Morning Headlines 10/19/15

Hot Startup Theranos Dials Back Lab Tests at FDA’s Behest

The Wall Street Journal publishes a second piece on Theranos, this time reporting that the FDA views its “nanotainer,” a small capsule that it uses to collect samples, as an unapproved medical device. In response, Theranos quietly stopped using its finger-stick testing process on all but one test, and now instead uses traditional methods to collect and process the hundreds of other tests it offers.

SAP’s CEO gets personal in Palo Alto about his own recent health ordeal, delivers a call to action

During a visit to the company’s Palo Alto campus, SAP CEO Bill McDermott discusses a recent accident that left him blind in one eye, using the story to point out health IT inefficiencies he noticed from the perspective of a patient, explaining “In every single meeting, you have to repeat the entire story all over again, because there’s no one electronic medical record that comes before you — or follows you — throughout a case.” He calls the doctors who treated him amazing, though “unstructured in their behavior.”

Nordic accused of sexual harassment, retaliation

A local Madison, WI paper covers a sexual harassment complaint filed by the former Nordic VP of Marketing against the company president, Drew Madden. The complaint, which will be heard this week before the city’s Equal Opportunities Division, alleges that the former VP was “sexually harassed by her supervisor, the president and co-owner of Nordic, and then discharged in retaliation for reporting the harassment.”

Alberta Medical Record Breaches Hit ‘Epidemic’ Levels, Says Privacy Watchdog

In Canada,  Alberta’s Privacy Commission calls data breaches an epidemic after discovering that 48 employees at Calgary’s South Health Campus were inappropriately accessing a patient’s record.

Morning Headlines 10/16/15

Cyberattacks Will Cost U.S. Health Systems $305 Billion Over Five Years, Accenture Forecasts

Accenture publishes a report predicting that the five-year cost of cyber attacks on US healthcare system will be $305 billion, resulting in six million cases of medical identity theft.

Statement from Theranos

Theranos responds to a critical story published in the Wall Street Journal this week that claims Theranos only processes 15 of the 240 tests it offers on its own instruments, while the rest are performed with industry standard lab analyzers.

Cheap Solar Comes to Wisconsin

Epic is profiled by a local paper for having the largest solar energy system in Wisconsin, bringing 2.2 megawats of energy to the Verona campus.

DrFirst Secures $25 Million in Financing from Goldman Sachs

E-prescribing vendor DrFirst closes $25 million in equity financing from Goldman Sachs.

Morning Headlines 10/15/15

How Jeb Bush’s health plan overhauls IT: 5 things to know

Jeb Bush, cousin of Athenahealth CEO Jonathan Bush, publishes his alternative to Obamacare this week, calling for an end to the Meaningful Use program, or as the proposal states “eliminating government mandates and penalties for healthcare providers who do not use government-approved electronic health records."

Statewide Patient Engagement Campaign Underway

Louisiana launches a statewide patient engagement campaign to teach its residents about the health IT tools at their disposal, such as patient portals and the state’s HIE.

AAFP Letter To Karen DeSalvo, MD

The American Academy of Family Physicians argues that ONC’s recent Interoperability Roadmap is not aggressive enough and fails to hold parties accountable for future delays or failures, noting “The AAFP helped create a standard for the exchange of clinical summaries in 2007 – the Continuity of Care Record. Eight years and billions of dollars later, our members and their practices continue to experience the dismal failure with the current certified EHR technology in supporting clinical summary exchange.”

23andMe Raises $115 Million in Series E Financing Led by Fidelity Management & Research Company

Personal genome testing vendor 23andMe raises a $115 million Series E on a $1.1 billion valuation. 23andMe nearly shut down in 2013, after the FDA shut its direct-to-consumer sales and marketing efforts down, but the company has pivoted and now generates its revenue supporting drug discovery.

Morning Headlines 10/14/15

Verisk Analytics hires Morgan Stanley to sell healthcare business

Morgan Stanley has been hired to sell the healthcare division of Verisk Analytics, a deal that is projected to be worth between $900 million and $1.1 billion.

GPs’ diagnostic skills could be obsolete within 20 years’ time, says Hunt

In the UK, health secretary Jeremy Hunt predicts that within 20 years computers will be used to diagnose conditions rather than doctors, pledging to ensure the NHS is ready when this technology becomes available.

Trends & Insights in Ambulatory EHR

Peer60 publishes a report on the ambulatory EHR market. Epic and Cerner are leading in both market share and mindshare. NextGen holds a strong market share but virtually no mindshare among independent providers and, similarly, Meditech has a strong market share but virtually no mindshare among hospital-owned facilities.

