News 12/11/13

Top News

Practice Fusion closes a $15 million Series D round led by Qualcomm Ventures, bringing the company’s total funding raised to date to $149 million.

Reader Comments

From Lorre: “Re: mHealth. So many people were coming up to me asking if I was Inga that I finally had to make this sign. I am going to get a well-made one for HIMSS. At one point today I showed someone my shoes and he said, ‘Yeah, you’re not her.’” Lorre was holding court at our little HIStalk booth at this week’s mHealth conference. I’m going to recommend that she not only get a better sign for HIMSS but step up her shoe attire, just to confound suspicious readers.

From Helen: “Re: mHealth Summit. I met Lorre – she rocks!” Lorre enjoyed meeting those (few) readers who attended the conference this week. I’m not sure it was relevant enough for a return next year, but we’ll see.

From ASMD: “Re: floppy disks. New York Times or Dilbert?” An article points out that government is not the most sophisticated technology user, noting that The Federal Register often receives submissions from federal departments via 3.5” floppy disks.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

HealthLoop, which offers an automated patient follow-up solution, raises $10 million in Series A funding led by Canvas Venture Fund. The company’s CEO is Todd Johnson, the former CEO and president of Salar.

IMS Health, a big data firm that aggregates and sells large databases of de-identified healthcare data, acquires Pygargus, a Swedish health analytics firm. Bloomberg, by the way, reports that IMS Health is considering an IPO in 2014 and  may seek a company valuation of at least $8 billion.

Sales

The Indiana HIE selects AT&T’s healthcare Community Online information exchange platform for clinical messaging and medical record sharing.

Crystal Run Healthcare (NY) selects the Health Catalyst data warehousing and analytics platform.

UF Health Shands (FL) contracts with Besler Consulting for its Transfer DRG recovery services.

People

HMS Holdings names Joel Portice (Verisk Health) divisional president of government solutions and corporate strategy and Douglas M. Williams (Aveta) divisional president of commercial solutions.

Teleheatlh solution provider AMC Health appoints Lisa J. Roberts (Viterion Corporation) SVP of its government market division.

Juan Diaz (Association Capital Resources) joins The HCI Group as SVP/general counsel.

Bobbie Byrne, MD is named SVP/CIO of Edward-Elmhurst Healthcare, created by the merger of her former CIO employer Edward Hospital and Elmhurst Memorial Healthcare. She will also have responsibility for the facilities and construction departments at Edward as well as the two locations of the Edward Cancer Centers.  

Next Wave CONNECT names Doug Cusick (HP/IBM), Robert Cothron (Singing River Health System), Becky Heflin (IBM), John McDowell (Oslo’s), and Sherry Reynolds (HHS) to its community management team.

Announcements and Implementations

St. Mary’s Health Care System (GA) makes the Epic MyHealth portal available for hospital patients.

Billings Clinic (MT) implements Omnicell automated dispensing cabinets integrated with Cerner Millennium EHR via the CareAware iBus.

Mercy Medical Center (MD) deploys BridgeHead Software’s Healthcare Data Management for the protection of its Epic system data.

PA eHealth, eVantage Health, and Caradigm will complete the pilot for their HIE project in early 2014.

The Mount Sinai Health System (NY) will use $5 million in funding from the NYC Economic Development Corporation to establish the Mount Sinai Institute of Technology. The Institute will initially focus on digital health technologies, biologically integrated technologies, and prescription technologies.

Government and Politics

The FDA, ONC, and FACC will release a report early next year outlining strategies and recommendations on an HIT framework that promotes innovation, protects patient safety, and avoids regulatory duplication.

Do as I say, not as I do: the OIG finds that the HHS Office of Civil Rights failed to comply with certain federal cybersecurity requirements for the IT systems used to store HIPAA-compliance investigation data. The OCR says all deficiencies have now been corrected.

Other

Almost 76 percent of the largest not-for-profit senior living organizations are implementing EHR technology and 83 percent are implementing point-of-care systems.

KLAS finds that despite vendor claims of the importance of technology differentiation, providers find that technology platforms do not accurately predict EMR capabilities or clinical success.

Also from KLAS: StatRad, Rays, and TRS earn top scores for overall customer satisfaction in a report on teleradiology in the ED.

Thanks to Brian Ahier for forwarding an updated graphic that clarifies the newly proposed timeline changes for MU. Brian notes, “I think the important point here is that although there will very likely be more changes to come, healthcare organizations and providers should not count on any delay or changes but prepare for plans to proceed under this current current regulatory framework.”

Further thoughts on the MU Stage 2 extension: the Stage 2 timeline is unchanged, as Brian’s graphic depicts. Just because Stage 3 has been pushed back a year doesn’t mean that ONC is ignoring concerns about Stage 2 as CHIME and other groups seem to assume by their ballistic reaction to the Stage 3 announcement. ONC’s decision-making process has been thoughtful, participative going back to when Farzad was named National Coordinator. ONC announced the Stage 3 decision Friday and mentioned this week that it will offer a public comment period for the regulatory strategy being worked on with HHS and FDA when that report comes out in in early 2014. Those events show show that nothing has changed just because Farzad has moved on – ONC is listening and won’t blindside anyone with salvos of dictatorial imperatives. The pundits are also missing another important point – decoupling product certification from MU gives vendors more predictable certification updates and the change to give input. Vendors can deliver what the market wants (usability and patient safety features, for example) instead of chasing certification checkboxes.

A Massachusetts man spends about $10 and 20 minutes to make a prosthetic hand for his 12-year-old son on a 3D printer using plans he found on the Internet. The estimated cost for a traditional prosthetic hand is $20-$30,000.

Sponsor Updates

• API Healthcare reports that more than 250 hospitals and other healthcare providers have chosen its ShiftSelect to automate staffing and scheduling processes.
• HMS will integrate Medi-Span Controlled Substances Drug File from Wolters Kluwer Health into its Prescriber Eligibility solution.
• Visiongain includes AT&T and Airstrip on its list of Top 20 Mobile Health Companies for 2014.
• Anthelio Healthcare Solutions and Encore Health Resources align to promote economies of scale and expand available services.
• Certify will participate in next month’s IHE NA Connectathon 2014 in Chicago.
• Caristix posts a white paper on managing predictable outcomes and margins with  HL7 integrations.
• Iatric Systems hosts a December 12 webinar on integrating EHRs with Welch Allyn vitals.
• Billian’s HealthData shares its list of the five most popular health market reports for 2013.
• Twenty-nine percent of patients participating in the 2013 Connance Consumer Impact Study rate their most recent hospital billing experience with top satisfactions scores, though 19 percent express full dissatisfaction.
• PeriGen hosts a December 11 webinar featuring the company’s chief clinical officer Thomas Garite, MD and a discussion on problems with Category II fetal heart rate problems.
• KLAS gives 3M Health Information Systems the highest overall performance score among vendors for the 360 Encompass System, 3M’s inpatient CAC technology.

Contacts

Mr. H, Inga, Dr. Jayne, Dr. Gregg, Lt. Dan, Dr. Travis, Lorre

More news: HIStalk Practice, HIStalk Connect.