News 1/13/23

Top News

Alphabet’s Verily health sciences unit will lay off 240 employees, 15% of its workforce, as the company tries to bolster its financials to reduce reliance on its parent.

The company will end early-stage projects that involved remote patient monitoring and microneedles for drug delivery.

Reader Comments

From High Vibration Go On: “Re: J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. You should ask your readers for their assessment and any zingers, predictions, etc.” Readers who attended JPM, what thoughts do you have?

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

The migration to the new, more powerful server overnight went mostly OK, with a few errors due to permissions, security certificates, and the “contact us” online forms (still working on those). Let me know if you see anything that is irritatingly broken.

Webinars

January 19 (Thursday) 2 ET. “Supercharge Your Clinical Data Searches.” Sponsor: Particle Health. Presenter: Paul Robbins, MSMBA, VP of product, Particle. Particle’s team will preview the exciting results of Specialty Search, a new condition-specific record locator service. This webinar will review how to collect patient records from top Centers of Excellence across the entire country; how healthcare organizations of all types are benefiting from Specialty Search capabilities, using Particle’s simple API; and why a focused search of chronic condition data — in oncology, cardiology, endocrinology, orthopedics, and more — has an outsized impact on care outcomes.

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Censinet raises $9 million in new funding.

Talent Group acquires Queen Consulting Group.

Sales

• C By Precision Care chooses EClinicalWorks, Healow, and PRISMA.
• Meditech UK chooses CloudWave’s OpSus Cloud Services to deploy its cloud-based Meditech Expanse implementation at two NHS trusts.
• Eye Health America will implement NextGen Patient Experience Platform and NextGen Pay powered by InstaMed.
• Jefferson County Human Services (WI) chooses Eleos Health’s natural language understanding technology to interpret behavioral health conversations and reduce documentation time.
• Transcarent will offer expert second opinions from specialists at The Clinic by Cleveland Clinic, which is a joint venture between Cleveland Clinic and Amwell.
• Nicklaus Children’s Hospital will implement the ActX Genomic Decision Support platform.

People

Life sciences medical intelligence company Dr. Evidence hires Rose Higgins, RN, MPM (HealthMyne) as CEO.

DrFirst promotes G. Cameron Deemer to CEO. He replaces founder James Chen, MS, who moves to executive chairman of the board. The company also promotes Anthony Brooke to chief technology and innovation officer.

ModMed hires Jody Beaverson (Change Healthcare) as chief people officer.

Industry long-timer Frank Pecaitis — who held executive roles at QuadraMed, Medsphere, GE Healthcare, PatientSafe Solutions, Agfa HealthCare, and most recently at Philips in a 30-year career — died December 24 at 59.

Announcements and Implementations

A trigger method adverse event study of 11 hospitals in Massachusetts finds that nearly one-fourth of admissions included an adverse event, of which about 1% were both serious and preventable. The most common type of events involved drugs (39%), surgeries or procedures (30%), nursing care (15%), and healthcare-associated infections (12%).

Northwell Health releases a pregnancy chatbot for its patients that offers education and triage with escalation.

Sponsor Updates

• Nordic posts a new episode of DocTalk titled “The two sides of digital health.”
• Healthjump earns Validated Data Stream designation in the new NCQA Data Aggregator Validation Program.
• EClinicalWorks customer Children First Pediatrics reports successful process automation, increased patient compliance, and general cost savings using the company’s Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS).
• Ellkay hosts a virtual blood drive through the Red Cross in support of National Blood Donor Month.
• Fortified Health Security names Ayinde Mitchell (Cognoa) regional sales director.
• HCTec sponsors five families as part of Operation Stand Down Tennessee’s holiday program.
• Impact Advisors announces that is has been recognized as one of the top leaders in Canada in the KLAS Canada EMR Consulting Services 2023 report.
• Kyruus reports a landmark year in 2022, serving over 100 health systems, 500 independent medical groups, and 100 health plan brands.

Blog Posts

• Customer-Centric Healthcare Tech Commercialization (Get-to-Market Health)
• Digital Innovations Behind the Future of Life Sciences Industry (Healthcare Triangle)
• How Technology is Affecting Hospitals From the Top Down: The Role of Today’s CIO (HealthTech Resources)
• How Patient Education Can Increase Compassion in Healthcare (Healthwise)
• Unlocking the power of digital healthcare solutions in three steps (InterSystems)
• A history of home healthcare payment models (Intelligent Medical Objects)
• Meltdown: Why Resiliency Programs Alone Can’t Reverse Physician Burnout (Medhost)
• 4 essential factors to a successful, multi-year, phased implementation project (Meditech)
• How NeuroFlow Prioritizes User Experience to Improve Digital Mental Health (NeuroFlow)
• An In-Depth Q&A with Cathy Thomas Hess, Chief Clinical Officer of Wound Care (Net Health)

Contacts

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