HIStalk 2010 Reader Survey Results

I’m heads-down most of the year trying to keep up with my day job and HIStalk. Once a year right after HIMSS, though, I like to run a reader survey and study the results so that I don’t lose the big picture. The time it takes for readers to fill out the survey is well spent since Inga and I plan the whole next year based on what readers tell us.

In the interest of transparency, I like to share what readers have told me. Here are some tidbits from the 2010 survey.

• The most common age range for readers is 41-50, followed by 51-60. Those groups summed up to 63% of readers. That might surprise some folks who think that only newbies read blogs.
• HIStalk’s readership has a lot of industry experience, with 41% having at 20 or more years and 74% having at least 10.
• Provider employees with IT purchasing influence make up 36% of readers.
• Readers are on the site often, with 38% saying they read whenever the e-mail comes, 23% daily or more often, and 98% more often than weekly. A full 92% said the frequency of new posts is about right, although a few suggested more frequent postings.
• While 63% of respondents get the e-mail blast when I write something new, 37% don’t. I’m a little surprised that folks read without getting the blast since that’s a sure way to be the first to know.
• For the question of the degree to which HIStalk influences reader perception of companies and products, 64% said some and 30% said a lot. Six percent said none at all.
• The most valued HIStalk features are (in order) news, rumors, Inga, and humor. Several respondents volunteered they liked my music recommendations, which I didn’t think to list separately.
• I asked whether readers have a higher interest in companies mentioned in HIStalk. An amazing 85% said yes.
• When asked whether readers were more interested in companies that sponsor HIStalk, 38% said yes.
• I asked about HIStalk’s influence on the industry. 12% said not much, 52% said some, 32% said a good bit, and 4% said a lot. If I were a vendor, I’d spin this to say that 88% of readers say HIStalk influences the industry.
• This is my favorite stat every year: when asked whether HIStalk helps you perform your job better, 82% of readers said yes. I could throw out all the other results and be happy with just this one, especially since it was at 65% a couple of surveys ago and I was pleased enough with that.

I asked what topics I should be covering more of. Some of the themes:

• Usability
• Niche vendors and emerging companies
• Implementation stories and case studies. Some suggested covering these by individual vendors to help others who are making selections.
• Index comments by vendor and/or hospital. I really like that idea. Maybe I should hire someone just to parse out the individual mentions and put them into a database or something.
• Write more about how individual hospitals expect to benefit under ARRA (or how they won’t).
• Get product reviews from real users, verify the submitter’s identity, but then run it anonymously. I really like that idea too.

I asked what one thing I should change. Some comments that represent major themes:

• Readers Write seem like PR pieces. Sometimes they do indeed. Please feel free to post comments saying so since that’s the best method I know to discourage self-puffery under the guise of sharing information. Someone had a good idea – require them to contain at least one negative point about whatever topic they are about.
• Ads take a long time to load on mobile device. Hint: add /PRINT/ to the link and you’ll get the text-only view that should work great on a smart phone.
• Fewer flashing ads. I don’t limit those (yet), but sponsors who want to score points with readers might want to eliminate the animation. This is the most common plea for change.
• Nothing. I like your format – some of the articles are more applicable to me than others, but other readers would pick the opposite. I can sort. Thanks for that. It’s hard to pick out the stories that have the broadest interest.
• More Inga but everyone probably says the same. They do indeed.
• Consistent organization and outlining of the post so I can find the parts I care about faster. That’s hard to do within a single posting given the breadth of topics.
• Open up the waiting list for your HIMSS reception so more can get in! It gets booked up so fast that I always wonder how many people would come if we didn’t have to cut it off. In the mean time, it’s fun to have it be a hot ticket.
• Can’t think of a thing. HIStalk is the best! Thank you.
• I love HIStalk — don’t change! Thank you.
• Shorter reader writes. I keep telling authors to keep it to 500 words if they want to hold reader attention. It’s hard for them to edit their own stuff, I guess, but it would take me a lot of time to do it for them. But prospective authors take the hint – less is more.
• Take a day off! Good idea – I did!
• Several readers said to publish more rumors no matter how wild and unlikely, while others said don’t publish unconfirmed rumors.
• When I first started reading, you walked a line between irreverence and curiosity. Now it seems more like cynicism and disdain. More than anything I’d love to see that curiosity come back. You might be right there. I will work on that.
• Have Monday morning update come out on MONDAY. Great idea, other than my employer would like me to actually do stuff for them on Monday. I usually write it and send it Saturday evening or Sunday since there’s no chance of interesting Sunday news anyway. I could hold the e-mail blast until Monday morning, but readers starting e-mailing me Saturday evening if they don’t get it (which I think is cute, especially when they are worried about me).
• Have something completely new 5 days a week. Long-time readers may remember that I experimented with that in 2005, writing Monday through Friday. It took a lot of time, but even more importantly, one reader was dead on when he told me that HIStalk wasn’t “special” when it hit his inbox every day.
• The world needs more Inga! It really does.
• No more warning about PDF links. That’s certainly easier for me, although if I were reading on a mobile device, I wouldn’t want to click a blind link to some 10-megabyte PDF.
• I would either adapt, add to, or begin an alternative, which includes more weight from the sustainment side. Includes honest opinions, real stories, the truth, about vendors and consultants. I keep coming back to this as an excellent idea.

I then opened it up for any general comments. Here are a few representative ones:

• Keep up the great work! I have no idea how you keep up with everything and then tag it with a great opinion. You make my job easier and and my life more fun! PS: keep Inga around forever!!!
• You do good work and you are very widely read in our industry. I appreciate that you don’t take yourself too seriously. I appreciate that you don’t take rumors too seriously, at least not until there is something to back them up.
• I respect and admire what you’ve been able to accomplish in this industry. Often, I get the news I read on HIStalk 2-3 days before I get it in any other forum! I also appreciate the way you wait to confirm some of the "iffy" news! Thanks and keep at it!
• Not additional thoughts just keep up the fair, honest and direct communication flowing.
• It rocks. Keep it up. At times I get more direct (speak: non-marketing) info than any of the paid research services I use.
• HIStalk has become my lunch reading. You do a great job with it – thank you.
• Good format – its easy to scan and read while listening in on that boring meeting or phone call. Good info overall. As a vendor, I like to see how my software, and my competitor’s, are viewed by the providers and buyers. What are the challenges, the risks they face, what influences how well a product is received and reviewed. For all of us NOT associated with Epic, we are hungry for any insight and help with decoding the provider’s and CTO’s mind.
• Don’t stop doing it – I know it’s a second job for you. HIStalk is the one fact check site I trust to winnow thru the vendor-based marketing crap out there and the big iron IT company’s PR spin. It’s almost as good as a free KLAS analysis.
• I’ve been a follower for a few years now. Stopping by is part of my daily routine, and when it comes to my doing research, HIStalk is on the short list of Internet stoops I hit immediately. I appreciate insight, attitude and opinion free of the general bullshit that tarnishes so many blogs. Keep on doing what you’re doing. I really appreciate it. Seriously.
• Straight forward, no nonsense, sometimes funny, usually very well written, brainy (and probably pretty) female accomplice. What else is there?
• Maybe I shouldn’t admit this, but HIStalk is the only such newsletter I read. I’m in Univ/Hosp research IT (very different from clinical IT), so I don’t relate to a lot of the pure hosp news items – nevertheless, I never miss my daily HIStalk. I think the attraction is partly news, but also that readers can respond anonymously or not – and that you don’t bow and scrape to anyone, esp. sponsors – and I almost always learn something new.
• Nice job as usual … the blog seemingly gets better over time. Great content with professional and humorous delivery … Keep up the great work.
• Keep up the good work. I know how widely it is read. Is there some way to direct writings or advice or commentary specifically to "the workers"? the in the trench folks who I think see all this news and commentary as flying by over their heads far removed from them.
• Love it, thank you for all of the hard work!
• Great blog. I really appreciate the great reporting and knowledge. You’re appropriately suspicious of rumors, and you seem to have a great understanding of what news would be interesting to report. I’m a huge fan and recommend that everyone I know read. (Of course, they all already read you, so I can’t claim to be much of an additive evangelist.) It’s just really, really good. One of two blogs I read regularly (and the other one is a Michigan football blog).
• HIStalk is a great source for breaking information and juicy rumors that come out eventually in the traditional trade rags.
• I am constantly amazed at the breadth of information that jumps out of these pages. I learn more about the industry and movement within it from HIStalk than all the other subscriptions I have. Heck, you have published information about changes within my own company before we were informed of them. The recent articles on EMR allowed me to view the effort through the eyes of various leaders, which was enlightening. I look forward to finding 5-10 minutes to browse the information every day — one of my routines now.
• Just that this is my favorite blog, but I must confess the other blogs I routinely look at are the MTV Jersey Shore and The Real Housewives from Bravo tv.
• To the extent you can bring on more people to write (e.g. more Inga’s and HIStalk Mobile types) – that would be outstanding (and know you’re pursuing this).. and find some way of provoking more CIOs to weigh in… and encourage people to divulge product differentiators and pricing… Thanks again – you’re the highlight of my day and have helped me a better HIT professional by 10x.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to respond.

Monday Morning Update 3/22/10

From kITty: “Re: Detroit Medical Center. Sold to Vanguard Health Systems.” DMC signs a letter of intent to sell out to the for-profit Nashville chain, with the hospital’s CEO saying, “The nonprofit hospital model is killing health care in the city of Detroit.” It will be interesting to see how a for-profit operator can improve a situation in which the local economy is wrecked and the hospital is burdened with charity care. I assume from my long-ago, not fondly remembered experience in working for a for-profit hospital chain that the bean counters will run wild trying to cut costs and manipulate the patient mix for maximal profit, which is of course what for-profit companies do to benefit their shareholders, hopefully not at the expense of their customers (patients).

From mrsoul: “Re: today is Certified Nurses Day. Unlike CPHIMS, you actually have to verify education and experience BEFORE you can take the board exam. Re-certification does take effort and diligence. I am a CPHIMS too; but, I can tell you the RN-BC from ANCC testifies far more effort and experience to my peers. Happy vernal equinox!” Friday, March 19 was the day to recognize certified nurses, including those holding ANCC’s informatics nursing credential. If you are a board-certified RN, a belated happy Certified Nurses Day to you.

Trident Medical System (SC) goes live in the ED with Oacis HIE in a Carolina eHealth Alliance-sponsored program that connects 11 EDs. Trident is Columbia HCA’s hospital group and Oacis HIE connects their Meditech systems with each other and those of MUSC.

John McConnell, who made a couple of kings’ ransoms in selling out Medic Computer System and A4 and then bought golf courses, gets back in the software business. He’s buying a golf club management software vendor. Allscripts probably won’t be buying this one from him.

Parrish Medical Center (FL) claims a 31% reduction in mortality and a 77% drop in non-ICU code blue calls as it uses Clinical Xpert CareFocus from Thomson Reuters in a Six Sigma project involving its rapid response team. The software identifies patients at risk through an ongoing review of meds, results, vitals, orders, and other clinical data.

A few housekeeping reminders: drop your e-mail in the Subscribe to Updates box to your right to be among the first to know when I post something new. The Search box plows effortlessly through the nearly seven years’ of HIStalk to find mentions products, companies, and people. Click the ugly green Rumor Report button to send anonymous news my way, including any attachments. Add your industry events free to the HIStalk Calendar. If you want to look back on previous articles, use the search box or the Archives page. Please remember to support the companies that sponsor HIStalk by poring over the ads to your left occasionally and clicking those that interest you (and the text ads to your right as well). If you want a cleaner, leaner view of a post for printing or mobile viewing, click the View/Print Text Only link at the bottom of it to get a nicely formatted, print-ready version of just the article itself.

Readers generally agree that companies aren’t doing themselves any favors by holding their press releases until HIMSS week, along with everyone else. Make the announcement before the conference, 68% of you said. New poll to your right: what influence does the HIMSS annual conference have on hospital IT buying decisions?

I notice that the visitor count will hit 3 million before long, so I assume Inga is preparing for her usual celebratory pomp and circumstance. She loves watching that counter.

TPD has updated his excellent list of healthcare iPhone applications with many new apps.

The acquisition of QuadraMed by Francisco Partners has been completed.

