Monday Morning Update 4/24/23

Top News

The VA pauses its Oracle Cerner implementation indefinitely until issues at its live sites are resolved.

It also says “everything is on the table” as it negotiates the scheduled five-year extension of the original 2018 contract.

Oracle EVP Mike Sicilia indirectly placed blame for the delay on the VA, responding with a statement that Oracle supports the VA’s use of the time to “institute governance, change management, and standardization changes … similar to what DoD did a few years ago.”

Reader Comments

From Bonhomie: “Re: paying your way to HIMSS. Have you considered monetizing your presence by offering vendors the opportunity to purchase booth interviews or social media coverage from you, in order to offset your expenses?” That seems unbelievably slimy to me, although I’ve seen plenty of folks who were clearly taking money for interviewing company executives, hosting events, or shooting out suspiciously laudatory tweets. At least their sites and outlets are not known for covering actual news anyway, so reputational damage is minimal. Still, I would rather pay my own way, remain anonymous, and leave with my soul unsold.

From Phone Waver: “Re: HIMSS23. You didn’t mention booth people staring into their phones.” Two reasons: (a) I don’t think it happens as much as it used to, or maybe I’m so accustomed to it that I no longer notice; and (b) I’m more empathetic to exhibitor staff who have tasks they can accomplish online while waiting for someone to show interest. However, I still maintain that the free time that allows you look at your phone is created by your unapproachability in doing so, and your employer bought an exhibit booth rather than a telephone booth (OK, I admit that’s a dated reference).

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

Most poll respondents aren’t using ChatGPT regularly. I’m not a power user, but I stay logged in in case I want it to check my wording, summarize what a company does given its web address (the fact that the website isn’t clear enough to easily tell is its own issue), or suggest interview questions that are not very good. I’ve also used it to plan events and to find obscure bands I might like, while Mrs. HIStalk jumped on it immediately to to help plan a complex vacation to Europe involving drives among several countries. I’ll add that the amazingly fast rise of ChatGPT means that the dabblers who evangelize their experiments are already yesterday’s news, with the new table stakes being actually accomplishing something with it that wasn’t previously possible.

New poll to your right or here: How would you grade your in-person attendance of HIMSS23? I would probably give it an A for the first time since 2019. HIMSS is surely happy that its relevance seemed little diminished, at least based on attendance, exhibitors, and general energy, when situations both within and outside its control had created an opening for competing events. My early read is that the HIMSS and ViVE conferences will co-exist with differing attendee demographics, but with enough business case for both to attract exhibitors.

HIMSS23 was the first opportunity see my Apple AirTag in action as it tracked my checked bag from the plane to the luggage carousel, a pretty slick and multi-use technology for $29. Mrs. H and I use the Find My app and our phones to tell if we’ve left work or the grocery store or whatever, so I’m sure many other AirTag use cases exist that I haven’t thought of.

I was annoyed that the #HIMSS23 Twitter hashtag was hijacked by some would-be “technology influencers” to constantly spout random conference updates and tourism recommendations without actually being at the conference. Blocking them doesn’t seem to hide them from Twitter search results.

I mentioned previously that HIStalk’s searchable history goes back to 2007, so it’s the one place you can find significant news events without the fluff, see what we’ve said about long-ago HIMSS conferences, or ponder the life cycle of companies, technologies, and even people that have gone from fame to forgotten. Suggestions: search for anything of interest or scroll through the very long article archive.

Webinars

None scheduled soon. Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present or promote your own.

People

Oracle hires former CMS Administrator Seema Verma, MPH as SVP/GM of life sciences, which includes leading the Oracle Cerner Enviza business.

In England, physician and digital health pioneer Elizabeth Murray, MSc, PhD dies of cancer at 63. She studied the impact of the internet on doctor-patient communication at UCSF in 2001 and set up an e-health unit at University College London in 2003.

Other

Bizarre, as forwarded by a reader. A data scientist at healthcare revenue integrity vendor Multiplan – improbably named Jack McQuestion — is charged with impersonating an FBI agent after trying to lure an OnlyFans adult performer from her house claiming to be an FBI agent with a warrant for her arrest. He left when she called police, but police used his doorbell camera image to find him and his Madison, WI apartment, a search of which turned up phony FBI credentials, pepper spray, and a garrote that he had ordered from Amazon. His job history before his data scientist job includes being an “artistic model” and a Pizza Hut delivery driver. Searching Amazon for “garrote” turns up sellers offering those products for supposed non-strangulation purposes that include cheese slicing and sculpting, but the seller’s choice of search keyword says a lot.

Contacts

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