Morning headlines 12/15/17

Software firm protests upgrade contract for UI’s Chicago med school

Cerner is protesting the University of Illinois medical center’s decision to award Epic a $62 million, seven-year contract.

21st Century Oncology To Pay $26 Million To Settle False Claims Act Allegations

21st Century Oncology will pay $26 million for fraudulently attesting to Meaningful Use, noting that “its employees falsified data regarding the company’s use of EHR software, fabricated software utilization reports, and superimposed EHR vendor logos onto the reports to make them look legitimate.”

120 people affected in health IT company Georgia facility changes

Greenway Health announces that it is laying off 120 employees and closing its Atlanta and Carrollton, GA offices as it moves to consolidate its headquarters in Tampa. UPDATE: the local paper reporting this news has updated its story. Greenway is eliminating some jobs at the Carrollton office, but it will remain open.

Preliminary Survey Findings: Impact of the Trump Administration on Health IT and Is Health IT in a Bubble?

A Health Growth Partners survey investigating the Trump Administration’s impact on health IT finds that 72 percent of respondents do not feel that the current administration has had any impact on business.

Morning Headlines 12/14/17

This Startup Wants to Democratize CRISPR Gene Editing Research By Making It Free

A Venrock-backed startup called Inscripta is releasing an alternative CRISPR-Cas9 enzyme that scientists can use for free to conduct research. CEO Kevin Ness reports, “You can go right to the website, download the sequences instantly, even get a user guide.”

A health care paradox: measuring and reporting quality has become a barrier to improving it

A STAT opinion piece explores the conflicting dynamic between “patient-centered care and the administrative burdens that measurement imposes on physicians, hospitals, and health systems.”

New CDC head faces questions about financial conflicts of interest

CDC Director Brenda Fitzgerald recuses herself from decisions involving health IT and cancer detection because her and her husband are legally required to retain equity in companies involved in both markets.  Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) is questioning her ability to function in her role if she is unable to engage in conversations around cancer care, the second leading cause of death in the US.

Email is the biggest source of data breaches

A new survey finds that email is the leading cause of data breaches in healthcare, contributing to 73 breaches thus far in 2017, affecting 574,000 people.

Morning Headlines 12/13/17

Health IT company that sued VA goes after Cerner’s patents

Following a failed legal attempt to block the VA’s no-bid Cerner deal, CliniComp is now suing Cerner directly, citing patent infringement of a 2003 patent that describes remote hosting of a hospital IT system.

Aetna wants to create a ‘Genius Bar’ at CVS, and it could forever change the way Americans access healthcare

On a recent earnings call, Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini described plans to roll out CVS-based ‘health hubs’ that would provide patient navigator services. He likens the service to Apple’s Genius Bar, and explains that in this case, employees would be “preparing them for their visits, setting up appointments, eliminating prior ops, doing all those other sorts of things to help navigate that system for them.”

Diagnostic Assessment of Deep Learning Algorithms for Detection of Lymph Node Metastases in Women With Breast Cancer

An cross-sectional analyses of 32 deep learning algorithms designed to review pathology images concludes that seven deep learning algorithms performed better than “a panel of 11 pathologists in a simulated time-constrained diagnostic setting.”

NewYork-Presbyterian and Walgreens Collaborate To Bring World-Class Care Through Telemedicine

NewYork-Presbyterian will begin offering telehealth services provided by its ED doctors to non-emergency patients at local Walgreens.

Morning Headlines 12/12/17

Hopkins taps Duke executive to head medical system

Johns Hopkins Health System names Kevin Sowers, current president and CEO of Duke University Hospital, as its next president.

More delays, cost overruns hit Vancouver electronic health project

In Canada, a local paper profiles the Cerner implementation at Vancouver Coastal Health, the Provincial Health Services Authority, and Providence Health Care, which executives say is now $130 million over budget and a year behind schedule.

HHS announces the winners of the HHS Opioid Code-a-Thon

HHS announces winners from its Opioid Code-a-Thon, an innovation challenge that attracted 50 teams comprised of programmers and public health advocates that worked together for 24 hours to create data-driven tools that could be used to combat the epidemic.

OIG Advisory Opinion No. 17-07

HHS OIG approves a pilot program that will allow a pharmaceutical manufacturer to fund and implement integration points between a community hospital and community pharmacists so that pharmacists would gain real-time access to patient discharge information.

