Monday Morning Update 2/2/26

Top News

Newly issued FDA guidance on clinical decision support software clarifies that it won’t be regulated as medical device if it meets four criteria:

• It does not acquire, process, or analyze a medical image or signal from other devices.
• It displays, analyzes, or prints information such as patient demographics, symptoms, test results, discharge summaries, and medical literature that would be generally communicated by licensed clinicians.
• It makes recommendations to a licensed clinician without replacing their judgment.
• It allows licensed clinicians to review the basis of the recommendation.

Reader Comments

From George: “Re: Oracle Health. The idea that Oracle might sell the business has no factual basis or sourcing and appears to be little more than investment firm speculation, which is often wrong. I also don’t see who would realistically be able to buy it.” I doubt that Oracle Health will be offered for sale, and even if it is, it’s no longer a clean standalone asset, either financially or technically. Few companies could afford to buy it even a discounted price. The business is too complex and unpredictable for private equity or venture capital. Leidos is large enough and could preserve whatever piece of the DoD revenue flows through Oracle Health, but I don’t see it wanting to jump into the EHR product business, although it might like a piece of Cerner government services. We also don’t know who, if anyone, bid against Oracle for Cerner last time, although it was rumored that one other company showed interest. The underlying logic of this speculation is that Oracle needs capital to address its $125 billion in debt and $1.4 trillion in AI data center commitments, but nothing they could do with Oracle Health would make much of a dent. I think Oracle will pay more attention to broad layoffs, access to borrowing, and protecting share price. Or, rework their data center commitments by stretching timelines or bringing in partners. ORCL share price is up a little bit over the past 12 months and has lost 34% in the past three months, so all of the AI hype seems to have been outweighed by the costs involved.  

From Landof10kHITers: “Re: Neil Pappalardo. An absolute giant in the industry. Arguably he is the one who founded the EMR/EHR industry. He doesn’t get near the credit he deserves, though it doesn’t seem he ever wanted that. From the technologies he created that spawned other technologies that are still in use by industry giants today, to the early days help and mentoring with Judy at Epic (as I understand it, Epic functions, in a lot of ways, the same as Meditech — hire new college grads, private company, only promote from within, etc.), and obviously founding and leading Meditech for decades to be a stable software company, and one of the oldest / earliest software companies ever. He will be missed.” Also often missed is that Meditech’s use of his MUMPS programming language spawned another massive business (and another billionaire other than Judy Faulkner) in 2,500-employee InterSystems, which developed its database in 1978. I think that Curt Marble is the only surviving Meditech co-founder – Morton Ruderman, Jerome Grossman, Ed Roberts, and now Neil Pappalardo have passed on.

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

Just 15% of poll respondents aren’t using AI to some degree or haven’t found it useful for work, but quite a few say that AI has improved their job performance a lot. Mark provided some fascinating details about how he’s using it:

Use case #1: I am creating a guide for others to use, a how to manual for reviewing healthcare vendor contracts. When I documented my parameters, I ended up with a result that shaved hours off the time needed to complete my finished product. Use case #2: I’m not good at creating pretty tables from Excel spread sheets, so I asked Copilot to create one. In under a minute I received output that was nicer and more presentable than anything I could have created on my own. Use case #3: Needed a vendor comparison for a health system with a very complicated set of circumstances. Entered the parameters into the AI tool and received a thoroughly complete analysis from several perspectives. Back when I was a healthcare IT consultant, that kind of effort would have taken weeks to accomplish. Here it was done in minutes.

New poll to your right or here: What statement most strongly indicates that a company is in trouble? I’m honoring the art of spinning a negative into a positive, like Spinal Tap’s manager declaring that the band is still a hot commodity, but “their appeal is becoming more selective.”

Sponsored Events and Resources

Live Webinar: February 18 (Wednesday) 2 ET. “From Blind Spots to Insights: Gaining Real-Time Visibility into Healthcare Risk.” Sponsor: CloudWave. Presenters: Jacob Wheeler, MBA, director of sales engineering, CloudWave; Mike Donahue, chief operating officer, CloudWave. Resilience starts with the ability to see clearly, across every endpoint, cloud workload, user, and clinical system. Join CloudWave’s cybersecurity leaders for an in-depth session on how real-time visibility transforms your ability to detect threats early, respond decisively, and strengthen resilience across the care ecosystem. Attendees will learn the practical steps that hospitals can take to move from reactive defense to resilient action.

Publication: HIStalk’s Guide to ViVE 2026 lists the activities of sponsors at the conference.

Contact Lorre to have your resource listed.

People

Andrew Golden (Experian) joins Hyro as RVP of sales.

Announcements and Implementations

Meditech posts a tribute to founder and chairman A. Neil Pappalardo, who died Tuesday at 83. Read and leave thoughts and memories here.

A Surescripts survey finds that more than half of of patients have experienced delays or disruption in getting their prescriptions filled, and 77% would use digital prescription pricing tools.

An Epic Research study finds that early blood pressure treatment by telehealth is as effective as in-person visits as long as blood pressure is measured and recorded.

Government and Politics

The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) posts an anticipated future contracting opportunity for a correctional EHR for ICE detainees, estimating its cost at $50 million to $100 million.

Other

Snow day / slow day dreams. The widow of IDX founder Rich Tarrant sells the Hillsboro Beach, FL estate they built in 2007 for $36.5 million.

Sponsor Updates

• Beauregard Health System integrates Artera’s AI-powered patient communication platform and DrFirst’s prescription engagement solution with its Meditech Expanse system.
• Optimum Healthcare IT publishes a new white paper titled “From Vendor to Vital Partner.”
• Findhelp pledges to CMS that it will help states prepare for and implement Medicaid community engagement requirements enacted through the Working Families Tax Cut legislation.
• Waystar will exhibit at Traumasoft UGM February 2-4 in Orlando.

Blog Posts

• How MCP Creates Safer, More Useful AI for Clinicians and Developers (Medicomp Systems)
• 9 HIMSS Attendee Survival Tips (Med Tech Solutions)
• HFMA WRS 2026: Leading Now in Healthcare Finance (FinThrive)
• Accelerating Cash and Optimizing the Revenue Cycle Post-Epic (Impact Advisors)
• Health Benefits 101: Service Excellence & Scaling an Award-Winning Call Center Model (Judi Health)
• How to Transform Communication with PALTC Providers and Patients (Netsmart)
• Breaking the cycle: reducing costs in NHS re-procurement (Nordic)
• New TrustCommerce Features in Practice Fusion: Streamlined Payments for a Better Patient Experience (TrustCommerce)
• What 1,007 Patients Told Us About the Prescription Experience—And What We’re Doing About It (Surescripts)

Contacts

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