The Cancer AI Alliance, a research collaboration of four major cancer centers, launches a platform that securely centralizes anonymized data from its members to train AI models.
HIStalk Announcements and Requests
Most poll respondents aren’t so loyal to their doctors that they will tolerate administrative frustration.
New poll to your right or here: What health tech term is most overused? That inspired me to check my HISsies awards from 10 years ago, where I was reminded that the most overused buzzword was “big data.”
I consummated my occasional urge this week to binge my favorite finance thriller movies: “Wall Street,” “The Big Short,” “Boiler Room,” and “Margin Call.” It was either impossible or expensive to do this before rollout of ad-supported streaming channels such as Pluto TV, Tubi, and The Roku Channel.
Sponsored Events and Resources
None scheduled soon. Contact Lorre to have your resource listed.
Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock
Uniform virtual care platform vendor Collette Health acquires the Virtual Nursing Academy, which provides education for deploying virtual nursing in health systems.
Former pharmacy chain giant Rite Aid closes its last drugstores, adding to the one-third of US pharmacies that shut down between 2010 and 2021.
People
TruBridge hires Michael Daughton, MBA (EnableComp) as chief business officer.
Lisa Dykstra, CHIME advisor and former Lurie Children’s Hospital SVP/CIO, died last week at 55.
Announcements and Implementations
England requires all GP practices to keep online consultation tools active 8 a.m. until 6:30 p.m. on weekdays, allowing patients to request appointments, ask questions, and describe symptoms without joining “the 8 a.m. scramble.” Some practices disable apps once slots fill, driving 6.6% of patients who can’t get through by phone to the ED. One practice cut appointment wait from 14 days to three, with 95% of patients seen within a week.
Sponsor Updates
Inovalon will host its annual Empower summit November 2-4 in Washington, DC.
Netsmart introduces its new “Voices of Care” podcast.
Nordic releases a new “Designing for Health” podcast featuring Matthew Denenberg, MD.
Waystar will exhibit at the PACHC Annual Conference and Clinical Summit October 7-9 in Lancaster, PA.
WellSky releases a new report titled “Addressing today’s healthcare workforce challenges.”
Medicare’s telehealth flexibilities lapse due to the federal government’s shutdown, with these changes:
Geographic restrictions are restored.
Medicare patients won’t be able to receive services in their homes.
An initial In-person visit will be required within the six months before a behavioral or mental telehealth service and then annually.
Audio-only telehealth services are no longer permitted.
The Acute Hospital Care at Home program is shut down, forcing hospitals to move those patients, some of whom have mobility, transportation, and immune deficiency limitations, to overcrowded inpatient programs. All participating patients had to be discharged or moved back into the hospital by Tuesday.
Providers can continue to offer services to Medicare patients. They can hold those bills until the shutdown is resolved, but they are not guaranteed that Congress will authorize retroactive payments as it has in the past.
HIStalk Announcements and Requests
HIStalk sponsors who are participating in the HLTH conference October 19-22: tell me about your activities and I’ll include them in my conference guide.
Sponsored Events and Resources
Survey: “What’s your take on the value of IT Managed Services?” Sponsor: CTG. Due to recent legislative changes, healthcare organizations are under growing pressure to balance cost, performance, and innovation. CTG wants to hear from leaders like you on how IT managed services can help — or hinder — those goals in this quick, 5-minute survey. Your insights will help inform industry understanding and provide a clear picture of how IT managed services is currently being used.
Fortified Health Security acquires cybersecurity firm Latitude Information Security.
Veradigm’s special investor update call offered no details on its anticipated Nasdaq relisting. The company said that its financials remain sound, but it again withheld profit metrics, citing the unresolved revenue recognition discrepancies that led to its delisting. It continues to hope to become current on SEC filings and have shares relisted sometime in 2026.
Waystar closes its $1.25 billion acquisition of Iodine.
General Catalyst’s HATCo closes its $500 million acquisition of Akron-based Summa Health, two years after it was announced. The VC firm will convert Summa to a for-profit and use it as a living laboratory for the technology products of GC’s portfolio companies.