Morning Headlines 12/11/17

The White House will convene a meeting on EHR interoperability this Tuesday

Jared Kushner and CMS Administrator Seema Verma will chair a half-day session that addresses interoperability, authentication, and accelerating progress.

Philips expands its Population Health Management business with the acquisition of VitalHealth

The Netherlands-based, 200-employee population health management software vendor was co-founded by Mayo Clinic and Noaber Foundation in 2006.

Hospital Giants in Talks to Merge to Create Nation’s Largest Operator

Ascension and Providence St. Joseph Health are reportedly discussing a merger that would create a 191-hospital system with $45 billion in annual revenue.

Historical Perspective on Health System Modernization Contracts and Update on Efforts to Address Key FITARA-Related Areas

A GAO report finds that the VA spent $1.1 billion on four failed efforts to modernize VistA.

Morning Headlines 12/8/17

Statement from FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, MD on advancing new digital health policies to encourage innovation, bring efficiency and modernization to regulation

FDA releases three sets of digital health guidance: clinical decision support (draft), reassertion that lifestyle apps will not be treated as medical devices (draft), and how software will be assessed as a medical device (final).

Dignity and CHI sign definitive agreement to merge

Dignity Health and Catholic Health Initiatives will merge to create the country’s largest health system as measured by operating revenue.

Apple health exec Anil Sethi leaves to form new healthcare records startup

Apple’s health director Anil Sethi leaves to focus on his medical information sharing startup Ciitizen.

Using Electronic Health Data for Community Health

A report from public health grant-making organization De Beaumont Foundation and Johns Hopkins University presents use cases describing how public health agencies could use provider EHR data without running afoul of HIPAA.

Morning Headlines 12/7/17

National Health Expenditure Report Shows We Have Not Solved the Cost Problem

The latest update on health spending from CMS shows that spending grew 4.3 percent in 2016 to $3.3 trillion, representing 17.9 percent of the GDP.

Framework for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity

NIST publishes a draft update of its Cybersecurity Framework.

Henry Ford Health data breach affecting 18K patients

Henry Ford Health System notifies 18,470 patients that someone gained unauthorized access to the email credentials to employees that would have allowed them to access patient information, including “name, date of birth, medical record number, provider’s name, date of service, department’s name, location, medical condition, and health insurer,” but not social security number or credit card information.

House lawmakers: VA Choice reform bill can wait until 2018

VA committee Chair Phil Roe (R-TN) says that the Veterans Choice program is no longer in danger of running out of funds and can wait until early 2018 before new funding legislation is needed.

Morning Headlines 12/6/17

Advocate plans to merge with Wisconsin hospital giant Aurora

Advocate Health Care (IL) announces plans to merge with Aurora Health Care (WI) in a deal that will create the tenth-largest not-for-profit system. Under terms of the merger, neither system will pay the other cash, and the combined health system, to be called Advocate Aurora Health, will have 27 hospitals and $11 billion in annual revenue.

More than Half of All Healthcare Providers in the US are Connected Electronically through the Carequality Interoperability Framework

The Sequoia Project announces that more than 1,000 hospitals, 25,000 clinics, and 580,000 healthcare providers are connected through the Carequality interoperability framework, representing more than 50% of all healthcare providers in the country.

DeepVariant: Highly Accurate Genomes With Deep Neural Networks

Google releases DeepVariant, an open-source deep learning tool that analyzes genome data with significantly greater accuracy than previous methods.

Emergency rooms are monopolies. Patients pay the price.

A year-long investigative study on the use of emergency department facility fees concludes that costs climbed “89 percent between 2009 and 2015, rising twice as fast as the price of outpatient health care, and four times as fast as overall health care spending. Overall spending on emergency room fees rose by more than $3 billion.”

Morning Headlines 12/5/17

Senators McCain, Moran Introduce Legislation to Reform VA Into 21st Century Health Care System

Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Jerry Moran (R-KS) introduce the Veterans Community Care and Access Act of 2017, legislation that would ramp up the Veterans Choice program by requiring the VA to use objective data to measure healthcare demand and availability in communities, offer access to walk-in clinics, offer telemedicine, increases graduate medical education and residency positions for employees, and improves its collaboration with community providers and other federal agencies.

Texas Medical Board Adopts New Telemedicine Policy

Telehealth vendor Teladoc drops a years-old legal battle against the Texas Medical Board after it reluctantly revised its licensing requirements to allow Texas physicians to treat patients via telemedicine without evaluating them in person beforehand.

