Morning Headlines 7/27/21

Penn Medicine Launching Center for Applied Health Informatics

Penn Medicine (PA) will launch the Center for Applied Health Informatics to develop best practices for data projects across its health system and foster informatics leadership.

Epic’s AI algorithms, shielded from scrutiny by a corporate firewall, are delivering inaccurate information on seriously ill patients

STAT sheds light on an Epic program that incentivizes customers to use its algorithms, one of which – sepsis prediction – has been found to not work as well as advertised.

Komodo Health Acquires Breakaway Partners to Improve Patient Access to Effective Therapies

De-identified patient data and analytics company Komodo Health acquires Breakaway Partners, which offers market access analytics.

Morning Headlines 7/26/21

Sema4 Closes Transaction with CM Life Sciences, Debuts as Publicly Traded AI-driven Genomic & Clinical Data Platform Company

Clinical data and genomic platform vendor Sema4, a Connecticut-based venture of Mount Sinai Health System, goes public via a SPAC merger at a valuation of around $3 billion.

System C buys medicines management specialist Wellsky

British health IT company System C acquires medication management vendor WellSky International.

Caregiver Support Company Cariloop raises $15 million in Series B funding to expand help for families and ease caregiving crisis

Digitally-enabled caregiving support company Cariloop raises $15 million in a funding round that brings its total raised to just over $24 million.

UPMC reaches $2.65 million settlement with employees over data breach

UPMC will pay $2.65 million to settle a class action lawsuit that charged it with failing to protect employee information that was stolen and used in a phony tax refund scam.

Morning Headlines 7/23/21

Moving Forward: Evaluating Next Steps for the Department of Veterans Affairs Electronic Health Record Modernization Program

The VA tells the House Veterans Affairs Committee that it won’t bring any more sites live on Cerner for at least six months.

Achieve Partners Backs Healthcare IT Provider to Launch Major Apprenticeship Program

Achieve Partners, which invests in skills development technologies and businesses that can create American jobs, acquires staff and consulting services vendor Optimum Healthcare IT.

Imprivata Adds Privileged Access Management (PAM) to Industry-leading Digital Identity Capabilities by Acquiring Xton Technologies

Imprivata acquires Xton Technologies and will incorporate its privileged access management solutions into its digital identity framework.

Qure4u Announces Close of $25M Growth Equity Investment to Accelerate Innovation in Digital Health Solutions

Qure4u, which offers automated patient intake, engagement, and virtual care services, raises $25 million in a funding round led by Volition Capital.

Morning Headlines 7/22/21

Carbon Health Secures $350 Million to Expand Omnichannel Primary Care Nationwide

Tech-enabled primary care company Carbon Health raises $350 million in a funding round led by Blackstone.

B.well Connected Health Secures $32 Million to Accelerate the Digital Transformation of Healthcare

B.well Connected Health, developer of health management apps for consumers, patients, and employees, raises $32 million in a Series B funding round.

CarePoint Health Opens Doors to Healthcare Innovation Center

CarePoint Health (NJ) opens a Healthcare Innovation Center within Bayonne Medical Center to bring clinicians, vendors, investors, and other collaborators together to develop new technologies.

Morning Headlines 7/21/21

WebMD Acquires The Wellness Network, Expanding Point-of-Care Services to Health Systems and Hospitals

WebMD acquires The Wellness Network, which offers advertising-supported patient education videos and broadcast channels for hospitals.

Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative Fulfills Mission; Completes Final Dissolution

The Massachusetts EHealth Collaborative dissolves and distributes its assets to six public charities, saying that it has completed its work and fulfilled its mission related to interoperability, standards development, and health IT policy.

Validation of an electronic trigger to measure missed diagnosis of stroke in emergency departments

An EHR trigger analysis of the VA’s corporate data warehouse finds that nearly one-third of patients who were admitted for stroke had been discharged from the ED with seemingly benign headache or dizziness in the previous 30 days.

Morning Headlines 7/20/21

Quit Genius Raises $64M to Expand Access To #1 Digital Clinic for Substance Addictions

Quit Genius, a virtual care company specializing in treatment for substance addiction, raises $64 million in a Series B funding round.