Xerox Provides Update on Government Healthcare Business Strategy

Xerox will walk away from the failed implementations of its Health Enterprise Medicaid platform in California and Montana, writing off $385 million, or $0.22 cents per share, on its third quarter results.

Morning Headlines 10/13/15

Dell buys EMC in largest tech deal ever

As rumored on HIStalk over the weekend, Dell will acquire EMC for $67 billion, paying EMC shareholders with cash and stock worth a combined $33.15 per share, a 28-percent premium over EMC’s closing stock price Friday.

Cerner conference will focus on health care information technology

A local paper covers Cerner’s annual conference, which will draw an estimated 14,000 visitors to the Kansas City area this week.

HealthCare.gov to Get Major Changes to Ease Shopping for Coverage

Healthcare.gov will get new enhancements ahead of this years open enrollment period that will let users search for plans that include their primary care doctor, preferred hospital, and coverage for their prescription medications. Security enhancements include a “Do Not Track” option and other data exchange enhancements that will help safeguard personal information.

Technical Evaluation, Testing, and Validation of the Usability of Electronic Health Records

The National Institute of Standards and Technology publishes recommended guidelines on EHR design based on a patient safety-focused usability study.

Morning Headlines 10/9/15

Cerner Clients Test SMART on FHIR Apps Within EHR

Cerner unveils an HL7 FHIR-based API that will provide its customers a way to integrate EHR data with third-party apps and other health IT applications.

Project One transition ongoing at Phoebe Putney Health System

A local paper covers the October 1 go-live of Meditech at  640-bed Phoebe Putney Health System (GA). CIO Jesse Diaz reports that the switch over generated upwards of 1,000 calls a day in the command center initially, but that in the week since going live the system has stabilized and morale in the hospital is good.

FDA Launches Pilot to Standardize REMS Information for Easier Systems Integration

The FDA is launching a four-month pilot program aimed at integrating Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies into EHR systems.

Social Security Administration joins CommonWell Health Alliance

The Social Security Administration partners with CommonWell to expedite access to medical records and improve disability claims processing wait times.

Morning Headlines 10/8/15

Connecting Health and Care for the Nation: A Shared Nationwide Interoperability Roadmap

ONC publishes the final draft of its 10-year interoperability roadmap, which calls on vendors to expand API support, asks providers to migrate to value-based reimbursement models faster, and encourages government agencies to clarify privacy and security policies that impact data sharing.

MU 3 is out: 5 reactions from industry leaders

Executives from CHIME, HIMSS, AHA, AMA, and Athenahealth weigh in on the MU3 final rule.

Allscripts Solidifies Management Team, Enhances Organizational Structure

Allscripts CFO Rick Poulton will be the next company president, assuming the role from current CEO Paul Black who has held dual positions as president and CEO since joining the company in December 2012. The company also announces that Black’s contract, which was set to expire at the end of 2015, has been extended through December 2018.

With E.U. striking down data-sharing pact, U.S. healthcare firms face challenges

An EU court has struck down the Safe Harbor Framework, a data sharing agreement that allows US-based companies to store the sensitive information of European citizens on US-based servers, a decision that could impact US health IT vendor operating in Europe.

Morning Headlines 10/7/15

Medicare and Medicaid Programs; Electronic Health Record Incentive Program—Stage 3 and Modifications to Meaningful Use in 2015 through 2017

CMS publishes an update addressing both MU3 and its proposed modification to Meaningful Use in 2015 through 2017. The updated rules set the 2015 MU reporting period at 90-days, and makes MU3 optional in 2017, but mandatory in 2018.

The Joint HIT Standards and Policy Committee meeting

John Halamka, MD and CIO of BIDMC, reports that every major EHR vendor CEO met in Salt Lake City last week, where they discussed data sharing and agreed to  “objective measures we can use to quantify interoperability.” Halamka says that details of the meeting and the agreement will follow in the coming weeks.

Transparent Ratings on Usability and Security to Transform 8 Information Technology (TRUST IT) Act of 2015

HELP committee members Senators Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) introduce legislation that would establish an EHR 5-star rating system and also require that EHR vendors file an attestation stating that they do not engage in information blocking.

Orion Health Awarded Defense Healthcare Management System Modernization Program Subcontract

Orion Health is added to the Leidos-Cerner DoD contract. Orion’s Rhapsody integration engine will be used to connect Cerner Millennium with civilian facilities.