Apple Launches Heart Study App in the US in Partnership with Stanford Medicine

Apple launches a heart health study in partnership with Stanford Medicine. The study uses sensors on the Apple Watch to detect atrial fibrillation. If the app detects an irregular heart rhythm, the user receives an alert on their iPhone and Apple Watch, a free consultation with a study doctor, and an electrocardiogram patch for further monitoring.

Mortality Quadrupled Among Opioid-Driven Hospitalizations, Notably Within Lower-Income And Disabled White Populations

A Health Affairs study finds that mortality rates for opioid poisoning hospital admissions quadrupled between 1994 to 2014, while mortality of hospitalizations due to other drugs remained unchanged.

Morning Headlines 12/4/17

CVS agrees to buy Aetna in $69 billion deal that could shake up health-care industry

CVS announces an agreement to buy Aetna for $69 billion.

Former GE CEO Immelt Talks Uber, A.I., and a Rejected Bid for Epic

Jeff Immelt recounts several health IT-related anecdotes from his time as CEO of GE, including one when he passed on acquiring Cerner because he though the $2 billion price point was too expensive, and another in which he met with Judy Faulkner in hopes of acquiring a portion of Epic, but was quickly shown the door.

Trinisys Acquires MICA Health

Nashville, TN based Trinisys announces that it has completed the acquisition of MICA Health, a data archiving vendor that supports ambulatory EHR migrations.

Morning Headlines 12/1/17

Drug Charity May Shutter After U.S. Faults Pharma Influence

Caring Voice Coalition, a big pharma-funded charity setup to help patients pay their prescription drug co-payments, will likely shut down after an OIG investigation finds that the charity was providing drugmakers detailed information on whether their charitable contributions were going to their own customers, which ultimately allows them to raise the prices of their drugs for insurers, while insulating patients from the immediate out-of-pocket effects.

VA misses deadline on Cerner contract

The VA misses its own self-imposed deadline to sign its contract with Cerner. The contract is reportedly ready to execute, but the VA needs approval from the House and Senate Appropriations committee to transfer of $374 million between existing accounts prior to moving forward, which it has not yet received.

Siemens unit set for major Frankfurt IPO

Siemens will list its healthcare unit, Siemens Healthineers, on the German stock exchange at a value of $47 billion.

Hardly anyone uses Australia’s My Health Record service

Australia’s nationwide patient portal and health information exchange service has almost no traffic, despite its $1.5 billion price tag. Fewer than 200 GP patient summaries and 150 hospital discharge summaries are accessed by healthcare providers in a given month.

Morning Headlines 11/30/17

Nuance Fourth Quarter and Fiscal 2017

Nuance releases Q4 results: adjusted revenue fell to $466 million, compared to $506.2 during the same quarter last year, adjusted EPS -$0.23 vs. $0.06, beating estimates on both and driving share prices up 3.2 percent in after hours trading. In its financial statements, the company noted that costs associated with its NotPetya cyberattack totaled $53 million in Q4, less than the $65 – $75 million range it initially estimated.

Is It Time for a New Medical Specialty? The Medical Virtualist

An article in JAMA proposes creating a medical virtualist specialty that would focus primarily on providing telehealth-based services.

Medicare Part D Opioid Prescribing Mapping Tool

CMS releases new data visualizations showing geo-located Medicare Part D opioid prescribing rates from 2013 to 2015 with additional information on extended-release opioid prescribing rates and spatial analyses to identify “hot spots.”

Remarks by Dr. Gottlieb at FDA’s Generic Drug Science Day

FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, MD says the agency is approving record numbers of generic drugs in its push to speed up the “approval of safe, high-quality, and more affordable generic drugs.”

Morning Headlines 11/29/17

University Hospital Patient Information Was Potentially Vulnerable to Hackers

The student newspaper at the University of Chicago exposes network vulnerabilities that would allow anyone on the school’s network to access printers used within the hospital, where any hacker could access “organ donation logs, surgery face sheets, prescriptions, and even medical records.”

Here’s a good use of AI: help prevent suicide

Mark Zuckerberg announces that Facebook will deploy algorithms designed to identify suicidal ideation to connect its users with someone that can provide immediate help, rather than waiting for concerning posts to be flagged by users.

Athenahealth Files An 8-K

Athenahealth names Marc A. Levine, formerly of the JDA Software Group, as its next CFO.

