News 9/16/22

Top News

Epic launches a life sciences program that will match providers and their patients with clinical trials.

Reader Comments

From Due App: “Re: Oracle Cerner’s new pharmacy app. EVP Mike Sicilia told the Senate on July 20 that a beta version will be available 6-9 months, which would be April 20, 2023 at the latest. Larry Ellison now says it will be finished within year. Odds of either happening?” Delivery by either date would be aggressive, even if progress is already quietly being made. That probably means accepting the existing product’s design as sufficient and refactoring it using the Oracle Apex low-code development platform to improve application performance and maintenance. That approach would bypass endless design sessions and make the project a purely technical exercise that hits Oracle’s sweet spot, allowing enhancements to be addressed later. The biggest challenge might be integration with legacy Cerner apps. Rewriting apps from scratch provides little user value and makes sense only if the underlying platform is outdated, developers are hard to find, and system maintenance and performance are lagging. Replatforming is easier when the same vendor that owns the app also owns the technology and cloud technology. Still, it always takes longer than expected, so consider the dates a target.

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

Welcome to new HIStalk Gold Sponsor HealthTech Resources. The Phoenix-based company has served providers and payers for 20 years. Its mission is to help people and companies achieve their goals by providing the highest quality of outsourced employment and human resources services, taking the time to understand the needs and long-term growth objectives of large health systems, academic medical centers, public health plans, and more to empower them to focus on what they do best. The company is proud to concentrate specifically on healthcare, not only because this singular focus strengthens its service offerings, but also because it plays a role in supporting innovation within electronic health records, healthcare enterprise architecture, and the digital systems that help improve how people work and how people heal. Its employees enable improved care and treatment methods for patients, and improved workflows for essential workers allows them to focus more on what matters most, their patients. Thanks to HealthTech Resources for supporting HIStalk.

Another advantage of obtaining Mrs. H’s new contact lens prescription from a somewhat sketchy online exam that I just realized – the PDF prescription can be used throughout its one-year life by simply uploading it to any lens seller. You can also stock up on as many lenses as you would like by ordering before the prescription expires. Neither is true of a medication prescription.

Webinars

September 22 (Thursday) 1 ET. “ICD-10-CM 2023 Updates and Regulatory Readiness.” Sponsor: Intelligent Medical Objects. Presenters: June Bronnert, MSHI, RHIA, marketing director, IMO; Julie Glasgow, MD, marketing manager, IMO. The yearly update to ICD-10-CM is almost here. Prepare your organization for a smooth transition, and avoid any negative impacts to your bottom line, with an in-depth look at the upcoming changes. Listen to IMO’s top coding professionals and thought leaders discuss the 2023 ICD-10-CM coding changes. This webinar will review additions, deletions, and other revisions to the ICD-10-CM code set and how to make sure you get properly reimbursed.

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

The two co-founders of medication technology vendor Tabula Rasa Healthcare, who are also husband and wife pharmacists, resign their executive and board positions under pressure from the hedge fund that holds a 25% stake in the company. Shares of TRHC that peaked in mid-2018 at $88 are now worth under $5 following several unprofitable acquisitions and lowered sales projections, valuing the company at $129 million.

A study finds that drug makers file a “patent thicket” of post-approval patent applications to extend their US monopolies beyond their initial 20 years of patent protection. Three expensive, top-selling drugs – Humira, Eliquis, and Enbrel – have been available from cheaper competitors for years in Europe but not here, with Enbrel’s biosimilar not expected to be sold here until 2029, 13 years after it was first sold in Europe.

Analytics vendor Prealize Health acquires the social determinants of health intellectual property of former partner CentraForce Health.

Sales

• North West London Integrated Care System chooses InterSystems HealthShare Health Connect Cloud via an AWS cloud deployment for interoperability.
• Washington County Hospitals and Clinics (IA) will implement Epic using a $753,000 grant from the US Department of Agriculture.
• Thailand’s new Srisawan Hospital will implement InterSystems TrakCare and IRIS for Health.

People

Industry long-timer Bruce Brandes, MBA (Teladoc Health) joins Care.ai as president.

InterSystem hires Andy Zook, MBA (SAS) as VP of North American sales.