Morning Headlines 10/6/15

Why Teladoc Needs Medical Attention

Teladoc stock dropped more than 20 percent on Friday after news broke that one of its largest customers, insurance provider Highmark Inc., would not renew its contract. Losses continued on Monday as its stock price shed another four percent.

Q3 update: 2015 digital health funding exceeds 2014

Rock Health publishes its quarterly digital health investment report, concluding that, with $3.3 billion in investment activity, 2015 is outpacing 2014’s record-breaking year by a narrow margin.

Harnessing Consumer Engagement for Better Health, Better Care and Lower Cost

An ONC blog post published by National Coordinator for health IT Karen DeSalvo, MD  highlighting the latest patient engagement findings, claims that in 2014, “over half of individuals who were offered online access to their medical record viewed their record at least once.” DeSalvo goes on to say that ONC is developing a policy framework that outlines best practices for using patient-generated health data in research and care delivery.

Harvard Pilgrim forms population health venture with New Hampshire systems

New Hampshire-based hospitals Dartmouth-Hitchcock, Elliot Health System, and Frisbie Memorial Hospital partner with Harvard Pilgrim Health Care in a joint venture called Benevera Health that will provide care and share financial risk for 80,000 local residents.

Morning Headlines 10/5/15

Mercy debuts new $54 million virtual care center

Mercy Health goes live with its $54 million telehealth command center, where 290 clinicians are monitoring 2,400 beds spread across 33 hospitals, providing a wide range of services including telestroke, teleICU, and remote specialist consultations.

UT Southwestern, Texas Health Resources form huge health care network

Texas Health Resources and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center agree to merge EHRs and coordinate patient care across 27 hospitals throughout North Texas.

Quarter of doctors’ appointments wasted – report

A study in the UK finds that 27 percent of primary care visits could have been avoided with better use of technology and care coordination. The report found that PCPs spent the time equivalent of 15 million appointments rearranging hospital schedules and chasing test results.

Morning Headlines 10/2/15

Alexander to Administration: 5 Reasons to Take More Time Before Making Final the Stage 3 Rule for the Electronic Health Records Program

Senator Lamar Alexander (R- TN), chairman of the Senate’s HELP Committee, continues with his efforts to delay the implementation of MU3 by publishing a list of five key reasons for the proposed delay, adding “there is broad and bipartisan interest in seeing the administration take its time to get this done right.”

Profit Heaven: UNC Hospitals quadruple operating income in 2015

UNC Hospitals (NC) reports an operating income of $115 million, quadrupling its 2014 figure. The system credits added beds and its Epic implementation for the financial turnaround.

Medical software boom: eClinicalWorks buys third Westboro building for $21.1M

Massachusetts-based practice management vendor eClinicalWorks buys a 192,000 square-foot office building as it makes plans to add 1,000 employees to its workforce.

Morning Headlines 9/29/15

Patients file lawsuit against two D.C. hospitals alleging excessive fees to obtain medical records

Georgetown University Hospital and George Washington University Hospital are named in a class action lawsuit for failing to provide electronic copies of medical records when requested and instead charging patients $1,000 or more in processing fees for paper copies of their records.

A better way to treat cancer

Brian Druker, MD, director of the Knight Cancer Institute at OHSU and 2009 recipient of the Lasker Award, publishes a piece on the impact that genetic sequencing and precision medicine is having on cancer treatments.

Census Estimates Show Progress Toward ACA Coverage Goals — But There Is More To Be Done

Health Affairs analyzes a recent Census Bureau report confirming an 8.5 percent drop in the USuninsured population, concluding that the gains were driven largely by subsidies and Medicaid expansions introduces within the Affordable Care Act.

Dow Industrials Sink 313 Points

The DJIA falls 1.9 percent Monday, due partly to healthcare and biotechnology stocks dropping as Congress and presidential hopefuls discuss Valeant Pharmaceuticals and controlling drug price gouging. The Nasdaq Biotechnology Index dropped six percent, erasing gains for the year.   

Morning Headlines 9/28/15

‘Trust but verify’ – five approaches to ensure safe medical apps

Researchers at the Imperial College London find that mobile health apps consistently fail to deliver evidence-based clinical recommendations, while most also fail to meet basic data security standards, such as encrypting personal health information that is being transmitted over the Internet.

A Medical Detective Story: Why Doctors Make Diagnostic Errors

In a Wall Street Journal interview, Hardeep Singh, MD and chief of health policy, quality, and informatics at the Houston VA Medical Center, discusses diagnostic errors and the potential roles and roadblocks that electronic diagnostic tools will face in care delivery.

