Morning Headlines 5/7/19

Kaiser Permanente Launches Social Health Network to Address Social Needs on a Broad Scale

Kaiser Permanente will leverage social services coordination software from Unite Us as part of a new Thrive Local network that will connect members with community-based services.

DirectTrust Reports Record First Quarter Results in Direct Secure Messaging as Traffic Migrates into Trust Bundles, Messaging Use Expands Beyond Referrals

DirectTrust reports several Q1 accomplishments, including 49% increases in both participating organizations and messages sent.

Tennessee Diagnostic Medical Imaging Services Company Pays $3,000,000 to Settle Breach Exposing Over 300,000 Patients’ Protected Health Information

OCR fines Touchstone Medical Imaging (TN) $3 million for potential HIPAA violations related to a 2014 incident in which one of its FTP servers was left unsecured, enabling uncontrolled access to PHI even after the server was taken offline.

Arizona changes medical records law after Republic’s story about student’s fight

Inspired by the story of a student who couldn’t move forward with life-saving surgery because of an inability to access her medical records, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey passes a law requiring providers closing up shop to to give patients access to their files or face a $10,000 penalty and the denial of future facility licenses.

Morning Headlines 5/6/19

U.S. doctors use medical records to fight measles outbreak

Doctors like those at NYU Langone Health are using EHRs to identify patients in measles outbreak areas who have not received the measles vaccine.

Grahame Grieve Named 2019 Glaser Award Recipient

UTHealth’s School of Biomedical Informatics names interoperability expert Grahame Grieve winner of the 2019 John P. Glaser Health Informatics Innovator Award.

Direct Recruiters and Sister Company Direct Consulting Associates to Integrate

Hospital IT staffing and consulting firm Direct Consulting Associates will roll into sister company Direct Recruiters.

A short thread on the real source of the uBiome fiasco. Hint: it wasn’t venture capital’s pressure for aggressive growth.

The former “citizen-scientist in residence” of UBiome – the microbiome testing vendor raided by the FBI after complaints of insurance overbilling – shares Theranos-like warning signs.

CareCloud raises $33M from inside investors

EHR and practice management vendor CareCloud raises $33 million, bringing its total raised to over $150 million.

Morning Headlines 5/3/19

Allscripts announces first quarter 2019 results

Allscripts announces Q1 results: revenue flat, adjusted EPS $0.16 vs. $0.15, beating on earnings but falling short of revenue expectations.

CirrusMD Announces $15 Million in Series B Funding and New Plans to Improve Care Delivery For Veteran Population

CirrusMD raises $15 million in a Series B funding round, and announces that its chat-based telemedicine software will be implemented at three VA medical centers.

Insiders describe aggressive growth tactics at uBiome, the health start-up raided by the FBI last week

UBiome places its co-CEOs on administrative leave as the company deals with fallout from an FBI raid and highly questionable business practices that included pressuring doctors to approve its tests and billing payers multiple times without patient consent.

Morning Headlines 5/2/19

Capsule Technologies Acquires Bernoulli Health

Medical device integration and patient monitoring company Capsule Technologies acquires clinical surveillance software vendor Bernoulli Health.

Teladoc Health Reports First Quarter 2019 Results

Teladoc exceeds analyst expectations, posting $129 million in revenue for the quarter, 4 million new members, and a 75% increase in visits.

AMN Healthcare to Acquire Advanced Medical

AMN Healthcare Services will acquire Advanced Medical Personnel, which offers healthcare staffing services that include telemedicine positions, for $200 million.

VA, DoD Electronic Health Records Still Aren’t Compatible, and Lawmakers Are Angry

Despite a decade’s worth of promises and billion-dollar expenditures, lawmakers continue to express outrage over the combined inabilities of the DoD and VA to merge EHR systems.

Morning Headlines 5/1/19

Health Catalyst Aims to Raise $150 Million to $200 Million in IPO

The Wall Street Journal reports that Health Catalyst expects to raise up to $200 million in its IPO.

MEDITECH Announces Professional Services

Meditech launches a professional services division that will include quality initiatives, physician consulting, performing interoperability assessments, and lending expertise to analytics and population health projects.

Philips’ Q1 core profit misses estimates on bleak sales

Philips announces poor Q1 revenue and earnings that strong growth in China could not offset.

Morning Headlines 4/30/19

CareDx Agrees to Acquire OTTR Complete Transplant Management

Transplant patient-focused molecular diagnostics company CareDx acquires organ transplant patient tracking software vendor OTTR for $16 million.

HealtHIE Nevada, Nevada Hospital Association and Collective Medical Announce Collaboration to Reduce Avoidable Readmissions

The Nevada Hospital Association will leverage data and services from HealtHIE Nevada and Collective Medical to help its member hospitals better identify and support vulnerable patients at risk for readmission.