People
TigerConnect hires Peter Stetson, MD, MA (Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center) as CMIO and Sheeza Hussain (Press Ganey) as chief growth officer.
NextGen Healthcare promotes Srinivas Velamoor, MBA to president and CEO. He replaces David Sides, who will remain an investor and board member.
Rollout of AI-powered digital assistants for appointment scheduling and form submissions.
Enhance the EHR as a “more adaptive, context-aware copilot” by adding real-time transcription.
Automate claims processing.
Use AI copilots and agents to handle routine inquiries and administrative tasks.
Support staff by using AI to retrieve and summarize information from all VA sources.
HHS officials say that the administration does not support private sector vetting of AI tools in healthcare. Deputy HHS Secretary Jim O’Neill, who is a technology investor, tells Politico that the Coalition for Health AI could become a “cartel” that allows big companies to squelch startups.
Privacy and Security
Meta will use conversations with its AI products for targeted advertising. Its upcoming privacy update also authorizes using data that is captured by its smart glasses and its AI image generator to target ads on Facebook and Instagram, with no opt-out option offered.
Other
Medical school professor Robert Wachter, MD provides interesting analysis of the “AI knowledge war” among OpenEvidence, Wolters Kluwer’s UpToDate, and Epic. Notes:
UpToDate’s medical literature content is overseen by thousands of human experts.
OpenEvidence quickly became popular because it could analyze a full clinical case and provide an immediately useful and accurate AI “curbside consult.” Wachter says that is comparable to the difference between a Google search result and getting more in-depth, human-like answers from a GPT.
UpToDate just added some AI capabilities, but its expert-curated approach to evidence still contrasts with OpenEvidence’s direct literature search. According to Wolters Kluwer’s chief medical officer, those experts add value because they “understand the intersection of evidence, real-world patient care, the fact that there isn’t a randomized study for everything, and they have judgment.”
Epic’s Art and Cosmos have access to huge amounts of EHR treatment and outcomes data that UpToDate and OpenEvidence don’t have, although Wachter is not yet convinced that their results will be more helpful in patient care.
He sees Epic’s big advantage as allowing doctors to ask specific questions without typing in the patient’s situation, which could offer “the capacity to transform the practice of medicine.”
Keep the pumpkin-everything products — my most-anticipated fall treat is Mr. Autumn Man.
Sponsor Updates
ISG Software Research 2025 Data Platforms Buyers Guide ranks InterSystems as an overall leader.
AGS Health wins a UiPath AI25 Award for its use of agentic AI automation to assist providers in managing the rising rate of healthcare claim denials.
Inovalon announces that its advanced analytics and real-world data capabilities are now available on Snowflake’s AI Data Cloud for Healthcare & Life Sciences.
Surescripts releases a new report that details key drivers of clinician burnout, including administrative burdens and inefficiencies.
Kyruus Health gives its customers the ability to manage provider and practice profiles on Healthgrades and its syndication partners.
Symplr creates a Nurse Executive Advisory Council, which will be chaired by Symplr Chief Clinical Officer Susan Grant, DNP, RN.
Waystar closes its acquisition of Iodine Software.
Ellkay sponsors the Bergen New Bridge Medical Center (NJ) Golf Outing.
DrFirst announces the 2025 Healthiverse Heroes Award Winners, including HIStalk sponsor Elsevier.
Findhelp welcomes new customers UAB Medicine (AL), The Lockhouse Group, and the University of Oklahoma Health Campus.
Specialty care coordination company Switchboard Health acquires Conduce Health, which offers AI-powered referral management and analytics software for specialty care.
I interviewed Conduce Health CEO Najib Jai, MD, MBA earlier this year.
Sponsored Events and Resources
Survey: “What’s your take on the value of IT Managed Services?” Sponsor: CTG. Due to recent legislative changes, Healthcare organizations are under growing pressure to balance cost, performance, and innovation. CTG wants to hear from leaders like you on how IT managed services can help — or hinder — those goals in this quick, 5-minute survey. Your insights will help inform industry understanding and provide a clear picture of how IT managed services is currently being used.