Verisys Acquires Credentials Verification Organization Services From Advantum Health

Verisys, which recently announced its merger with Aperture Health, acquires Advantum Health’s Med Advantage Credentials Verification Organization business.

DuPage Medical Group outage resolved, but ‘minimal delays’ may remain

DuPage Medical Group, the largest independent groups in Illinois, recovers from a nearly week-long network outage that impacted several systems.

Morning Headlines 7/19/21

What Ever Happened to IBM’s Watson?

The New York Times says that IBM Watson failed to achieve its goals to transform industries and make IBM successful, noting that Watson’s healthcare “moon shot” failed in multiple health systems.

Real-World Data & Technology Company OM1 Closes $85 Million Financing To Make Healthcare More Measured, Precise, And Pre-Emptive

OM1, which offers chronic disease registries and real-world data, raises $85 million in financing.

Intermountain Healthcare Provides Notice of Data Security Event

Intermountain Healthcare (UT) announces that PHI from four of its clinics may have been compromised during an April cyberattack on care management software vendor Elekta’s systems.

Morning Headlines 7/16/21

VA Electronic Health Records: Modernization and the Path Ahead

The VA pauses its Cerner rollout after an internal report finds significant problems, with VA Secretary Denis McDonough telling the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee that he will make changes in project oversight, training, implementation sequencing, and budgeting.

Waystar to Acquire Patientco to Bring True Consumerism to Healthcare, Simplifying Payment Processes for Patients and Providers

Waystar says the combined companies will offer a consumer-friendly patient payment experience.

Introducing AWS for Health – Accelerating innovation from benchtop to bedside

AWS will offer a set of services and partner solutions for healthcare, genomics, and biopharma.

OSF OnCall: A New Hospital Without Walls

OSF HealthCare opens its OSF OnCall Digital Health building in Peoria, IL, from which it offers remote patient monitoring, nurse triage, and ICU patient monitoring.

Morning Headlines 7/15/21

TEFCA Will be Live in 2022

ONC hopes to have a new nationwide network open for participation in Q1 2022.

Woman’s Hospital seeks to partner with large system to boost technology access

The 165-bed Louisiana hospital is considering affiliating with another hospital to be able to implement Epic for less cost than buying it directly, which it estimates would require $200 million over seven years.

Request for Public Feedback on Draft Developer-Reported Measures

The companies contracted by ONC to develop draft EHR Reporting Program developer measures seek feedback by September 14, 2021.

Kno2 raises $15 million to accelerate its disruption of healthcare’s interoperability status quo

The network aggregrator will use the proceeds of its Series A funding round to expand its connectivity and workflows while increasing its partner base that integrate via its APIs.

Morning Headlines 7/14/21

HHS Updates Interoperability Standards to Support the Electronic Exchange of Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Social Determinants of Health

ONC releases the United States Core Data for Interoperability version 2.

Truveta Grows to Represent More Than 15% of all U.S. Patient Care with Three New Health Provider Members, closing Series A with $95 Million in Funding

Truveta raises $95 million in a Series A funding round and adds members Baylor Scott & White Health, MedStar Health, and Texas Health Resources.

Harris acquires ADL Data Systems, a long-term and post-acute care software solutions provider

Harris acquires ADL, which has been providing software to nursing homes and other long-term care providers since 1977.

Michelle O’Connor Named MEDITECH President and CEO

The company announces the promotion of Michelle O’Connor, which took place several weeks ago.

‘The party is winding down’: States and insurers resurrect barriers to telehealth, putting strain on patients

Telehealth visits are dropping sharply as relaxed provider laws and improved payment return to the more restrictive normal and state-by-state physician licensure again becomes a significant barrier.

Morning Headlines 7/13/21

Mytonomy Raises $25 Million Series B Funding to Transform Patient Engagement

Video-based patient engagement vendor Mytonomy raises $25 million in a Series B funding round.

HCTec Acquires Talon Healthy IT Services

Health IT services firm HCTec acquires managed IT solutions company Talon Healthy IT Services, which offers healthcare help desk services.

Charlesbank To Make A Strategic Investment In Clearlake And SkyKnight-Backed symplr

Charlesbank will make an unspecified “significant strategic investment” in Symplr.

