Morning Headlines 3/22/17

Former Louisiana Rep. John Fleming to join HHS under Trump

President Trump appoints former House Representative John Fleming (R-LA) to the newly created position as deputy assistant secretary for health technology within HHS.

A 40-year ‘conspiracy’ at the VA

Politico recounts the history of the VA’s homegrown VistaA EHR, as it moves forward with plans to replace the 40-year-old with a commercial system.

Patient Mortality During Unannounced Accreditation Surveys at US Hospitals

A JAMA study finds that patients admitted to the hospital during Joint Commission inspections have significantly lower mortality rates than those admitted during the three weeks prior, or after, the inspection.

The World’s Billionaires

Forbes releases its list of the richest people in the world, with Epic’s Judy Faulkner listed at  number #867 with $2.4 billion, and Cerner’s Neal Patterson listed at #1376 with $1.5 billion.

Morning Headlines 3/21/17

Common Blood Tests Can Help Predict Chronic Disease Risk

Researchers at Intermountain Health report that a risk stratification algorithm they developed can predict whether someone would be diagnosed with diabetes, kidney failure, coronary artery disease, or dementia in the next three years with a 78 percent accuracy by analyzing the results of two common lab tests: a comprehensive metabolic profile and a complete blood count.

IBM launches enterprise-ready blockchain service

IBM announces that developers building enterprise applications on its cloud service can now use blockchain technology within their applications.

Google DeepMind and healthcare in an age of algorithms

In England, a Cambridge University law professor and an Economist journalist co-author an academic paper in Health and Technology arguing Google’s DeepMind partnership with the Royal Free Hospital has suffered from “a lack of clarity and openness, with issues of privacy and power emerging” in response to public privacy concerns.

iPads In Every Hospital: Apple’s Plan To Crack The $3 Trillion Health Care Sector

Fast Company profiles Apple’s continued effort to enter the enterprise healthcare market.

Morning Headlines 3/20/17

Medication Errors Attributed to Health Information Technology

Analysis of a Pennsylvania medical error reporting database that allows submitting agencies to indicate when health IT was a contributing factor finds that system downtime and incorrectly entered patient weight are both contributing to medical errors.

Developing and Evaluating an Automated All-Cause Harm Trigger System

A review of Adventist Health System’s use of IHI’s Global Trigger search algorithms to find possible medical errors in EHR data turns up far more potential errors than manual chart audits.

Stratasys and VA hospitals create first hospital 3-D printing network

Five VA hospitals are working together to incorporate 3D printing into care delivery, allowing doctors to make customized prosthetic and orthotic devices for veterans.

Doctor’s lawsuit against hospital turns on care v. market share

The former chairman of the surgery and cardiovascular departments at Memorial Hermann hospital (TX) is suing the hospital for defamation, arguing that after he told executives he planned to leave the hospital to work for Houston Methodist Hospital, his former employees began distributing manipulated outcomes data questioning the quality of his care.

Morning Headlines 3/17/17

HHS Should Assess the Effectiveness of Its Efforts to Enhance Patient Access to and Use of Electronic Health Information

A GAO report investigating why so few patients access patient portals despite widespread availability concludes that having different portals for each provider, with no longitudinal view of data, combined with poor user interface designs, limits the consumer appeal.

The man who helped save HealthCare.gov wants a bipartisan solution to health care

Andy Slavitt, former acting administrator for CMS, has accepted a position as a senior advisor with the Bipartisan Policy Center.

AliveCor raises $30 million for its credit card-sized heart monitor and app

EKG app vendor AliveCor raises $30 million to hire AI engineers and expand the platforms ability to analyze and interpret EKG waveforms.

Dallas City Leaders, T-Mobile Vow to Find Solutions as 2nd Death is Publicly Connected to 911 ‘Ghost Calls’

A still unresolved bug unique to T-Mobile customers in Dallas is causing 911 phone lines to be flooded with hundreds of phony calls, leaving legitimate callers to wait on hold while dispatchers clear the lines. The issue has been a problem for months, but generated national attention when a six month old died while his babysitter waited on hold for more than 30 minutes.

