News 7/28/21

Top News

British health IT company System C acquires medication management vendor WellSky International from parent company WellSky Corp.

WellSky International will change its name to CareFlow Medicines Management and operate as a division of System C, which primarily serves NHS trusts.

WellSky International, the former JAC and Mediware Information Systems BV, took that name in mid-2019 following the 2018 renaming of then-parent company Mediware to WellSky.

Reader Comments

From Essential Oils: “Re: McLeod Health, SC. Replacing Cerner with Epic.” Verified, according to a health system announcement. The health system chose Cerner Millennium in late 2016 to replace Cerner / SMS Invision and Soarian. The first of McLeod’s seven hospitals went live on Millennium in early 2019 and the rollouts continued through at least early 2020, so that was a short stay. The health system says that the move to Millennium was the largest project in the health system’s history.

From Nanner Puddin: “Re: HIMSS21. My company has zero confirmed face-to-face meetings versus our requirement of having five booked at least two weeks before the conference, so we have decided against attending.”

From New to the Startup World: “Re: EHR. I recently started working at one of those telehealth disruptor type Silicon Valley startups after many years in health IT. I laughed so hard I nearly fell out of my chair when I heard they are planning to build their own EHR. I don’t see how they can get by without a certified EHR and I don’t see how it makes sense to build one purely for internal use. Amy I the crazy one? Does anyone still build their own EHR? Can you get by without a certified EHR? Oh, also note that the company does not have any staff with EHR experience.” I used to argue that non-traditional providers that don’t deal with insurance could gain competitive advantage by building their own EHR-lite that is centered around patients and providers, basically more like a CRM (although for that purpose, maybe an actual CRM would be the best option). A few investor-backed primary care companies that tried that failed, although most likely for other reasons. The Silicon Valley argument for building would be Uber or other company whose entire physical and business presence is a seemingly simple app that is powered by a lot of hidden computing power. A smart, aggressive, well-funded, and disruptive telehealth provider might convince me that a custom-developed EHR is essential, but hopefully they at least keep integration in mind since we’ve learned that even telehealth companies with their own providers can’t exist responsibly in a medical silo.

Webinars

July 28 (Wednesday) 1 ET. “Stop running from your problem (list): Strategies for streamlining the EHR’s front page.” Sponsor: Intelligent Medical Objects. Presenters: Amanda Heidemann, MD, CMIO, CMIO Services LLC; James Thompson, MD, physician informaticist, IMO. How can clinicians mitigate the longstanding EHR problem list challenges of outdated or duplicative entries, rigid displays, and limited native EHR capabilities? The presenters will describe how to analyze current problems, create a problem list governance strategy, and measure improvement progress.

On-Demand Webinars:

“Key Differences: Value Based Care vs. Fee-For-Service.” Part 1 of a three-part series. Sponsor: Net Health. Presenters: Bill Winkenwerder, MD, chairman, CitiusTech; Josh Pickus, CEO, Net Health. Dr. Bill Winkenwerder, former assistant secretary of defense for health affairs for the US Department of Defense, shares his unique perspective on the future of value-based care (VBC) systems in the public sector and how VBC differs from fee-for-service models in the private sector. This Part 1 webinar covers which aspects of the fee-for-service health system payment model look the most different compared to fully value-based systems (clinical, back-office, analytics, etc.)

“Current Innovation and Development in Value-Based Care.” Part 2 of a three-part series. Sponsor: Net Health. Presenters: Bill Winkenwerder, MD, chairman, CitiusTech; Josh Pickus, CEO, Net Health. Dr. Bill Winkenwerder, former assistant secretary of defense for health affairs for the US Department of Defense, shares his unique perspective on the future of value-based care (VBC) systems in the public sector and how VBC differs from fee-for-service models in the private sector. This Part 2 webinar discusses what health systems should know about the transition to value-based care, including macro versus micro shifts.

“Future of Value-Based Care: Predictive Analytics, Technology, Policy.” Part 3 of a three-part series. Sponsor: Net Health. Presenters: Bill Winkenwerder, MD, chairman, CitiusTech; Josh Pickus, CEO, Net Health. Dr. Bill Winkenwerder, former assistant secretary of defense for health affairs for the US Department of Defense, shares his unique perspective on the future of value-based care (VBC) systems in the public sector and how VBC differs from fee-for-service models in the private sector. This Part 3 webinar discusses the role analytics will play in the shift to value-based care and how financial and clinical ROIs for analytics-oriented products must differ when applied to FFS and VBC models.

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Bloomberg reports that Europe-based private equity investor Nordic Capital is in talks to acquire health data analytics vendor Inovalon. Since going public in 2015, Inovalon has acquired Avalere Health, Ability Network, Complex Care Solutions, and Creehan & Company. INOV shares rose 70% in the past 12 months, valuing the company at $6 billion.

