “Re: HIStalk. Just wanted to let you know that I still make my team read HIStalk and occasionally quiz them to make sure they do.” Thanks. Similarly, a CEO recently told me that a new investor made him promise to read HIStalk daily. I appreciate that even if I can’t really comprehend it since my view of HIStalk is an empty screen that I fill in solitude each day with whatever interests me.

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

Vendor experience with virtual conference exhibit halls hasn’t been good. Commenters note that the volume of leads is good but the quality is not, while low engagement leaves reps starting alone at a Zoom screen for hours.

New poll to your right or here: How has your job changed since the pandemic began? Click the poll’s comments link after responding to explain further with your anonymous thoughts.

Welcome to new HIStalk Platinum Sponsor Newfire Global Partners. The Boston-based company partners with healthcare businesses globally to make innovation happen, such as in developing custom digital health solutions, speeding up the drug development cycle, and de-risking growth without compromising interoperability and security to turn the new normal into a durable, competitive advantage. Nearly 90% of the company’s 350 employees hold advanced degrees, working from offices in the US, Ukraine, Croatia, Singapore, and Hong Kong to offer services in advisory (assessments and due diligence, strategic marketing, interim operating roles); talent (blended teams, dedicated teams, specialized expertise); and AI-powered software development management. Healthcare-specific offerings include FHIR integration, data science and analytics, provider and patient adoption, and interoperability. Chairman and CEO Stephen Hau, MS is an industry long-timer who founded PatientKeeper and co-founded Shareable Ink. Thanks to Newfire Global Partners for supporting HIStalk.

Webinars

September 30 (Wednesday) 11 ET. “The Hidden Threat: New Research on Security Vulnerabilities and Privacy Gaps in Healthcare Apps.” Sponsors: Verimatrix, NowSecure. Presenters: Neal Michie, MEng, director of product management, Verimatrix; Brian Lawrence, direction of solution engineering, NowSecure. The presenters will present research on the security risk profile of 1,000 healthcare apps in managing patient privacy, how they compare to those in other industries, and where the biggest vulnerabilities lie. Attendees will learn how to make their healthcare apps more secure in managing protected health information.

Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present your own.

People

Ori Lotan, MD (Universal Health Services) will join MultiCare (WA) as VP / chief health information officer. 

Central Logic hires Maija Costello, MBA (Accenture) as VP of people and culture; Samantha Endres, MBA, CPA (West Acadamic Publishing) as CFO; and Robert Zdon (RAZR) as chief marketing officer.

Government and Politics

UT Southwestern Medical Center Assistant Professor of Radiology Lorraine De Blanche, MD pleads guilty to intentionally misleading federal agents who questioned her in a telemedicine fraud investigation that occurred while she was employed as a radiology professor at University of Arkansas. She admitted that she prescribed durable medical equipment and compounded prescription drugs without talking to the patients involved. She faces five years in prison and will pay $213,000 in telemedicine proceeds and fines. 

COVID-19

HHS takes $300 million from CDC’s budget to run a “defeat despair” advertising blitz that features celebrities and administration officials discussing the pandemic and the White House’s response to it, with airings to begin before Election Day. Interviews have already been recorded with Dennis Quaid (who has publicly praised the administration’s COVID-19 response) and CeCe Winans (who was chosen for improving messaging with black viewers). HHS spokesperson Michael Caputo said before he took medical leave that President Trump demanded personally that he create the campaign, which he says will draw ire from Democrats and “their conjugal media and the leftist scientists that are working for the government” because he’ll be running $250 million worth of taxpayer-funded ads.

A White House aide demands that FDA justify its toughened standards for a COVID-19 vaccine on the same day that the President branded the changes as a “political move.” FDA planned to release the guidance last week, but is instead working on its explanation of extending safety studies to two months after the second injection, which makes a pre-Election Day vaccine release unlikely.

Minnesota stops a door-to-door coronavirus survey after public health workers were intimidated by people who shouted ethnic and racial slurs, followed the workers, videotaped them, and threatened to call police. The mayor of one small town says it is reasonable that residents become concerned when they see a car with California plates.

Just about all infectious disease experts warn that it will be a gloomy US winter as people move back indoors, schools and business return to some degree of normal with increasing contact, and people gather for holidays. The predicted post-Labor Day case jump is already happening. IHME projects 372,000 US COVID-19 deaths by January 1, with daily deaths increasing from today’s 780 to 3,000 (or 6,600 if mandates are eased) and ICU bed demand rising from 8,400 to 31,000. California’s HHS secretary warned Friday afternoon that he expects COVID-19 hospitalizations to double by late October.

ProPublica reports how the CEO of a telemedicine vendor, who was also an ex-convict, convinced two South Texas elected officials to promote local government use of his telemedicine services during the pandemic and to urge other leaders to buy his unapproved COVID-19 tests.

Other

USA Today lists several new consumer gadgets devices can serve – now or down the road — as a dedicated Zoom devices, including Amazon’s Echo Show 10 for $250, a webcam plugged into a Fire TV Cube that can be displayed on large-screen TVs, and Facebook Portal TV. Benefits include freeing up hands and computer screens for taking notes and untethering webcam placement. The Echo Show 10 even auto-frames the user with pan and zoom. It will also connect with Amazon Chime pay-per-use service for business calls and meetings. Amazon sells the Alexa-powered Facebook Portal TV for $149. I suspect remote work and videoconferencing is here to stay, so the modest investment to make it better and easier seems worth it.

Contacts

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