An interesting perspective from Indra Neil Sarkar, director of biomedical informatics at the University of Vermont College of Medicine, on the role of informatics related to EMRs:

AMIA is making very good headway in this community. There are only about 2,000 to 5,000 of us who are formally certified informaticians. Someone at a medium-sized hospital might have the title informatician, but they are really IT and not informatics. And if there is one term I have an issue with, it’s ‘health-IT,’ it’s the misnomer that we’re stuck with.

Informaticians need IT, but if you ask me to fix something on my computer, I am not a hardware guy. It’s a way of thinking. Many informaticians here fell into the field by accident. I grew up with computers and had strong ideas about the role of computers in microbiology. I am not a physician but I have a lot of interest in medicine. I had the notion I would spend most of my time in the lab using a computer on the side, but I have a dry lab, I don’t maintain a wet lab.

Creating data is not the problem; it’s understanding the data, and that is where AMIA fits in with its history. Its main meeting is more oriented toward electronic health records. This meeting is, ‘Let’s take EHRs and basic bioinformatics for granted. Now what can we do with the data?’

The Las Vegas newspaper reported on confidentiality breaches at University Medical Center a few months back, but this seems to stretching the point: an investigative piece reports that hospital managers don’t have good records of who has keys to the shred bins. The maximum fine for that egregious act: $400. Must have been a slow news day.

CHRISTUS Health engages MEDSEEK to develop its consumer portal and will eventually implement the company’s eHealth ecoSystem.

E-mail me.

News 3/19/10

From Ex-Cerner Guy: “Re: CPSI. I prospected heavily in Mid-Atlantic and Mid-West regions, and can vouch for the need for a CPSI or Intra-Nexus. Quite a few Meditech sites were looking around and they were only getting called back by the McK Paragon types. There is definitely a market and some pent-up demand.”

From Dan D: “Re: Tom Skelton. He has left MED3OOO for another opportunity.” Unverified.

From RJ McMurphy: “Re: putting HIMSS in perspective. Vendors representing half of the hospital HIS/EMR systems in America weren’t even present! If you look at the HIMSS Analytics report in Modern Healthcare for Jan. 2009, you’ll see Meditech with 26.7% market share, Cerner with 12.6, and Siemens with 9.5. That adds up to 48.7%. All three chose to opt out of HIMSS. Basically it’s become a hype circus — no buying influence really happens there. It was more important earlier in the market cycle when PowerPoint was the main operating system for EMR vendors. Now almost all buying is done by peer site reference and Internet data gathering. Organizations like HIMSS, KLAS, Gartner are trying to make themselves more relevant with lots of hype about trends, etc. The world has changed and I laud those three for opting out and saving their shareholders and stakeholders the cash!”

From Doug Dinsdale: “Re: Merge. Dr. Dalai challenges the CEO of Merge to explain why the purchase of Amicas isn’t going to ruin both companies.”

Cerner makes the S&P 500.

A reader sends this picture of a billboard one of his patients asked him about.

Haemonetics extends its $60 million offer for GlobalMed Technologies to give that company time to settle a shareholder lawsuit seeking to block the acquisition.

Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare (FL) chooses Allscripts PM/EHR for its 106 providers and 33 family medicine residents.

Singapore General Hospital wins the Microsoft HUG 2010 Innovation Award for “Best Use of Clinical Records – Inpatient” for its use of Eclipsys Sunrise Patient Flow, which improved bed placement time and reduced overhead.

A Weird News Andy find: a former dentist is accused of using paper clips instead of stainless steel posts inside the teeth of root canal patients, about which WNA says, “Maybe it’s for all those people who use paper to floss.”

More information on the HIMSS EHRA position on meaningful use is here.

McKesson announces a hosted storage option for Horizon Cardiology CVIS, with Cooper University Hospital (NJ) as an early adopter.

Software developed by Boston Medical Center, Northeastern University, and MIT that reduced readmissions by 30% is licensed for commercialization to Engineered Care Inc.

A new iPhone app called iResus walks users through emergency resuscitation, providing a metronome for timing chest compressions.

Nurse scheduling software vendor StaffKnex changes its name to OnShift. They apparently like conjoined words quite a bit.

Everything about this story is sad. A four-month-old Down’s baby dies in the UK after being given a tenfold overdose of the diuretic furosemide. The computerized warning issued to the doctor’s office is overridden by the receptionist. The pharmacist hears the technician questioning the dose with the prescriber, but doesn’t follow up. The neighbors of the parents, convinced they killed their own child, trash their house and steal all the baby’s belongings. Weeks later, the father kills himself by drug overdose. The coroner’s report finally came out this week, four years later, finding that the doctor and pharmacist were at fault.

Revenue cycle vendor Emdeon will acquire management consulting firm Healthcare Technology Management Services for $11 million.

At least somebody likes the proposed meaningful use criteria: AARP and Consumers Union.

Lexi-Comp releases its ON-HAND medical software for the Palm Pre and Pixi.

A KLAS report finds that 20% of smart pump buyers wouldn’t choose their current pump again, although 99% of CareFusion Alaris said they would. Still, the highest rated pump was the B. Braun Outlook.

Meridian Health (NJ) chooses CareAlign from Informatics Corporation of America to deliver an integrated clinical record to five hospitals.

MedFusion licenses LIS, molecular diagnostics, and AP software from Sunquest.

E-mail me.

News 3/17/10

From Harvey: “Re: CPSI. The small/rural hospital market has been dead money for years. However, the QSII/Opus deal may mark the start of a land grab there. Rumors are that Francisco will either IPO or sell Healthland this year, which tells you that there is demand for assets in this sector. My guess is that almost everything’s for sale in that space, including HMS and the indifferently-managed CPSI. Would love to see an interview with Francisco’s Ezra Perlman. He’s been a major mover and shaker, but rarely discusses HCIT publicly.” I agree (and I would be up for that interview). I overheard conversations at HIMSS about that largely untapped small-hospital market and some interesting players were named as being well positioned, such as IntraNexus.

From ZenSocrates: “Re: McKesson. Mike Myers, the McKesson executive responsible for the Clinical Documentation/Physician Order Entry product and a true pioneer of HIS, has announced his retirement for this July. The concern is that McKesson could not name a successor at the time of the announcement. As a customer, this concerns me greatly!!” Unverified.

From MckHappy: “Re: McKesson. McKesson and Jeremy Chandler are finally implementing the changes they had promised within the Horizon team. Mike Myers has announced his retirement effective July 1. Jim Nemecek is no longer VP over ambulatory. Cem Tanyel from Unisys will be named as the new head of development. Gerry McCarthy will add ambulatory to the physician solution line. The internal release focused on integration and eliminating the politics — errr, I mean development silos. Rumor going around is that portal and ambulatory development will be centralized in Boulder. The ARRA-certified release was shipped on-time to the pilot site last week.” Unverified, but if true, I wasn’t the only one observing the development silos and lack of staff stability.

From William Tell: “Re: HIMSS. I guess from what Lieber says, HIMSS is all things to all people.” An article quotes Steve Lieber as wanting to push into life sciences and payer markets, medical banking, PHRs, and workforce. I can only imagine the confusion as everybody tries to sell something to everybody else at the conferences. And in related world domination news, HIMSS Analytics is now working in Europe.

From Dickie Smothers: “Re: HIPAA. Check out 42 USC 1320d-6, which defines ‘A person who knowingly and in violation of this part … obtains individually identifiable health information relating to an individual …’ The term “person” is defined (in the main part of 1320) as an individual, a trust or estate, a partnership, or a corporation. I’ve read that because the above section applies only for a ‘violation of this part’, it only applies to those otherwise covered by HIPAA (since anyone else couldn’t ‘violate’ the provision). However, the HITECH changes in Section 13409 of the Act seem to broaden the applicability. Don’t think it was effective, however, last Thanksgiving. Nevertheless, a bright federal prosecutor could make a conspiracy charge or bribery charge stick if he/she wanted to. Just my opinion.” This relates to the story I mentioned in which a gossip site supposedly made 6,000 calls to the hospital Tiger Woods was in, trying to wangle his medical records from anyone willing to spill the beans for cash.

From Jack Flash: “Re: athenahealth. This is a very entertaining and insightful interview of a slightly buzzed Jonathan Bush at the HIStalk party. Greatest quote of the interview, on being asked about Healthcare Policy — ‘I love Obama’s package. He looks great.’” Definitely a fun watch.

From Radiology Ralph: “Re: DR systems debut of Unity CVIS. You mean DR Systems does something other than sue other radiology vendors for its ‘416 patent infringement? Go ‘Dominator!’” Just in case anyone doesn’t know the back story, DR Systems filed a slew of lawsuits in 2006 claiming patent infringement of a PACS reading station feature: eRad, NovaRad, Emageon, Fuji, GE, Philips, Siemens, Kodak, and others.

From Stifler’s Mom: “Re: Medicare. Good article on that 21% Medicare cut that happened, then got fixed, while we were partying in Atlanta. I don’t know how many doctors wandering the exhibits halls were leaving their wallets in their rooms, but I would have. Even with the ‘fix,’ if I were a doc, I’d be too nervous and reluctant to be spending any big bucks. No one at HIMSS was talking about a 21% pay cut in their already low Medicare reimbursement!”

From Meaningful Abuse: “Re: HIMSS attendance. If only 30% (~8,357) of the registrants came from healthcare provider setting, where did the other 70% (~19,500) come from? Isn’t this a healthcare setting information technology show? Only 11%(!) of the registrants were CIO/CTOs? Was that 11% of the healthcare provider attendees or 11% of the total registrants? Same question about CEOs… So, who do the vendors want to talk with? C-level decision-makers, not mid-level IT managers or staff. No wonder HIMSS vendors are chafed about the money they have to spend for their chunk o’ concrete.”

Several readers asked about the lyrics to Dr. HITECH’s Meaningful Yoose Rap. They are here and they are excellent.

Now that we’re over the HIMSS hump, I’m interested in doing some new interviews (with provider-siders especially encouraged). Or, your guest articles are welcome (more of those from providers would be especially welcome). I’m finally to the point that I can get to them.

The HIMSS EHR Association weighs in on meaningful use and incentives. That response wasn’t detailed, but it apparently urged simplification, reduced requirements for data collection, and allowing only one document standard.  

Not to be outdone, Markle Foundation has its say on the same topic. Some of their ideas: (a) set explicit health goals; (b) make the quality measures list more focused; (c) add new measures for priority health goals; (d) get rid of the all-or-none approach to incentives to encourage improvement without requiring hitting 100% of the proposed requirements; (e) streamline some of the calculation-heavy functional measures; (f) make electronic reporting requirements simpler; (g) focus on easy measures that improve patient engagement; (h) clarify that a secure download of patient information is acceptable; (h) get feedback into doctors’ hands quicker; and (i) clarify how hospital-based physicians can participate. I think they did a great job with good consensus and I would expect HHS to seriously consider their recommendations since they are less vendor- and product-centric and focus more on patients and providers. Kudos to them.

VA CIO Roger Baker lays it on the line for his IT staff: he’s happy to kill projects that miss deadlines or run into snags. That’s semi-good news for taxpayers, but the shining star of that policy cost a bundle, a failed patient scheduling application that cost $150 million.

In the UK, NHS’s medical director and NPfIT defender resigns his additional role as a director of an NHS software supplier after an anonymous blog commenter brings up the perception of a conflict of interest.

Jobs: EHR Business Systems Analyst (WA), Clinical Exec Physician – Sales Support (GA), Epic Revenue Cycle Manager (FL), Client Training and Support Specialist (MA). Some pretty good jobs are up on Healthcare IT Jobs, so take a look.

Akron General Health System signs an $11 million clinical systems upgrade contract with McKesson, including CPOE and Practice Partner.

A survey finds that 12% of employees knowingly violate IT department policies “in order to get their work done.” The survey appears to encourage outrage at irresponsible users, but IT policies that impede individual productivity in the never-ending quest for risk reduction should probably share some blame.

McGill University Health Centre launches its PHR, Unani.ca.

E-mail me.