Sales

• CPSI will integrate Medicomp’s Quippe Clinical Data Engine with its acute and post-acute EHR products.
• Adventist Health (CA) selects GetWellNetwork’s full line of digital patient engagement technologies.
• In Australia, South West Alliance of Rural Health and Barwon Health will deploy the InterSystems Iris for Health data extraction and analysis software.
• LTC ACO will implement PatientPing’s real-time care notification and coordination software across more than 700 member facilities.
• Marshfield Clinic Research Institute (WI) joins TriNetX’s global health research network.
• The ACT Health Directorate in Australia will use Capsule’s device integration technology to connect medical devices with its new Epic system, set to go live in September.
• Everest Rehabilitation Hospitals will implement WellSky’s rehabilitation software, including its EHR, across its facilities in Texas, Arkansas, Ohio, and Florida.
• LifeBridge Health (MD) selects Intelerad’s cloud-based medical imaging managed services.
• University Hospitals (OH) will launch its Hospital at Home program using Edgility technology.
• HealthLinc will use Greenway Health’s telehealth solution.

People

Siv Raman, MD (Lumilla) joins 314e as chief product officer.

Announcements and Implementations

Infor announces GA of its FHIR Server for improved data storage and exchange based on the FHIR standard.

Ochsner Health (LA) adds ActX’s genomic decision support to its Epic system.

UnityPoint Health develops social services referral software using technology from Aunt Bertha.

I assume all of us HIMSS members received an email today pitching Accelerate, a HIMSS-developed app that hopes to connect users, HIMSS-designated thought leaders, and HIMSS exhibitors and content. Mostly so far it seems to push Healthcare IT News articles into a news feed. HIMSS apparently formed a new company called One OpCo, LLC to support the app and apparently hopes to sell it to “enterprises, organizations, and associations interested in getting access to their members.” HIMSS uses Accelerate name for innovation-related products, including what used to be called VentureConnect. The app tracks a ton of user data, according to app store privacy details. I don’t see me launching the app a second time since I rarely find HIMSS-generated content useful and my experience is that healthcare IT folks aren’t interested in contributing content and participating in discussions.

Other

From Tuesday afternoon’s CDC press conference:

• Fully vaccinated people are now advised to wear masks when indoors in areas where spread is extensive.
• Teachers and students are urged to wear masks indoors regardless of vaccination status.
• The Delta variant makes up 83% of new cases and most transmission is occurring in low-vaccination areas, which includes most counties in Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida.
• It appears that some people who have been vaccinated can spread the Delta variant, which wasn’t common with previous strains.
• CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, MD, MPH said that coronavirus is “just a few mutations potentially away” from becoming resistant to COVID-19 vaccines.

Penn Medicine (PA) will launch the Center for Applied Health Informatics to develop best practices for data projects across its health system and foster informatics leadership. Initial projects will focus on telehealth expansion and COVID-19 response efforts. Collaborators will include Information Services, the Center for Health Care Innovation, and the EHR Transformation team, among others.

Kaiser Permanente develops a COVID-19 HotSpotting Score to help providers predict COVID-19 surges up to six weeks ahead of time. The predictive modeling tool’s estimates, which incorporate variables like COVID-19 test rates, inpatient and clinic data, and call center and patient email data, strongly correlated with COVID-19 hospital activity during the last half of 2020.

Sponsor Updates

• Cerner receives an award from the Missouri House of Representatives commending its mass vaccination efforts during Operation Safe.
• CloudWave and Vital Images will partner to deliver enterprise imaging as a cloud-based service.
• Audacious Inquiry and the Georgia Hospital Association announce that hospital participation in GA Notify, powered by Audacious Inquiry’s Exposure Notification Service, has tripled over the past six months.
• Optimum Healthcare IT publishes a video titled “Optimum CareerPath: A Different Approach to Building a Team.”
• Mach7 Technologies has received the Frost & Sullivan Global Enterprise Imaging Solutions Product Leadership Award, has been recognized by Industry Tech Insights magazine as one of its Top 10 Companies Revolutionizing Healthcare in 2021, and has been named one of the Top 20 Most Promising Workflow Solution Providers by CIO Review magazine.

Blog Posts

• How an insurance discovery app drove double-digit increases for a collections agency (Ability Network)
• Healthcare Cybersecurity & The Shocking Truth About 3rd Party Vendor Risk (Access)
• E-Prescribing Potency Codes Sunset & Modifications (AdvancedMD)
• Increasing SNF and home health referral volumes with CarePort Referral Management (CarePort)
• Meditech Expanse Registration Worklists: A Quick Win for EHR Optimization and Revenue Cycle (CereCore)
• 2022 PFS Proposed Rule Part 1: Traditional MIPS Programs Proposals (Impact Advisors)
• A Pandemic Melts Traditional Healthcare Silos, Shining a Light on How to Turn Disruption and Change into Opportunity (CentralLogic)
• Everything You Need to Know About PDMP (ChartLogic)
• If You Don’t Do This, Your Medicare Chronic Care Management Program Will Fail (ChartSpan)
• Supporting Care Teams with the Technology They Need When It’s Needed (CoverMyMeds)
• Physician’s Time – A Critical Asset (Part 2) (Culbert Healthcare Solutions)
• New Chief Medical Officer Talks About the Power of Connecting to the Home (Dina)
• Using Prisma to Create Better Patient Records (EClinicalWorks)

Contacts

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