News 2/9/22

Top News

Highlights from the just-announced Best in KLAS awards:

• Epic, Nordic, Galen Healthcare, and The Chartis Group were named as overall best.
• Epic won Best in KLAS awards in 11 market segments.
• Most-improved products include Infor ERP and Greenway Intergy Practice Management.
• Epic was the top-rated physician practice vendor by far, followed by Athenahealth, NextGen Healthcare, Greenway Health Intergy, Allscripts, and EClinicalWorks.
• Topping the overall software suite rankings was Epic, followed by Meditech Expanse, Cerner, CPSI Evident Thrive, and Allscripts.
• Nordic led overall IT services firms, followed by Pivot Point Consulting, Bluetree Network, Experis Health, Impact Advisors, Engage, and Cerner.

KLAS also announced the global software (non-US) winners. Some highlights:

• Nearly all respondents have adopted virtual visit technology.
• Digital pathology is growing rapidly in Europe.
• Top acute care EMR winners are InterSystems TrakCare EPR (Asia/Oceania), Epic (Canada and Europe), Philips (Latin America), and Cerner (Middle East/Africa).

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

Welcome to new HIStalk Platinum Sponsor Volpara Health. The company has acquired CRA Health, LLC and Volpara Risk Pathways is its new solution. It is a complete program for identifying and managing patients who are at high risk for breast cancer. The company applies world-class knowledge and over 15 years of experience in risk and genetics to help prevent advanced-stage cancer. Volpara Risk Pathways can identify lifetime and hereditary high-risk patients in any setting, including primary care, OB-GYN, and imaging. This solution interfaces or integrates with EHRs and genetic testing labs without compromising time or workflow. Volpara Risk Pathways is more than just a score, offering guidelines, recommendations, and tools to help coordinate care for patients at elevated risk. Let Volpara Health leverage its vast experience, including performing over 2 million assessments annually, to help build or improve your high-risk program with both product and consulting expertise. Thanks to Volpara Health for supporting HIStalk.

I found this YouTube video describing Volpara Health’s intelligent cancer screening workflow.

HIStalk sponsors, your company can be listed in my conference guides simply by sending me contact and participation information, even if you are attending but not exhibiting. Fill out the forms for ViVE and/or HIMSS22. 

Webinars

None scheduled soon. Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present your own.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Revenue cycle management company NThrive will acquire Pelitas, which offers solutions for patient access, digital intake, and front-end RCM. Pelitas won Best in KLAS for patient access in 2019, 2020, and 2022.

Data solutions vendor Fivos, formerly known as Medstreaming/M2S, will spin off its imaging services business as Astute Imaging, which offers pre- and post-surgery planning and follow-up tools. Medstreaming founders Elseaidy and Ewald de Vries will run the business.

E-consult company AristaMD acquires Preferral, which offers referral management, analytics, and document routing software. Preferral founder and CTO Jon Gautsch will become SVP at AristaMD.

Telemedicine company VisuWell raises $10.1 million. President and COO Gerry Andrady took on the CEO role last April after predecessor Sam Johnson was fired after being caught on video in an altercation with 18-year-old Dalton Stevens, who was was wearing a dress on their way to the high school prom.

Healthcare advisory and analytics firm Press Ganey will acquire Forsta, a customer experience and market research technology business. Press Ganey Chief Strategy Officer Darren Dworkin is a health IT industry veteran, having worked in executive roles at Cedars-Sinai, Boston Medical Center, Stanson Health, and Summation Health Ventures.

Neura Health, a membership-based virtual clinic specializing in headache and migraine treatments, raises $2.2 million in seed funding. The company plans on collecting a massive, anonymized data set of neurological conditions and outcomes to share with researchers and pharmaceutical companies.

Curve Health raises $12 million in a Series A funding round. The startup helps hospitals and nursing homes coordinate and manage patient care.

I missed this during the holiday break: RWJBarnabas Health Children’s Specialized Hospital (NJ) and Pinnacle Solutions have launched Predictive Health Solutions. The new business will offer technology focused on improving patient outcomes, initially focusing on reducing appointment no-shows.