HERtalk by Inga

After placing its EHR project on hold for a year, Sutter Health announces plans to spend $400 million and accelerate its Epic implementation over the next five years. Sutter intends to take five of its affiliated hospitals live on its Epic EHR in 2011. The health system has already rolled out EHR to the majority of its physician offices, as well as its Mills-Peninsula Health Services facility.

Preliminary registration numbers from HIMSS10 indicate attendance was up across the board. Professional registration grew 9% over 2009, though the total registration number was only 2% higher than last year.

The deadline to file comments on the latest meaningful use and certification criteria is now past, but not before multiple organizations filed last minute comments. CHIME, MGMA, CCHIT, and the AMA were just some of the many groups to submit public comments before the March 15th deadline.

CCHIT, by the way, says it is suspending any initial or incremental modular testing until it has an accredited Stage 1 ARRA test script to use. A note on its Web site also indicates that CCHIT is “confident” about its prospects for becoming accredited. Meanwhile, Drummond Group reaffirms its desire to be certified as a authorized testing and certification body and is making internal preparations in order to be ready for EHR testing later this year.

Columbia Basin Hospital (WA) agrees to outsource its IT support to Phoenix Health Systems and implement Phoenix’s Total IT Solution service line. The offering includes the implementation of Medsphere’s OpenVista EHR.

Meridian Health (NJ) selects ICA’s CareAlign solution to connect its five hospitals and its affiliated healthcare companies.

After delaying the release its numbers, athenahealth posts a decline in profits and jump in revenue for Q4 and 2009. athenahealth restated its financials going back to 2005 as a result of an internal accounting policy review, initiated by the company, and related to the timing of amortization for deferred implementation revenue. For Q4, revenue grew 33% over 2008’s numbers to $54.4 million. For the year, revenue jumped 38% to $188.5 million. Reported GAAP net income, however, fell 84% to $4.3 million in Q4, compared to $26.8 million a year ago; annual net income fell from $31.5 million to $9.3 million. The $.17/share earnings were in line with analyst expectations.

UMass Memorial Health Care selects Picis CareSuite for its five hospitals.

Wayne State University Physician Group (MI) contracts with NextGen Healthcare to deploy NextGen Practice Solutions. The 540-physician group already uses NextGen EHR.

Holland Hospital (MI) plans to implement the InterSystems Ensemble platform as its enterprise integration engine. The hospital plans to connect multiple systems across the facility and integrate its EMR with affiliated physician groups.

St. Joseph Medical Center (TX) implements Webmedx’s dictation and transcription platform, apparently within three days of a crash of its legacy systems.

Vitalize Consulting appoints Tim McMullen its executive VP of sales. McMullen most recently served as a VP at maxIT Healthcare and was a national VP and partner with First Consulting before that.

HIT consulting firm maxIT and the the medical device experts at Anson Group combine forces. The companies sign a partnership agreement aimed at providing vendors and providers expertise in the implementation of regulated medical devices connected to EMRs. Sounds like great timing, given the recent attention on EMRs and their possible regulation by the FDA.

CareTech Solutions signs a five-year infrastructure outsourcing agreement with Sibley Memorial Hospital (DC).

BCBS of Minnesota makes a bit of a mistake, accidentally publishing a customer’s personal medical information it a handbook for 95,000 members. The woman is now filing suit for the breach of privacy and violation of the Minnesota Health Records Act.  Her attorney calls it “one of the most blatant and egregious violations of medical privacy” that she’s ever heard of.

E-mail a limerick to Inga.

HIMSS10: Party Like It’s 1999

By Mr. HIStalk

Inside Healthcare Computing has graciously agreed to make this editorial available from its newsletter.

Healthcare is different, everybody says, Well, it sure is when it comes to throwing the excessive bacchanal that is the HIMSS annual conference.

Most citizens are shell-shocked from economic devastation. Most industries are reeling. But at HIMSS, it was 1999 all over again.

Sprawling exhibitor booths are burning electricity like a third-world country! Bring on the big-name entertainment! Cocktail hour in the exhibit hall is just what stressed hospital executives need to make informed, responsible IT decisions!

The most common phrase I heard in the exhibit hall other than Meaningful Use was Ruth’s Chris.

It was a Las Vegas time warp in Atlanta. Everybody slept in expensive hotel rooms and wore pricy clothes and screwed around with party schedules on expensive smart phones and fretted over dinner reservations and wine lists at expensive restaurants. The neon and booth babes were out in force, everybody loaded up on overpriced Starbuck’s coffee, and hired cars and limos lined up to transport captains of the HIT industry and their minions to and from the convention center.

In the back of my mind, though, was my hospital’s ED. I was thinking of the people patiently waiting there, those using it as their primary care provider because they can’t afford insurance. If I randomly chose one of those patients and took them to HIMSS, what would they think of the free-wheeling technology funfest?

I worry that hospital executives have decided that they are far superior in every way to the average patient they supposedly serve. They have more education, make more money, and enjoy life benefits that the randomly chosen ED patient cannot comprehend. When they travel, they travel in style, and thus supposedly struggling community hospitals will reimburse executives for $250 hotel rooms. And when they go to HIMSS, self-sacrifice is hard to find. In fact, so is any mention of real, live patients, many of whom would probably cause the suit-wearing crowd to physically recoil because they don’t look or act like them.

The other irony is that the key element of discussion, the topic that packed the conference rooms, was getting hands on taxpayer money. All those highly paid and highly expense accounted people were getting together to talk about hitting those economically shell-shocked people and companies a little harder in the pocketbook, making the choice on their behalf that their personal income would be better used to fund EMRs through higher taxes.

Maybe the local TV stations should send video reporters to conferences like HIMSS, just to show the folks back home who make it all possible how their healthcare and tax dollars are being spent.

I could be naïve. Maybe the HIMSS spectacle is so over the top that everybody gets the irony. In fact, I bet they were discussing it at Ruth’s Chris.

This editorial is copyright-protected by Algonquin Professional Publishing, LLC., publishers of Inside Healthcare Computing. Please do not copy, forward, or reproduce this material without prior permission. To obtain permission or for more information about Inside Healthcare Computing’s reprint policy, please contact the Customer Service Department at 877-690-1871. Mr. HIStalk’s editorials appear in the subscribers-only version of Inside Healthcare Computing’s E-News Update.

Monday Morning Update 3/15/10

From McMessy: “Re: McKesson report. The author of the report states ‘this channel check is not inconsistent with other checks we have made on MCK and its HCIT products.’ The client in the report indicated that its HERM implementation process started more than a year ago and may take another 18 months to complete. The hospital also said they are currently at HIMSS Stage 6 but that there are about seven Stage 1 criteria that the hospital still does not meet. Ouch!! Another ringing endorsement for HIMSS Analytics! Don’t you need to meet all the Stage 1 criteria before you can get to Stage 2-7?” Not really surprising considering the science fair of wildly different products that share the Horizon Clinicals nameplate, running decentralized development shops for what should be a single product suite, and never-ending employee turnover. But, it works fine in some places and some of their competitors have similar problems.

From The PACS Designer: “Re: HealthVault. Microsoft’s HealthVault application is now ready so that we can create our own PHR along with one for other family members. TPD has posted previously about Microsoft’s Silverlight application which is now part of HealthVault. Also within HealthVault is their Sharepoint application. If you have a Windows Live ID or OpenID you can use either ID to sign up.”

My FDA regulation poll drew quite a few responses, most of which expressed a belief that FDA will indeed step in to regulate healthcare IT in some form. New poll to your right: when a vendor has good news to announce in the weeks before HIMSS, should they announce it immediately, hold it until HIMSS week, or announce afterward? Most vendors hold their news until Monday of the conference, which I think is nuts, but you decide.

Speaking of FDA, it has set up a network of 350 hospitals and asked them to report problems with systems such as CPOE, EHRs, pharmacy systems, PACS, and others under its MedSun medical device safety network, according to a Huffington Post Investigative Fund article.

Inga already referenced Dr. HITECH’s Meaningful Yoose Rap, world premiered at the HIStalk reception at HIMSS, but I’ll embed the video again just in case you missed it. In case you didn’t notice, this was a flawless live performance by Ross Martin, MD, best known until now for his amazing Interoperetta.

And speaking of Inga, she did a marvelous job while I was R&Ring, don’t you think? I never thought I would find someone who could step right in, but we’ve been working together for three years now and she has blossomed wonderfully. I will apologize in advance for the likelihood that I will repeat something she has already mentioned since I’ve been out of touch for a week. Stats-wise, February barely missed setting an HIStalk record even though it was a short month, with 88,057 visits, 120,075 page views, and 5,346 e-mail subscribers. March is trending up. You contributed to those stats, so thanks for that.

As for me, I am rarin’ to go, batteries fully recharged and ecstatic to be back. And listening: Apples in Stereo, Denver-based power pop.

Inga mentioned that I was elated that former HBOC chair Charlie McCall is headed off to prison, which is true. Finally I can quit gritting my teeth when inserting “alleged” in in describing the massive fraud with which his train wreck of a company blighted the industry (although McKesson gets an assist for corporate stupidity in buying him out). It now looks like the decks have been cleared for McKesson to sue him for restitution, which would win them points in my book.

Community Health Solutions of America signs up for MEDai’s Risk Navigator, a predictive modeling suite that identifies high risk patients and tools to manage them.

InterSystems acquires its Italian healthcare implementation partner Prosa.

Former Shands CIO Bill Montgomery is named CIO of Hospital Sisters Health System.

Interesting: when Tiger Woods ended up in a Central Florida hospital, tabloid site TMZ made over 6,000 calls to the hospital within a few hours, dialing every possible number trying to find someone who would provide information. It even offered bribes to hourly workers hoping to get his medical records, the hospital said. It worked — the hospital fired several employees who accessed his records. I’m pretty sure nobody’s HIPAA policies could withstand that kind of attack. Nor am I sure why trying to get someone to violate HIPAA isn’t itself a punishable offense.

I don’t know where Weird News Andy finds this stuff: a Dutch nurses’ union launches a national campaign to remind the citizenry that its members do not routinely provide sexual services to patients. The “I Draw the Line Here” campaign was created after a female nurse observed co-workers offering gratification to a disabled male patient, who then tried to dismiss her because she would not do the same.

CTIA Wireless 2010, in Las Vegas next week, is running an Everywhere Healthcare 2010 track with some good sessions.

Hopefully everybody’s Daylight Saving Time switch went OK.

The Nashville Medical Trade Center, hoping to become a center for healthcare industry events, tried to use the HIMSS conference as a launching pad to get business tenants, but doesn’t seem to have had much immediate success according to this article.

DR Systems will debut its Unity cardiovascular information system this week at ACC.

The unSummit on point-of-care bar coding will be May 5-7 in Atlanta. 

Deborah Peel, MD is the subject of the cover story in Managed Healthcare Executive called Locking down privacy: where do we draw the line? “All 55,000 pharmacies in the United States are data-mined daily, and our identifiable prescription records have been sold for over 10 years. The theft of prescription information is why Congress was persuaded to include the ban on the sale of protected health information in the HITECH bill. I think that the industry is in denial because there is a huge, essentially unknown data-mining industry for health information."

The guys from the Access barbeque team sent over this picture, which has convinced me they should set up the smoker in the parking lot of the Orange County Convention Center at next year’s HIMSS conference. Give a prospect a plate of pulled pork and a beer and he will listed to what you have to say.

E-mail me.

News 3/12/10

HERtalk by Inga

From: Scoopy Sales “Re: Janet Dillione’s resignation. I see HIStalk scooped everyone on this and the ‘news professionals’ are just now reporting the story.” Ha! Mr. H will like that comment. Thanks again to the reader who tipped us off last Friday about Dillione’s resignation as CEO of Sieman’s HIT division.

From: PACSMan “Re: Dillione. I know you had run this yesterday but this confirmation came across just now. The timing is beyond strange- she gives a press conference 3 weeks ago, speaks at HIMSS and even has the damn thing podcast and now eaves to ‘pursue other opportunities’ after 27 combined years at SMS and Siemens. Something gives here- and I bet it ain’t pretty a ’tall….”

From: Mrs. Kravitz “Re: McKesson report.The recent Leerink Swann HC equity research report reads badly for McKesson. After talking to a CIO at a large client base they are pessimistic on McKesson’s ability to get to Stage 1 meaningful use; HEMR and Horizon Clinicals v10.3 still not GA despite representation to the contrary.” I don’t have access to the report. If you have an opinion, chime in.

