Morning Headlines 3/26/19

Judge dismisses final worker wage lawsuit against Epic Systems

A federal judge dismisses the last pending lawsuit brought by employees against Epic, finding that the 2016 suit of a group of quality assurance workers was too similar to that ruled on by the US Supreme Court last year.

Apple could combine its expertise in health and fintech to get into medical billing, experts say

Industry insiders speculate that Apple’s new credit card, combined with its Apple Pay service, could signal a pending foray into medical billing.

UA Physician and iTether Create App for Pregnant Women, New Moms, with Opioid Addiction

The University of Arizona College of Medicine is working with ITether Technologies to revamp its digital care management software for substance use disorder patients to better fit the needs of pregnant women and new moms.

Patient data exposed at 2 Toronto hospitals, privacy commissioner investigating

An anonymous computer programmer accidentally discovers the PHI of over 200 hospital patients in Toronto after intercepting unencrypted pager messages.

Morning Headlines 3/25/19

FDA Chief Calls For Stricter Scrutiny Of Electronic Health Records

Departing FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb says FDA oversight of EHRs would be appropriate “when they’re doing things that could create risk for patients” in turning into a medical device.

Healthcare Analytics Leaders Clinigence and QualMetrix Merge to Accelerate Value-Based Care and Population Health Management

Population health analytics company QualMetrix becomes a subsidiary of quality reporting software vendor Clinigence.

Wolters Kluwer provides NASA astronauts in outer space access to UpToDate clinical decision support resource

Wolters Kluwer is providing International Space Station astronauts with access to its UpToDate medical information resource.

UCLA Health System Settlement

UCLA Health System (CA) will spend $5.5 million on cybersecurity defense as part of a proposed settlement stemming from a 2015 data breach that left patient data exposed for nearly a year.

Morning Headlines 3/22/19

BESLER Completes Acquisition of Essential Consulting LLC, a Leader in Hospital Reimbursement Services and Supporting Technology

Hospital RCM company Besler acquires competitor Essential Consulting for an undisclosed amount.

Family’s letter to Providence St. Mary leads to new telemedicine program for critically ill children

A family’s suggestion and donation leads Providence St. Mary (WA) to pilot telemedicine capabilities that enable its providers to consult with neonatologists and pediatric intensivists in Spokane.

750,000 Medtronic defibrillators vulnerable to hacking

Homeland Security alerts consumers to vulnerabilities in 16 types of Medtronic implantable defibrillators that would allow a hacker to access or modify the device’s data, and change device settings.

Morning Headlines 3/21/19

CMS Awards IMPAQ Contract to Support Patient Safety Measure Development and Maintenance

Impaq International signs a five-year, multimillion dollar contract with CMS for the development, implementation, and maintenance of patient safety measures used in the the Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting program, Hospital-Acquired Condition Reduction program, and the Promoting Interoperability program.

ZOLL Reports Recent Data Security Incident

Critical care device and software company Zoll notifies customers and patients of a data breach that occurred when a third-party vendor left emails exposed during a server migration late last year.

SA Health upgrades to latest version of Allscripts EMR

SA Health in Australia upgrades its Allscripts Sunrise software after a report found numerous problems with the health system’s EHR and patient administration project.

Morning Headlines 3/20/19

Primus Capital Provides Growth Investment in Harmony Healthcare IT

Health data archiving company Harmony Healthcare IT secures an unspecified amount of funding from Primus Capital.

Unite Us Raises $35 Million to Bridge the Gap Between Health and Social Care

Healthcare and social services coordination software vendor Unite Us raises $35 million in a Series B funding round.

Teladoc Health to Expand Global Reach with Acquisition of MédecinDirect

Teladoc acquires French telemedicine company MédecinDirect.

Morning Headlines 3/19/19

Malfunctioning billing system leaves scars on Glens Falls Hospital

Glenn Falls Hospital (NY) reaches a confidential settlement with Cerner after a $38 million loss attributed to its faulty billing system.

Beware the hype over the Apple Watch heart app. The device could do more harm than good

STAT points out that the highly-publicized results of an Apple Heart Study on a-fib detection conducted by Stanford University should be taken with a grain of salt, given that it was an observational study without a control group of non-Apple Watch users.

The messy, cautionary tale of how Babylon disrupted the NHS

Babylon’s GP at Hand telemedicine clinic in London offers NHS patients a tech-friendly alternative to traditional clinics, but is placing an unexpectedly burdensome strain on local resources and staff.