Sales

• King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in England will go live on Epic next year.
• Nebraska-based HIE CyncHealth selects HealthEC’s population health technology and services.
• Community Care of North Carolina selects Bamboo Health’s Pings care coordination and notification software.

People

Healthcare workforce optimization company Prolucent Health names Dan Owens (PatientPoint) CTO.

Greg Miller (Talkdesk) joins Lumeon as chief growth officer.

Announcements and Implementations

NorthBay Healthcare (CA) implements Oracle Cloud ERP and human capital management software with assistance from Alithya Group.

In Australia, cancer center Chris O’Brien Lifehouse goes live on Meditech Expanse.

Amazon Care will expand its employer-contracted urgent and primary care services, which are offered both virtually and in-person, to 20 new cities this year.

Government and Politics

Training issues still plague the DoD’s Cerner-powered MHS Genesis system, according to an annual oversight report from the DoD’s Office of the Director, Operational Test, and Evaluation. Nearly 75% of the report’s survey respondents consider the program’s computer-based training to be “poor,” though a new initiative to give users hands-on practice in a mock environment did see improvement. The report ultimately concludes that the system “is not yet survivable in a cyber-contested environment.”

Other

JAMA publishes guidelines on how hospitals can meet the CMS requirement that they assess their EHR safety using the SAFER Guides, which is provided by SAFER Guides developers Dean Sittig, PhD; Patricia Sengstack, DNP; and Hardeep Singh, MD, MPH.

Athenahealth clarifies its COVID-19 vaccination policy, telling a local paper that the vaccine will no longer be mandated for employees who don’t directly interact with customers. Unvaccinated employees, presumably those who work in the office, must provide a weekly negative test result. All employees have the option to work from home until June.

Sponsor Updates

• Ascom signs an agreement with Champs Group Purchasing, giving its members access to Ascom’s communications workflow technology.
• Clearwater promotes Chris Dowhan to principal consultant and Leeanne Lane to director of contracting.
• Divurgent releases a new episode of its podcast, The Vurge, focusing on women in technology.
• Surescripts recaps its 2021 accomplishments, including enhancements to and expanded use of its Medication History services.

Blog Posts

• Oracle and Cerner: Epic Challenger or Epic Failure? (Medicomp Systems)
• What’s the difference between Credentialing & Contracting a provider? (AdvancedMD)
• An initial deployment of IMPAX progresses to Norway’s first EI go-live of Agfa HealthCare’s Enterprise Imaging Solution (Agfa HealthCare)
• Automated Tools Save Staff Time in Meditech Expanse Patient Accounting Desktop (PAD) (Cerecore)
• How States Are Trying to Better Understand the Nuances of Pandemic Data (Dimensional Insight)
• One Key for 2022: Staying Focused on Patients (EClinicalWorks)
• How Alternative Payment Models are Revolutionizing Healthcare (Enlace Health)
• Better care starts with better patient identity management (Experian Health)

These HIStalk sponsors were named as Best in KLAS. If I missed your company or if you are signing up as a new sponsor, let me know and I’ll do an addendum.

• Arcadia.io (value-based care management services).
• Change Healthcare (payer IT consulting services).
• Fortified Health Security (security and privacy managed services).
• HCTec/Talon Healthy IT Services (partial IT outsourcing).
• Health Data Movers (HIT implementation leadership, small).
• Impact Advisors (security and privacy consulting services).
• Imprivata (access management).
• InterSystems (interoperability platforms).
• Lyniate (integration engines).
• Meditech (acute care EMR, community hospital; home health, small; patient accounting and patient management, community hospital).
• Nordic (overall IT services firm; HIT implementation leadership, large; revenue cycle optimization; technical services).
• Nuance (speech recognition, front-end EMR).
• Premier (value-based care consulting).
• Sectra (PACS, large; PACS, small).
• Symplr (time and attendance; clinical communications).
• Well Health (patient outreach).
• Wolters Kluwer (infection control and monitoring).
• Zynx Health (clinical decision support – care plans and order sets).

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
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