Morning Headlines 8/13/19

Akira Health Acquired by Telus Health

Canadian health IT company Telus Health acquires Toronto-based Akira Health, which offers app-based and in-person care.

CHI Franciscan introduces new healthcare hub at its acute care hospitals

CHI Franciscan (WA) goes live with a new Mission Control Center that uses predictive analytics from GE Healthcare to streamline patient care at eight of its hospitals.

Internet Brands’ WebMD Acquires QxMD

WebMD acquires QxMD, a Canadian company that offers providers digital point-of-care educational resources and medical calculators.

These health-tech veterans want to avert the next Theranos disaster with ‘medical diligence’

Former 23andMe VP Ruby Gadelrab and former Color Genomics CMO Jill Hagenkord, MD launch MDisrupt to help investors thoroughly vet health IT companies looking for financing.

Morning Headlines 8/12/19

Mueller: Centra’s Billing a Top Priority

The president and CEO of Centra Health (VA) apologizes to the community for billing problems that followed its September 2018 rollout of Cerner, which it also blames for recent operating losses.

Nuance Communications (NUAN) Q3 Earnings and Revenues Top Estimates

Nuance reports Q3 results, noting that although its healthcare revenue increased 2%, its HIM and EHR implementation businesses underperformed.

Gates Foundation snaps up top Apple Health researcher to run a new digital health group

Apple healthcare expert and radiation oncologist Andrew Trister, MD, PhD leaves the company after three years to join the Gates Foundation, where he will help US digital health entrepreneurs take their products to the developing world.

Morning Headlines 8/9/19

Allscripts Announces Second Quarter 2019 Results

Allscripts announces Q2 results that include a $145 million charge to settle all criminal and civil liability related to the Department of Justice’s Meaningful Use investigations into its Practice Fusion unit.

Experian acquires MyHealthDirect, strengthening leadership position in patient access and engagement

Experian Health acquires care coordination and appointment scheduling software vendor MyHealthDirect.

NHS to set up national artificial intelligence lab

In England, Prime Minister Boris Johnson allocates $303 million for the development of a National Artificial Intelligence Lab that will operate within the national health service’s digital innovation unit.

Castlight Health Announces New Customer Center of Excellence in Utah

Castlight Health will open a new Customer Center of Excellence in Salt Lake City next year, and hire up to 200 new staff by 2022.

Morning Headlines 8/8/19

Apple and Eli Lilly are studying whether data from iPhones and Apple Watches can detect signs of dementia

Apple, Eli Lilly, and data collection company Evidation Health are working together to determine if information from Apple’s devices can be used to detect early signs of dementia.

Women’s health startup Genneve lands $4M to grow telemedicine service for menopause

Menopause-focused telemedicine and wellness company Genneve raises $4 million in a seed round led by BlueRun Ventures.

IN BRIEF: Merck says U.S. probing ties to electronic health record vendors

Drug maker Merck has received a series of subpoenas related to a federal investigation into an unnamed EHR vendor – presumably Practice Fusion – acquired by Allscripts last year.

Amazon’s AWS will help health researchers diagnose patients and monitor disease

The Pittsburgh Health Data Alliance will use machine learning technology from AWS in its development of diagnostic and disease-monitoring technologies.

Morning Headlines 8/7/19

Cerner, Duke Clinical Research Institute Launch New Solution to Innovate Clinical Research

Cerner will work with Duke Clinical Research Institute to develop the Cerner Learning Health Network, which will aggregate de-identified patient data from both Cerner and non-Cerner EHRs to provide treatment insights to providers and drug and life science companies.

Optimum Healthcare IT Announces Expansion of Staffing Business with OptimumTech

Optimum Healthcare IT launches OptimumTech, a Nashville-based IT staffing division.

Truman Medical Center hit with ransomware, pays to get system access back

Truman Medical Center (MO) pays hackers a “small amount of money” to restore access to operational systems impacted by a ransomware attack early Tuesday morning.

Morning Headlines 8/6/19

DirectTrust Reports Explosive Growth in Number of Secure Transactions During Second Quarter

DirectTrust announces that more than 1 billion messages have been sent and received using Direct messaging since it began tracking transmissions in 2014.

EHNAC Announces Launch of Consulting and Advisory Services

The nonprofit Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission will offer consulting and advisory services to help healthcare stakeholders prepare for compliance certification, readiness assessments, audits, and accreditations.