Morning Headlines 7/12/21

Training Deficiencies with VA’s New Electronic Health Record System at the Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center in Spokane, Washington

A VA OIG review of the VA’s first go-live finds that inadequate training contributed to a decrease in user productivity, as poor training design and ineffective Cerner trainers left users unsure of how to use the system to perform their jobs.

Practicing Clinicians’ Recommendations to Reduce Burden from the Electronic Health Record Inbox: a Mixed-Methods Study

Surveyed physicians recommend improvements to EHR inbox functionality, some of them involving redesigning the system to work more like email.

Biden calls for efforts to lower drug prices as part of executive order to foster competition

A White House executive order directs the Justice Department and FTC to review hospital merger guidelines and for the federal government to move forward with mandatory hospital price disclosure.

Morning Headlines 7/9/21

FDA Clears Personal ECG Device for Measurement of QTc Interval, a Critical Marker for Patient Safety

FDA issues 510(k) clearance for the use of AliveCor’s $149 KardiaMobile 6L by healthcare professionals to calculate QTc interval from its EKGs, a value used to diagnose certain disorders of electrical conductivity that can cause irregular heartbeat.

Intelerad Acquires Raleigh-Durham Based Heart Imaging Technologies, A Clinical Workflow Automation Leader

Intelerad acquires medical image management technology vendor Heart Imaging Technologies.

More Underestimated Infrastructure Costs Could Raise VA EHR Price Tag $2.5B

A second VA OIG review of the infrastructure cost of implementing Cerner adds another several billion dollars to the project’s likely final cost, which could reach $21 billion.

Morning Headlines 7/8/21

Xifin Enters Radiology RCM Services Segment with Computerized Management Services Acquisition

Health IT and RCM vendor Xifin acquires Computerized Management Services, which offers RCM services for radiology groups and imaging centers.

Novo Holdings A/S Invests in US Healthcare IT Company Availity

Availity, which offers RCM, clearinghouse, and digital provider engagement services, secures a strategic minority investment from Novo Holdings.

Opioid addiction treatment apps found sharing sensitive data with third parties

Researchers find that 10 opioid addiction treatment apps available for Android collect and share a user’s information with third parties, prompting privacy and security concerns.

Morning Headlines 7/7/21

Healthcare Technology Firm Sophia Genetics Files for $100M IPO, Inks Cancer Data Deal With GE Healthcare

Sophia Genetics announces its IPO plans and that it will work with GE Healthcare to develop AI-powered analytics and workflow software for cancer care.

Puerto Rico Health Dept. launches online platform to manage patient data

Puerto Rico’s health department launches an HIE with an initial seven provider organizations, with another 15 scheduled to connect next week.

Exclusive: After rebrand, Tampa Bay Wave telehealth company raises $1.5M

ERemede raises $1.5 million in seed funding to further scale its patient engagement solutions and educational resources for pre- and post-op patients.

Morning Headlines 7/6/21

Vitalhub Corp. Announces Acquisition of UK Based Alamac Limited

Canadian health and human services software vendor VitalHub acquires Alamac, a consulting firm that caters to NHS organizations.

R1 Completes Acquisition of VisitPay

First announced in May, R1 RCM finalizes its $300 million acquisition of digital payment company VisitPay.

Saint Vincent nurses strike delays modernization of hospital’s record system to 2022

Saint Vincent Hospital (MA) CEO Carolyn Jackson cites an ongoing nurses strike as a contributing factor to the hospital’s decision to delay its Cerner implementation until early next year.

Morning Headlines 7/5/21

Texas Health Informatics Alliance launches, opens registration for its first conference

University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, The University of Texas at Arlington, and The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center form the Texas Health Informatics Alliance.

Thousands of patients hit by NHS data breaches

In England, an Information Commissioner’s Office analysis finds that more data breaches occurred in healthcare between 2019 and 2020 than in any other sector examined, prompting NHS Digital to delay its plans to share the health records of NHS patients with third-party organizations.

An email sent by One Medical exposed hundreds of customers’ email addresses

Primary care company One Medical inadvertently exposes 981 email addresses when an employee forgets to use the BCC option on a mass patient mailing.