News 11/15/24

Top News

Forward, a primary care delivery company that brought AI-powered doc-in-a-box CarePods to market last November, abruptly shuts down. Current patients will have access to care support until December 13, according to an announcement posted on what’s left of the company’s website.

Former employees said key problems were lack of patient interest, skeptical commercial building landlords, blood draw technology failures that forced the company to stop offering lab tests, and machines that left patients stuck inside.

Forward managed to install just five of the devices, which cost $1 million each to build.

My analysis of the original announcement, especially given the history of Forward’s predecessors and comments made by its members, wasn’t optimistic.

Webinars

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Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Babylon Health founder Ali Parsa, PhD launches healthcare AI assistant company Quadrivia with seed funding from a Swedish VC firm. (A bit of a health kiosk-related side note: Babylon, which shut down last year, acquired Smart Health Station vendor Higi for $5 million in 2022.)

Impilo raises $11.5 million in Series A funding. The company offers white label remote care software and support services.

Sales

• The US Virgin Islands Office of Health Information Technology will work with CRISP Shared Services to develop an HIE. The organizations launched an interoperability pilot program last year.

People

Thomas Elbert (Health Catalyst) joins Get Well as COO.

Announcements and Implementations

Niagra Health in Ontario goes live on Oracle Health.

Sentara Norfolk General Hospital (VA) implements Andor Health’s ThinkAndor virtual nursing technology.

UConn John Dempsey Hospital (CT) rolls out 15 video monitoring camera carts as part of its new telesitter program.

Government and Politics

A new report from the Government Accountability Office points out that HHS has failed to act on several GAO cybersecurity recommendations made earlier this year. It stresses that the department must do a better job of coordinating and monitoring ransomware mitigation efforts and tracking provider adoption of cybersecurity practices so that it can better determine the need for cybersecurity resources.

The Defense Health Agency and US military hospitals in Japan warn patients of a website masquerading as the MHS Genesis patient portal that attempts to direct visitors to download a non-existent MHS Genesis mobile app. The DHA Cyber Operations Center has since blocked the fake site, which uses a .info rather than .mil web address.

Other

A study of primary care appointments at five VA clinics reveals that physicians often don’t digitally document what patients discuss with them during the visit. Physician-initiated concerns were included in 92% of EHR notes, while just 45% of patient-initiated discussions were documented. Researchers also noticed that nearly 50% of notes found in the EHR for these appointments were not found in visit transcripts.

Sponsor Updates

• Cardamom Health team members volunteer with non-profit Rise Wisconsin, helping it to prepare for the 45th anniversary celebration of its Respite Center.
• Artera’s government solutions business promotes Kari Baldonado to general manager and Marsha Laird-Maddox to senior director of strategy and operations; and names Matt Beirne (Cerner) director of federal growth and strategy.
• Arcadia launches new product modules, Enhanced Benchmarks and Vista Push, and previews upcoming solutions to further enable success with value-based care.
• Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital expands its Agfa HealthCare enterprise imaging system to its cardiology department.
• Inovalon promotes Sandy Warford to director of product marketing.
• Five9 expands its Genius AI suite with the launch of AI Agents, the next-generation of Five9 Intelligent Virtual Agents, which incorporates generative AI.
• Healthmonix congratulates Houston Methodist on its achievement in the Medicare Shared Savings Program, as recognized by CMS.
• Lucem Health names Mansi Goel (Johns Hopkins) associate data scientist.
• Meditech congratulates Ozarks Healthcare hospitalist and CMIO Priscilla Frase, MD on being recognized as CHIME’s Innovator of the Year.
• Altera Digital Health becomes a member of the The Sequoia Project.
• Visage Imaging publishes a new white paper, “Progress Towards Cloud: Relief, Considerations and New Opportunities.”

Blog Posts

• Why HCOs Should Deploy Private, Secure AI Chat Now (Tegria)
• 3 Ways to Change Unproductive Touches in Your Revenue Cycle (EClinicalWorks)
• Findhelp’s Colorado Health Solutions Summit (Findhelp)
• Top 5 Mistakes in Claims Management – And How to Avoid Them (FinThrive)
• From Military Intelligence to Healthcare Cybersecurity (Fortified Health Security)
• Use the “Holiday Diet” to Trim Your Clinical Productivity Variances (Impact Advisors)
• The present and future of AI converge at Google’s Cancer AI Symposium (Meditech)
• What is HEDIS? The Basics, Objectives and Significance (MRO)
• Occupational Health Software Must-Haves (Net Health)

Contacts

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