Morning Headlines 11/15/2012

Rep. Ellmers pushes HHS on safety of health technology

HHS receives a second letter from Rep. Renee Ellmers after failing to respond to an initial letter citing an IOM study that questioned the safety of electronic health records.

MU helps drive interoperability, standards could also help

Farzad Mostashari of the ONC, along with HIMSS Chair Willa Fields, Charles Romine of NIST, and several private sector industry experts testify in congress today defending the results of Meaningful Use thus far among accusations that there should be a higher level of interoperability.

Arcadia Solutions Acquired by Ferrer Freeman & Company and Senior Management

Arcadia Solutions announces its acquisition by Ferrer Freeman and addition of Jim Crook, former CEO of IDX Systems, to the Board of Managers.

Surescripts and NextGen Healthcare Take Important Step to Improve Quality of Care Collaboration and Coordination Across the U.S. Healthcare System

NextGen announces that it will connect its 75,000 users to the Surescripts network enabling e-prescribing and access to a clinical messaging platform.

WakeMed to spend up to $100M on medical records project

WakeMed Health & Hospital System, an 840-bed Raleigh, NC-based health network, announces plans to implement Epic over the next 18 months.

Morning Headlines 11/14/12

HITPC Stage 3 Request for Comment

ONC issues a request for public comment on Stage 3 Meaningful Use rules.

Carlyle, Blackstone, TPG bid for Allscripts

Three private equity firms have submitted second-round offers but there is no guarantee of a deal as Allscripts asks for a significant premium over its current trading price.  

Cerner Receives FDA Clearance for Mobile Fetal Monitoring Solution

Cerner receives FDA 510(k) pre-market clearance for its Cerner FetaLink+ mobile fetal monitoring solution.

Texas Hospitals Select Healthland Centriq for Complete Electronic Health Record Solution

Medina Regional Hospital (TX), Red River Regional Hospital (TX), Ward Memorial Hospital (TX), and First Street Hospital (TX) choose Healthland Centriq, adding to the company’s total of more than 70 rural Texas hospital customers.

HHS announces first external class of the HHS Innovation Fellows Program

Six fellows will spend the next 12 months working with HHS on national projects including: accelerating clinical quality measures for ACA, building a more resilient health technology infrastructure to withstand natural disasters, and a national organ transplant tracking system.

Morning Headlines 11/13/12

Zynx Health President/CEO Scott Weingarten resigns 

Zynx Health announces that President and CEO Scott Weingarten has resigned and will be replaced by First Databank CEO Greg Dorn, who will run both of the Hearst organizations.

Less Than a Month After Launch, Windows 8 Head Steve Sinofsky Departs 

Steve Sinofsky, president of Microsoft’s Windows division and rumored favorite to eventually replace Steve Ballmer as CEO, departs unexpectedly amid rumors of a deteriorating relationship with the executive level.

VA head envisions big improvements in backlog 

VA Secretary Eric Shinseki reports that problems integrating the Department of Defense and VA electronic health records systems, which caused a massive backlog of health benefits claims, have been resolved.

Healthcare provider attitudes towards the problem list in an electronic health record: a mixed-methods qualitative study

Harvard study recommends defined policy on using problem lists, finding that their use is incomplete because physicians don’t necessarily agree on what they should contain for specific cases and who should be responsible for maintaining them.

Morning Headlines 11/12/12

UnitedHealth deal draws concern

Sen. Orin Hatch raises concerns with HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius about the acquisition of an IT company that will help build the federal insurance exchange citing potential conflicts of interest.

Guilford business brings telemedicine to the workplace

Online diabetic consultations with physicians from Tufts University were provided to remotely located employees working for a Maine based wood products company.

Dalcon changes name to Amplion, adopts new hospital alert mission

Dalcom Communications Systems raises $3.75 million, changes its name to Amplion Clinical Communications and reinvents business mission to target clinical communications market.

Digital Health Entrepreneur Survey

A survey of health entrepreneurs identifies reimbursement, government, and Epic/Cerner as being the top three barriers to health innovation.