Sunstone Partners acquires a majority stake in healthcare cybersecurity and compliance company Clearwater.
CareCloud will acquire the Healthcare Financial Management Association’s MAP App, a revenue cycle performance benchmarking tool used by providers.
Assort Health raises $76 million in a Series B round, bringing total funding to $102 million since launching in 2023. It offers specialty-specific AI voice agents for inbound patient phone calls.
Confido Health raises $10 million in a Series A round to expand its AI voice agent platform for appointment scheduling and patient access.
Investors file a class action lawsuit against online weight loss clinic operator LifeMD, claiming that executives touted strong Q1 results and raised guidance without disclosing high acquisition costs and refunds. The company then missed Q2 targets, cut guidance, and saw shares fall 44% in one day. LFMD shares are down 80% from their all-time high in early 2021, valuing the company at $322 million.
Huntzinger Management Group renames itself to Avarion.
People
Elsevier promotes Brent Gordon to president of its Health Education business unit.
Clearwater promotes Baxter Lee to president. He takes over from Steve Cagle, who becomes a board advisor.
David Bartley, MBA (MedeAnalytics) joins Iris Telehealth as chief solutions officer.
Sales
Seattle Children’s will implement Abridge’s ambient clinical documentation software across its hospital following a 90-day pilot.
Announcements and Implementations
Beebe Healthcare (DE) will go live on Epic next month.
RevSpring announces GA of its new referral management software.
Queen Victoria Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in England will roll out Altera Digital Health’s Sunrise EHR in November.
Innovaccer develops a Social and Community Health Information Exchange for public sector agencies.
Trilliant releases SimilarityIndex Hospitals, a free tool that allows hospitals to compare their key operating metrics with those of the 50 most similar US hospitals.
Ambience Healthcare launches an inpatient ICD-10 CDI assistant that helps hospitalists capture precise, compliant diagnoses during the encounter.
Government and Politics
UK Prime Minister Keith Starmer announces NHS Online, a virtual service launching in 2027 that will let GP-referred patients speak to specialists by phone or video. The model draws on projects such as University Hospital Southampton’s, where irritable bowel disease patients could request help as needed, cutting in-person visits by 73% and wait times by 58%.
Other
Golisano Children’s Hospital’s NICU increases the survival rates for babies born at 22 to 24 weeks from 14.3% to 70% after creating a collaborative initiative that includes adding protocols to its EHR.
Sponsor Updates
ReferWell staff donate handmade bookmarks and gently used books to Books 4 Everyone.
CereCore releases a new podcast titled “From Cerner to Oracle Health: Building Partnerships That Last.”
SelectQuote uses Findhelp’s platform to connect its low-income Medicare customers with free and reduced-cost social services.
KLAS Research recognizes significant satisfaction gains amongst Agfa HealthCare customers who use the company’s Enterprise Imaging VNA and Xero Viewer.
Western Australia Health implements Altera Digital Health’s Opal document management solution.
AvaSure announces the 2025 AvaPrize Award Winners, recognizing innovation and excellence in virtual care.
Canopii Collaborative names Ben Hintz account executive.
Judi Health becomes the exclusive Jersey Patch Partner of the Charlotte Hornets.
Clinical Architecture releases a new episode of “The Informonster Podcast” titled “PIQI Update and HL7 Connectathon Recap.”
The “Empowered Patient” podcast features CliniComp SVP of Client Services Sandra Johnson in an episode titled “Hospital CIOs Setting Priorities and Plans to Use AI.”
Concord Technologies launches the Concord Connect Ignition Program to help healthcare organizations transition from manual document processing to AI-driven, Straight-Through Processing.
Divurgent names Amanda Young director of client service.
KLAS interviews 35 Epic customers at UGM following the company’s AI announcements. Most said that Epic’s move into ambient speech was expected.
Customers generally expect Epic’s product to be cheaper and better integrated than those of competitors.
Some respondents worry that Epic’s expanding footprint will stifle competition and innovation, although more than half expect to implement Epic’s ambient speech offering within two years.