Morning Headlines 3/16/17

Health Insurance Marketplaces 2017 Open Enrollment Period Final Enrollment Report

CMS reports that this year’s final ACA enrollment total was 12.2 million individuals, half a million less than last year.

It’s Time to Adopt Electronic Prescriptions for Opioids

Atul Gawande, MD, MPH calls for greater use of electronic prescribing for opioid prescriptions in an Annals of Surgery article.

What Your Therapist Doesn’t Know

The Atlantic describes new algorithms being used to predict which patients are at risk of dropping out of therapy treatment.

CRISPR Could Change The World, But Right Now $90 Million Is Enough

Botox-maker Allergan will pay $90 million for exclusive rights to CRISPR-based treatments being developed by Editas Medicine that are targeting a rare form of blindness called Leber Congenital Amaurosis.

Morning Headlines 3/15/17

Senate confirms Seema Verma to head Medicare and Medicaid

Healthcare consultant Seema Verma, an advisor to Vice President Pence when he was Governor of Indiana, is confirmed by the Senate as the next CMS administrator in a 55-43 vote.

Can a Machine Predict Your Death?

A Slate article discusses the use of data analytics in healthcare, including a project aimed at helping doctors more accurately predict life expectancy for terminally ill patients.

The Asthma Mobile Health Study, a large-scale clinical observational study using ResearchKit

A Nature study using an Apple ResearchKit-based mobile health app to conduct a large scale clinical study on asthma observes that while 40,000 participants downloaded the researcher’s app, only 8,000 went on to enroll in the study, and only 175 participants were still engaged at the 6-month period.

Institute for Healthcare Improvement and National Patient Safety Foundation Agree to Merger

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement announces plans to merge with the National Patient Safety Foundation, effective May 1.

Morning Headlines 3/14/17

 ECRI Institute Names Top 10 Patient Safety Concerns for 2017

ECRI’s Top 10 Patient Safety Concerns for 2017 includes information management in EHRs and use of clinical decision support tools.

Trump chooses Gottlieb to run FDA; Pharma breathes sigh of relief

President Trump nominates industry favorite Scott Gottlieb, MD to lead the FDA.

HHS secretary expresses concern on bill allowing employers to demand genetic tests

HHS Secretary Tom Price voices concern over the a House bill that would grant employers access to employee genetic test results.

Former Vice President Joe Biden at SXSW 2017: ‘Your government’ is how curing cancer ‘gets done’

Joe Biden speaks about the Cancer Moonshot Task Force and its future with the new administration at SXSW.

Morning Headlines 3/13/17

House Republicans would let employers demand workers’ genetic test results

HR 1313, which made its way through the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, approves a bill that would allow employees to offer significant reductions on insurance premiums if they participate in workplace wellness programs. Employers would be granted access to results from genetic screenings conducted as part of the program.

Following Health-Care Tweet, Medicaid Official Cancels SXSW Appearance

Medicaid’s chief medical officer Andrey Ostrovsky abruptly cancels his scheduled SXSW appearance after publishing a tweet critical of the AHCA bill.

Top neurosurgeon Johnny Delashaw resigns from Swedish

Johnny Delshaw, MD and chair of Swedish Neuroscience Institute has stepped down from his role at Swedish Health following a Seattle Times investigation that exposed widespread concerns about his practices.

Q&A: Healthcare software ‘should be a joy to use’

In an interview with Modern Healthcare, Epic CEO Judy Faulkner discusses physician burnout, EHR dissatisfaction, increased cybersecurity threats, and the future regulatory burdens the health IT industry will face.

Morning Headlines 3/10/17

GOP Health Bill Clears 2 House Panels After Marathon Sessions

The AHCA bill passes votes in the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the House Ways and Means committee, leading up to a final House vote tentatively scheduled for the week of March 20.

