News 12/11/19

Top News

“Smart pill” medication management company Proteus Digital Health struggles to stay afloat after a $100 million funding round fails to materialize. Once valued at $1.5 billion, the Silicon Valley-based company furloughed employees for several weeks in November until it could acquire $5 million in emergency funding. Company officials say they are looking at restructuring options, while unnamed insiders point to a lack of traction with patients as a big reason for the company’s stymied growth.

Meanwhile, competitor EtectRx receives FDA clearance for its smart ingestible, which is being tested by researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Fenway Health in Boston for use with HIV medication.

Reader Comments

From Dr. Doyle: “Re: The Great NHS Heist. Interesting movie on the NHS.” Backers of the documentary make it available on Youtube ahead of the UK general election on December 12. The documentary, which aims to highlight increasing efforts to take the NHS private, has been in the works for a number of years. It made its theatrical debut in London last month.

Webinars

None scheduled in the coming weeks. Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present your own.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Emergency medical services technology company ESO acquires trauma registry software vendors Clinical Data Management, Lancet Technology, and Digital Innovation.

Former Outcome Health EVP Ashik Desai pleads guilty to charges of fraud, admitting that, “When I was at Outcome Health, there were practices going on there that were wrong. I participated in those practices that ended up defrauding Outcome’s customers.” Three other former employees, including former CFO Brad Purdy, have pled not guilty. Former CEO Rishi Shah and former president Shradha Agarwal will make their court appearances next week.

Sales

• Hospital Sisters Health System Medical Group (IL) will implement Relatient’s patient engagement software.
• Saint Peter’s University Hospital (NJ) selects Vox Telehealth’s FemmeCare for C-Section and Hysterectomy programs to help patients better prepare for and recover from surgeries.
• Precision medicine company Astarte Medical selects commercialization services from Get-to-Market Health.

People

Paul Wilder (Philips) joins CommonWell Health Alliance as executive director.

Innara Health promotes Chris Mathia to CEO.

AI-based diagnostics vendor IDx Technologies promotes John Bertrand to CEO, replacing founder Michael Abramoff, MD who has become executive chairman. The company has also hired Seth Rainford as president and COO, and promoted Danika Simonson to the new position of chief of staff.

Announcements and Implementations

Advocate Lutheran General Hospital (IL) implements AI-enabled stroke-detection software from Viz.ai. The technology will be rolled out to the entire Advocate Aurora Health network by early next year.

Floyd Medical Center (GA) launches a telemedicine program for stroke and neurology patients leveraging providers from Erlanger Health System (TN).

IntelliGuard integrates its RFID-enabled medication tracking technology for anesthesiologists with Epic.

Wyckoff Heights Medical Center (NY) goes live on Allscripts Sunrise and FollowMyHealth software.

LogicStream Health will make its Drug Diversion App available early next year.

With help from the Medical University of South Carolina’s Center for Telehealth, Roper St. Francis Healthcare adopts tele-ICU services from Advanced ICU Care at three of its hospitals.

Privacy and Security

Hopes of returning to normal operations within a week are dashed as the Government of Nunavut in northern Canada continues to recover from an early November ransomware attack that took its computer systems offline. Health department officials still have no idea when they’ll be able to get their Meditech system and telehealth capabilities back up and running. Chief of Staff François deWet, MD says several things have made the “IT apocalypse” eye-opening:

• Having a disaster plan already in place was key to communicating needs and updates with affiliate organizations, which in turn ensured healthcare services weren’t interrupted.
• The fact that the department was in the midst of a Meditech upgrade before the ransomware attack happened resulted in more reliable backups, which are in the process of being restored.

Other

A Bright.md survey of 521 consumers finds that they trust their current providers and healthcare organizations with their health data far more than they do their health insurance companies, technology companies like Amazon or Google, or telemedicine vendors.

Sponsor Updates

• Bluetree employees impact 23 organizations by volunteering 264 hours across 13 states and India during the company’s annual Give Back Week.
• HHS expands its contract with Audacious Inquiry for the development of a national Patient Unified Lookup System for Emergencies system.
• Avaya announces that Earvin “Magic” Johnson will keynote Avaya Engage 2020 February 4 in Phoenix.
• Data Center Knowledge features Atlantic.Net in its “Trends in Data Center Network and IT Security” report.
• Wolters Kluwer Health adds machine learning and AI capabilities to its Sentri7 healthcare-acquired infections surveillance software.
• Huron will provide consulting and implementation services for Omnicell customers.
• SymphonyRM releases a new podcast, “Edward Marx and Four Pillars of Innovative Leadership.”

Blog Posts

• Reduce Wear and Tear on your Hospital’s Patient Bedside Tablets (Access)
• Optimizing Your Revenue Potential (AdvancedMD)
• 2020: What lies ahead for payers and PACS? (CarePort Health)
• #RSNA2019 – Delivering high impact care at Zuckerberg San Francisco General (Agfa Healthcare)
• 2019 #BlueleafGiveBackWeek: A recap (Bluetree Network)
• Addressing Social Determinants of Health with Technology (Collective Medical)
• 10 Things Nurses Say They Need Right Now (CoverMyMeds)
• 5 Technologies That Will Shape Healthcare in 2020 (Dimensional Insight)
• Nordic’s company culture ranks among nation’s best (Nordic)

Contacts

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