I noticed that ComputerWeekly also  picked up a reader-supplied rumor, this one about a recent director-level resignation at iSoft. ComputerWeekly actually quoted HIStalk, then added iSoft’s confirmation that Keith Kirtland left for “personal reasons.”

Five Alegent Health hospitals implement Design Clinicals’ MedsTracker for electronic medication reconciliation. The CMO claims that an impressive 100% of the hospitals’ admissions and discharges were reconciled electronically on day two of the go-live.

The ONC publishes its proposed rule establishing two certifications programs to test and certify EHRs. CCHIT will not be granted grandfather status for testing, though they will likely be one of only a few organizations ready and able to qualify under the new program. Organizations wanting to qualify as an “ONC-Authorized Certification Body” for the “temporary” program would be required to submit an application and demonstrate its competency to test and certify EHRs. The temporary program could make it possible for full EHRs and EHR modules to secure certification as early as this summer. The temporary program would expire the first quarter of 2012 and replaced with a permanent program run by an outside certifying organization.

Children’s National Medical Center (DC) plans to implement Streamline Health’s Audit Integrity Manager Solution.

St. John’s Hospital – Eureka (CA) deploys Order Optimizer’s web-based clinical platform, allowing physicians to use evidence-based protocols at the point of care.

I see the folks at EHRtv have begun posting their vendor executive interviews from HIMSS. Dr. Eric Fishman poses some great questions to leaders from Nuance, M*Modal, Allscripts, Eclipsys, and NextGen in these face-paced and engaging spots.

The 17-physician Mountain Region Family Medicine (TN) completes its installation of Greenway’s Prime Patient EMR, with deployment assistance from BCTI and OnePartner.

Detroit Medical Center awards MedQuist a contract for transcription outsourcing services. Medquist will provide ED documentation at six of the health system’s facilities.

Rush University Medical Center (IL) agrees to pay more than $1.5 million to resolve a federal lawsuit. The suit alleges Rush violated the False Claims Act in connection with improperly designed leasing arrangements with several physicians.

DR HITECH live at Max Lagar’s in Atlanta, rapping about Meaningful Use. Doesn’t get better than this!

Weird News Andy sends over this story, which is actually more disconcerting than weird. The NHS, as it continues to create its national database of patient medical records, is suppose to give patients an opt out option before their information is added. Instead, doctors claim the government is rushing the project through and  patient information is being uploaded before  patients have a chance to object. Doctors also claim the government is not adequately educating patient on the database project, nor making the opt out option easy enough for patients to select.

The VA is busy working on Aviva, the next-generation version of its 20-year-old VistA EMR. Aviva is designed to be Web-enabled, modular in design, and capable of easy data exchange with other EMRs. Peter Levin, CTO for the VA, compares the project to “trying to replace a tin can on a string with a cell phone system.”

A former MedAssets contract employee, who used a fake identity to get her job, is accused of accessing the financial information of up to 2,400 patients. UTMB was a MedAssets billing service client at the time and Katina Rochelle Candrick is believed to have gathered social security numbers, dates of births, and credit card information on UTMB patients. Candrick has since been arrested.

In case you missed the actual HISsie Awards presentation, check out the presentation we ran at the reception last week. It’s loaded on SlideShare and apparently the transitions only work if you download it to your system. You’ll want to download it to fully experience the fun – as well as identify the winners and see the pie hit the face of a certain CEO. There is likely some way to post the slide show and have the transitions work correctly, but I am too lazy and too short on time to figure it out.

Provena Health (IL/IN) signs a seven year agreement with ARAMARK Healthcare. ARAMARK will provide clinical technology services for Provena’s six hospitals.

The folks at Surgical Information Systems asked me to let readers know they’ll be at the AORN meeting next week in Denver. If you’re attending, check out their session “Creating a Unified PeriAnesthesia Medical Record to Improve Clinical, Operational, and Financial Outcomes.”

Inova Health System (VA) names Ryan Bosch, MD, FACP, MBA its first Chief Medical Information Officer. Before joining Inova, Bosch worked as Director of General Internal Medicine at George Washington University Medical Faculty Associates.

Stemp Systems earns Preferred IT Vendor status from eClinicalWorks.

The public continues to weigh in with opinions on the latest meaningful use definitions. CMS posted a few additional comments last week and folks are still concerned that the bar is set too high, especially in the early years. The note below questions the exclusion of CPOE in the ED when measuring the total percentage of electronic order entry in a hospital:

The current proposed definition of meaningful use seems to exclude the use of CPOE in the ED as a measure of determining the current percentage of electronic order entry within the hospital setting. That doesn’t make a lot of sense if the purpose of the graduating meaningful use criteria are intended to promote and reward a hospital’s progress in deploying CPOE. Many hospitals will start with the ED to deploy CPOE because of it’s complexity and workflow. The current proposed definition will not recognize those organizations who are making good progress with CPOE simply because they may have started in the Emergency Department. That seems counterintuitive and not within the original spirit of advancing CPOE deployment to 100% within several years. In other words, who cares where an organization starts its deployment as long as progress and total percentages are actually achieved.

Mr. H is back home sometime this weekend. As gratifying as it is to know that HIStalk can stay afloat a few days without him, no one will be happier than me to have him back in charge, especially since he makes HIT so much more fun.

E-mail Inga.

News 3/10/10

HERtalk by Inga

From: Sioux Supporter “Re: Janet Dillione. I can confirm that Janet Dillione has resigned from Siemens. No announcement of new role or firm, but the announcement was made Friday.” Still unconfirmed, though a few readers have sent note with similar messages.

From: Big Mouth “Re: iSOFT. iSoft loses another senior executive from it’s flagship business unit. Just confirmed from internal source that Keith Kirtland, UK&I Commercial and Sales Director resigned earlier this month. This is the 4th sales director in as many years and is expected to have a destabilising effect on both the Wales Lab deal and overall sales in the UK for this troubled NPfIT supplier. In February,  iSOFT reported significant drops in both revenue and profit.  This resignation will certainly impact 2nd half results.”

From: Beauty “Re: Press Releases. To Beastly – I see you are putting the spin on the negative. Any which way you slice it – too many press releases = too little bang…leaving out ‘for the buck’ cuz we know you are still pulling down the bucks. Too much noise at HIMSS…and those who would be interested are too busy ‘doing’ HIMSS. As for me – I deliberately launched product before HIMSS…with press release…specifically to avoid the noise and being one of the 100 needles lost in the haystack. Hmmm – opinion of the those who are in the business of press releases…or those of us targeted by the press releases?  Listen to your audience. Let’s have a HIStalk vote on this one!” Personally I am just happy that it took less than a week for me to finally weed through all those releases.

From: William Tell “DoD and VA disconnect. Nice to know CPOE and electronic records are going to solve everything . . . as if.”

From: Curious “Re: Promise Healthcare. I am curious about your opinion of them.” Alas, I have no opinion since I know nothing about them. In the absence of the ever-wise Mr. H, perhaps readers can weigh in.

From: Emily Dickinson “Re: Medical Manager execs guilty. Two former executives of Medical Manager Health Systems Inc. have been convicted of federal securities fraud after a two-month trial in U.S. District Court in Charleston, SC.” The company’s former VP and COO John P. Sessions and former president John H. Kang were found guilty of conspiracy to commit mail, wire and securities fraud for their part in a scheme to inflate Medical Manager’s earnings by more than $16.8 million between 1997 and 2003. Sentencing will occur at a later date.

From: Mr. H “Re: Charles McCall heading to prison.That news made my day.” Really? I get one email from Mr. H in four days, and this is all he has to say. What’s up with that?

Quest Diagnostics and Surescripts team up to form an integrated service that combines lab and prescription information available to connected physicians. I suppose that means that if my grandmother in Washington goes to a doctor in Florida, the Florida doctor might be able to access Grannie’s lab and prescription data. Now we are getting somewhere.

Surescripts, by the way, reports that e-prescribing rates tripled from 2007 to 2009, with an estimated 18% of all eligible prescriptions now being sent electronically. The number of prescribers routing prescriptions doubled from 2008 to 2009, and now includes 25% of all office-based physicians.

Huntington Memorial Hospital (CA) plans to offer HuntingtonRx, a branded version of Allscripts stand-alone e-prescribing solution, to its 1,000 affiliated physicians.

Five hospitals select Summit Healthcare as their sole integration partner to assist with migrations from current Meditech platforms to Meditech 6.0.

Annapolis Pediatrics selects Sage Intergy suite to automate its clinical and financial operations. Annapolis Pediatrics is a four-location, 21 provider group.

Trinity Health (MI) deploys Medicity’s Novo Grid solution, establishing an HIE between almost 1,000 affiliated physicians. The headline of the press release claims this first stage took “9-1/2 weeks,” which happens to be the same amount of time it took Kim Basinger’s Elizabeth to walk away from Mickey Rourke’s John.

Sisters of St. Francis Health Services (IN) select Epic for its 13-hospital system.

Northwest Hospital & Medical Center (WA) contracts with dbMotion to create an interoperable patient record for both in-hospital and ambulatory care providers.

UPMC introduces an EHR application that runs on a BlackBerry smartphone. The program leverages the interoperability platform created by dbMotion and provides a single view of key patient data from multiple information systems.

Henry Schein launches ConnectHealth, which partners companies in the EHR, medical device and computer services sectors. Specifically it sounds as if the new program leverages Henry Schein’s partnerships with several vendors to implement EMR in physician offices. Partner vendors include Allscripts, Midmark, Welch Allyn, Siemens, Dell, and Medline.

The nice folks at Bridgehead Software have invited me to visit their booth at the World of Health IT event in Barcelona, March 15-18. Bummer that I have a manicure scheduled during that time so I will have to miss the event. If you are attending, visit the Bridgehead team at Stand #841 and sign up to win an iPad.

Speaking of Spain, Gestion Sanitaria de Mallorca in Palma selects Orion Health technology to serve as the backbone for its EHR. The EHR solution will be the first for community care in Spain.

We have a new interview on HIStalk Practice with Dr. Joel Feinman of Valley Medical Group in Massachusetts. He’s an EMR proponent on many levels, but especially in terms of providing patient care: “I don’t see how you can do that anymore without some kind of electronic system that actually works.” Check it out and sign up for e-mail updates while you are there.

Today I joined a conference call with the wonderful sponsors of last weeks HIStalk reception. After accounting for walk-ins and a few no shows, total attendance was about 430, making it our biggest bash ever. Thanks again to Encore, Evolvent, and Symantec for making it such a great event.

General Dynamics Information Technology hires Raymond Sullivan to serve as VP of HIT Solutions, tasked with business development for the federal government and commercial health organizations. Sullivan was previously executive director of the VA’s Office of Information and Technology.

Hospital nurses estimate they spend a quarter of their 12-hour shift on indirect patient care. Wow. While not providing direct patient care, nurses are working on regulatory requirements, handling lots of paperwork, and securing needed equipment and supplies. Solutions recommended by surveyed nurses include more ancillary staff support, better hospital-wide communications technology, and reductions in redundant regulatory requirements.

Anne Arundel Medical Center (MD) implements Corepoint Integration Engine to facilitate a migration to Epic’s HIS and improve clinical data exchange with community physicians and patients.

In what could be the greatest news of the decade, a report in the Archives of Internal Medicine finds that normal-weight women who drink a light to moderate amount of alcohol appear to gain less weight and have a lower risk of becoming overweight and obese than non-drinkers. On that note, I’m off to find a cocktail.

E-mail Inga.

HITlaw 3/9/10

Non-Compete Agreements

Non-compete agreements (NCAs) are designed to prevent individuals from leaving a company with valuable information and then using that information in a new job with a competitor of the company to the detriment of that original company/employer.

Sounds reasonable on its face. On the other side, what if you are the employee that with no malicious intent whatsoever, elects to change jobs and move on to bigger and better things? You should be free to do so, right? If on exiting your current job you are presented with the NCA that you signed when starting (and may have forgotten or misplaced) and you are a valuable developer, your soon-to-be former employer may be dropping more than a subtle hint in your lap.

So what is fair and reasonable in light of the two justifiable yet opposing positions?