Flagler Health+ and Optima Curis Partner to Build Virtual Health Village of the Future

Flagler Health (FL) will use technology from Optima Curis to develop a telemedicine platform that will include virtual care, provider messaging, appointment scheduling, social networking, and the ability to view and update health records.

Morning Headlines 8/5/19

Babylon Health confirms $550M raise at $2B+ valuation to expand its AI-based health services

London-based Babylon Health confirms the close of a $550 million Series C funding round, calling it the largest-ever digital health investment of its kind in Europe or the US.

DAS Health Announces Fifth Acquisition in 12 Months

Ambulatory health IT company DAS Health acquires the WRT collection of companies, which includes WRT Specialties, Easy PC Solutions, EasyMed Billing, and Systech Solutions.

Chicago-based Navigant to be acquired by Washington, D.C., firm in $1.1 billion deal

Public sector consulting company Guidehouse acquires multi-vertical consulting firm Navigant for $1.1 billion.

Presbyterian data breach affects some 183,000 patients

Presbyterian Healthcare Services (NM) begins alerting 183,000 patients of a June phishing scam that exposed the personal information of patients and health plan members.

Morning Headlines 8/2/19

Nordic launches Cerner Solutions

Nordic expands beyond its Epic roots to add Cerner consulting services.

Babylon Health will achieve unicorn status thanks to Saudi-backed funding round

Babylon Health will soon reach unicorn status thanks to a forthcoming $100 million to $500 million investment from Saudi investors, allowing it to move forward with previously announced US expansion plans.

Comcast-backed Accolade buys healthcare data firm

Personalized health and benefits solution vendor Accolade acquires physician performance data company MD Insider.

COTA, Inc. Announces Headquarter Relocation to Boston for Continued Growth

Oncology analytics vendor Cota will relocate its headquarters from New York City to Boston.

Morning Headlines 8/1/19

DOD’s Next Electronic Health System Rollout Will Be Different, Officials Say

DoD officials assure the next round of MHS Genesis end users that they will receive improved training, change management, and infrastructure during the September roll outs.

Google’s DeepMind says its A.I. tech can spot acute kidney disease 48 hours before doctors spot it

DeepMind announces its AI software can detect acute kidney disease up to 48 hours before physicians recognize its symptoms.

32 Million Breached Patient Records in First Half of 2019 Double Total for All of 2018

Protenus reports that 31,611,235 patient records have been breached in the first six months of 2019 – more than double the number reported for all of the previous year.

Morning Headlines 7/31/19

CMS Advances MyHealthEData with New Pilot to Support Clinicians

CMS will pilot its “Data at the Point of Care” project starting in September, which will display Medicare claims data to providers via an API.

Microsoft, Amazon, other tech giants forge ahead on healthcare data sharing pledge

Technology leaders Amazon, Google, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, and Salesforce reaffirm their commitment to interoperability and list their accomplishments toward it over the past year, including releasing open source FHIR tools and new specifications.

Cerner Leads New Era of Health Care Innovation

Cerner names Amazon Web Services as its preferred cloud provider and will work with AWS to deliver machine learning solutions, analytics, and HealtheDataLab for analyzing patient data.

Serve Veterans and service members by leading the DoD/VA Federal Electronic Health Record Modernization Program Office

The DoD and VA seek a director and deputy director to oversee the Federal Electronic Health Record Modernization Program Office.

Morning Headlines 7/30/19

Kaiser Permanente Appoints Prat Vemana First Chief Digital Officer

The Home Depot Chief Product and Experience Officer Prat Vemana will become chief digital officer for Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Hospitals on August 12.

EQT Partners, CPPIB to Buy Majority Stake in Bain’s Waystar

Bain Capital agrees to sell its majority stake in RCM vendor Waystar to EQT Partners and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.

Streamline Health Announces Wyche T. (Tee) Green, III, As Interim President and Chief Executive Officer to Focus on Revenue Growth

Streamline Health names chairman and former Greenway Health CEO Tee Green interim president and CEO.

Surescripts ups its battle with Amazon PillPack: ‘We are turning the matter over to the FBI’

Surescripts terminates its contract with ReMy Health after discovering that it allowed PillPack to access customer prescription data sourced from Surescripts without permission.