Iowa’s mental health bed-tracking database ‘not useful’ so far, hospitals say

In Iowa, a $15,000 bed-tracking system implemented to help rural hospitals find available inpatient mental health beds across the state is not working out as planned because the 29 facilities with psychiatric beds are not updating the system with availability information.

WEDI and National Association for Trusted Exchange (NATE) Announce Partnership

The Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI) will partner with the National Association for Trusted Exchange to continue work on WEDI’s Virtual Clipboard initiative, a project aimed at establishing industry standards for automating the patient check-in process.

Morning Headlines 9/25/15

CMS Has Updated Systems and Supported Stakeholders’ Efforts to Use New Codes

The CMS GAO publishes a report on its investigation of the preparations made by CMS ahead of the ICD-10 transition, concluding that the agency will not truly know how prepared it is until it starts processing claims.

The breakdown of costs of Addenbrooke’s Hospital’s £200m Epic IT system

The Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has been put on special measures “after over-spending an average of £1.2m a week, in part due to its new online patient-record system, which has been fraught with problems.”

OPM says 5.6 million fingerprints stolen in cyberattack, five times as many as previously thought

The Office of Personnel Management reports that 5.6 million fingerprints were stolen in its recent data breach, updating its original estimate of 1.1 million by more than five times.

Morning Headlines 9/24/15

Accenture Adds Distinctive Electronic Health Record Consulting Capabilities with Acquisition of Sagacious Consultants

As reported by HIStalk readers yesterday, Accenture acquires Sagacious Consultants for an undisclosed sum.

GE Healthcare Announces $300 Million Commitment to Support Emerging Market Health

GE Healthcare, the $18 billion healthcare technology division of GE, announces the creation of a new business unit that will focus on bringing low cost, high impact health technology solutions to Africa and parts of Asia.

Interoperability Tops ‘To-Do’ List According to Medical Students

Athenahealth publishes findings from its annual Epocrates Future Physicians of America survey, which finds that 96 percent of medical students believe that improving EHR interoperability is important to patient care, while 87 percent support the creation of a universal patient record.

Why Cleveland Clinic Shares Its Outcomes Data with the World

Michael Kattan, PhD and the chair of the quantitative health sciences department at the Cleveland Clinic’s Lerner Research Institute, writes a Harvard Business Review article explaining how the Cleveland Clinic captures and analyzes its outcomes data and why it publically reports all of its findings.

Morning Headlines 9/23/15

Addenbrooke’s and Rosie hospitals’ patients ‘put at risk’

In England, the Care Quality Commission inspects Cambridge University Hospitals Trust, Epic’s sole UK customer, and finds that the implementation negatively affected the hospitals “ability to report, highlight, and take action on data” and caused medications to be incorrectly prescribed.

The Future of Emergency Department Information Systems

Peer60 publishes a report on the EDIS market, finding that 32 percent of respondents plan to switch ED vendors, with Meditech leading in market share and Epic leading in replacement vendor mind share.

FDA Announces First-ever Patient Engagement Advisory Committee

The FDA launches a new patient engagement advisory committee made up of nine voting members who are experts in clinical research, primary care patient experience, and the health care needs of patient groups.

Adventist Health System to pay $118 mln to settle fraud claims

Adventist Health System (FL) will pay $118 million to settle a whistleblower lawsuit alleging that it paid kickbacks to providers in exchange for referrals.

Morning Headlines 9/22/15

Federal Health IT Strategic Plan: 2015 – 2020

ONC publishes its five-year strategic plan which proposes shifting the national focus from EHR implementations to improving patient engagement, supporting the transition to value-based reimbursement models, expanding the use of EHR data mining in research, and improving the nation’s health IT infrastructure.

Google’s NIH steal Tom Insel on the ‘major paradigm shift’ of digitizing mental health care

Tom Insel, MD and former director of the National Institute of Mental Health, discusses his decision to move to Google and the work he plans to do there.

In Unit Stalked by Suicide, Veterans Try to Save One Another

The New York Times profiles the 2/7th Marine Regiment, whose veterans have a suicide rate 14 times higher than the average American, and the homegrown tracking systems that former members of the unit have created to help coordinate emergency response efforts at a national level.

Maintaining PCMHs Will Cost $105,000 per Physician per Year

Researchers calculate the number of hours it would take a primary care physician to complete the tasks outlined in the National Committee for Quality Assurance’s standards for maintaining patient-centered medical homes, and conclude that it would cost $105,000 per year in additional time spent.