News 11/28/18

Top News

Amazon will announce this week launch of a software product for insurance companies that mines electronic patient records, including both structured and unstructured data. It will look for incorrect coding or diagnoses to improve quality and lower cost.

Reader Comments

From TaTa Toothy: “Re: Key Dental Group. The practice’s EHR vendor locks it out of its patient database after the practice drops its system.” Key Dental Group (FL) says dental software vendor MOGO is refusing to return its 4,000 patient records following termination of its license. The practice put out a press release titled “HIPAA Security Incident” that warns patients that it has no control over how their data will be protected by the vendor. MOGO’s LinkedIn says the product is “HIPPA-compliant.”

From DiJourno: “Re: fake health IT news. Running all positive stories is a clue.” You can easily recognize advertiser-friendly “news” sites by simply checking their 10 most recent stories to see if they wrote anything negative, especially about an advertiser. I explain when people ask why I’m so cynical that: (a) the frontlines health IT view is a far cry from profit-motivated irrational exuberance supported by vendor-friendly news sites; and (b) fluff written by armchair quarterbacks is in ample supply and thus the obvious need is to inject reality. I grade sites this way: (a) can I immediately use what I just read; (b) did I learn something I wouldn’t have found elsewhere; (c) can I at least paraphrase a given story in casual conversation to sound smart? Otherwise, I have  more entertaining ways to waste my time.

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

The earlier-than-usual start of HIMSS19 means it’s time to open up the HISsies nominations, my version of the political primaries. I’ve unsuccessfully hoped every year since the first HISsies in 2008 to avoid dozens of email exchanges like these:

• (Reader) “I can’t believe the stupid choices for the HISsies voting. It’s the same every year and it should have had X as a choice.”
• (Me) “Readers do the nominating. Nobody nominated X. So you are complaining now that you don’t like the choices even though you couldn’t be bothered to take 10 seconds to nominate X yourself?”
• (Reader) No response.

Welcome to new HIStalk Gold Sponsor NextGate. The Monrovia, CA-based company offers a cloud-based identity management solution (patient matching, duplicate record cleanup, provider attribution, and biometric ID), provider registry, and  relation registry. Customer success stories include Geisinger, Rochester RHIO, and two UK providers. The company works with more than 100 provider organizations. Thanks to NextGate for supporting HIStalk.

Webinars

December 5 (Wednesday) 1 ET. “Tapping Into the Potential of Natural Language Processing in Healthcare.” Sponsor: Health Catalyst. Presenters: Wendy Chapman, PhD, chair of the department of biomedical informatics, University of Utah School of Medicine; Mike Dow, senior director of product development, Health Catalyst. This webinar will provide an NLP primer, sharing principle-driven stories so you can get going with NLP whether you are just beginning or considering processes, tools, or how to build support with key leadership. Dr. Chapman’s teams have demonstrated phenotyping for precision medicine, quality improvement, and decision support, while Mr. Dow’s group helps organizations realize statistical insight by incorporating text notes along with discrete data analysis. Join us to better understand the potential of NLP through existing applications, the challenges of making NLP a real and scalable solution, and the concrete actions you can take to use NLP for the good of your organization.

December 6 (Thursday) 11 ET. “Make the Most of Azure DevOps in Healthcare.” Sponsor: CitiusTech. Presenter: Harshal Sawant, practice lead for DevOps and mobile, CitiusTech. Enterprise IT teams are moving from large-scale, project-based system implementations to a continuously evolving and collaborative process that includes both development and business teams. This webinar will review healthcare DevOps trends and customer stories, describe key factors in implementing a DevOps practice, describe how to assess Azure DevOps, and lay out the steps needed to create an Azure DevOps execution plan.

Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre for information.

Sales

• Australia’s Queensland Health chooses NextGate’s cloud-based Provider Registry to create a statewide referral service directory.
• Sweden-based Västra Götalandsregionen will implement Cerner Millennium in its 17 hospitals and 200 primary care centers, Cerner’s second regional contract in Sweden.

People

Former University of Utah health system CEO Vivian Lee, MD, PhD, MBA, who resigned after clashing with the university’s cancer hospital leadership, joins Verily as president of health platforms. She will oversee products related to health system improvement and population health. She finished her contract with the university as a radiology professor at a salary of $1 million per year.

Announcements and Implementations

MModal launches Scout Follow-Up, an AI-powered radiology follow-up workflow solution.

HIMSS announces its 2019 “Most Influential Women in Health IT” winners:

• Aashima Gupta (Google)
• Kisha Hortman Hawthorne, PhD, MHA, MBA (Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia)
• Christine A. Hudak, PhD, RN (Kent State University)
• Lygeia Ricciardi, EdM (Carium)
• Heather Sulkers (CAMH)

Government and Politics

The GAO will investigate rumored VA meddling by three political supporters of President Trump who said they “were anointed by the President” as private citizens. The three, including concierge doctor Bruce Moskowitz, say they voluntarily offered their help to the VA but were given no authority over the VA’s decisions. The initial ProPublica investigation found that Moskowitz’s negative experience with Cerner led the group to urge then-VA Secretary David Shulkin to perform more due diligence before giving Cerner a $10 billion, no-bid contract. Former officials say Shulkin was fired because of friction with the group over the Cerner contract.