VA achieves critical milestone in its Electronic Health Record Modernization Program

The VA transfers 23.5 million patient records from VistA to a Cerner data center that’s also managing DoD patient records.

Morning Headlines 7/29/19

Joe Kvedar, MD, new President-Elect of the ATA

The American Telemedicine Association elects Partners HealthCare VP of Connected Health Joe Kvedar, MD as its next president.

Queensland hospitals are $36 million in debt

The Sydney newspaper notes that Queensland’s public health system lost $25 million last year, with the health minister naming as a key factor the cost of its over-budget Cerner EHR implementation.

How tech-infused primary care centers turned One Medical into a $2 billion business

After raising over $400 million, membership-based primary care company One Medical’s value increases to $2 billion.

Morning Headlines 7/26/19

Livongo shares surge in market debut as digital health space heats up

Health Catalyst and Livongo become the first digital health companies to IPO since 2016.

After shutdown, Call9 founder plans a comeback

Call9 co-founder and CEO Tim Peck, MD says the shuttered nursing home telemedicine company will re-open as Call9 Medical.

Ciox Secures Equity Investment from Merck Global Health Innovation

Records release vendor Ciox Health raises $30 million in a funding round led by Merck Global Health Innovation Fund and New Mountain Capital.

VA Doesn’t Really Know What It Costs To Run VistA

A new GAO report on expected VistA maintenance costs during the VA’s 10-year transition to Cerner leaves lawmakers uneasy about the true cost of the conversion project.

Morning Headlines 7/25/19

Tenet to spin-off Conifer unit; shares up 3% premarket

Conifer Health Solutions CEO Stephen Mooney steps down as parent company Tenet Healthcare formalizes plans to sell off the RCM business by 2021.

JPMorgan Chase Closes InstaMed Acquisition

First announced in May, JPMorgan Chase wraps up its $500 million acquisition of healthcare payments software vendor InstaMed.

Cerner Reports Second Quarter 2019 Results

Cerner reports Q2 results: revenue up 5%, adjusted EPS $0.66 vs. $0.62, beating earnings expectations but falling short on revenue.

Health-tech start-up AliveCor poaches an Amazon director to be its new CEO

Heart health monitoring company AliveCor taps Amazon GM and Alexa director Priya Abani to be its CEO.

Morning Headlines 7/24/19

Data analytics provider Health Catalyst ups share offering and raises proposed IPO range to $24 to $25

Health Catalyst revises its IPO filings to increase both the number of shares and the planned share price range, now valuing the company at just under $1 billion.

Interoperability Standards Advisory: 2019 Request for Comments

ONC opens its annual review period for the Interoperability Standards Advisory for interoperability specifications and standards.

Computer issues continue at Springhill Medical Center

Systems at Springhill Medical Center (AL) remain down after what an anonymous employee claims is a ransomware attack.

Former Sutter IT exec said management fired him for reporting patient care failures

Former Sutter Health IT Chief Operations Officer Stuart James sues the health system, claiming it wrongfully terminated him after a May 2018 system-wide computer failure and then defamed him by naming him as being let go because of the downtime.

Morning Headlines 7/23/19

Livongo expected IPO pricing raised, boosting market cap to $2.31 billion

Livongo increases its expected IPO pricing to $24 to $26 a share, boosting the potential value of the nearly 11 million shares to $278 million.

LabCorp Expands Consumer-Initiated Test Offering

LabCorp expands its Pixel service to give consumers the ability to purchase tests online, drop off their specimens at an approved service site, and receive results via a secure portal.

Radiology Partners Receives $700 Million Investment from Starr Investment Holdings

Starr Investment Holdings invests $700 million in Radiology Partners, a physician-led practice with locations in 21 states that also offers consulting, IT, and RCM services.

Morning Headlines 7/22/19

Tech IPOs Keep Popping as Phreesia Surges 53% in Debut

Phreesia shares rose as much as 53% from their opening price of $18 on their first day of trading on the NYSE Thursday, closing at $26.75.

Amazon threatens to sue major pharmacy player if it prevents PillPack from accessing patient drug data

Amazon threatens to sue Surescripts, which is partially owned by Amazon competitors CVS and Express Scripts, over threats to revoke its mail-order pharmacy’s access to patient medication lists.

Marshfield Clinic Health System outsourcing some jobs

Marshfield Clinic Health System (WI) lays off 46 employees as it transitions its release-of-information jobs to Ciox.