News 5/18/22

Top News

A Venezuelan cardiologist and self-taught programmer is charged with the development, use, and sale of plug-and-play ransomware and creating profit-sharing arrangements with his customers, whom he often persuaded to leave positive online reviews.

The criminal complaint, brought against him by US authorities, claims that “the multi-tasking doctor treated patients, created and named his cyber tool after death, profited from a global ransomware ecosystem in which he sold the tools for conducting ransomware attacks, trained the attackers about how to extort victims, and then boasted about successful attacks.”

The cardiologist’s preferred pseudonyms included “Aesculapius” and “Nosophoros,” Greek words referring to the ancient Greek god of medicine and disease, respectively.

Webinars

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Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

PatientIQ, an outcomes data and insights vendor, raises $20 million in a Series B funding round. The company gathers its data from 1.4 million patients across more than 200 healthcare organizations.

Sales

• Bon Secours Mercy Health will use Strive Health’s CareMultiplier technology and clinical care teams to improve its care for chronic kidney disease and end stage kidney disease patients across Ohio.

People

CTG names Scott Clark (Ensono) VP of North American sales.

Mikael Öhman (TransformativeMed) joins KMS Healthcare as CEO.

Bakul Patel, former chief digital health officer at the FDA, joins Google as senior director of global digital health strategy.

University Hospital hires Paul Contino, MA (Guthrie) as CIO.

Thynk Health hires Jim Farmer (FYNS) as SVP of sales.

CPSI President and CEO Boyd Douglas will retire from that position and the company’s board on June 30 after 34 years. Replacing him is COO Chris Fowler.

Announcements and Implementations

Novant Health (NC) works with Health Recovery Solutions to launch a remote patient monitoring pilot program for bariatric patients.

In England, The Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn NHS Trust implements enterprise imaging software from Agfa HealthCare.

In Norway, Helseplattformen brings Trondheim kommune live on Epic. Epic’s Rachel Kantosky reports on LinkedIn,

On top of the complexities of a ‘typical’ Epic install, the team added enterprise applications into a system live solely on Beaker lab, translated over 4 million system terms into Norwegian, and completed several significant development projects, including SFM ePrescribing integration, eMessaging, and digitizing the Norwegian pregnancy card. Go-live is just the beginning and we are looking forward to further rollouts and optimization! I’m also incredibly proud of the 32 American expats who moved their lives to Norway to support this important work.

Government and Politics

A VA Office of Inspector General report determines that lack of prompt EHR documentation and care coordination between a VA provider and private chiropractic clinic contributed to the spinal and rib fractures of an 87 year-old patient. The nearly century-old Ohio facility is one of 35 that the VA is considering closing within the next several years.

DoD facilities including Naval Branch Health Clinic and the 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade, Hunter Army Airfield, both in Georgia, will transition to MHS Genesis next month.

Other

A lawyer and veteran advocate writes a satirical article on using the VA’s MyHealtheVet to “micro-manage your VA doctor from your sofa.” A snip:

I swear, sometimes, I feel like some VA personnel intentionally dupe us into keeping a request verbal. When the floor falls out on whatever issue you were trying to resolve, when the time comes to “prove it,” the conversation never happened. It will be your word against theirs, and you will lose. Remember, if it’s not written down, it did not happen. This is why tools like My HealtheVet are so great. It can allow you direct access to your care team. It allows you direct access to at least some (but not all) of your health records. It gives you the power to put it in writing even after the appointment, just to be sure everyone is on the same page. What an empowering tool, no? Should your physician refuse a procedure but not write it down, you can send a note about it later that should be added to your records. If you need to appeal the refusal in a clinical appeal, healthcare appeal, or if it comes up in a malpractice matter, the request will be documented.

A nurse and former cardiovascular director sues MercyOne, alleging that she was fired in retaliation after she reported that a cardiothoracic surgeon was not obtaining proper patient consent, was performing too many add-on procedures, lied to patients about likely outcomes, and put patients with poor post-surgical outcomes on ventilators for 30 days so their deaths would not be reported to the Society of Thoracic Surgeons database as being due to surgical complications. She also claims the surgeon screamed at her in a meeting about the issues and referred to her as “this little girl.”

Sponsor Updates

• About releases a new podcast, “US Healthcare: Understanding Challenging Trends for Hospitals and Health Systems with David Burik.”
• Availity makes its Enhanced Claims Status, a multi-payer RESTful API, available to its trading partner network.
• BDO expands its alliance with Microsoft to deliver solutions that create value for its global clients.
• TechVibe radio features ConnectiveRX VP of Product Development Mary Beth Sirio.
• Get-to-Market Health celebrates its five-year anniversary.
• Experity earns 2022 Great Place to Work Certification.
• Sonifi Health integrates the HealthTouch food service system from MCR Technologies into its interactive patient engagement platform.
• Imaging data vendor OneMedNet announces a joint referral partnership agreement with data management company Flywheel for biomedical research and collaboration.

Blog Posts

• RCD: What You Need to Know (Ability Network)
• Stop Making Patients Work So Hard (Orbita)
• Healthcare Claim Denials: How to avoid common medical coding errors (AGS Health)
• It’s a Small World in Clinical Communication and Collaboration (Ascom)
• Peer-Reviewed Study Validates NarxCare as Effective Patient Screening Solution for Opioid Risk (Bamboo Health)
• Pros and cons of centralized vs. decentralized staffing models for value-based care success (Bravado Health)
• Healthcare M&A: Why Clinical Operational Readiness Matters (CereCore)
• A Look at Risk Analysis – 9 Steps to Getting It Right (Clearwater)
• Asembia 2022: Specialty Patient Access, Centricity and Adherence (CoverMyMeds)
• The Benefits of Partnering with the Right Healthcare IT Managed Services Provider (Divurgent)
• HEDIS: Completing the Picture of Patients’ Health (EClinicalWorks)
• 5 Essential Qualities of Front Office Staff (Experity)
• Hiring an Epic Team? Start with a plan. (Healthcare IT Leaders)

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