Reader Comments
From Skeptical CIO: “Re: Epic’s ambient speech. Everyone assumes it will be cheaper than Nuance or Abridge, but Epic add-ons haven’t exactly reduced overall costs. The Epic tax keeps going up while reducing competitor innovation. I don’t buy the argument that Epic will run this as a loss leader.”
From Grizzled Analyst: “Re: federal telehealth coverage. Ending with a shutdown and turning off a decade of progress with the stroke of a Congressional pen. Hospitals spent millions on virtual care platforms, patients got used to access, and now it’s all at risk because of political brinkmanship.”
HIStalk Announcements and Requests
Most poll respondents don’t expect personal financial improvement next year, with federal government volatility most often cited as the cause.
New poll to your right or here: Would you change doctors over non-clinical problems such as staff behavior, billing errors, bad tech, or scheduling headaches? It probably depends on how much you rely on continuity of care, whether you perceive your physician as better than the alternatives, or who takes your insurance. Medical practices are odd that much of the management and public-facing behavior is left to unqualified or unmotivated employees because doctors are poor managers.
Pondering:
Would outcomes differ if health system C-level executives, especially those who are going all-in on AI, were themselves replaced by AI that was trained on hospital data? That might be even more relevant to for-profit company C-level folks, who seem to misfire often enough that maybe AI can’t do worse while saving huge annual salaries.
With the raft of upcoming MyChart enhancements, should it work like Uber where doctors and patients rate each other for future consideration in booking appointments?
Were you really “promoted” if your new job is higher on the org chart but comes with no increase in pay? I admit that I accepted an offer like that once, and would do so again, because (a) the office view was killer; and (b) the alternative was to hope they didn’t hire an insufferable idiot as my new boss. The health system claimed that they couldn’t afford to pay me more, which wasn’t the strongest argument since I had IT access to its salaries and financials.
Listening: The Favors, a collaboration between apparently popular (judging from Spotify stream counts) Finneas O’Connell (“Finneas,” a 10-time Grammy winner and Billie Eilish’s brother and collaborator) and Ashley Willson (“Ashe”). They wrote all the songs on their new release. It’s not usually my kind of genre, but I’ve played the album several times and can’t get enough. My painfully obvious prediction is that they will soon approach household name status, probably both individually and collectively.
Meanwhile, I’m cooling on podcasts just as quickly as I embraced them. I tried all the reader suggestions, but endless commercials are so jarring and distracting that I can’t focus on the story.
Sponsored Events and Resources
Survey: “What’s your take on the value of IT Managed Services?” Sponsor: CTG. Due to recent legislative changes, Healthcare organizations are under growing pressure to balance cost, performance, and innovation. CTG wants to hear from leaders like you on how IT managed services can help — or hinder — those goals in this quick, 5-minute survey. Your insights will help inform industry understanding and provide a clear picture of how IT managed services is currently being used.
Veradigm will provide a business update after Tuesday’s market close, raising speculation that it will make an announcement about Nasdaq relisting.
Bonsai Health, whose AI agents automate the front-office workflows of medical practices, raises $7 million in seed funding. Founders Travis Schneider and Luke Kervin have launched three previous companies together, most recently PatientPop, which merged with Kareo in late 2021 to form Tebra.
People
Randall Sanborn, MS (MyMichigan Health) joins Aspirus Health as VP of system IT process and emerging technologies.
Announcements and Implementations
A Black Book Research poll of physician practice managers finds rapid growth in digital tool use and stronger EHR/RCM vendor ties, but half worry that collections will drop with medical debt removed from credit reports, while 81% don’t trust their system’s AI prompts due to lack of transparency and auditability. The report notes that practice managers often don’t recognize or use the capabilities of their current systems.
A sponsored 9to5 Mac article highlights 100-bed Emory Hallandale Hospital’s deployment of Macs, IPads, IPhones, and Apple Watches that run Epic Hyperspace, including its native MacOS app.