$1 billion Sequoia-backed Health Catalyst has picked lead banks for its IPO

Sources report that Health Catalyst has selected Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan to handle its IPO.

VA’s Private Care Program Headed for Tech Trouble, Review Finds

A US Digital Service review finds that private-care eligibility software developed by AbleVets on behalf of the VA should be scrapped due to numerous flaws resulting from a rushed development timeline.

Morning Headlines 3/18/19

Change Healthcare on deck for IPO

Change Healthcare, valued at up to $12 billion, files IPO documents for a $100 million IPO.

Signify Health acquires start-up TAV Health in multimillion-dollar deal

Mobile health evaluation company Signify Health acquires TAV Health, which offers a platform to connect community and health partners to address social determinants of health.

Doctors Create an iPad Program to Help NICU Babies Get Home Faster

Doctors at University of Virginia Children’s Hospital develop an IPad-based system that allows NICU babies to go home earlier, replacing a pen-and-paper and call-in system for parents to report their baby’s feedings and weight.

A huge trove of medical records and prescriptions found exposed

EHR vendor Meditab leaves a server unsecured for nearly a year, giving anyone the ability to read the content of medical faxes in real time.

Morning Headlines 3/15/19

More than 72,000 possibly affected by hospital data breach

Rutland Regional Medical Center (VT) notifies 72,000 patients of a breach after discovering that the email accounts of nine employees had been hacked late last year.

Aldrich Capital Partners Invests in eHealth Technologies

Medical record retrieval and image-sharing company EHealth Technologies secures $41 million in financing.

Theranos employees struggle to put scandal behind them

As HBO’s Theranos documentary gets set to air, former Theranos employees recount the ways in which their time at the company has stigmatized them and severely curtailed their career trajectories.

Morning Headlines 3/14/19

TriNetX Secures $40 Million in Series D Funding

Analytics-enabled global health research network TriNetX raises $40 million in a financing round led by Merck Global Health Innovation Fund.

ImagineSoftware Acquires RCM Software Company ProviderAlly

Medical billing company ImagineSoftware acquires healthcare payment automation and analytics vendor ProviderAlly.

Mental health providers, others ask for delay to electronic health record requirement

Citing high EHR costs and lack of selection, behavioral health providers in North Carolina are pushing for more time to connect to the statewide HIE ahead of the mandated June 1 deadline.

Morning Headlines 3/13/19

Mach7 Announces Restructuring to Accelerate Sales and Achieve Cash-flow Break Even

Australian imaging software vendor Mach7 fires its CEO and eliminates the CTO role as part of a restructuring and cost-cutting program that it hopes will propel its US growth.

NIH cancer chief to serve as acting FDA commissioner

National Cancer Institute Director Ned Sharpless, MD will take over as acting FDA commissioner once Scott Gottlieb, MD departs next month.

Apple’s Likely Healthcare Roadmap

An investment analyst thinks Apple will expand the Watch’s medical sensors and then sell the data of wearers to their doctors for $10 per patient per month.

2019 Top 10 Patient Safety Concerns

Warnings against relying solely on EHR information for diagnostic stewardship and test result management, managing patient expectations around antibiotics, and physician burnout awareness and review top ECRI Institute’s annual list of patient safety recommendations.

Morning Headlines 3/12/19

Hill-Rom to acquire Voalte, Inc.

Hill-Rom will acquire Voalte for $180 million and integrate it into its care communications business.

House Veterans Affairs is Having Trouble Hiring Tech Experts

House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Mark Takano (D-CA) tells SXSW attendees that the VA is having trouble finding and retaining technology talent for its EHR modernization effort, citing the difficulty of finding candidates with the right mix of health IT experience and policy know-how with salary expectations that fit the VA’s budget.

Aetna Heads A $25 Million Investment Round Into MAP Health Management

Addiction recovery tech company Map Health Management raises $25 million in a Series A round led by Aetna.

Morning Headlines 3/11/19

Hidden FDA Reports Detail Harm Caused By Scores Of Medical Devices

FDA has given surgical stapler manufacturers an exemption from publicly reporting problems to its MAUDE database of medical device failures, allowing them to hide widespread problems.

