Morning Headlines 7/12/23

Hello Pediatrics Completes Series B Funding Round Supporting Product Development Including Behavioral Health Services

After-hours pediatric telemedicine company Hello Pediatrics raises $3 million in a Series B funding round.

Data Usability Takes Root Nationwide Through a Joint Project Between The Sequoia Project and AHIMA

The Sequoia Project and AHIMA launch the Data Usability Taking Root initiative, which will bring together stakeholders committed to implementing data usability guidance developed by The Sequoia Project’s Interoperability Matters Data Usability Workgroup.

Indian health agency must improve review of patient harm data, watchdog says

A Government Accountability Office report finds that the Indian Health Service needs to review patient safety event data by location in order to improve its oversight of adverse events.

Morning Headlines 7/11/23

Verifiable validates its healthcare credentialing software with another $27M

Automated provider credentialing and compliance software vendor Verifiable raises $27 million in a Series B funding round.

HCA Healthcare Reports Data Security Incident

HCA Healthcare announces that an unauthorized and unknown entity stole patient data from an external storage site used to automate the formatting of email messages and posted it for sale on an online forum.

VA medical center in NC notifies veterans of email breach

The Charles George VA Medical Center in North Carolina notifies patients of a data breach involving an email containing the PHI of 1,541 patients that was mistakenly sent to the wrong veterans.

Morning Headlines 7/10/23

Two Years After Coding Changes Sought to Decrease Documentation, Notes Remain ‘Bloated’

An Epic analysis of 1.7 billion clinical notes written by 166,318 outpatient providers during a nearly three-year period finds that average note length increased just over 8%, while the average time spent on documentation decreased 11%.

Intermountain Pediatric Telehealth Connects Local ERs with Primary Children’s Hospital

Intermountain Health expands its Pediatric Telehealth program to give its ER doctors access to virtual consults with pediatric specialists at Primary Children’s Hospital in Utah.

Lovelace hospital using AI to improve care for patients with chronic illnesses

Lovelace Health System (NM) implements CareHarmony’s AI-powered care coordination software to help patients with two or more chronic conditions better manage their treatment, including medications.

Morning Headlines 7/7/23

Telehealth startup TytoCare lays off 10% of workforce

TytoCare will reportedly lay off 20 employees, or 10% of its workforce.

Johns Hopkins Medicine joins national move to charge patients for messaging their doctor

Johns Hopkins Medicine (MD) joins at least 14 other healthcare providers across the country in charging patients for certain types of messages sent through their patient portals.

After years of planning, Finger Lakes Health will join URMC becoming UR Medicine Finger Lakes Health

Finger Lakes Health will implement Epic when it becomes a part of the University of Rochester Medical Center (NY) system in August.

Morning Headlines 7/6/23

Mount Sinai Launches Center for Ophthalmic Artificial Intelligence and Human Health

In New York, Mount Sinai’s Icahn School of Medicine launches the Center for Ophthalmic Artificial Intelligence and Human Health to help ophthalmologists diagnose eye disease and assess underlying health conditions.

CloudMD Divests Non-Core U.S. Electronic Medical Records and Practice Management Business

Constellation Software’s Harris Computer business acquires the US-based EHR, practice management, and RCM assets of Canadian company CloudMD for $6.3 million.

ResMed Acquires Somnoware, a Leader in Digital Sleep and Respiratory Care Diagnostics Software

Sleep management technology company ResMed acquires Somnoware, a sleep and respiratory care diagnostics software vendor based in California.

BlueKey Equity Partners Invests in Telemetrix

Remote patient monitoring vendor Telemetrix secures an undisclosed amount of funding from BlueKey Equity Partners.

Anatomy IT Enhances Value-Based Care Services Through Acquisition of MIPS Business Unit from MarsdenAdvisors

Health IT and cybersecurity business Anatomy IT acquires the MIPS/value-based care business of MarsdenAdvisors.

Morning Headlines 7/4/23

Alfie nets $2.1M for obesity management

Virtual obesity management clinic Alfie raises $2.1 million in a pre-seed funding round.

WHO and HL7 collaborate to support adoption of open interoperability standards

The World Health Organization and Health Level Seven International will work together to support the global adoption of open interoperability standards.

Apple closes at $3 trillion market cap

Apple becomes the first company to close a day of trading with a $3 trillion market cap.