A Canadian news network warns patients that Epic MyChart’s new user agreement requires arbitration and a class action waiver, though such clauses aren’t enforceable under the consumer protection laws of some provinces. It also notes that patients can instead use hospital-specific web version of MyChart, which doesn’t include those terms.
Yale School of Medicine researchers validate that consumer prices increase when hospitals acquire medical practices. Interesting facts:
States do not enforce antitrust laws.
Healthcare quality doesn’t usually improve post-acquisition because “doctors are rather good at providing care across corporate boundaries” due to experience navigating insurance and referrals.
Hospitals aren’t required to report practice acquisitions to regulators, so the authors had to develop an AI algorithm that probed available records to find doctors who changed employment from private practices to hospitals.
Prices go up because hospitals press employed doctors to keep referrals in-house, insurers are reluctant to remove practices from their networks when that would mean removing the hospital as well, and consolidation increases market power.
Government and Politics
Politico reports that a looming federal shutdown, which can be avoided only if Congress passes a funding bill by Tuesday night, would end Medicare’s coverage of telehealth visits this week.
The UK government creates a National Commission on the Regulation of AI in Healthcare, which will accelerate NHS adoption of AI by advising on regulation and reviewing technology such as ambient voice that falls into a regulatory gray area. The group’s chair is University of Birmingham medical professor Alastair Denniston, MBBChir, MA, PhD.
Other
My favorite headline of the week calls Oprah an influential “woo-woo wellness” aficionado, only lightly mentioning that she gave our Medicare leader an early, scrub-wearing medutainment platform to peddle miracle cures and fad diets.
Sponsor Updates
PerfectServe sponsors the American Heart Association’s Greater Washington Golf Tournament.
RLDatix launches its new Hello from RLD campaign, reintroducing the company in the wake of its major transformations over the last few years.
Arcadia, MRO, Healthmonix, and Navina will exhibit at the NAACOS Fall 2025 Conference October 8-10 in Washington, DC.
Redox releases a new episode of its “Shut the backdoor” podcast titled “The Link Between Disney Imagineering and Healthcare Security Teams – Making the Impossible Possible with guest Bob Weis.”
Waystar will exhibit at the KPCA Annual Conference October 1-3 in Covington, KY.
Updates to Open.Epic and Epic’s Vendor Services, including a five-step guide with developer roadmap, 40 developer playbooks, and expanded Sandbox testing capabilities.
Reader Comments
From Concerned Clinical Staff: “Re: Children’s Mercy Kansas City. Rolling out the Go Helen Nurse Concierge app ahead of Epic implementation. Does anyone have more information on the company? It seems duplicative with Epic’s Rover and Bedside and lack of Epic integration seems like a prime situation for errors in allergies, NPO, etc.” My understanding is that patients use the company’s voice app to make non-clinical, hospitality-type requests from their rooms (bring ice, order meals, etc.) that are then routed internally by the company’s concierge team. Nurses can also make in-room requests to have supplies brought to the room. The hospital is piloting Helen.
HIStalk Announcements and Requests
HIStalk sponsors who are participating in the HLTH conference October 19-22: tell me about your activities and I’ll include them in my conference guide.
I’m slowly warming up to podcasts after years of dismissing them, and I now see why they’re perfect for long walks and road trips. My first full series, which I’ve actually listened to twice, is the Peabody-winning investigative documentary “S-Town.” It’s gripping, provided you aren’t put off by profanity. Since its 2017 release, it has been downloaded 200 million times, which may make it the most-listened-to podcast ever. The experience reminds me of 1940s radio drama, where intimacy and imagination fill the mental space more powerfully in the absence of visuals.
Welcome to new HIStalk Platinum Sponsor Concord Technologies. Concord Technologies is a leading provider of Secure Document Exchange, Intelligent Document Processing, and Interoperability solutions to healthcare providers, payers, and other highly regulated businesses. For more than 20 years, billions of sensitive records containing valuable patient information have been reliably, accurately, and securely exchanged across Concord’s digital health network, and today, the company processes more than 4 billion pages of protected data each year. The company is also recognized for its best-in-class development of new artificial intelligence technologies, including Concord’s Practical AI approach to solving the most pervasive administrative challenges in the healthcare industry and for pioneering end-to-end Straight-Through Processing of healthcare data into the system of record. Thanks to Concord Technologies for supporting HIStalk.
