Morning Headlines 10/29/14

Office of the National Coordinator update

The ONC reports that National Coordinator Karen DeSalvo, MD will continue to lead the organization as she simultaneously takes over her new responsibilities as HHS’s Acting Assistant Secretary of Health.

UnitedHealth Group Unit to Acquire Alere Health

UnitedHealth Group’s Optum Health will acquire Alere Health for $600 million. Alere will bring its population health expertise to Optum and will help implement wellness programs aimed at reducing overall health care costs.

Addenbrooke’s Hospital paperless system goes live

Epic goes live at Addenbrooke and Rosie hospitals, the company’s first live sites in the UK.

Health software brings risk of death

In Australia, a risk assessment of IMDsoft’s ICU application calls the system a threat to patient safety after finding that software bugs were contributing to a significant number of near miss medication errors at the nine hospitals using the system. The report predicts that the likelihood of the system contributing to a patient’s death sits between 60 and 90 percent.