News 6/28/23

Top News

Amazon postpones the launch of its Amazon Clinic expansion by three weeks after lawmakers raise concerns about the company’s privacy practices, specifically its method of collecting and sharing customer health data.

Launched last November, Amazon Clinic offers a form-initiated, message-based telemedicine service in 33 states. Amazon had planned to expand it this week to all 50 states with the additional offering of video-based consults. 

Reader Comments

From NighttimeSleepAid: “Re: First-ever Meditech layoffs.” An internal email shared by NSA indicates the company has decided to “downsize the company by less than 2% of our staff” as it seeks ways to adjust expenses and compensate for overstaffing. Impacted roles will mainly include newer staff hired within the last year and niche roles that are no longer needed.

Webinars

July 12 (Wednesday) 2 ET. “101: National Network Data Exchanges.” Sponsor: Particle Health. Presenter: Troy Bannister, founder and CEO, Particle Health. It’s highly likely that your most recent medical records were indexed by a national Health Information Network (HIN). Network participants can submit basic demographic information into an API and receive full, longitudinal medical records sourced from HINs. Records come in a parsed, standardized format, on demand, with a success rate above 90%. There’s so much more to learn and discover, which is why Troy Bannister is going to provide a 101 on all things HIN. You will learn what HINs are, see how the major HINS compare, and learn how networks will evolve due to TEFCA.

July 27 (Thursday) noon ET. “Why You Shouldn’t Wait to Use Generative AI.” Sponsor: Orbita. Presenter: Bill Rogers, co-founder, president, and chairman, Orbita. The advent of generative AI tools truly represents a paradigm shift. And while some healthcare leaders embrace the transformation, others are hesitant. Invest 20 minutes to learn why you shouldn’t wait. When combined with natural language processing, workflow automation and conversational dialogs, generative AI can help leaders address a raft of challenges: from over-extended staff, to the rising demand for self-service tools, to delivering secure information to key stakeholders. You will learn where AI delivers the greatest value for providers and life sciences, how it can solve critical challenges faced by healthcare leaders, and how Orbita has integrated generative AI into its conversational platform so healthcare leaders can leverage its full capabilities safely and securely.

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

UnitedHealth Group-owned Optum beats out Option Care Health in its bid to acquire home healthcare provider Amedisys in a deal valued at $3.3 billion. Amedisys will join home health and hospice provider LHC Group – acquired by UnitedHealth in February for $5.4 billion – under the Optum umbrella.

Home healthcare provider Signify Health, acquired by CVS Health earlier this year for $8 billion, opens a technology center in Galway, Ireland. It is the Dallas-based company’s first facility outside of the US.

Sales

• Temple University Health System (PA) selects DrFirst’s AI-powered medication history and real-time prescription benefit check solutions.
• The American Lung Association will leverage Azara Healthcare’s data reporting and analytics as a part of its Project Breathe NY asthma control program.
• Amstelland Hospital in the Netherlands will implement Sectra’s enterprise imaging subscription service.

People

Evangelical Community Hospital (PA) promotes Elizabeth Price to VP of information systems and CIO.

Erica Franko (AGS Health) joins Ventra Health as chief transformation officer.

Loyal names Austin Pauls (Stord) as its first CFO.

NHS England promotes John Quinn to CIO.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center (TN) names Vanderbilt professor Paul Harris VP for research informatics.

Announcements and Implementations

The US Virgin Islands Office of Health Information Technology will work with CRISP Shared Services to launch a pilot interoperability program that will serve as the initial infrastructure for its first HIE CRISP supports HIEs in six states and Washington, DC.

Mass General Brigham’s Newton-Wellesley Hospital implements Smart Placement transitions-of-care decision support software from Radial Analytics.

Government and Politics

VA Assistant Secretary for Congressional and Legislative Affairs Patricia Ross assures Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) that the VA “will spare no expense” to maintain services and staff at its hospitals in Spokane and Walla Walla, where budget constraints caused by the troubled Oracle Cerner roll out have led to talk of layoffs.

In England, the NHS mandates that 90% of its nearly 225 trusts should have EHRs by December of this year, while 95% should have them by March 2025; and that 75% of adults should be registered on the NHS app by March 2024.

Other

El Camino Health (CA) launches a healthcare technology innovation fund, initially focusing on investing in projects related to remote patient monitoring, contactless patient check-in, and AI-powered diagnostic imaging, among several others.

Sponsor Updates

• FQHC Mountain Park Health Center increases its number of available appointments using health IT solutions from EClinicalWorks.
• Fakeeh Care Group integrates Wolters Kluwer Health’s UpToDate clinical decision support solution with its YASASII EHR.
• Black Book survey-takers give AQuity top customer satisfaction marks for outsourced medical coding solutions.
• CHIME issues a statement of support for the CONNECT for Health Act.
• Arrive Health publishes a new whitepaper, “Technology’s Increasing Role in Unlocking Pharmacy Value.”
• The Tech Trek Podcast features Artera CTO Ashu Agte, “Inheriting an organization and its transformation.”
• Ernst & Young names Availity CEO Russ Thomas 2023 Florida Entrepreneur of the Year.
• Baker Tilly co-authors a clinical study in the Journal of Comparative Effectiveness Research demonstrating the value of risk assessment tools in managing women at risk for ovarian cancer.
• Bamboo Health names Jonathan Koenig (Numerated) implementation specialist and Sheila Sullivan (Humana) executive director.
• Biofourmis becomes a new Switchboard Health network partner.
• Nuance makes its Dragon Ambient EXperience Express solution available to Epic users.
• Hebrew SeniorLife in Boston implements Meditech Expanse.

Blog Posts

• The digital transformation of healthcare organizations (Wolters Kluwer Health)
• Drowning in Technical Debt? Uncover Big Risks to Patient Care (CereCore)
• Revolutionizing Healthcare: The Shift to Include Mobile EForms in Hospitals (Access)
• Measuring the Value of Clinical Documentation Improvement (CDI) (AGS Health)
• ChatGPT in healthcare: evolution, revolution, or devolution? (Arcadia)
• Return data to hospitals and researchers FOR patients (Aridhia)
• 4 Signs You Need a Real-Time Prescription Benefit Checkup (Arrive Health)
• SDOH and Population Health? What’s Behind the Rise in Importance? (Clearsense)
• Top 10 Cyber Threats for Hospitals and How to Overcome Them (Clearwater)
• Prescribers More Likely to Choose Brands with Automated Processes for Buy-and-Bill Co-pay Assistance (ConnectiveRx)
• A Roadmap for Evaluating Care-at-Home Programmes: 6 Practical Tips to Get Started (Current Health)

Contacts

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