Sponsored Events and Resources
None scheduled soon. Contact Lorre to have your resource listed.
Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock
Datavant acquires DigitalOwl, which summarizes patient records for law and insurance firms.
AmplifyMD, which offers hospitals a multispecialty virtual care platform and physician network, raises a $20 million Series B round.
Oracle awards its newly announced co-CEOs stock options worth $350 million, $250 million for Clay Magouyrk and $100 million for Mike Sicilia.
Sales
Java Medical Group will expand its use of TruBridge’s technology and services at Russellville Hospital (AL).
Bethany Children’s Health Center will implement Commure’s documentation and workflow platform, integrated with Meditech.
Primary care provider Marathon Health chooses Medbridge’s Pathways musculoskeletal care platform.
People
Intermountain Health promotes Mike Harmer, MPA to VP of ERP digital services.
Announcements and Implementations
CommonSpirit Health will use ESO’s EMS–hospital integration platform to give nearly 4,000 Utah first responders real-time access to the hospital outcomes data of patients they have transported.
CareCloud launches a hospital-focused physician relationship management platform obtained from its acquisition of Medsphere one month ago.
AI meeting assistant vendor Fireflies.ai rolls out Fireflies for Healthcare, a HIPAA-compliant documentation platform that integrates with EHRs via Chrome and generates clinical notes, patient summaries, referral letters, sick notes, and follow-up scheduling. Plans start at $10 per provider per month.
WellSky launches the AI-supported WellSky CarePort Referral Intake solution.
Wolters Kluwer Health announces UpToDate Expert AI, which allows clinicians to access evidence-based answers at the point of care.
The Joint Commission recognizes Tampa General Hospital with its inaugural innovation award, citing its work with Palantir, implement of ambient documentation, use of Apella’s OR safety computer vision technology, and its hospital-at-home program.
Ambience Healthcare introduces HCC Compliance Validator, which verifies in real time that clinician-selected diagnoses are substantiated for CMS compliance.
Access Community Health Network collaborates with Epic and the Social Security Administration to exchange medical records electronically to speed up disability benefit review.
Sutter Health launches Sutter Sync, developed with Epic, to send readings from its proprietary blood pressure cuff, scale, and glucometer directly to Epic’s MyChart app on the patient’s phone, eliminating the need for a separate device app. Epic mentioned its Bluetooth Generic Health Sensor specification this week at Open@Epic.
Other
A study finds that private equity hospital takeovers are linked to staff and salary cuts, more patient transfers to other hospitals, and increased ED deaths.
ProPublica details an insurer’s denial of mental health coverage for a man who tried to commit suicide twice. His wife accuses the company of “weaponized incompetence” for intentionally throwing up barriers such as publishing incorrect fax numbers and blocking her access to billing codes, denial reasons, and medical records that her husband had authorized her to see.
Sponsor Updates
Medicomp Systems releases a new episode of its “Tell Me Where IT Hurts” podcast featuring Health Gorilla Chief Medical Officer Steven Lane, MD.
The “NCPDPunscripted” podcast features First Databank VP of Clinical Network Services Lathe Bigler.
AvaSure, First Databank, Inovalon, PerfectServe, Symplr, and Wolters Kluwer Health will exhibit at the ANA Magnet & Pathway Conference October 8-10 in Atlanta.
Healthcare IT Leaders publishes a new guide titled “The Ultimate Workday Resource Planning & Staffing Guide.”
Gartner recognizes Linus Health in its Hype Cycle for Digital Care Delivery, 2025, under the category of digital clinical voice analysis.
Optimum Healthcare IT publishes a new episode of its “Visionary Voices” podcast titled “Agentic AI in Healthcare,” featuring Sameer Sethi from Hackensack Meridian Health.
