News 7/27/22

Top News

Governance, risk, and compliance vendor RLDatix acquires Galen Healthcare Solutions, which offers system support, implementation, optimization, data migration, and cloud-based legacy system retirement.

The CEO of RLDatix is industry long-timer Jeff Surges (Healthgrades, Allscripts, Merge Healthcare).

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Webinars

August 10 (Wednesday) 12:30 ET. “Navigating healthcare’s data quality challenge: An actionable discussion.” Sponsor: Intelligent Medical Objects. Presenters: Alastair Allen, CTO, Better; Dale Sanders, chief strategy officer, IMO. Achieving a consolidated patient record is challenging in an environment of hospital M&A, where EHR rip-and-replace projects are expensive and HIEs and FHIR connectivity haven’t significantly accelerated progress. The underlying problem is that systems don’t speak the same language due to a lack of comprehensive, persistent clinical terminology and data standards adoption. UK-based Better offers a unique, FHIR-based approach to integrating disparate EHR data. The presenters will explore how to improve clinical data quality and how interoperable information can be used to support patient safety, reimbursement, and population health management.

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Healthcare cybersecurity, compliance, and risk management vendor Clearwater acquires RevSpring subsidiary Tech Lock, which offers similar services for a variety of industries including healthcare. Tech Lock leadership will transition to senior roles within the new Clearwater subsidiary.

Former pharma bro and just-released federal convict Martin Shkreli launches Druglike, a drug discovery software platform. He says its use will benefit patients with rare disease, which a cynic might add would include those parasitic disease sufferers who saw the price of 60-year-old drug Daraprim jump from $14 to $750 per tablet after it was acquired by the former hedge manager’s company. Druglike will run computational chemistry problems on the computers of “miner” users who will be paid in tokens called MSI (Martin Shkreli Inu).

Theator, which uses AI to derive insights from surgery videos, announces a Series A funding round of $39.5 million. Mayo Clinic joined the round as an investor and commits to using the company’s video analytics.

Automated patient intake software company Health Note raises $17 million in a Series A funding round led by SignalFire.

3M will spin off its healthcare business into a stand-alone company focused on health IT, wound care, oral care, and biopharma filtration. 3M had attempted to sell off its health information systems revenue cycle and software business earlier this year.

AI-powered data quality company Cornerstone AI raises $5 million in seed funding.

Cloud, managed services, and analytics company Healthcare Triangle opens an office in Singapore, where it expects to create 500 jobs over the next five years.

Cleerly raises $192 million in a Series C funding round, bringing its total raised since launching last year to $248 million. The company has developed predictive intelligence and clinical decision support software for patients with heart disease.

Columbus-based chronic condition management technology vendor AndHealth will triple its headcount in a new space downtown. The company was launched in 2021 by CEO Matt Scantland, who sold his previous company CoverMyMeds to McKesson for $1.1 billion in 2017. I interviewed him in February 2022.

7wireVentures portfolio company Caraway emerges from stealth mode with a $10.5 million seed funding round. It will offer mental health, reproductive, and physical healthcare services to college-aged women.

Primary care EHR vendor Elation Health raises $50 million in a Series D funding round, increasing its total to $109 million. Ascension Vendors and Jonathan Bush were among the round’s participants.

Sales

• Presbyterian Healthcare Services (NM) selects Commure’s Strongline staff safety alert system to better protect employees at its 70 facilities.
• Deep River & District Hospital, Kemptville District Hospital, and Winchester District Memorial Hospital in Ontario will go live on Epic in November.
• Akron Children’s Hospital will use analytics and population health management software from Health Catalyst.
• St. Dominic Hospital and and Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center will go live on Epic next year through their affiliation with Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System.
• UPMC (PA) signs a five-year contract with Microsoft for its cloud computing, AI, and machine-learning software.
• Cooper University Health Care (NJ) will implement Sectra’s enterprise imaging technology.

People

Harsha Panyadahundi (Wolters Kluwer) joins Sharecare as CTO.

CareJourney names Mah-Jabeen Soobader (Archway Health) chief analytics officer.

University of Florida Health promotes Jiang Bian to the new role of chief data scientist.

Brad Porter (Fisher & Paykel Healthcare) will become CEO of Orion Health when his father-in-law, Orion founder and CEO Ian McCrae, steps down in late August. McCrae will remain involved as an executive director focused on products.

Teladoc Health names Mike Waters (Providence) COO.

Jerald West, PhD (AdvanSix) joins Access as CISO.

Change Healthcare promotes Benjamin Gold to VP of product management.

Announcements and Implementations

Vital announces GA of CareAdvisor, whose tools track health progress and discharge readiness and and offer care plans and educational content.

Experity adds a business intelligence module to its EHR and practice management software for urgent care clinics.

Government and Politics

Sources report that the Roseburg VA Health Care System’s Cerner-based EHR went partially offline for several hours last week due to a system overload that affected patient registration.

Other

An AMA survey of consumers finds that 92% think their health data shouldn’t be sold, and while most respondents are comfortable with their doctors and hospitals using their data, they are least comfortable having it used by a prospective employer or technology companies. Nearly all want app developers to disclose how their data is used, 88% think hospitals and doctors should review apps before they are given access to health data, and 75% want the chance to approve use of their data in advance and to be able to opt out.

Studies find that despite federal and state requirements for health plans to keep their provider directories current, consumers are still wasting time trying to book appointments with listed providers who no longer take insurance or new patients, and in some cases, receive services only to be charged out-of-network prices because of insurer directory errors.

Sponsor Updates

• Experity will host the 2023 Urgent Care Connect conference February 22-23 in Aventura, FL.
• EClinicalWorks releases a new customer success story featuring Orthopaedic Institute of Ohio, “Prisma: How Better Data Improves Care and Reduces Costs.”
• AGS Health publishes a new e-book, “5 Reasons to Select AGS Health as Your Offshore Service Provider.”
• OptimizeRx partners with Cooler Screens to offer healthcare advertising agencies  a pharmacy advertising presence for their pharma clients via retail surfaces, such as the doors of in-store coolers.
• Bamboo Health sponsors the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors Annual 2022 Meeting.
• Cerner publishes a new client achievement, “The University of Tennessee Medical Center automates processes to optimize throughput and reprioritize valuable resources.”
• Nordic releases a new episode of its “DocTalk” video series.
• CloudWave announces the availability of its OpSus Recover disaster recovery service in the AWS Marketplace.
• The B2B Leadership Podcast features Dimensional Insight VP of Marketing Kathy Sucich, “How Putting Employees First Makes You a Better Leader.”
• Divurgent will present at the Arch Learning Collaborative Summit July 27.
• Optimum Healthcare IT joins TriZetto Consulting Partner Network. 

Blog Posts

• Housing insecurity and health – more than a social problem (Arcadia)
• Technology as a Safety Net for Critical Environments (Ascom)
• Getting Provider Billing Right: EHR Workflow and Optimization Tips (CereCore)
• A Growing Must Have for Healthcare: MDR (Clearwater)
• Go From Data to Decisions with Business Intelligence for Experity EMR/PM (Experity)

Contacts

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