Cerner, State and Local Leaders Commemorate Innovations With Ribbon-Cutting

Cerner opens the first of two towers at its new Innovation Campus.

Partners gets a fiscal health warning

Partners Healthcare (MA) has its credit outlook downgraded from stable to negative, with analysts noting that they are not concerned with the temporary bottom line hit from its Epic implementation.

Trust, confidence and Verifiable Data Audit

Google’s AI subsidiary DeepMind announces that it will build out a blockchain-like data audit tool for its healthcare customers.

Morning Headlines 3/9/17

Investor sues Soon-Shiong for alleged securities violations after STAT report

NantHealth stock is down 35 percent following a scathing STAT investigative report on questionable charitable donations. In response, a NantHealth investor files suit against the company, claiming that it artificially inflated the market price of its stock and  reserving the right to expand the complaint  into a class action suit.

Price breaks public silence on health IT policy

HHS Secretary Tom Price lays out his position on health IT in a written response to questions from Senator Bob Casey (D-PA), saying one way to improve care and reduce costs would be “for the federal government to continue to promote the growth of health information technology and electronic health records.”

Ron DePinho resigning MD Anderson Cancer Center presidency

MD Anderson Cancer Center President Ron DePinho resigns. He reflects on his time at the helm as one that brought positive change, but acknowledges that “there was a cost for that change, and I have added to that cost.” He says the organization needs a new president that will bring “a sharp operational focus on navigating the tectonic changes in healthcare delivery and economics.”

How Republican opposition to healthcare reform is taking shape

The Guardian analyzes the likelihood of passage for the American Health Care Act (AHCA), the Republican ACA repeal and replace bill.

Morning Headlines 3/8/17

Direct-To-Consumer Telehealth May Increase Access To Care But Does Not Decrease Spending

Telehealth services are linked to higher overall healthcare spending in a Health Affairs study that concludes that only 12 percent of virtual visits replaced a traditional office or emergency room visit, while 88 percent represented new utilization.

Allscripts accepted onto NHS London Procurement Partnership’s Clinical and Digital Information Systems (CDIS) Framework

In England, Allscripts reports that its software has been accepted into the NHS London Procurement Partnership for Clinical and Digital Information Systems for the EHR, Population Health software, and Innovation categories.

Have a Health-Related Question? WebMD Will Provide the Answer — Just Ask Alexa

Amazon Alexa will begin answering consumer health questions with clinical content provided through a partnership with WebMD.

Morning Headlines 3/7/17

House GOP Releases Plan to Repeal, Replace Obamacare

House Republicans release a detailed ACA repeal and replace plan that would eliminate the individual mandate and replace subsidies with a new tax credit tied to an individual’s age and income level.

The HCI Group to Expand Its Technology Offerings

Mumbai, India-based IT services firm Tech Mahindra will acquire Jacksonville, Fla-based The HCI Group for $110 million.

How the world’s richest doctor gave away millions — then steered the cash back to his company

NantHealth stocks fall 23 percent following a STAT investigative report that found CEO Patrick Soon-Shiong publically donated $12 million to the University of Utah for a genetics research project, but mandated within the grant’s contract that $10 million be funneled directly back to NantHealth.

Missouri drug monitoring would combat abuse

Following increased pressure from neighboring state legislators, the Missouri state Senate passes a bill establishing a prescription drug monitoring program.

Delivery System Innovation

Health Affairs dedicates its March issue to innovation in care delivery, including a more than a dozen papers on the net benefits associated with specific delivery system innovations.

Morning Headlines 3/6/17

Elliott Settles With Advisory Board as Strategic Review Continues

The Advisory Board Company settles with activist investor Paul Singer to delay his efforts to launch a director-election proxy fight.

ePA National Adoption Scorecard

CoverMyMeds publishes data on the availability of electronic prior authorization functionality in EHR systems, noting that vendors in control of 70 percent of the EHR market have committed to implementing electronic prior authorization functionality, while 54 percent already offer it.