Morning Headlines 7/3/23

Santa Monica-based Headspace meditation app maker lays off 15% of employees

Mental health and meditation app Headspace Health lays off 181 employees, its second round of job cuts since December.

LIJ Forest Hills Hospital to implement telehealth pilot program for burn patients

Northwell Health’s Forest Hills Long Island Jewish Hospital launches a tele-burn virtual consult service, giving on-site providers the ability to virtually consult with specialists at Staten Island University Hospital’s Regional Burn Center.

Mountain View Hospital restores clinical functions; culprit behind cyberattack still unknown

Mountain View Hospital and Idaho Falls Community Hospital and its partner clinics restore their clinical systems after a cyberattack forced them offline over a month ago.

Morning Headlines 6/30/23

Optimum Healthcare IT Acquires eCloud Managed Solutions

Staffing and consulting services company Optimum Healthcare IT acquires ECloud Managed Solutions, a cloud adoption and digital transformation firm based in Milton, GA.

RxLightning opens 8,000-square-foot New Albany headquarters

Specialty medication enrollment software startup RxLightning opens an office – its first – in Indiana after having been a remote-only company since its launch in 2020.

HHS Office for Civil Rights Settles HIPAA Investigation with iHealth Solutions Regarding Disclosure of Protected Health Information on an Unsecured Server for $75,000

IHealth Solutions will pay $75,000 to settle potential HIPAA violations related to the 2017 unauthorized transfer of PHI from an unprotected server.

Morning Headlines 6/29/23

Regulations to govern use of AI in health records could come later this year

ONC hopes to finalize a rule later this year that will require EHRs that use predictive solutions like AI and algorithms to provide end users with an explanation of how that technology works, as well as a description of the data used.

Blueprint Raises $9 Million Series A to Help Therapists Deliver Higher Quality Care in Less Time

Blueprint, which offers mental health providers patient tracking and outcomes assessment technologies, raises $9 million in a Series A funding round.

Cleveland Clinic to open first telehealth hub at new Mentor Hospital

Cleveland Clinic prepares to open a new hospital in Ohio that will offer patients in each of its 57 rooms the ability to access telehealth services from off-site specialists.

Morning Headlines 6/28/23

Revolutionizing Medical AI Development: Flywheel Announces $54 Million in Series D Funding led by Novalis LifeSciences and NVentures

Medical imaging and AI company Flywheel raises $54 million in a Series D investment round.

Riverside Partners’ Portfolio Company UnisLink Acquires HST

RCM and population health management company UnisLink acquires RCM vendor Healthcare Support Technologies.

BeeKeeperAI Raises $12.1 Million Series A to Accelerate AI Development on Privacy Protected Healthcare Data

BeeKeeperAI, a San Francisco-based AI development and deployment support startup, announces $12 million in new funding.

THL explores sale of healthcare IT firm Nextech

THL Partners considers selling specialty practice-focused health IT vendor Nextech in a deal that could be worth $1.5 billion.

Morning Headlines 6/27/23

Amazon delays virtual care service’s unveiling after senators raised privacy concerns

Amazon postpones the launch of its Amazon Clinic expansion by three weeks after lawmakers raised concerns about the company’s privacy practices.

Clarivate snaps up former Cerner employees, plans move into OP office

Clarivate, a global data, insights, analytics, and workflow solutions company, hires 40 former Cerner employees as it prepares to move into a new office in Overland Park, KS.

US Virgin Islands to test data interoperability program ahead of new health information exchange

The US Virgin Islands Office of Health Information Technology will work with CRISP Shared Services to launch a pilot interoperability program as it prepares to build out infrastructure for its first HIE

Morning Headlines 6/26/23

Babylon Announces Update on Take Private Proposal

UK-based digital health company Babylon will merge with brain technology vendor MindMaze in a take-private transaction.

AvoMD Raises $5M to Combat Clinician Burnout With No-Code Clinical App Building Platform

AvoMD, developer of a no-code platform that allows clinicians and hospitals to turn existing and new clinical evidence into their own point-of-care clinical pathway apps, closes $5 million in seed funding.

UNC Health Piloting Secure Internal Generative AI Tool for Teammates with Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service

UNC Health will launch an internal chatbot next month, powered by Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service, that allows employees to access reference materials, documents, and training libraries by asking questions.