Michael J. Fox Foundation and 23andMe Launch Fox DEN, a Data Platform Combining Patient-Reported Outcomes and Genetic Information in Parkinson’s

The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research and 23andMe develop the Fox Insight Data Exploration Network to enhance the foundation’s online clinical study with improved analytics and data access.

Morning Headlines 4/29/19

Notification of Enforcement Discretion Regarding HIPAA Civil Money Penalties

HHS announces that it will use its discretion to set maximum annual HIPAA fines based on level of culpability, reducing the amount for those with no knowledge from $1.5 million to $25,000.

uBiome, the health start-up just raided by the FBI, had been double billing insurers

The FBI raids the San Francisco office of UBiome, which sells questionably useful AI-powered microbiome test kits for gut health and women’s health that are ordered by its own telemedicine doctors.

The future of health to have new home

Arizona State University and Mayo Clinic break ground in Phoenix on the Health Futures center, which will house a medical technology accelerator, research labs for biomedical engineering and informatics, and nursing programs.

Tech Billionaires Give $200 Million to Mass. General Hospital

InterSystems founder Terry Ragon and his wife Susan donate $200 million to Massachusetts General Hospital to endow a vaccine research center, piggybacking onto their $100 million donation 10 years ago to fund AIDS vaccine research.

Morning Headlines 4/26/19

Cerner Reports First Quarter 2019 Results

Cerner reports Q1 results: revenue up 8%, adjusted EPS $0.61 vs. $0.58, meeting expectations for both.

Scientific wellness startup Arivale closes abruptly in ‘tragic’ end to vision to transform personal health

Seattle-based genetic testing and health coaching startup Arivale shuts down and lays off its 120 employees without warning.

28 Health Systems Commit to Transforming Behavioral Health in Hundreds of Communities Nationwide

Twenty-eight health systems join the Medicaid Transformation Project to improve the delivery of behavioral healthcare services through the use of digital tools.

Morning Headlines 4/25/19

CPSI to Acquire Get Real Health to Expand Patient Engagement Solutions

Community healthcare EHR company CPSI will acquire patient engagement vendor Get Real Health for $11 million.

FTC Charges Surescripts with Illegal Monopolization of E-Prescription Markets

The FTC sues Surescripts for allegedly monopolizing the e-prescribing market, specifically in the areas of routing and eligibility.

Tencent-backed China online healthcare venture raises $250 million

Online Chinese healthcare company Tencent Trusted Doctors raises $250 million, bringing its valuation to $1 billion.

A machine learning device, meant to monitor the chronically ill, moves into homes

FDA approval will help move Current Health’s continuous monitoring device from the hospital setting into patient homes.

Morning Headlines 4/24/19

Censinet Launches Industry’s First Third-Party Risk Management Platform Designed Exclusively for Healthcare Providers

Censinet launches its health system vendor management platform and raises $7.8 million in a Series A funding round.

Job cuts expected at major Belfast employer

Athenahealth will lay off about 200 employees across its offices as part of a reorganization that will integrate it with Virence Health.

Bain Considers Options for Waystar Including Sale

Bloomberg reports that Bain Capital is considering putting Waystar, the RCM vendor created from the 2017 merger of Navicure and ZirMed, up for sale.

Hartford HealthCare, Trinity, UConn to launch Hartford medtech accelerator

Hartford HealthCare will partner with Trinity College and the UConn School of Business to create a 12-week MedTech Accelerator program that will launch from Trinity’s campus this fall.

Morning Headlines 4/23/19

Kindbody Raises $15M Series A To Reinvent Modern Women’s Health Care

Women’s healthcare company Kindbody raises $15 million in a Series A round that brings its total funding to $22 million.

ESO Takes Over Emergency Medical Services Performance Improvement Center (EMSPIC) from the University of North Carolina

Emergency medical services software company ESO takes over North Carolina, South Carolina, and West Virginia state EMS data systems from the EMS Performance Improvement Center at the University of North Carolina.

Artificial intelligence can diagnose PTSD by analyzing voices

An NYU School of Medicine study finds that an AI tool can differentiate between the voices of veterans with our without PTSD with 89% accuracy.

Global public health expert and primary care physician to lead Ariadne Labs

Harvard professor and Brigham and Women’s Hospital primary care physician Asaf Bitton, MD succeeds Atul Gawande, MD as executive director of the university and hospital’s joint innovation center in Boston.

Morning Headlines 4/22/19

HHS Announces Next Steps in Advancing Interoperability of Health Information

HHS opens Draft 2 of its Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement for public comment.

Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement – Recognized Coordinating Entity (RCE)

ONC will open a four-year, $900,000 per year funding opportunity for a non-profit to serve as the Recognized Coordinating Entity to oversee TEFCA’s Common Agreement for qualified Health Information Networks.

Latest phases at Cerner’s Innovations Campus steam ahead

Phase 3-4 construction at Cerner’s $4.5 billion Innovations Campus in Kansas City adds 777,000 square feet.

Health and education start-ups say recruiting has gotten easier in wake of Facebook, Google scandals

Startups in Silicon Valley, particularly those with a social mission, are finding it easier to recruit disenchanted talent from big tech companies like Facebook and Alphabet that have suffered from scandal-induced negative press.

Morning Headlines 4/19/19

IBM cutting Watson for Drug Discovery

IBM halts sales of Watson for Drug Discovery due to low demand.

Elizabeth Holmes’ Failed Theranos Was Just Granted 5 New Patents In 2019

CB Insights reports failed blood-testing company Theranos was awarded five new patents in March and April, all filed between 2015 and 2016.

Northwell Health opens Emergency Telepsychiatry Hub, reducing ER wait times

Northwell Health (NY) opens an Emergency Telepsychiatry Hub to serve EDs in New York City, Long Island, and Westchester County.

Morning Headlines 4/18/19

Acting as the data integrator between hospitals and digital health apps brings Redox $33 million

Health data integration vendor Redox raises $33 million, bringing its total funding to $50 million since launching five years ago.

Theranos’ Holmes seeks records on reporter’s communications with FDA, CMS

Elizabeth Holmes files a motion in federal court to force prosecutors to hand over thousands of communication records between the FDA, CMS, and Wall Street Journal reporter John Carreyrou.

EMV Capital Completes the Acquisition of Wanda INC, a Leading Telehealth Company in Silicon Valley

EMV Capital acquires San Francisco-based Wanda, a clinical decision support company focused on preventing adverse events.

Health Care Industry Leaders, Qualis Health and HealthInsight, Become Comagine Health

After merging last year, healthcare consulting firms HealthInsight and Qualis Health rebrand to Comagine Health.

Morning Headlines 4/17/19

Activist investor Jeff Smith: There is a ‘huge’ value opportunity in Cerner

Starboard Value CEO Jeff Smith believes Cerner can increase its operating margins by as much as 9% within the next 18 months if it meets unspecified targets.

In African Villages, These Phones Become Ultrasound Scanners

The FDA-approved Butterfly IQ device transforms a smartphone into an ultrasound scanner, a capability that is having a huge impact on pubic health efforts in Africa.

Advocates battle over health record consent change

Politicians struggle with the privacy and legal issues over changing patient participation in the HIE operated by Vermont Information Technology Leaders from opt-in to opt-out, which VITL says is needed because low participation has caused low HIE usage.

Clearlake-Backed symplr Acquires IntelliSoft

Provider management, credentialing, and payer enrollment technology vendor Symplr acquires competitor IntelliSoft.

Ro, a direct-to-consumer online pharmacy, reaches $500M valuation

Direct-to-consumer telemedicine company Ro raises $85 million, prompting VCs to increase its valuation to $500 million.

Morning Headlines 4/16/19

You can do a vision test from home in 34 states and go buy glasses, but not in Indiana. Here’s why.

Visibly (fka Opternative) takes several Indiana state agencies to court to overturn a law that prohibits the use of online vision tests.

Medusind Has Secured Investment From H.I.G. Capital

EHR and practice management vendor Medusind secures an undisclosed amount of financing from H.I.G. Capital.

AMA, Sling Health expand engagement with physicians and entrepreneurs

AMA and student-run biotech incubator Sling Health develop the Clinical Problem Database to give physicians the opportunity to share their experiences with health IT and clinical services, and entrepreneurs the opportunity to develop solutions that improve those experiences.

Morning Headlines 4/15/19

How elderly, sickly farmers are quenching China’s thirst for data

Private healthcare company WeDoctor sends medical vans to rural areas to perform mandatory exams on behalf of the Chinese government, enabling it to collect enormous amounts of patient data that it uses to train its AI-powered diagnostic engine.

Highmark IT solutions company sheds 239 workers

After adding over 1,000 employees in the last five years, Highmark’s HM Health Solutions IT company lays off 239 workers.

Amazon Alexa is luring health developers, but it will be a while before we use it to call a doctor

Despite Amazon Alexa’s newly announced HIPAA compliance, privacy concerns will compel it to take baby steps in developing skills that will enable patients to connect directly with physicians.

British doctor-on-demand app Babylon bulks up US team to seize slice of projected $400bn market

After announcing last fall that it would spend $100 million to ramp up its hiring for its London-based operations, telemedicine company Babylon Health plans to more than double staffing for its US and Canadian operations.