Wolters Kluwer Health announces UpToDate Expert AI, GenAI for clinicians, built by clinicians. Clinicians get fast, reliable, evidence-based answers for patient care in a chatbot-style interface. UpToDate Expert AI is purpose-built for centralized, enterprise-wide deployment and management. For health system administrators, Wolters Kluwer’s well-established ecosystem approach is committed to supporting enterprise needs for transparency, compliance, and governance. And, UpToDate is embedded in top digital health tech platforms, AI scribes, and EHRs ensuring workflow integration. See details. (Sponsor Spotlight is free for HIStalk Platinum sponsors).
September 23, 2025NewsComments Off on News 9/24/25
Top News
Oracle promotes Clay Magouyrk and Mike Sicilia to co-CEOS, replacing Safra Catz.
Magouyrk was president of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and has been with the company 11 years. Sicilia joined the company in 2008 and most recently was president of Oracle Industries. Both were heavily involved with Oracle’s AI work.
Sicilia, a former lobbyist, was an early post-acquisition spokesperson for Oracle in several federal hearings about the VA’s stalled Oracle Health project. He is a regular critic of Epic and CEO Judy Faulkner. CTO Larry Ellison said, “Mike has spent the last several years modernizing Oracle’s Industry applications businesses, including Oracle Health, by completely rebuilding those applications using the latest AI technologies.”
The promotions were first disclosed in a June SEC filing.
Sponsored Events and Resources
None scheduled soon. Contact Lorre to have your resource listed.
Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock
Patient communications and payment solutions RevSpring will acquire Kyruus Health, which offers provider search and scheduling.
Pharmacy benefit manager and administrator Capital Rx rebrands to Judi Health, the name of its AI-powered health benefit management platform, and announces $400 million in new funding. The company has raised $732 million since its 2017 launch. I interviewed CEO AJ Loiacono last October.
Patient Square Capital will acquire tech-enabled group purchasing and supply chain company Premier Inc. in a $2.6 billion take-private deal. Premier, which went public in 2013, has been evaluating strategic alternatives for two years.
Prosper AI raises $5 million in seed funding. The company develops AI voice agents for patient access and administrative workflows.
Enterprise telehealth vendor Caregility announces $25.1 million in new funding, bringing its total raised to $92 million.
Diabetes software vendor Glooko acquires Monarch Medical Technologies, which offers a glucose management system. Glooko’s CEO says the acquisition will support its efforts to deliver a full hospital-to-home service.
Sales
The New York Office of Mental Health will implement Oracle Health’s EHR across 24 inpatient psychiatric facilities and 300 outpatient programs.
Yale New Haven Health (CT) will roll out Artisight’s Smart Hospital Platform, initially focusing on virtual nursing.
People
ReferWell names Loren Koerber (Medecision) VP of strategic account management.
Jason Bond, MBA (CareAbout Health) joins Sevaro Health as CFO and SVP of strategy.
Matt Rockhold (GE HealthCare) joins Thynk Health as chief commercial officer.
Joe Moscola, PA, MBA (Northwell Health) leaves the organization and will offer advisory consulting services.
Allymar Health Solutions hires Cecil Lynch, MD, MSc (Accenture) as CMIO.
Scottsdale Institute appoints John Glaser, PhD (Harvard Medical School) as board chair, replacing co-founder Don Wegmiller.
Announcements and Implementations
Sutter Health (CA) will use Epic-connected medical devices in its Sutter Sync digital care program for patients with chronic conditions and pregnancy.
Quest Diagnostics announces a collaboration with Epic to integrate its lab operations nationally, streamlining ordering, results, billing, and patient engagement through technologies like MyChart as part of its Project Nova initiative
Micromedex adds AI-powered drug information search for clinical decision support.
Government and Politics
VA Electronic Health Record Modernization Integration Office CNIO Toni Phillips, RN touts the new Oracle Health-based federal EHR’s streamlined medication administration capabilities, noting that the clicks to scan patient IDs have been reduced from 15 to two.
Sponsor Updates
Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust’s review of Altera Digital Health’s Sunrise EPR finds that the system has delivered significant advancements in care quality, patient safety, and clinical efficiency.
