EPtalk by Dr. Jayne 5/22/25
The American Medical Informatics Association hosted its Clinical Informatics Conference this week in Anaheim. It’s a relatively small meeting compared to some of the healthcare IT blowouts, with a reported attendance of just over 600. A couple of readers sent their thoughts on the meeting, leading to an overarching but not surprising conclusion that much of the conversation was “all AI, all the time.” Just looking at the list of the sponsors for the meeting, three out of the top four are ambient documentation companies – Nabla, Abridge, and Suki – so I’m sure that was a significant topic as well. Another reader mentioned a panel on career trajectories for women in the informatics realm that had good advice for those at the midpoints in their careers. I’m always a bit envious of the clinical informaticists who had coaches and mentors as they came up in the field. Those of us that learned at the school of hard knocks followed by a graduate program in making it up as you go definitely have some unique experiences compared to the newer generation of informaticists.
I’ve only attended that conference a couple of times, and each time I’ve enjoyed its low-key nature and robust conversations. It’s not a place that you go in hopes of coming home with a tremendous amount of SWAG items, but I daresay I’m a bit jealous of this reader’s submission. It reminds me of one of my favorite HIMSS giveaways, a shirt from Intermountain Healthcare that said, “I Like Big Data and I Cannot Lie.” Props to the folks at Regenstrief Institute for knowing your audience and how to reach them. During the meeting, the organization also inducted its 2025 class of Fellows of the American Medical Informatics Association. Congratulations to the 87 new Fellows recognized for their contributions to the field of clinical informatics.
One of the hottest stories around the virtual physician lounge this week covered accusations that UnitedHealth Group paid nursing homes to block hospital transfers in order to slash the cost of care. The scheme involves UnitedHealth care coordinators that were embedded within facilities and is supported by two whistleblower complaints submitted to the US Congress. Another part of the alleged misconduct involves incentivizing providers to place Do Not Resuscitate orders on patient charts despite the wishes of those patients stating that they wanted medical interventions to keep them alive. As expected, the insurance company denies the allegations, but I don’t think any of the physicians that were chatting about this would be shocked should they be proven accurate.
A reader who knows I like to report on various wearables sent me some comments on Whoop, which is apparently “designed to improve your fitness, health, and longevity.” Claims of the ability to make people live longer always catch my attention, and this one did not disappoint. The solution claims to calculate the user’s “Whoop Age,” which might be younger or older than their birth age based on various lifestyle factors. It also claims to translate “the body’s monthly vital signals into guidance that extends healthspan, not just lifespan.” The company’s CEO touts its ability “to help our members perform and live at their peak for longer.”
The device does contain an FDA-cleared ECG feature, but its documentation is a little more vague about its “patent-pending technology that delivers daily blood pressure insights.” It also claims to deliver “hormonal insights” for women who are “navigating menstruation, pregnancy, or perimenopause,” but I guess those that are actually menopausal are just out of luck. The company promises a “next evolution in personalized health” to include blood tests that are integrated into the app along with clinician reports. The company offers multiple technical garments to allow the device to be worn in different ways, which is also a great revenue stream. It’s sold in three subscription tiers ranging from $199 to $359 per year. I couldn’t shop any of the accessories or apparel without a login, so if you’ve got intel on their offerings feel free to send me your best “fashion week” writeup.
I caught up over lunch this week with one of my pediatrician friends and we spent a good portion of the time talking shop about EHR enhancements and her recent experience with an ambient documentation solution. She has been trying to integrate it into her practice for several months, but let me know that she had decided to notify the IT department that she wanted to be taken off the licensing list for the application. Although she felt that it might be beneficial for some, she was spending too much time editing documents compared to when she used to document manually in the EHR. One of her main concerns was the inability of the system to differentiate key elements of conversations with parents during visits. For example, a parent with multiple children might be discussing the patient who is having a visit and also make comments about her other children – such as comparing the children’s temperaments, developmental milestones, or experiences with respiratory infections being passed around the household. She also ran into a number of hallucinations where social history elements that were erroneous had been injected into notes. Her parting comments: “I’ve been doing this a long time and I’m fast, and this felt like taking one step forward and two steps back.” I’d be interested to hear from other clinicians who have decided that ambient documentation just isn’t for them.
After writing previously about the Open Payments review and dispute resolution process, I’m pleased to report that the mystery payment I reported has been removed from my file. The vendor in question didn’t provide any of the information I asked for in the dispute report, such as when or where the payment supposedly happened. Instead, they just informed me that they were removing it from their reporting. Since I’ve been watching the Netflix detective series The Residence, I was looking forward to having answers to my pressing questions, but I guess I’ll just have to live with the item being off of my record.
Have you had to dispute an item in Open Payments, and if so, did you get a full resolution? Leave a comment or email me.
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