Privacy and Security

BCBS of North Carolina emails a medical claims report for 158 employees of Wilmington, NC to the wrong city.

Systems of two OH and WV hospitals remain down following a ransomware attack Friday, with their EDs remaining on partial diversion.

Other

A Black Book survey finds that the CIO’s strategic role has diminished as non-IT department leaders are making more purchasing decisions. It questions whether the “chief” part of the CIO title is at risk as only 21 percent of CIOs say they are involved in innovation projects and departmental purchasing decisions, with 29 percent viewing their role as tactical. Nearly all C-suite colleagues view CIOs as technology providers and order-takers who don’t need to be involved in transformation and innovation efforts. The report finds that average CIO tenure is down to 3.2 years.

The Washington Post finds that a private equity firm’s acquisition of a national nursing home chain led to dramatically decreased quality of care as the chain was loaded up with debt; cash was extracted to pay investors and PE firm management fees; buildings were sold and leased back at unreasonable rents to free up cash that the private equity company extracted; and employees were laid off as the nursing homes were unable to pay the new debt and rent costs. A company consultant said the bankers and investment people who run the PE firm “did not know a thing about this business at all.” The PE firm says things were going fine until Medicare reduced payments. The PE firm has sold the chain to a non-profit, but the question remains – are the slash-and-burn, flip-focused private equity methods appropriate in healthcare?

I found this “Black Friday for Healthcare”article by Loyale Healthcare CEO Kevin Fleming both interesting and timely. He says:

• The Black Friday phenomenon involves value + enticement + urgency.
• Disruption is caused by a commitment to a delivering a superior customer experience, not by simply rolling out digital tools (he was quoting an article by former Sutter Health SVP/CIO Jon Manis).
• “Delight disruption” in healthcare must include both clinical and financial positive experiences.
• Medical tourism may represent the first wave of healthcare consumerism.
• Amazon knows us better than we know ourselves via its rich database, allowing it offer easy shopping, comparing, and buying, and healthcare is beginning to amass such data.
• Healthcare’s version of retail growth involves offering rewarding personal experiences; enticing consumers with an attractive, affordable product that drives word-of-mouth exposure; and addressing people who delay or avoid care because they think they can’t afford it.

Employees at Mercy South (MO) were scheduled to protest Tuesday after the hospital required employees to receive a flu shot unless they offer medical or religious reasons.

Former Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka is released from the hospital after being treated for a mild heart attack. Above is the mental picture I immediately conjured given that it’s Thanksgiving and RSNA.

Sponsor Updates

• Medicomp Systems publishes an e-book titled “Interoperability and the Quest to Solve Healthcare’s Seemingly Unsolvable Problem.”
• Bernoulli Health will exhibit at the American Association for Respiratory Care Congress December 4-7 in Las Vegas.
• CoverMyMeds will exhibit at ASHP Midyear December 3-7 in Anaheim, CA.
• Divurgent publishes a new success story on its Physician Efficiency Program.
• PointClickCare recognizes Liaison Technologies as its Partner of the Year.
• LiveProcess will exhibit at the National Healthcare Coalition Preparedness Conference November 27-29 in New Orleans.
• MDLive provides free online health consultations to California residents impacted by wildfires.
• National Decision Support Co. will exhibit at RSNA November 25-30 in Chicago.
• Wolters Kluwer Health will present at the ASHP Midyear Clinical Meeting December 2-6 in Anaheim, CA.
• The Pharmacy Podcast Network features ZappRx.

Blog Posts

• Opening day at RSNA 2018 in Chicago (Agfa Healthcare)
• Top 10 Considerations for HIPAA Compliant File Storage (Atlantic.Net)
• Cutting Through the Noise – Streamlining Alerts to Help Improve Patient Safety (CoverMyMeds)
• Medical Schools in the Digital Age: The teachingEHR (Dimensional Insight)
• Understanding what matters most to hospice patients (Meditech)
• Interoperability and the Quest to Solve Healthcare’s Seemingly Unsolvable Problem (Medicomp Systems)
• Driving Recovery in the Opioid Crisis – The Technology to Get Us There (Netsmart)
• The IT Service Management Series – Part 1: Knowledge Management – Recognizing your most valuable free asset (CloudWave)
• Simplifying the billing process to alleviate patient financial pain points (Experian Health)
• Recap: PatientPing Hosts Texas Community Summit (PatientPing)
• FAQ: Platforms vs. Point Solutions (Spok)
• Avoid a One-Size-Fits-All Patient UX. Here’s How. (Patientco)
• EHR Optimization: Are We There Yet? (PatientKeeper)
• New Jersey Case Manager Fights “Tooth and Nail” for Patients (PreparedHealth)
• Did EHRs Solve Everything? (Optimum Healthcare IT)
• Communication data at a glance. (Voalte)
• How Medicare Advantage is boosting value-based insurance design (Wellcentive)
• What is Defensible Documentation? (WebPT)

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
Get HIStalk updates. Send news or rumors.
Contact us.