This is the essence of the determination that courts must make in cases involving NCAs. In general terms, in order for an NCA to be “reasonable” it must protect an employer’s legitimate business interests while not unduly restricting the employee’s ability to work elsewhere. Other key considerations are length of time and geographical area (historically). The first part, protecting legitimate business interests, is satisfied if the employee involved had access to trade secrets of the former employer. Further, if the employer uses NCAs for only certain employees that have access to confidential material or trade secrets, they strengthen greatly their likelihood of support from the courts. As for length of time, six months to two years depending on the situation, is usually found to be acceptable. Anything longer than that would require a stiffer business reason for the restriction. Finally, geographic scope is considered. In the technology industry however, geographical area could include the entire US market. There has been some relaxing of the geographical scope restriction, which is why I used the parenthetical “historically” above.

Note that the NCA is a contract. All contracts must have “consideration”, or something of value, offered by each party and consequently accepted by the other party in order for the contract to be valid. If the NCA was a condition of employment at the point of hiring, then the promise of a job fills the consideration requirement. Introducing the NCA in an existing employer/employee relationship is different. Some courts have held that continued employment is sufficient consideration. In other cases, the execution of the NCA in conjunction with a raise or promotion has served to establish that sufficient consideration is present to enforce the NCA. An employee faced with the new (post-hiring) NCA requirement may not have any reasonable opportunity of negotiation. Some may however. If the employee is a valued software scientist, then ideally that individual could seek a severance package, providing an amount of money sufficient to offset the period of time in which they are prevented (by the NCA) from working in the same field for a competitor. As a general statement, the employee should always review the NCA carefully, even seek legal advice, in order to determine the restrictions imposed and the reasonableness of those restrictions.

The employer should make sure it is seeking to protect a legitimate business interest, and NOT just that it does not want competition. Lack of a justifiable business reason could be argued in the case of an employer having all employees sign an NCA, regardless of position, from receptionist to software engineer. Limited duration and geographical area are also helpful. An NCA of unlimited duration, where the employee can never work for a competitor, would work against the employer. In short, if the employer is careful to make the NCA as tight in scope as possible, in order to make the burden on the employee as little as possible, then they are in much better shape if the NCA is contested. If an NCA is too broad and lacks a sound business reason, its enforceability is strongly suspect.

Where a valid NCA exists, the new employer may also be susceptible to legal action by the former employer. Employers that lose key personnel to competitors often bring action against both the former employee (for violation of the NCA) and the new employer (for tortious interference with the prior relationship evidenced by the NCA). It is not unheard of for a new employer (that lures the key employee away) to belly up and take care of the employee’s anticipated defense, legal bills, and settlements with the former employer. I am not trying to scare people, but it should be understood that if an NCA is valid and you breach it, you are potentially liable for damages to your former employer. In addition, the former employer could seek an injunction preventing you from working for the new employer while the case is decided. Finally, if everything goes the former employer’s way, you could still be prevented from working for the competitor into the future. If you are the employee considering a job change and you asked directly if you signed and NCA, then obviously you must reveal the fact. If not asked and you do not volunteer the information, and the former employer sues the new employer, then the easiest way for the new employer to reduce its exposure is to terminate you. Not a welcome thought.

An interesting twist to consider is the situation where the employer terminates the employment relationship. Assuming that the NCA is valid and reasonable (see above), and would probably be upheld if the employee were the one terminating the relationship, then the issue really comes down to a restriction on the employee’s ability to make a living when the employer terminates employment other than for cause. Keeping in mind that we started with the assumption of a valid NCA, then strictly speaking, the employee is not free to ignore the NCA and the former employer could sue the employee, but then the court would have to look at the fact that the employee did not leave voluntarily and determine the reasonableness of limiting that individuals livelihood. My point is that being “let go” does not nullify the NCA, but enforcement by the former employer will be more difficult than if the employee left on their own.

Note that NCAs should not be feared, but they must be understood. In the HIT industry companies invent things and they try to sell more of these things to the industry than their competitors. They have a right to protect their inventions, know-how, trade secrets and customer bases. Anyone seeking to join such a company really should understand this going in. That said, it is not reasonable to expect a person to work for only one company in a given industry for their entire career. Some do, most do not. There is also the consideration of the type of work that the employee performs. The software scientist should have far more expectation of restriction on the ability to switch to a competitor than an administrative staff member.

Final Comments:

NCAs are not bad. If a company has something worth protecting, something essential to its business that if shared with a competitor would be damaging to its business, then they should be able to protect it. I don’t know how an employee would consider it “OK” to take that information elsewhere. I know it happens, but that does not make it right. Separately, we are all free to work wherever we choose. Absent the malicious factor, people should not be restricted from working for a competitor.

The problem is that you cannot unlock the brain of a software scientist, extract all they have learned at your company, then let them go on their way. Knowledge is retained and there is nothing we can do about that. I once saw it referred to by a BIG hardware/consulting company as “intellectual capital” (and I knew it was time to put that file down for the day). So even if nothing is physically removed, the secrets go right out the door in the scientist’s gray matter. Keeping them from using that knowledge to a competitor’s advantage is fair. Keeping them from earning a living doing what they like is unfair. It is a balancing act, a weighing of the consequences to each side, and a determination of fairness that the courts must perform when ruling on NCAs.

Please understand that even though I expound on valid or enforceable NCAs above, you must note that certain states basically do not permit NCAs (like California), others do but only in limited circumstances (New York and Virginia), while in others enforceability depends on the circumstances. This article has focused mainly on the individuals involved in the technology aspect of healthcare. Many states (like Massachusetts) clearly prohibit by law NCAs for physicians and nurses due to the fact that such agreements restrict a medical professional’s right to practice and also limit the patients’ right to choose their caregivers.

The NCA issue is heating up. Legislation has been proposed here in Massachusetts that would dramatically restrict NCAs by instituting strict guidelines, brightline determinations (clear “black & white” language) as well as safe harbor provisions. One very interesting aspect of the proposed legislation is that it would protect the employee residing in Massachusetts, even if the employer is not located in Massachusetts. I am watching closely as the bill winds its way through the legislature.

Finally, if you are faced with a situation involving an NCA and have serious concerns, please consult with an attorney or your local US Department of Labor office.

William O’Toole is the founder of O’Toole Law Group of Duxbury, MA.

Monday Morning Update 3/8/10

HERtalk by Inga

From: HIS user “Re: Rumor. (The CEO for the HIT business unit) of a (large, international technology company) has resigned. Heard from multiple direct sources at the company. Was announced there Friday.” The CEO was at HIMSS and had a press conference as recently as Monday. I sent a note over the weekend to the company but not heard back. If it’s true, I suspect the company will share the news Monday.

From: Bean Town Gal Re: Highlights. “We attended the HIStalk party and it was a highlight of HIMSS. Nice to be in the fishbowl; surrounded by friends and competitors — and truly enjoying it. Great vibe — thank you to the sponsors — the spinach & artichoke dip was yummy, GREAT to sit down and rest the paws after a very long day …. but most of all, the intrigue and credibility that you & Mr. HIStalk create, will keep us coming back again.  Truly appreciate what you both do. Kudos and …. Love the shoes.”

From: Beastly “Re: Press Releases. As PR professionals we are compelled to issue press releases when our companies bring new products to the market that are worthy of acknowledgment. A true PR professional knows the difference between newsworthy and wasting a journalist’s time. We also have an ethical responsibility to advise our clients if and when their perception of news doesn’t merit coverage. Issuing press releases about non-news compares to the ‘boy who cried wolf,’ syndrome. For many within the healthcare industry, HIMSS is our Super Bowl. The opportunity to showcase the products we developed, believe in and are proud of. The media and most importantly our customers expect to see us with our best game. Companies don’t indiscriminately issue press releases – they plan product releases so that they coincide with HIMSS. If a product is ready two months before HIMSS, the HIMSS exhibitor companies traditionally wait for HIMSS to show and announce it.  And if the product won’t be consumer ready until a few months after HIMSS, the exhibitor will often develop a mock-up or engineering sample so it can be shown to the audience at HIMSS. The majority of us aren’t trying to waste your time; we’re inviting you to share our exuberance.”

From: Pat Avatar “Re: HITmen event. I was unimpressed with the “boys club” HITmen event. I think it was very unimaginative. Same people named over and over. A while back, Colin Powell was quoted along the lines of if any area was in need of imagination, it was healthcare. If we keep trotting out the same handful of people – we are truly in trouble. Enough of Tullman, Bush, the government appointees who are elevated only by title and not by progress, Halamka, and the usual short list. Why not have someone meet the challenge of recognizing the worker-bees – the ones really getting the job done – while the same people are the headliners. Besides, Inga and I are going to take over the world of healthcare and get something done.”

Note sure that I am going to take over the world of healthcare (or that I want to) but I am taking over HIStalk for the week. An exhausted Mr. H is taking took some well-deserved time off and hopefully cleansing his mind of the HIT world. If you have any news to share, be sure to send it my way since Mr. H is avoiding e-mail this week.

Last week MS HUG and Microsoft announced four winners of its annual Innovation Awards. SingHealth earned honors for the best use of inpatient clinical records use for levering its implementation of  Eclipsys Sunrise Patient Flow and CADI Scientific. Other winners included Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Doylestown Hospital, and Premera Blue Cross/Get Real Consulting.

Former McKesson Charles McCall is sentenced to 10 years prison and ordered to pay a $1 million fine for his part in a $8.6 billion fraud scheme.

Medicity and Emdeon collaborate to create the first “converged national HIE, leveraging Emdeon’s network of payers, providers, and pharmacies and Medicity’s iNexx Health 4.0 platform.

The Advisory Board Company enters an agreement to acquire Concuity, the healthcare-focused RCM software and services division of Trintech Group. Price: $34.5 million.

The Wall Street Journal reports that shares of Nuance Communications rose 5.7% Friday on rumors that Google is interested in buying Nuance Communications. There are lots of reasons why such a marriage would not make sense, but an acquisition of Nuance would certainly help Google increase its presence in the healthcare space.

McKesson is named the “World’s Most Admired” company in healthcare wholesalers sector in a survey by FORTUNE magazine and the Hay Group.  McKesson also made Corporate Responsibility Magazine’s list of 100 Best Corporate Citizens.

Start queuing up at your local Apple store: the Wi-Fi-enabled iPad goes on sale April 3, with pre-ordering starting March 12th. Suggested retail prices will range from $499 for the 16B model to $699 for the 64GB. The 3G equipped models will hit the market in late April, though you can also pre-order starting March 12th.

Lumetra PSO agrees to provide iSOFT’s AIMS incident management software to US healthcare organizations.

Bridgehead software unveils preliminary results of its Data Management Healthcheck 2010, reporting that only 6.5% of respondents use cloud storage as the destination media for their organization’s data. Only 33% say they are planning to adopt a cloud storage strategy for any data over the next 12-24 months. The biggest concern is security and availability of data using a cloud strategy.

A couple HIMSS education sessions I missed: “A Big, Hairy Audacious” CPOE Goal, and, It’s More than Pizza! Improving House Staff Adoption of CPOE. I wonder if the presenter for the second one got any snack tips from Mr. H.

Former RelayHealth COO Jeff Bairstow joins Journal Register Company as CFO.

RWJF awards over $2.4 million to five research teams studying how patient-recorded observations of daily living can be captured and integrated into clinical care.

Wellmont Health System (TN) names Kent Perry CIO and VP and Dr. Troy Sybert chief medical information.

Verizon Business launches The Verizon Medical Data Exchange, a platform that gives transcriptionists an interoperable tool for sharing digitized patient notes.

A fan files suit against the Kansas City Royals after being hit in the eye – by a hot dog. The team’s mascot (Sluggerrr) regularly fires hot dogs into the crowd, but one last year hit John Coomer in the eye, resulting in a detached retina and cataracts.So far his medical costs have exceeded $25,000. It’s unclear whether Cooner actually ate the errant hot dog.

E-mail Inga.

Merge Healthcare To Acquire AMICAS

AMICAS has agreed to terminate its previously announced agreement with Thoma Bravo and instead has entered into a merger agreement with Merge Healthcare, the company announced this morning. Merge will acquire all outstanding shares of AMICAS in an all-cash deal valued at $6.05 per share, a 35% premium to Thoma Bravo’s offer and a 39% premium to the average monthly share price.