Morning Headlines 6/23/23

Tennessee attorney general says seeking clinic’s transgender patient records part of fraud probe

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti’s office, which compelled Vanderbilt University Medical Center to turn over the medical records of transgender patients to support its fraud investigation, has also demanded that VUMC provide copies of its physician contracts, their resumes, and their W2 and 1099 tax forms.

Jesse Jones: New charges for some MyChart messages

University of Washington Medicine will begin charging patients for answering MyChart messages that require more than 10 minutes  – including requests to complete medical forms or for referrals – at prices ranging from $7 for Medicaid patients to $98 for those without insurance.

VA official expects Oracle Cerner to deliver on $10B EHR contract despite layoffs

A VA EHR executive says that it continues to expect Oracle Cerner to deliver on newly strengthened contractual requirements even though the company’s recent significant layoffs reportedly include experienced members of its clinical teams.

ChatGPT and the clinical informatics board examination: the end of unproctored maintenance of certification?

ChatGPT passes the clinical informatics board exam, raising questions about how the unproctored, multiple-choice test will be used to evaluate proficiency.

Morning Headlines 6/22/23

AccurKardia Announces Final Closing of $2.7 Million Series Seed Round

AccurKardia, which sells AI-powered clinical-grade ECG interpretation software, completes a $2.7 million seed funding round.

AMA announces organizations selected for grants to research EHR use

The American Medical Association awards $589,000 in grants to nine organizations that will study EHR use for solutions that can prevent clinician burnout, enhance care, and improve workflows.

‘You’re not God’: Doctors and patient families say HCA hospitals push hospice care

An NBC News report says that publicly traded hospital operator HCA Healthcare used an algorithm to identify hospitalized inpatients who were likely to die, then pushed them into palliative or hospice care to improve hospital performance measures that are tied to executive bonuses.

Doctors urge ‘pause’ on Federated Data Platform bidding amid Palantir data security concerns

Doctors in England call for the government to pause the tender process for a new $600 million national federated data platform, saying that frontrunner Palantir is a private US company with ties to US security agencies that would discourage participation and that the procurement process favors the company because of its lobbying efforts and the waiving of procurement procedures during the pandemic.

DexCare Closes $75M in Series C Funding, Led by ICONIQ Growth, to Accelerate Market Expansion of its Care Access Platform

Providence spinout DexCare, which offers a customer acquisition and healthcare navigation system, raises $75 million.

Morning Headlines 6/21/23

Vanderbilt turns over transgender patient records to state in attorney general probe

VUMC notifies some of its patients that it has sent their medical records to the state’s attorney general, whose office is conducting an investigation into billing state-insured patients for transgender care services.

Creating the world’s largest medical imaging library – Gradient Health closes $2.75M round

Raleigh, NC-based Gradient Health, which offers developers a library of 350 million medical images for AI training, raises $2.75 million.

Caraway Secures $16.75M Series A Funding

Virtual care company Caraway – which offers mental, physical, and reproductive health services in six states, primarily to women aged 18-27 — raises $16.75 million in a Series A funding round.

Morning Headlines 6/20/23

How Palantir is helping hospitals with tasks that used to require spreadsheets and whiteboards

A CNBC report looks at Cleveland Clinic’s work with Palantir’s AI software to manage resource allocation.

CareRev Plans to Cut Roughly a Third of Staff

Healthcare shift-bidding platform vendor CareRev will reportedly lay off one-third of its corporate workforce, about 100 employees, following the departure of CEO Will Patterson over claimed conduct issues.

Biden picks North Carolina’s former health chief, Mandy Cohen, to run CDC

As previously speculated, the White House will name Aledade EVP Mandy Cohen, MD, MPH as new CDC director effective with the resignation of Rochelle Walensky, MD, MPH on June 30.

Morning Headlines 6/19/23

Optum health startup incubator on ice

Optum dissolves its Startup Studio incubator after three years and 100 health companies incubated.

Amazon called to account – on health data

Senators Peter Welch (D-VT) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) express concern to Amazon President and CEO Andy Jaffy that the company’s virtual Amazon Clinic may be collecting and sharing health data from customers.

Hackers claim responsibility for Norton Healthcare ‘cyber event’ as Louisville patients await answers

The BlackCat ransomware group claims responsibility for last month’s attack on Norton Healthcare (KY), the effects of which are still impacting the health system’s network and services.