Spokane’s Columbia Surgical Specialists paid nearly $15,000 in a ransomware attack that compromised patient data

Columbia Surgical Specialists (WA) pays $15,000 to regain access to its data following a ransomware attack.

Doctor tells patient he doesn’t have long to live through hospital robot’s video screen

Kaiser Permanente apologizes for one of its doctors telling a 79-year-old inpatient that he was dying via a telemedicine robot.

VA and DOD set to pick health data decider

DoD and VA officials expect to have a lead for their joint EHR efforts named within the next two weeks.

Morning Headlines 3/8/19

Digital-Health Startup Livongo Eyes 2019 IPO

Chronic disease management-focused digital health company Livongo hires underwriters to prepare a Q3 IPO that’s expected to bring in $1 billion.

Carestream Health To Sell its Healthcare IT Business To Philips

Philips acquires Carestream Health’s imaging IT business for an unspecified amount.

Audit: Bad billing system costs Glens Falls Hospital $38 million in revenue

Auditors blame a 2017 implementation of Cerner’s billing system for the $38 million revenue loss of Glen Falls Hospital in New York.

Dozens Of Northwestern Hospital Workers May Have Been Fired For Improperly Reviewing Jussie Smollett’s Records

Northwestern Memorial Hospital fires dozens of employees for looking at the EHR records of actor Jussie Smollett, who was treated in its ED following his claim of being attacked in a racially motivated incident.

Morning Headlines 3/7/19

Health records giant Epic temporarily halts additions to its app store because of privacy concerns

Epic confirms it stopped accepting new apps into its App Orchard last December while it reviewed the security and privacy policies of some third-party developers. We reported and confirmed this with Epic on February 18.

VA to Pilot Health Records System in March 2020

The VA will begin piloting its new Cerner EHR next year at three facilities in the Pacific Northwest.

Amazon-JPMorgan-Berkshire Health-Care Venture to Be Called Haven

Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan announce via a new website that their year-old healthcare venture will be called Haven.

Morning Headlines 3/6/19

FDA chief Scott Gottlieb resigns

FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, MD resigns, effective next month.

ZOLL Acquires Golden Hour Data Systems

Medical device maker Zoll Medical acquires Golden Hour Data Systems, which offers charting, RCM, and hospital integration software for EMS companies.

TRHC Announces Acquisition of PrescribeWellness Expanding its Medication Risk Mitigation Offering

Medication safety software vendor Tabula Rasa HealthCare acquires pharmacy-focused patient relationship management technology business PrescribeWellness for an undisclosed sum.

Morning Headlines 3/5/19

Red flags for Nova Scotia’s electronic health records mega-deal

Critics of Nova Scotia’s One Person One Record project, for which Allscripts and Cerner are the vendors being considered, note Cerner rollout problems in Australia’s Queensland Health, South Australia’s planned overhaul of its Allscripts-powered EPAS project, and a poorly run Cerner implementation at British Columbia’s Nanaimo Regional General Hospital. 

This hospital modeled itself after the Apple Store, and lets pregnant mothers use gadgets to monitor their health at home

Ochsner Health System (LA) develops Connected MOM, a free remote patient monitoring program for expectant mothers that incorporates digital health tools accessible at a Genius Bar-styled area of the hospital.

Amazon Gives AI to Harvard Hospital in Tech’s Latest Health Push

A $2 million grant from Amazon enables AWS and Best Israel Deaconess Medical Center (MA) to determine how machine learning and AI can help improve workflows, diagnoses, and treatments.

Morning Headlines 3/4/19

Beth Israel Lahey Health is officially one entity. Here’s what happens next.

The newly-combined health systems intend to focus on the interoperability of their multiple EHRs in the short-term, eventually moving everything onto one system.

Microsoft to offer Band refunds, announces end of apps and services

Microsoft will shut down Microsoft Band and Microsoft Health Dashboard apps and services on May 31, following discontinuation of its Band fitness tracker two years ago.

Rhode Island Health Department Backs Away From Punitive Action

After physicians cry foul over being accused of medical misconduct for reporting safety-related EHR errors that didn’t affect patients, the Rhode Island Department of Health dials back its punitive actions and assures providers it will take a more collaborative approach.

Baby born with brain damage after ‘fragmented’ care at Queensland hospital

An Australian hospital’s internal review concludes that “disjointed information flow” in its Cerner EHR, plus other factors, contributed to a newborn baby’s brain damage.