"We are very pleased with this significant positive step toward successfully combining these two great companies," said Justin Dearborn, Merge CEO.  "Merge and AMICAS have strong histories of innovation in medical imaging software, experienced employees and engaged customers.  As a combined company, our suite of health IT solutions will encompass a broad range of medical and biopharmaceutical imaging solutions to meet the needs of today’s medical imaging providers.  In addition, Merge’s OEM and CAD technologies, international and eCommerce distribution channels, and additional market segments such as clinical trials provide new opportunities for AMICAS products and customers. On behalf of everyone at Merge, I look forward to welcoming and working closely with the AMICAS team."

News 3/5/10

From JT: “Re: speech recognition. I know of patient populations that might be able to use it because of disabilities. Any information you can share is greatly appreciated!” Dragon Naturally Speaking is the standard and the one I bought. It not only does an amazing job of hitting 99% accuracy right out of the box, but also allows controlling Windows functions by voice (like using Word’s menu bar, navigating files, etc.) I know the military puts it on laptops for recovering soldiers who can’t use their hands, giving them a way to use the PC, use e-mail, etc.

From The PACS Designer: “Re: Microsoft Windows Phone 7. InformationWeek has posted a video gallery for the new Windows Phone 7 application. It should give us a good comparison to Apple’s iPhone.”

From Anon: “Re: Epic. Last Monday, Luke O’Voron reported that Judy Faulkner used the HIS Policy Committee Privacy and Security Workgroup call that week to shill for Epic. The transcript is posted (warning: PDF) and I can’t find anything in it remotely like what Luke said. Do you read it the same way?” I don’t see anything that looks like shilling, so I’m not clear on the original reference either.

Listening: Band Marino, possibly defunct indie pop from the Orlando area. They sounded good on the Clemson radio station I was playing in the car this morning, so I checked them out. My favorite tune is here (video).

The strange courtship of Amicas continues. The Amicas board now decides that Merge’s offer of $6.05 is better than the $5.35 one from Thoma Bravo it previously supported (duh). So now it’s back to Thoma Bravo to make a new offer by Monday, which of course they should have done immediately instead of sitting around waiting to have their hand called. Amicas has pushed its shareholder meeting back from March 4 to March 16. PACSMan weighs in on Dalai’s PACS Blog, using one of my favorite movies (Wall Street) as a backdrop. He even quotes the Greed is Good speech that I could recite nearly verbatim like the guys in another great movie, Boiler Room.

Here’s Dr. HITECH, Ross Martin, MD, doing the world premiere of his excellent Meaningful Yoose Rap at the reception.

The VA and DoD disconnect their shared EMR connectivity after after data errors are discovered, first noticed by a doctor who wondered why a female patient had been prescribed an erectile dysfunction drug. As a risk manager pointed out, it’s a good thing at least one error was obvious enough to raise a flag.

Prompt Medical Systems, a “vendor” whose only asset is a CPT entry patent and whose only business is suing other vendors (it doesn’t even have a Web site that I could find), files suit against nearly everybody selling an EMR, extending a string of lawsuits going back to 2005. A Virginia investment banker apparently funds the lawsuits, filed in friendly Texas courts.

Lakeland Regional Medical Center (FL) selects API Healthcare’s time and attendance and remote hosting solutions. API also announces go-lives at seven provider organizations.

A Microsoft VP makes an odd suggestion: treat PC security as a public safety issue and collect taxes to fund “hospitals” that will remove viruses and reduce their spread. Seems like that’s their job, especially since Apple users aren’t having problems.

A survey says 58% of doctors not using EMRs now plan to buy within two years, but would prefer a hospital help cover the cost. Federal incentives and penalties were cited as the main adoption drivers.

Eclipsys announces Helios, its open architecture platform that exposes Sunrise Enterprise 5.5 to third-party developers. Already building add-ons: Microsoft, Capsule Tech, and Hill-Rom. A reader asked why I hadn’t mentioned it, with the main reason that John Gomez already talked about it here when I interviewed him right before Christmas. ECLP calls developers out in the Helios site: “An open invitation to innovate. Competitors welcome.”

Merge Healthcare and Mass General will partner to build a testing environment for mobile healthcare applications.

Odd lawsuit: an IHOP cook accidentally cuts off his fingertip, which nobody can find. It turns up in the fried chicken salad of a woman eating after-church brunch. She suing for $20.5 million.

E-mail me.

HERtalk by Inga

From Midwest Doc: “Re: roundtable with Blumenthal. I was one of about 40 physicians who somehow earned an invite to a roundtable with Dr. Blumenthal. I was impressed that he cared enough to ask our opinions. He had a politically correct answer for every question we posed of him, so maybe he is well suited for his job.”

From Day Tripper: “Re: ambulatory EMR vendors. I asked several EMR vendors if they have seen a big increase in buyers, especially now that we at least have the interim final use definitions. The general consensus is that many physicians are still dragging their feet.” I’ve heard that comment as well. Either because of fear or because it sounds like a good excuse, many physicians are waiting until the MU guidelines are truly final and the certifying entities are identified. Perhaps a minority of physicians are savvy to understand that the RECs will offer some free implementation services so they are waiting for those to ramp up. And, likely others are waiting to see what opportunities their hospitals may offer to affiliated physicians. In other words, if you are looking for an excuse to not move forward, there are plenty to choose from.

From Samantha Brown: “Re: shoe patrol. Inga, please tell me. Was Judy wearing Birkenstocks?” Gosh, I was so excited that she was there I failed to notice the shoes!!

From Justen Deal: “Re: HIStalk party. Overheard: ‘Judy and Jonathan in the same room? Isn’t that like matter and antimatter?’? One observation: The fact that Jonathan Bush was able to charm a crowd made up mostly of his competitors says a lot about his comedic timing. Secretly, nearly everybody in the room is terrified of him,since his business model scares the scheiße out of them. I think the atmosphere (read: the lager) helped reduce their fears, at least for the evening.”

From BFF in Footwear: “Re: Inga Loves My Shoes! I must say that last night’s party was incredible — two of my dreams came true. First, I got to meet and chat with a very gracious Judy Faulkner, a woman who has been my inspiration and a role model for building and growing my software company. And second, I received the industry award that I have coveted for years — the Inga Loves My Shoes. I will wear my sash proudly and strive to always be worthy of this honor.”

From Inga BFF: “Re: great reception. The venue was wonderful and good beer was involved, to boot! It was a high-powered crowd, and yet everyone was friendly and cordial. Please let your reception sponsors know that we truly appreciate what they did.”

Before HIMSS, I was sent a notification that I might want to attend the “CCHIT EHR Certification Town Hall.” I was quite frustrated Monday because I could not find the session either on the navigation kiosk or the paper schedule. I eventually found it, but learned the session had been renamed “EHR Certification Town Hall.” The CCHIT folks were still leading the session, but it was interesting that either CCHIT or HIMSS decided to drop CCHIT from the title. One of the more troubling points made was that the ONC is not expected to designate CCHIT or any other entity until late 2010, or even into 2011. Everyone assumes CCHIT will be one of the certifying bodies but until it is etched in stone, plenty of conservative buyers are going to wait for the final, final declarations.

I wonder if Mr. H and I were the only ones who noticed the HIStalk signs displayed at many of our sponsors’ booths? Thanks for the promotion.

I’m still wading through the endless number of e-mails and need some PR person to answer me this: why does every single vendor feel the need to issue press releases during HIMSS? Don’t companies realize their news is more likely to be overlooked because of the sheer volume being churned out by companies, PR people, and media outlets?  But what do I know? I’m just a blogger. If you haven’t had a chance to see some of the news highlights, hang on for these brief updates:

• CynergisTek announces a new data loss prevention solution that leverages its partnership with Code Green Networks.
• Gartner places Compuware in the “leaders” quadrant of its “Magic Quadrant for Application Performance Monitoring” report.
• The AMA and Ingenix form a partnership to offer the web-based Ingenix CareTrack through the AMA web site.The AMA says that they will be offering additional new technologies to help enhance physician practices. The AMA also announced a collaboration with Dell, which sounds as if it is part of this same physician-automation initiative.
• UPMC announces the development of new PHR technology created in collaboration with Google Health, Carnegie Mellon University, and dbMotion.
• Precyse Solutions introduces Catalyst, a front-end automated speech recognition product.
• NextGen introduces a special offer to provide rural and community hospitals free financials with a qualifying purchase of inpatient clinicals. The NextGen Clinicals, by the way, is the former OpusClinicalSuite. NextGen was also named a winner of an MS-HUG 2010 Innovation Award in the category of Interoperability/HIE for its work with Doylestown Hospital (PA) and the Doylestown Clinical Network.
• MGMA President and CIO William F. Jessee announces he will retire in the fall of 2011.
• Enterprise content management vendor Hyland Software acquires eWebHealth, a provider of hosted medical records workflow solutions.
• MED3OOO and Acryness announce a strategic partnership to provide the MED3OOO QuikBill patient billing solutions, powered by Acryness, to MED3OOO’s RCM and ASP practice management clients.
• CHIME awards fellowships to Pamela McNutt of Methodist Health System (TX) and Rick Schooler of Orlando Health (FL.)
• 4medica launches its Integrated Health Record designed to tie patient data from diverse care settings to create a single picture of an individual’s patient record.
• Fifty eldercare agencies join the Rochester RHIO, which is powered by Axolotl’s Elysium Exchange.
• Nuance introduces a suite of voice-enabled mobile solutions for smartphones including Dragon Medical Mobile Dictation, Search, Recorder, and SDK.
• Healthland releases an EDIMS for small community hospitals, as well as an Analytics solution.
• Covenant Health and Sharp Healthcare select Allscripts Care Management and Post Acute solutions for their hospitals and post-acute care facilities.

Posting from the HIMSS Facebook page on Tuesday, the day of the big snowstorm: “HIMSS 5K Fun Run has been moved Indoors. Please come to Hall A, A1 to register. Run starts at 4 p.m.” I wish I had seen the run.

Speaking of Facebook, if you have any great HIMSS pics you’d like to share, our HIStalk Fan page is waiting for you. I have uploaded a few that readers have forwarded, but haven’t had time to load all of them yet. Feel free to friend me since you can never have too many friends, right?

E-mail Your Friend Inga.

From HIMSS 3/3/10

From The PACS Designer: “Re: Panasonic C1 Toughbook. At HIMSS 2010, Panasonic announced an exciting new Toughbook called the C1. It has many features that on-the-go healthcare professionals will see as being attractive.”

From Joe: “Re: McKesson. Hunting season came early this year. Firings in the Physician Practice Solutions group.” Unverified.

We have a lot of HIMSS-related observations on HIStalk Mobile.

I’m still tired, but here are my impressions of HIMSS10:

• The emphasis was on money and business rather than patients for the most part (my low point: a session that rattled off dozens of government grant programs from ARRA right on down, which reminded me of that seedy guy with the Free Government Grants infomercial).
• For that reason, it was a rather passionless conference. It’s hard to get charged up by filling a room full of people who want to lap from the federal trough.
• The KLAS/HIMSS Analytics presentation was good, with the primary message being that adoption of EMR, CPOE, etc. is going well, but there’s a long way to go. Also, that several vendors and products, despite slick glossy materials, basically aren’t getting any traction at all and don’t enjoy much support from their customers. It was refreshing to sit in a HIMSS conference room and have some of the vendors with big booth spreads being called out as dragging down the market with their incompetence (the usual big conglomerates).
• Atlanta is a pretty good convention town and GWCC has nicer public areas (seats) than most convention centers, but the split exhibit hall should have been a showstopper. If you were a vendor on the C side, you missed a lot of traffic. Maybe HIMSS should have limited the space per vendor so they could all be squeezed in on the A/B side.
• Many vendors were so vague on what they were selling that it was hard to tell on a quick glance, which is about all they’ll get from most attendees. Broad, catchy statements may work in an ad, but on the show floor, there are 200 vendors claiming to sell an EMR and little way to figure out how they are different.
• As happens every year, vendor people in the hall seemed to have trouble focusing. It’s inevitable to get tired and maybe jaded, so the to-do I would give vendors is to bring more people and rotate them. I went to several large (expensive) booths and couldn’t get anybody’s attention, and in at least a couple, the person made me feel genuinely unwelcome, like maybe they were anxious to get back to their personal phone chats.
• A fun scavenger hunt would have been to try to find a presentation that didn’t have any of the above words in the slide deck: ARRA, HITECH, or Meaningful Use.
• Everybody got excited over certification announcements, but I found myself caring not at all. I overheard someone providing a good summary of certification: it sets the bar extremely low for real vendors with real customers, but keeps doctors from selling crappy EMRs written by their brothers-in-law.
• There was a lot of activity on the show floor, but I can’t really say I picked out any theme that didn’t involve stimulus money.
• Education presentations ranged from pretty good to pretty bad, which is par for the course.
• HIMSS ran the conference smoothly as usual.
• Despite frantic reporting from the exhibit hall(s), there really wasn’t all that much big news, which is why I didn’t mention much of it.
• I got to see a lot of familiar faces and that’s always nice.