Virtual care technology vendor Wheel hires Sameer Merchant, MS (Autodesk) as CTO and Steve Manning (Autodesk) as SVP of product.

Amwell hires Vaughn Paunovich (UnitedHealth Group) as EVP of enterprise platforms and Matthew McAllister, MBA (Amazon) as chief product officer. 

Mark Dunnagan (Smartlink Health Solutions) joins Chess Health Solutions as VP of health informatics.

Announcements and Implementations

Relatient launches Dash Chat, which allows patient inquiries that are entered as live chat from the practice’s website to be answered by providers and staff, reducing call volumes.

A survey of medical alert system users and caregivers finds that fall detection is the most-desired feature, affordability and battery life are key considerations, and 91% are more confident when performing daily activities knowing that they can reach immediate assistance. Two-thirds of users say they have used their system to get help. Thirty percent use in-home systems, while the rest use a home/mobile bundle, a watch-powered system, or a mobile device.

Epic will use Milliman MedInsight’s analytics in its Value-Based Performance Management module that will be released next year.

WebPT releases WebPT Billing, an integrated billing solution for the in-house billing teams of rehab therapy organizations. It’s the same solution that the company uses for its own outsourced physical therapy RCM service.

KLAS asks 16 healthcare executives to review previous reports to choose the top emerging solutions that are most likely to disrupt their respective Quadruple Aim categories, with these topping the list:

• Improve outcomes – Atlas, which connects health systems with philanthropic aid.
• Reduce the cost of care – AvaSure, which offers remote patient monitoring.
• Improve patient experience – DeliverHealth, which provides a digital front door solution.
• Improve clinician experience – Nuance’s Dragon Ambient Experience.

Government and Politics

The DEA is reportedly investigating ADHD telehealth vendor Done, which like competitor Cerebral, has been accused of overprescribing Adderall and other addictive drugs by taking advantage of COVID-relaxed telehealth rules. Surely the doctors who took the money of these companies did so knowing that they were expected to ignore accepted medical practice, which doesn’t pay as well.

NIH announces an $8 million prize competition for developing home-based or point-of-care diagnostic devices, wearables, or remote sensing technology to improve postpartum care in underserved areas.

Privacy and Security

OakBend Medical Center (TX) is still restoring IT systems that went down in a September 1 ransomware attack.

Other

I believe this press release has mistake’s.

Sponsor Updates

• Newly named Oracle Health GM Travis Dalton is interviewed by the company about Oracle’s vision, the changes with Cerner over the years, and the client opportunities that the acquisition creates.
• Nordic posts a new episode of DocTalk titled “Remote patient monitoring for chronic disease management.”
• Everbridge adds external risk intelligence monitoring to its Control Center physical security management system.
• Healthcare IT Leaders publishes a client profile featuring Northeast Georgia Health System.
• CereCore and BridgeHead will jointly offer comprehensive data management services.
• Meditech will host Meditech Live 2022 September 20-23 in Foxborough, MA. HIStalk sponsors supporting the event include CloudWave, CereCore, and Interbit Data.
• Divurgent publishes a white paper titled “Digital Acceleration in Healthcare: Guiding Speed and Direction for Digital Health.”
• NeuroFlow’s behavioral health technology platform has earned HITRUST Implemented, 1-year Certification.
• Clearsense unveils a new website and updated company brand.

Blog Posts

• How University Bridges Language Barriers to Improve Medication Adherence and Outcomes (First Databank)
• Individualized Care in Nursing: ‘Not Just Another Patient’ (Get Well)
• How to drive implant order change at your organization and with vendor partners (GHX)
• Ensuring Success During Your Epic Refuel Project (Impact Advisors)
• How Data and Dynamic Decisioning Enables a Frictionless User Experience (LexisNexis)
• Diagnosing Rural Health with Beth O’Connor, NRHA President (Part II) (Medhost)
• A Different Point of View: Clinical Usability Requires Diagnostically Connected Data (Medicomp)
• How a design system lays the foundation for a better user experience (Meditech)
• The Power of Pairing EHR and MDS Data Together for SNFs (Net Health)

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
Get HIStalk updates.
Send news or rumors.
Contact us.