News 9/4/24

Top News

UK-based virtual hospital and remote patient monitoring technology vendor Doccla raises $46 million in a Series B funding round.

The company will use the funds to expand in Europe beyond UK and Ireland.

Reader Comments

From Don O: “Re: Epic’s hiring practices. During my 17-year stint (now retired), I never met another vendor ex-employee. I’d be hard pressed to remember if Epic ever brought someone on from a customer, with possibly a couple of MDs who could not be part of the site’s installation team. Excludes the Emeritus program of experts that have retired from their organization primarily functioning in consulting roles.”

From Samsara Psychiatrist: “Re: mental health professional shortages. This is both in overall numbers as well as in-network psychiatrists, many of whom have full practices or are hospital based and don’t see outpatients at all. This is never reflected in the provider listings. Insurers want patients to make a bunch of unsuccessful phone calls before giving up and either paying cash or not obtaining care at all. Even those who are wiling to pay cash can wait six months for an appointment. Most problematically, patients with the most severe mental illnesses have the most difficulty in getting outpatient treatment since they are more likely to have Medicare or Medicaid and need complex, coordinated services that the average mental health professional is not equipped to give. On the health IT front, initiatives such as meaningful use, MIPS, and MACRA have made it increasingly less likely that mental health professionals will want to participate in these programs. Significant numbers of psychiatrists are retiring or cutting back their hours. The availability of telehealth has increased interest in psychiatry as a specialty, but there are still a limited number of residency training positions, and CMS rules — such as not allowing virtual supervision for in-person resident patients — should be more flexible. Insurers are certainly a big piece of the problem, but not the only one. Big changes are needed.”

From Danny DeVino: “Re: Epic trademarks. Industry interoperability guy Brendan Keeler had fun trying to figure out which of Epic’s trademarks involve products that either didn’t came to fruition or have been retired.” It’s a fun list.

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

About half of poll respondents say that their company culture has changed in the past year, and two-thirds of those say it got worse.

New poll to your right or here: How much time do you spend each week managing work-related messages after normal working hours?

Readers sent me questions last week about Epic related to Vot-ER and how Epic finances startup participation in its Workshop program. My experience is that the PR contacts of most companies don’t respond at all, and if they do, not quickly enough for that same day’s HIStalk news post. Epic always gets back to me quickly with an acknowledgment and then provides a company statement shortly after, which I appreciate since I can give my readers a timely response. It’s also good for companies to address rumors that are likely being discussed more widely than by the one person who asks me.

Webinars

September 10 (Tuesday) noon ET. “Overcoming Hurdles in Specialty Med Access Under Medical Benefits.” Sponsor: DrFirst. Presenters: Drew Hunsinger, VP of corporate business development, DrFirst; Tyler Wince, MEd, VP of product and technology specialty solutions, DrFirst. More specialty medications, which made up 80% of FDA’s new drug approvals last year, are falling under medical benefits, which challenges the patient care processes and efficiency of providers. Medication access experts will discuss how automation and unified medication management solutions can ensure better outcomes for patients and providers by addressing patient access hurdles and enhancing the ‘stickiness’ of EHRs. They will also provide insights into how regulatory changes such as interoperability and prior authorization mandates will affect healthcare stakeholders.

October 3 (Thursday) 1 ET. “Navigating AI-Powered Medical Interpretation: Insights for Health Leaders.” Sponsor: Globo. Presenter: Dipak Patel, CEO, Globo. AI is redefining how providers can communicate with patients who speak limited English. However, not all LLMs are created equal, and their potential and limitations need to be examined further. Globo has published its results from testing several LLMs. This webinar will address the promises and perils of AI-enabled medical interpretation in summarizing that research in four key domains: the process of AI interpretation, how to measure it, the state of AI tools today, and the areas where AI falls short with interpretation.

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

People

RxLightning names Peter Simmons, RPh as COO.

Nathan Gnanasambandam, PhD (HealthPointe Solutions) joins RhythmX AI as VP of AI.

Flatiron Health promotes Quincy Weatherspoon, MBA to VP/GM of Flatiron Point of Care Solutions.

Announcements and Implementations

Niagara Health in Ontario prepares to launch Oracle Health in November. Six hundred clinicians have signed up for extra training during the “Operation Monarch” implementation project, which was first announced in 2022.

Salem Township Hospital (IL) will go live on Epic next month.

The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center goes live on Epic-integrated Cloud Payments from TrustCommerce, a Sphere company.

A new KLAS report on data archiving finds that the systems that are most commonly involved are EHRs from Altera Digital Health, Oracle Health, and Athenahealth. Top performance scores for complex archiving projects were earned by Galen Healthcare Solutions, an RLDatix Company; and Harmony Healthcare IT, while Triyam performed well in lower-complexity work.

Government and Politics

Clinicians at Lovell Federal Health Care Center (IL) continue to focus on improving the Oracle Health-based EHR that was implemented five months ago at the facility, which is jointly run by the VA and DoD. Areas of focus, dubbed “big rock” projects, include fine-tuning referral management, standardizing and consolidating user roles, improving training, and improving coordination between prescribers and pharmacists.

Other

Michigan researchers find that EHRs are not consistent in documenting the racial and ethnic designations of pediatric patients. They recommending implementing some form of gold standard that is appropriate for children who may not be able to self-report.

Sponsor Updates

• EClinicalWorks releases a new podcast, “Know Your No-Shows and Optimize Your Schedule.”
• Meditech releases a new podcast, “Zack Kass on seizing the healthcare AI advantage.”
• The Surescripts Role and Value of the Pharmacist Founder’s Donor Fund contributes $75,000 towards a grant that the National Council for Prescription Drug Programs Foundation will use to study the current pharmacy technology landscape.
• The Kansas City Business Journal honors Netsmart Chief People Officer Wendy Hill with its Women Who Mean Business Award.
• Revuud names Mark McDowell, Brian Litten, and Scott Schubert to its Board of Directors.
• A 2024 Forrester Consulting Total Economic Impact study reveals a 193% return on investment over three years for interviewed health technology teams using Rhapsody healthcare data integration solutions.
• RLDatix supports healthcare organizations in assessing their readiness for the new CMS Patient Safety Structural Measure, which takes effect next year.
• Waystar will exhibit at the WellSky Care Forum September 8-11 in Denver.
• Wolters Kluwer Health CMO Peter Bonis, MD will present at the HIMSS AI in Healthcare Forum September 5 in Boston.
• CereCore releases a new podcast, “Breaking Down Barriers: Fostering A True IT and Business Partnership.”

Blog Posts

• Carequality and Epic Make TEFCA Transition Announcements. How Does this Impact Nationwide Data Exchange? (Zen Healthcare IT)
• Navigating the new Epic Gold Star criteria with strategic approaches (Nordic)
• Summer Rewind: Top Healthy as Tech Hits (Optimum Healthcare IT)
• How Redox + Snowflake have teamed up to unlock AI and ML use cases for providers (Redox)
• Do You Need a Nurse Mentor? (SnapCare)
• 3 Ways Providers Can Add Digital Wallets to the Patient Payments Mix (TrustCommerce, a Sphere Company)
• Predictive Healthcare Staffing: Generating More Value Through AI Innovation (Symplr)
• Your Guide to Improving Payer-Provider Collaboration (Tegria)
• Outsourcing RCM: Why Choosing the Right Partner Matters (TruBridge)
• Healthcare leaders share how Verato improves the Epic experience (Verato)
• Five IT Infrastructure Points CIOs Should Discuss with Their Leadership (CereCore)

Contacts

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