Monday Morning Update 3/9/26

March 8, 2026

Top News

 

Financial Times reports that former NHS senior official Matthew Swindells was serving as a paid lobbyist for Palantir while urging colleagues to send GP patient data to the nationwide Federated Data Platform.  

Palantir was awarded a $440 million contract in 2023 to develop FDP, which aggregates and analyzes data from NHS trusts.

Swindells was previously SVP of population and global strategy at Cerner. He says that his email referenced GP data being used on the local federated data platform, not the national one.

Reader Comments

From Jagged: “Re: HCA using Palantir for medical record summarization. Hospitals say they guard patient data carefully, right up until a tech company offers them a shiny AI tool. Suddenly the same data becomes a ‘strategic asset.’ Patients might call it something else.”

From Testy: “Re: agentic AI. Vendors used to sell modules, then solutions, then platforms, and now agents. The pitch changes every five years, but the integration problems don’t.”

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

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Poll respondents align with my life’s motto, rarely disproven, which is, “Self-interest is the most reliable driver of human and organizational behavior.” What people and organizations say is often irrelevant when you can simply look at their actions.

New poll to your right or here: Would you trust a data analytics company like Palantir with your full medical record? The related question is whether said data sharing gives patients any personal benefit, such as improved care or outcomes, and if the argument is that society benefits, then why are companies making profit handing off my information to each other?

HIMSS kicks off in Los Wages this week with the inevitable sunshine, 80-degree days, and the never-ending olfactory transition from panhandler urine to casino cigarette smoke.

Pondering: If Oracle conducts the rumored massive layoffs early this week, will any employees working the HIMSS conference be affected and abruptly sent home?

Sponsored Events and Resources

Publication: HIStalk’s Guide to HIMSS26 lists the activities of sponsors at the conference.

Contact Lorre to have your resource listed.

Sales

  • Catholic Health chooses Nordic for Epic application managed services.
  • BJC HealthCare, FMOL Health, and Naples Comprehensive Health implement Lincata’s Bedside OS, including LincTV and Epic MyChart Bedside TV.

People

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Mike Knowles, MBA (Banjo Health) joins BettrAI as CEO.

Announcements and Implementations

Wolters Kluwer Health integrates its UpToDate clinical decision support solution with Microsoft’s Dragon Copilot, Microsoft 365 Copilot, and Teams.

Waystar expands its collaboration with Google Cloud to apply agentic AI capabilities to develop an autonomous revenue cycle.

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Medhost announces Medhostone, a next-generation EHR that aims to unify patient data into a single “connected patient story,” incorporate AI capabilities, and accelerate product development. It will be rolled out incrementally through 2027. 

Sponsor Updates

  • Halifax Health (FL) implements WellSky’s CarePort Transition solution.
  • Nordic releases a new “Designing for Health” podcast featuring Michael Hallsworth, PHD and Meredith Jones.
  • VisiQuate will exhibit at Revenue Cycle Conference March 18-20 in Arlington, TX.

Blog Posts

Contacts

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