Weekender 5/11/18

Weekly News Recap

• The VA says it will make a decision on how to proceed with a Cerner contract by May 28.
• Mayo Clinic goes live on Epic.
• Virtual visit provider HealthTap dismisses founder and CEO Ron Gutman after investigating high employee turnover and reports about abusive conduct.
• A DoD OIG report finds that Navy and Air Force treatment facilities have not consistently implemented security protocols to protect patient information in EHRs and other system.
• Athenahealth shareholder Elliott Management makes an all-cash offer for the remainder of the company it doesn’t already own, valuing it at up to $6.9 billion and sending ATHN shares soaring.

Best Reader Comments

FAMIA – if they model it after the ACMI fellowship, I think it could be successful. ACMI is full of academics who don’t have a clue about real world issues that Informaticists “in the trenches” deal with, and so would be nice to have some formal recognition for those of us who actually get things done (instead of just write about them, like lots of ACMI members). (Alphabet Soup)

Back in spring 2017, UIC had a meeting with vendors to kick off the procurement process. I was there with my company and Cerner people were in the room as well. Impact Advisors was introduced to all as the group that would be helping UIC. No one objected, including Cerner. Then many months later when Cerner finds out that they lost the bid to Epic, suddenly it is all about a conflict of interest with Impact Advisors. The more likely explanation is that this is just about sour grapes. Time to look for another reason for why Cerner lost. I got one – maybe UIC also figured out that the Cerner Revenue Cycle is not good. (Abe is watching)

In addition to the immediacy benefit of the 1800s anesthesia / antisepsis comparison was that anesthesia benefited the physician (no screaming patient as I cut him/ her open) and antisepsis benefited the patient. Doctors will always do what’s best for them. Every time you ask a physician to do something you need to find a way that it will benefit him/ her and the quicker, the better. (Was a Community Hospital CIO)

Athenahealth has always struggled with monetizing the data because they don’t own the data. They own the right to use de-identified aggregate data (which they use in things their flu trend reporting), but most of the valuable applications of data in healthcare require PHI that is either not de-identified or is easily re-identified, which Athena doesn’t have the right to sell. So much as they would like to monetize the data, it’s always been out of their reach. (Debtor)

It amazes me how much blame Facebook has successfully deflected onto Cambridge Analytica. (Martin Shkreli)

Athena will be out of the hospital space and focus exclusively on their core ambulatory when this merger happens. Total available market for hospital is shrinking with market pressure from new and increased entrants to the small hospital space. There is no path to profitability in that race to the bottom. Look for them to try and reinvent as an app maker. (Crazy Joe)

The #2 female finisher of the Boston Marathon this year is a nurse anesthetist, and #4 is a registered dietitian. Apparently health care makes good runners. Oh, and the #5 female finisher (nurse practitioner) worked a 10-hour shift the day after the Marathon, after driving home from Boston to NYC. (Kermit)

Watercooler Talk Tidbits

Readers funded the DonorsChoose teacher grant request of Ms. R in Arizona, who asked for headphones for her classroom’s listening centers. She reports, “My students are now able to record themselves and listen and review their fluency. They have headphones that allow them to listen to audiobooks in groups and listen to their intervention program. These headphones will be helpful when going into AzMerit as there will be a listening portion and many of my students do not have access to headphones. My students loved that they can fold the headphones and use the microphone on any device we have available for the day in the classroom.”

Also checking in was Ms. G from Texas, who asked for Dash Robots to introduce her students to coding and robotics. She says, “Thank you for allowing my students to have the opportunity to experience coding in this fun and engaging way. My kids love Dash and they are so engaged when using them in the Maker Space. At this time my kids are completing the challenges that Dash gives them. This will prepare them for the next step, which is a robot competition. The kids are practicing for the big day! They will be competing with their robots to complete some mazes and other exciting activities. All this was possible thanks to you. Thank you again for your donation and for making a difference in my students’ education.”

President Trump appoints TV huckster Dr. Oz and “Incredible Hulk” actor Lou Ferrigno to HHS’s sports, fitness, and nutrition council.

Ireland attempts to name its new national children’s hospital as “Phoenix Children’s Health,” but is forced to reconsider when Phoenix Children’s Hospital (AZ) threatens to sue over the name. An executive of Ireland’s Children’s Hospital Group tried to contact the US hospital about the proposed name, but the email went astray because he misspelled “Phoenix” as “Pheonix” in the email address.

TV actor Ken Jeong rushes from the stage of his stand-up gig to attend to an audience member who was having convulsions. He’s qualified – he earned his MD degree from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine in 1995, completed an internal medicine residency at Ochsner Medical Center (LA), and maintains a California license, although he no longer practices medicine. He developed and starred in the ABC sitcom “Dr. Ken” that ran from 2015-2017. His wife is also a doctor.

Mayo Clinic prepared for its Epic go-live this week by warning employees that parking areas will be restricted May 5-25 to squeeze in the 2,200 on-site consultants and Epic employees involved.

Medical ethics professor Arthur Caplan, PhD criticizes the “root for your roots” advertising campaign of DNA testing company 23andMe that urges American soccer fans whose team was eliminated to instead root for World Cup soccer teams based on shared genetics from the company’s database. He says there’s already too much racism in soccer as “soccer hooligan bigots” taunt minority athletes and notes that countries aren’t neatly sorted out by genetic racial groups, also adding:

There is no correlation between genetics and who is a member of a nation’s soccer team.  People from many ethnic and racial backgrounds play for many nations. There is no Argentinian or Croatian team genotype. And why would information about your genetic ancestry lead you to root for a particular athlete or team? How about the team’s skill, not their skin color or biological makeup?

Self-proclaimed “OB-GYN and media personality” Draion Burch, DO wins the trademark application protest brought against him by rapper, music producer, and Beats founder Dr. Dre. The patent office didn’t buy Dre’s argument that consumers would be confused by the similarly named media personalities. Dr. Drai, as he prefers to be called, is apparently not especially proud of his DO degree since he insists on just being called “Dr.” in his noted scholarly works such as “Discover 20 Strange but True Secrets About the Vagina” and the penetrating commentary in his opus titled “20 Things You May Not Know About the Penis.”

A Missouri woman is hospitalized with facial injuries after a wild turkey crashes through the windshield of the van in which she is riding. She is OK, but the turkey is not. She was not reported to have echoed the comments of WKRP GM “Big Guy” Arthur Carlson in failing to say, “As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly.”

In Case You Missed It

• News 5/9/18
• Curbside Consult with Dr. Jayne 5/7/18
• Monday Morning Update 5/7/18
• What I Wish I’d Known Before … Firing Someone for Cause

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