UnitedHealth’s Optum Launches $250M Fund To Invest In Start-Ups

UnitedHealth will invest $250 million in early-stage healthcare startups.

Morning Headlines 11/28/17

Two St. Joseph County hospitals accused of false claims, kickbacks

A $300 million lawsuit filed in Indiana alleges that 62 Indiana-based hospitals defrauded the government when they attested to Meaningful Use but, in practice, repeatedly failed to provide electronic copies of medical records to its patients within 3 business days.

Judge: 84-year-old doctor who doesn’t use computer can’t regain license

In New Hampshire, a judge rules that 84-yer-old Anna Konopka, MD cannot renew her medical license. She claims that state regulators forced her to give up her license over her unwillingness to use a computer and, as a result, her inability to comply with the state’s mandatory PDMP policies.

Prediction of Acute Kidney Injury with a Machine Learning Algorithm using Electronic Health Record Data

An AI algorithm designed to detect early onset of acute kidney injury outperforms current detection protocols, leading researchers to conclude that a “machine-learning-based AKI prediction tool may offer important prognostic capabilities for determining which patients are likely to suffer AKI.”

Rotunda Hospital Officially Moves Away From Paper-Based Records

Dublin-based Rotunda Hospital, the oldest continuously operating maternity hospital in the world, goes live on Cerner, replacing paper-based workflows.

Morning Headlines 11/27/17

Amazon’s cloud is about to announce a huge health-care deal with Cerner, sources say

Cerner and Amazon’s AWS business are partnering to bring Cerner’s population health product, HealtheIntent, to the cloud.

Cottage Hospital Pays $2 Million to Settle Security Breach Lawsuit

Cottage Hospital (CA) reaches a $2 million settlement with the California Attorney General’s office after the health system left a server containing patient records exposed to the Internet for over three years. Investigators found that Google searches led to hundreds of records being inappropriately accessed during that time.

Many doctors aren’t checking Florida database for opioid control, study finds

In Florida, only 21 percent of physicians and 57 percent of pharmacists have registered with the state’s PDMP. The state has had a PDMP since 2011, but adoption has been slow because checking the database is voluntary, and EHR integration is still missing.

Ginger.io Builds on AI Foundation, Offering New Model of Emotional and Mental Health Support

Ginger.io, a digital health startup building a behavioral health surveillance and disease management platform, pivots its strategy due to lackluster demand for its product. The company will now move into the provider space, offering technology-driven behavioral health services.

Morning Headlines 11/22/17

American Medical Association severs ties with Outcome Health

AMA formally distances itself from Outcome Health over fraud allegations leveled by investors and investigative reporters.

For the First Time, a Robot Passed a Medical Licensing Exam

In China, an AI-powered robot passes the national medical examination with an above average score.

Trump FCC chair unveils plan to repeal net neutrality

The FCC announces plans to dismantle regulations that uphold net neutrality.

Morning Headlines 11/21/17

The Crisis Next Door: President Donald J. Trump is Confronting an Opioid Crisis more Severe than Original Expectations

The White House publishes revised figures on the opioid crisis, reporting that drug overdoses are now the leading cause of injury death in the United States, outnumbering traffic crashes or gun-related deaths. The report estimates that the cost of the opioid crisis in 2015 was $504 billion, or 2.8 percent of GDP.

From Katrina To Wildfires: Leveraging Technology In Disaster Response

In a Health Affairs article, former National Coordinator Karen DeSalvo, MD explores how EHRs can help coordinate care for patients impacted by natural disasters. In 2005, DeSalvo lived in New Orleans and worked at Tulane University School of Medicine as the Vice Dean of Community Affairs and Health Policy when Hurricane Katrina devastated the city.

A New Algorithm Can Spot Pneumonia Better Than a Radiologist

Stanford University researchers have developed an AI algorithm trained on a data set of 100,000 chest x-rays that were annotated with information on 14 different diseases that turn up in the images. The algorithm has proved to be more reliable at spotting each of the 14 diseases than a group of board certified radiologists that also interpreted the images.

Apple CEO Tim Cook gave a shout-out to a $100-per-year app for doctors — here’s what it does

During its recent earnings call Apple CEO Tim Cook mentioned digital health app VisualDx, noting that the company is using Apple’s machine learning plugin to help dermatologists diagnoses skin conditions from a photo.