2010 HISsies Winners

Smartest vendor strategic move
athenahealth guarantees Meaningful Use

Most effective CIO in a healthcare provider organization
John Glaser, Partners

HIS industry figure with whom you’d most like to have a few beers
Judy Faulkner, Epic

HIS industry figure in whose face you’d most like to throw a pie
Neal Patterson, Cerner

HIStalk Healthcare IT Industry Figure of the Year
David Blumenthal

HERtalk by Inga

I am in the Atlanta airport, headed home, so this will be another quick post.

Overall impression of HIMSS10: fun, huge, and a lot of excitement in the industry. More on that in a second, but I will first throw out a few things that I found less than perfect:

• Someone made a comment to me that Atlanta must not have had big convention like this for some time because they seemed overwhelmed at times at the convention center. Long lines for food (except at the Asian place, which apparently ran out of noodles early in the day) and untidy restrooms were the biggest evidence of this.
• The two-exhibit hall thing needs some tweaking. All the vendors in "C" felt like the stepchildren. Why not split the bigger vendors evenly between the two halls so that one does not look so much like an afterthought? And, having the two halls so far apart was pretty inconvenient. More than one person told me they didn’t realize there was a second hall until they failed to find a particular vendor.
• Is there such thing as a convention center that doesn’t involve miles of walking to get from one area to the next?
• I found too many vendors unable to give you a 15-second elevator pitch about their company or offering. Maybe it would be too much to ask for vendors to also tell you in 15 seconds what is unique about your offering.

Other than that…good stuff. I have to admit the educational sessions are tough for me to sit through (I failed to last the whole time for any session I attended).  Perhaps I picked the wrong sessions.

The last three days have flown by. I spent a good amount in the exhibit hall, but didn’t see all I wanted to see. I did check out a few software products and I will share more on that later. Thanks to all the kind invites to stop by booths — I didn’t get a chance to look deeply at every one, unfortunately.

And I popped in to a few parties, including Eclipsys, Allscripts, and HITmen awards. The HITmen awards had some great sushi and a lot of A-listers in the industry. I thought Mr. H was winning some award, but apparently not. Someone will have to explain to me why his name was on the promotional material but he didn’t win one of the cool plaques.

The MEDecision folks told me there were expecting 2,000 to their party, which they said was to be the largest HIMSS party. If you went, tell us about it.

Tuesday night I got back to my hotel after a VERY long day and popped up HIStalk to read the latest post. I literally fell asleep with iPhone in hand. Good thing HIMSS only comes once a year.

E-mail Inga.

From HIMSS 3/2/10 (Part 2)

From Clingy: “Re: your party. You do realize that, last night, your party became the party that everybody will have — and want — to attend? I’m sure it already was that, but now everybody else will know that, too. I think you may have to resort to a lottery for invites in Orlando…  Or you may have to rent a stadium.” I really appreciate the nice comments about the party, but I’m passing the kudos along to Amy Glass and Inga since I was too busy to jump in during those final weeks to set it up. Actually, I’ll thank a third group: those who booed and cheered during the HISsies, who enjoyed each other’s company even though many of them are on-field competitors, and who made up a darned impressive group. It’s the only time I get to see who’s reading and it recharges me for another year. If Jonathan Bush doesn’t win something next time, I may have to stuff the ballot box just so he can chew the scenery again. He was supposed to be on for like five minutes, but turned it into its own extravaganza (recall that this was the first business day after ATHN shares gapped down, but you would never have known it from his hilarious performance surrounded by the stock analysts in the room).

From Jim: “Re: your party. The HIStalk party rocks! This was the best party I have been to in the 15 years I have been going to HIMSS events. People were having a genuine great time and mingling nicely – something that would happen at a party you want to go to, not you feel you have to go to. Can’t wait to come again next year!”

Above are a couple of pictures taken by Dr. Gregg Alexander of the bagpiper and Max Lager’s. I thought it was a very cool place – lots of brick and wood character, beer tanks, and genuinely attentive staff (I could barely set my beer down before someone wanted to bring me a new one, which was just fine with me). The DJ kept the music going without being obtrusive. I asked Inga to take the large poster that you can barely make out on the very left, which had a giant beer glass with the HIStalk logo. It looked like a great souvenir.

From Gregg Alexander: “Re: HIStalk reception. All those who attended can attest, all proper propers belong to Ivo, Inga, and Mr. H for organizing an exceptionally fun evening. Great job, guys, a truly fun time…thank you!” We had some recognition for direct caregivers during the reception and it’s guys like Dr. Gregg who ought to be honored. People forget how hard pediatricians work for a relative modest paycheck while the procedure guys need a wheelbarrow to get the cash to the bank.

I’m so proud of this picture by DrLyle and I’m moving Judy Faulkner of Epic way up on the cool-o-meter. I had e-mailed her ahead of time and told her Epic had won in several categories and she also in the category of “Industry Figure with Whom You Would Most Like to Drink a Few Beers.” She e-mailed back and said the strongest thing she drinks is milkshakes, but she might drop by (riiiight). On the 1% chance she actually would, Inga had her a “No Pie for Me” sash made to celebrate her “loss” to Cerner’s Neal Patterson for the “Industry Figure in Whose Face You Would Most Like to Throw a Pie.” I am totally shocked and honored that she and Carl Dvorak dropped by because I know she doesn’t really like that kind of stuff and there really wasn’t anything in it for her or Epic. She even joked around with Jonathan Bush. Judy, I had you figured for a pretty cool lady, but now I’m certain. Epic won all the “good” HISsies categories, so it was kind of like a KLAS report.

I think we’ve discovered a natural female attractant in those sashes. Someone sent in a pic of one of our male sash-wearers who wore it back to his own hotel and he was getting lots of female attention. I bet we get more volunteers next year.

From GG: “Re: Charlie Munger. How long until you and Inga get a $20,000 check?” Warren Buffet’s homespun partner reads Atul Gawande’s New Yorker article on healthcare costs, and then writes him a $20,000 check and sends it to the magazine, telling them to give it to Gawande, who then donated it to Brigham and Women’s. I had a nice chat today with some smart vendor people who observed how broken the HIT journalism model is (they refused to even call it journalism) and how hard it is for up-and-coming vendors to afford the megabuck ad spreads that seem to help get companies featured. I like scrappy newcomers, so they will always have a spot here if what they offer helps patients.

From KZ: “Re: have you checked out the race car simulator in the 3M HIS booth?” How did I miss that, especially when I’m running a text ad for it? Somehow I didn’t see it.

From HITMAN: “Re: David Blumenthal. Interesting – a large number of CIOs received an invitation last night at about 7:30 to attend a meeting with David Blumenthal this morning at 8:30. Apparently the response was large – they turned away many by e-mail and may have a second session set up for later Tuesday.  David opened the session with about three minutes of welcome and thanks then said he was there to listen to us. Of about 75 in the room, about 20 made comments about the need for federal leadership on master patient index, about the challenge of all-or-nothing meaningful use, about the need to include ED CPOE in meaningful use criteria, and about the compressed timeline we are working under. All were polite and he had two minutes of thanks at the end. He said he is not allow to comment about ongoing work and regulations, and was happy for the pointed feedback. Good that he asked for the feedback but it was all over the place and I am not sure how much he could have gotten from the session.” I heard some CMS people talking about it on the escalator.

Check out David Brooks’ HIMSS coverage on HIStalk Mobile.

Henry Schein announces its ConnectHealth initiative that packages products and services from a number of vendors for physician practices: Allscripts, Midmark, Siemens, Welch Allyn, Dell, and Medline.

Content management vendor Hyland (the OnBase people) acquires hosted medical workflow solutions vendor eWebHealth.

SIS introduces Anesthesia View, a new module in SIS Analytics. I asked someone in the booth today about the Inga-tinis and they said they were flying out the door yesterday evening.

Former QuadraMed CEO Keith Hagen is named COO of digital pathology solutions vendor Aperio.

The latest radio show from Intellect Resources interviews a number of HIT experts, including Texas Health CIO Ed Marx, on security.

Keane will offer EmpowerED as an ED module for its Optimum solution.

In the UK, NPfIT is trying to quickly sign billions in extension contracts with CSC and BT before the elections, hoping to keep the struggling program financially alive.

I forgot to mention it yesterday, but I attended the best HIMSS session I have ever seen, which few saw since it was on the military systems track. It was given by Rear Admiral Matthew L. Nathan MD, Commander, Navy Medicine National Capital Area, National Naval Medical Center on their pilot project for an integrated medical home. I can only say it was brilliant, covering the need for preventive care and EMR outreach programs as well as the practicalities of delivering medical services remotely (such as to a ship in the South China Sea, but with the same challenges as to a rural town). Given the military’s experience with the healthcare models we’ll probably need everywhere and considering his obvious capabilities, he ought to be leading the charge. While everybody else was slobbering over meaningful use, he was covering the real healthcare issues that stimulus money can’t fix.

HIMSS attendee count so far: 25,989, but fewer vendor people. I should also say, that despite my occasional disagreements with what HIMSS does, they are superb at managing conference logistics. I noticed no proceedings CD in the tote this year, but I assume they’re free online since I always review them later.

I have lots pictures and stuff that folks have sent, but I’m beat. Here’s a final little show floor wrap-up.

• I had a great visit with the people from enterprise forms management vendor Access, who not only have a great product, they also have a championship barbeque team that can cook hundreds of pounds of pork butt or brisket at a time. I naturally begged them to load up the 40-foot smoker at the next HIMSS and watch people pack the booth for a taste.
• MEDecision had nice umbrellas out to take, which was nice since it poured cold rain all morning and then snowed for most of the rest of the day.
• The Eclipsys booth was packed.
• I wanted to caress all the stuff in Enovate’s booth as usual since their carts have the sexiest curves you can imagine. They also had a cool green pony saddle seat that I spun around in a road test and it was sweet.
• Big crowd at Allscripts.
• For some reason, I found myself wanting coffee and a shoeshine a lot (back me up, guys).
• ICA had their HIStalk sign out and had a demo of their HIE solution running with Sevocity.
• iMDsoft’s telemedicine app was one of the coolest ones I saw.
• Keane had our sign out too – thanks!
• athenahealth’s booth was packed.
• The guy doing electronic caricatures at the Televox booth was fascinating to watch.
• Sunquest had our sign out, too, and I still like their green color and their bags.
• Picis had a crowd and also our sign out.

From HIMSS 3/2/10

HERtalk by Inga

From: Soda Pop Man “Re: HIStalk reception. All those who attended can attest, all proper propers belong to Ivo, Inga, and Mr. H for organizing an exceptionally fun evening. Great job, guys, a truly fun time…thank you!”

From: Evan Steele “Re: Sashes, strangers, and shoes. Thank you for a GREAT evening at Max Lager’s!  The sash was perfect (“HIStalk Certified” made for a great conversation piece)! Although I am not the type who easily mingles with strangers in a room, I found the HIStalk readers very approachable and I had some great conversations.