NHS’ Salford Royal Trust Partners with Validic on New Integrated Care Model with Personal Health Data

In England, Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust will begin integrating patient-generated data into its EHR from wearables and medical devices.

Jonathan Bush talks Trump and problems with health care tech

Athenahealth CEO Jonathan Bush discusses his favorable opinion of HHS Tom Price, his lingering concerns with President Trump, and he sees the political changes will impact the EHR market.

Morning Headlines 3/3/17

McKesson and Change Healthcare Complete the Creation of New Healthcare Information Technology Company

McKesson’s Technology Solutions business unit and Change Healthcare Holdings’ analytics business unit finalize their planned merger, creating 15,000 employee Change Healthcare.

InterSystems wins multi-million pound Liverpool joint-EPR tender

In England, InterSystems is selected as the next EHR vendor for three major Liverpool NHS hospitals: Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust, Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust, and Aintree University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

Judge Certifies Overtime Case Against Cerner As Class Action

A group of Cerner systems analysts and delivery consultants have won the right to file a class action suit against the company, arguing that overtime wages had been improperly withheld.

CVS Health to Adopt Epic Electronic Health Record System for CVS Specialty Care Management Programs

CVS will implement Epic across its CVS Specialty care management programs.

Morning Headlines 3/2/17

Trump CMS Pick Gets Second Vote After Tie at Senate Committee

The Senate Finance Committee vote on Seema Verma’s nomination to lead CMS resulted in a 9 to 9 tie Wednesday, requiring a second vote, which will be held Thursday.

Grail Closes Over $900 Million Initial Investment in Series B Financing to Develop Blood Tests to Detect Cancer Early

Life sciences start up Grail raises an unprecedented $900 million Series B funding round to fund the development of an early detection cancer screening blood test.

Trump chooses Pence ally to lead Medicaid

President Trump nominates Brian Neale, ‎executive director at the United States Congress Joint Economic Committee and former health care policy director for Vice President Mike Pence, as the director for Medicaid.

Losses Mount for Obamacare Startup Oscar as Repeal Looms

Health insurances startup Oscar Health, which hoped to profit in the ACA’s individual marketplaces, reports 2016 losses topping $200 million.

Morning Headlines 3/1/17

Mayo Clinic: Consolidated Financial Statement

Mayo Clinic’s will spend $1 billion for its five-year Epic implementation, according to its annual financial statement.

Shulkin proposes eliminating 40-mile, 30-day rule for non-VA care

Speaking at the Disabled American Veterans annual conference, VA Secretary David Shulkin proposes eliminating a policy that limits veterans from receiving private-sector care.

Hospital illegally overcharged patients for medical records: suit

New York-Presbyterian Columbia University Medical Center is sued after charging a patient $3,000 for a copy of their medical record.

The 21st Century Cures Act: Implications for Research and Drug Development

A panel discussion hosted by Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health covers the expected implications 21st Century Cures Act will have on the pharmaceutical industry.

Morning Headlines 2/28/17

Vanderbilt hospital employees breached patient records

An EHR audit at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (TN) finds that two patient transporters inappropriately accessed more than 3,000 medical records between May 2015 and December 2016. A spokesperson for the hospital reports that the transporters were disciplined, but additional details were not disclosed.

From Machine-Readable Provider Directories, A Preview Of A Revolution

Health Affairs reports on the potential benefit machine-readable provider directories could have for researchers and regulators working to improve healthcare access.

Top 25 Women In Healthcare 2017

Modern Healthcare publishes its annual list of top women in healthcare, with Epic CEO Judy Faulkner and IBM Watson Health General Manager Deborah DiSanzo representing health IT.

VA data show low rate of discipline for drug loss, theft

An AP investigation finds that while there were more than 11,000 reported incidents of drug loss or theft at federal hospitals last year, only 3 percent of those incidents resulted in disciplinary action.