This will be a quick post as I have an 8:15 meeting (what was I thinking?) HIMSS has been predictably fast and furious with big crowds and lots of walking. Here are a few random impressions from Monday:

• Overheard in the ladies’ room: “Where the heck is the coat check?” I, too, had problems finding one. I am sure there’s at least one but the place is so huge that I wasn’t going to walk from one Hall C to Hall A just to dump my coat.
• I was a little bit disappointed with my interoperability booth tour. My presenter had some microphone problems so I couldn’t hear very well. And, too much time was spent with the overview of the whole interoperability concept, rather than demonstrating how it all worked. Still, it’s impressive that something like 70 vendors participated.
• The Blue Cat booth is offering a roller coaster-type experience, if you like that sort of thing. If you like eye-candy, they offer that as well.
• Hexaware had a unique booth concept with lots of plants on the ground, making the booth look a bit like a garden. They were promoting their green theme.
• Actuate is handing out $5 Starbucks gift cards, if you spend a few minutes chatting with them, like I did.
• I sat in on a Sage presentation in hopes of winning an iPod shuffle. I lost but the presentation was good (short and to the point.)
• I’ve noticed that the booths with the most activity are the HIE vendors. I rested my weary feet a bit and listened to an Ingenix presentation. When I stood up to leave I noticed there was a crowd three deep standing behind me. I saw similar crowds at Medicity, Axolotl, and dbMotion.
• PatientKeeper, Nuance and RelayHealth seem to have much bigger booths than in previous years.
• Chair massages can be found at DCS, which was near the McKesson booth
• As I walked by Bottomline Tech at about 3:45, folks were queuing up for cocktails. I waited until 4:00 and got an “Inga’tini from SIS. Highly recommended.
• Mr. H mentioned that the Google booth appeared slow. Not when I went by. Although I can’t figure out what they are offering that makes the crowd so curious.
• Chetu has a couple of gorillas in their booth. One of the guys working the booth told me they had wanted the gorillas to walk the floor wearing a Chetu sign. HIMSS nixed that idea. Apparently HIMSS thought some company might conclude that if one vendor could have gorillas walking around, then it would be acceptable to send forth girls in bikinis.

And, of course, the HIStalk reception was incredible. Thanks to all who attended and definitely to our hosts. Amy Glass with Encore rocks! Jonathan Bush was an incredibly funny announcer, which I believe our EHR-TV folks caught on tape. Yes, the very down-to-earth and friendly Judith Faulkner did stop by and even wore her sash that said, “No Pie for Me.” We awarded a couple of bonus sashes for great shoes. I checked out the shoes of both recipients and agree they were worthy of recognition. I’m hoping someone snapped a photo of the winning shoes.

I have lots of photos to post and will get to those in the next couple of days. More later!

E-mail Inga.

From HIMSS 3/1/10

From Kermit Randa: “Re: today. Long day of goodness sharing the critical importance of the OR in the current healthcare economic and IT landscape. The reception is a welcome end to a long day. Nicely done! Who can argue with beer, great apps, and a little John Cougar?! Thanks for all you an Inga do! Hope she stopped by the SIS booth for an Inga-tini!” I totally forgot that she told me that SIS has created a specialty drink for her, apparently available in their booth. She is enthralled with the concept of alcohol on the show floor, so I’m sure she has tried it already with a report forthcoming.

From Jack: “Re: camera cable. You should get an Eye-Fi.  It’s an SD Card that has built in WiFi capability and will upload images automatically.”

From Festus: “Re: partners. Seen on booths in the exhibit hall, ‘your partner in meaningful use’. A lie on two accounts. As discussed before on HIStalk, rarely is a vendor ever your partner and does anyone really believe they will help them use technology in a truly meaningful way?”

It was so cool to see everyone at the HIStalk reception this evening, so thank you so much if you attended, including our insiders who work on the sites who had a chance to be recognized. Thanks to Jonathan Bush for handling the HISsies announcements, to John Glaser for his video acceptance as CIO of the Year (I’ll post the HISsies winners when I get time), to Ross Martin, MD for his excellent world premiere of Meaningful Yoose Rap (you would not believe the government approvals he had to get to do it), to our sash wearers, and for Encore, Evolvent, and Symantec for putting it together (especially Amy Glass on the Encore side). I’m sure I’m forgetting people, but like you, I’ve had a beer or two too many (if you didn’t try the Max Lager’s Red, it went down pretty smooth). And how about that bagpiper! Thanks to Deborah Peel, MD from Patient Privacy Rights for staying over an extra night just to hang out with us, to Inga for all the work she did to prepare for the reception, and to those many people in the audience who work for companies that sponsor HIStalk, HIStalk Practice, and HIStalk Mobile and who chose to spend their evening with us. It’s just 364 days or thereabouts until the next one in Orlando!

I need to get the scoop on this since I left the party early. It appears from a reader’s cell phone pic just sent that Epic’s Judy Faulkner showed up and is pictured with Jonathan Bush from athenahealth. Big props for her if she did since I know she basically never does that sort of thing even though I asked her and she said she might. More to come.

And Dr. Gregg Alexander snapped this one of the B52s at the Eclipsys party. Love ‘em.

Speaking of Symantec, the company announces a cloud-based storing and data sharing environment for healthcare.

Dell announces that it will offer EMR hardware and consulting services in affiliation with the AMA.

Microsoft announces HealthVault Community Connect, which allows hospitals to make EMR data available to patients or to share the information with other providers.

I didn’t go to the opening keynote because I didn’t really want to get up so early, but it apparently talked up 4G quite a bit. Sprint CEO Dan Hesse says it can take health care out of the 70s, which could be argued.

I think we reported this as a rumor back in November or something, but Sisters of St. Francis chooses Epic.

Bassett Healthcare (NY) chooses PatientKeeper.

Voalte asked me to pass along that you iPhone users can stop by their booth to charge up.

I’ll add a few booth reviews and that’s all the time I have tonight since I have to get up early. And I’m exhausted since I remember now why hate the GWCC exhibit hall (Hall C is way separate from A/B and I never did find the secret passage that connects them, even though I’ve used it in years past and I even asked a security guard to point it out). As a result, I didn’t see much in Hall C.

• Several sponsors had their autographed We Power HIStalk signs in their booths, so thanks for that.
• Virtelligence had theirs front and center.
• Cattails MD from Marshfield Clinic had a pretty substantial booth.
• OnBase had the sports bar and that amazing card trick guy again.
• Not much changed with Epic’s booth,including the fact that Judy was in it most of the time.
• EDIMS had a video game.
• Eclipsys had a nice, open booth.
• Kronos staffed theirs very well, making it easy to get someone.
• Allscripts had lots of orange and looked good.
• Microsoft’s had a decent crowd, but not as much as last year from what I could tell.
• API’s was kind of skyscrapery, which I liked.
• GE’s was sprawling and divided up into sections.
• I’ll award NextGen the best booth award with its bold, purple cylinders and arches.
• McKesson had the usual blue and orange, but a whole separate sub-booth for Paragon.
• The Alert people from Europe had females some pretty impressive pants that I can’t really describe.
• Sentillion’s was labeled as “A Microsoft Company”
• RelayHealth’s was nicely done in McKesson colors, very open.
• Google’s was tiny and kind of dead.
• iMDsoft had a giant John Glaser photo.
• MEDSEEK made the best use of a reasonable space with some good design and an upstairs area. They attached their HIStalk sign directly to the podium, which was cool to see (Inga fretted that she told Kinko’s to go one size bigger than 8×10 and the next jump was apparently pretty big).
• Rel Ware had what was apparently a full sized Back to the Future DeLorean. Pretty cool.
• Chipsoft had the yellow wooden shoes again, still my favorite giveaway.
• eClinical Works had their sign out – thanks. So did Greenway.

HERtalk by Inga

Greetings from Atlanta!

I arrived at the convention center mid-day Sunday lurked around a few meetings and looked for famous CIOs. I realize how nerdy this is, but I was thrilled to catch a glimpse of a few CIO superstars like Bill Spooner, John Bosco, and Ed Marx as well as vendor big-wigs like Glenn Tullman, Sunny Sanyal, Judy Faukner.  We are definitely in the land of HIT rock stars.

If you are not a rock star but want people to think you are, HIMSS has made available a plethora of extra ribbons to adorn your name badge. I gave Mr. H one that says "PMP" and told him it could be a good conversation starter since from afar the mind automatically wants to insert an "I".

Mr. H and I had an HIStalk executive board meeting Sunday afternoon and voted to continue the blog. Since he was designated CEO of HIStalk for the HITmen event, he graciously awarded me the title of President. My mother would be proud.

When the meeting was adjourned, we joined a relatively small crowd at the opening reception. I suppose it is difficult to create an ambiance with a warehouse-like room that has concrete floors and open rafters. There was a live band, but the acoustics were so bad I couldn’t tell you what they played or if they were any good. Mr. H reminded me how crowded the reception was last year as people tried to avoid walking in the Chicago snow storm. I’ll take the sunshine of Atlanta.

Today’s agenda includes CCHIT town hall meeting and checking out the exhibits, including the interoperability booth. Then a bit of primping and on to Max Lager’s. I promise to keep good notes and share details of the day, especially for those of you keeping the lights on at home.

E-mail Inga.

From HIMSS 2/28/10

From Zale: “Re: Eclipsys. I wonder if anyone at either Microsoft or Eclipsys knows that Bill Gates demoed an early version of Sunrise Clinical Manager at HIMSS in 1995?”

From Sheri: “Re: clinicians and IT people. But if you combine the best of both worlds – the experienced Clinical Analyst — you get a great opinion. Clinicians don’t know what they don’t know about IT. Experienced clinical analysts have one foot in both worlds and can make really good decisions about the solutions that will work for the clinicians. You just have to hire the right people and get out of the way.” Sometimes, as long as the analyst remembers that as soon as they cross the dark side to IT, they need to consult the still-practicing clinicians before making decisions. Most of the ones I know are excellent, but a few think their decades-ago practice makes them even more expert than those still working. But I agree in general and at least the CAs always put the best interests of patients first. 

From Diamond Jim: “Re: drink beer, get CME.” Strange — attendance at the HIMSS opening reception earns CME/CNE credits. Somehow I don’t think patients would be comforted to know that. I really did get some good education from some of the HIStalk pals Inga and I hung out with there, though.

It was strangely quiet and low-key at the convention center today, but you could smell the money. New exhibitors, new attendees, and lots of expensive advertising stuff were obvious. It looked nice outside, but with temps in the low 50s and lots of wind, it wasn’t really all that comfortable. I had forgotten until someone mentioned it about the weird layout of the exhibit hall, with the two unconnected halves that mean some vendors paid big dollars for Siberian real estate.

Speaking of that real estate, I was explaining to someone that it’s not enough to be willing to pay big bucks for booth space – you have to earn the right to spend that money by first accumulating HIMSS points. I’m not sure they believed me, so here’s the proof.

Like I always say, it looked like the Marines laying in supplies for the siege at Khe Sanh. Trucks, cartloads of food and drinks, and vendor shipments were everywhere. Everybody was dressed casually, which will be in contrast to the dolled up crowds tomorrow.

The opening reception was surprisingly uncrowded, with no drink lines at all (I only drank, but the food lines didn’t look much longer). The atmosphere, of course, was like taking an aircraft hangar, putting a small band at one end of it and leaving them to compete with their own echoes, and sticking up a few palm trees with Christmas lights on them. I’ll stick with my prediction of 30,000 attendees, but 90% of them weren’t at the opening reception for some reason.

Strangest line overheard, this from a supposed HIT journalist: “What does CIO stand for?”

Two acquisitions will be announced tomorrow morning, sources tell me (although one may be delayed until later in the week). One involves an imaging vendor, the other a document company.

My cheap hotel has slow wireless and I forgot my camera cord, so I”m working without much technology support. Luckily Inga is handy with her iPhone. She also brought me barbeque sauce, so anything she does is fine with me.

GE makes some announcements early: a clinical knowledge platform, eHealth solutions, and HIE improvements.

A reader snapped this candid photo (looks like a phone one) of Epic’s Judy Faulkner behind a coffee urn that looks like a 1950s sci fi robot or spaceship. I swear the woman never ages. I tried to get her to come to the reception tomorrow night and she says she “might drop by”, but I’m not holding my breath. If she does, we have a sash for her.

I’m counting on my fellow attendees to keep me abreast of rumors and news. Photos would be nice since my camera is useless without the cord. Send me anything interesting.