Black Book Research publishes a new report titled “The Middleware Mandate.”
Linus Health, Navina, and Wolters Kluwer Health will exhibit at AAFP FMX October 5-9 in Anaheim, CA.
Clinical Architecture sponsors CHIME Innovation Summit Southwest through September 25 in Irving, TX.
Consensus Cloud Solutions will exhibit at the HIMSS Gulf Coast Conference September 24-26 in New Orleans.
Divurgent releases a new episode of “The Vurge” podcast celebrating the company’s 18th anniversary.
Canopii Collaborative names Brady Thomas account executive.
Symplr adds capabilities to its Operations Platform that unify provider data.
Surescripts announces the 11 winners of its 2025 Surescripts White Coat Award.
The American College of Medical Informatics will present its Morris F. Collen Award of Excellence to Christopher Chute, MD, DrPH at the AMIA annual meeting November 15-19 in Atlanta.
He is an informatics professor and head of biomedical informatics and data science at Johns Hopkins University and professor emeritus of biomedical informatics at Mayo Clinic, a division he founded and chaired for 20 years.
HIStalk Announcements and Requests
The vast majority of poll respondents don’t agree with Larry Ellison’s belief that Oracle’s size and application development technology gives it a strong competitive advantage over Epic. Reader Jim says this:
I think Epic’s customer focused strategy and market size gives it a strategic advantage. Oracle has significantly underestimated what it takes to win in healthcare. Healthcare requires a long-term view and consistency even when profits are elusive. Mass layoffs, major customer losses, and not mentioning healthcare in their quarterly presentations supports my belief.
New poll to your right or here: Do you expect your personal financial situation to improve in 2026? Leave a poll comment to elaborate further.
Welcome to new HIStalk Platinum Sponsor Canopii Collaborative. Canopii is a healthcare IT services firm that specializes in providing consulting services for health plans and health systems. Our primary focus is ensuring that you achieve the maximum value of your Epic software. Leveraging deep domain expertise in the Epic ecosystem, Canopii offers personalized attention to clients and delivers measurable, sustainable results. We are committed to improving healthcare outcomes by optimizing systems, increasing efficiency, and helping clients achieve their strategic goals. Thanks to Canopii for supporting HIStalk.
Sponsored Events and Resources
None scheduled soon. Contact Lorre to have your resource listed.
Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock
Morgan Stanley predicts that AI will generate “trillions of dollars in savings” by 2050, including $600 billion from drug development and $900 billion from hospital costs.
Investigative outlet The Lever reports that Epic’s new MyChart user agreement requires users to accept binding arbitration and a class action waiver, with patients who decline being redirected to a downgraded version of the portal.
People
Ganesh Persad, MSBI (Emory Healthcare) joins Cottage Health as VP/CIO.
UnitedHealth Group promotes Sandeep Dadlani, MMS, MBA to CEO of Optum Insight, its technology-enabled services business that includes the acquired Change Healthcare.
Announcements and Implementations
Evidently launches Ask Evidently, an AI chat tool that embeds in any EHR and lets users query information in the patient’s chart.
Joint Commission and the Coalition for Health AI publish “Guidance on Responsible Use of AI in Healthcare,” which provides internal governance for US health systems on implementing AI at scale.
University Hospitals launches its whole-hospital Connected Care Team initiative at UH Lake West, where it provides virtual nursing support to inpatient nursing units.
A new Harris Poll survey finds that half of healthcare workers will seek or take a new job next year, although two-thirds say they would stay if their employers provide tuition support. Half of healthcare employers say that lack of advancement and educational opportunities drive employees to seek jobs elsewhere. Employees cite AI as the top skill they expect to need within five years, although 42% worry that it will take their jobs.
A therapist accidentally shares his screen during a virtual session, allowing the patient to see that he is pasting their conversation into ChatGPT to suggest responses. In another case, a therapist who is replying via email to a grieving patient forgets to delete the AI prompt header, “Here’s a more human, heartfelt version with a gentle, conversational tone.” Patients not only feel misled, but unhappy when they find out that their private thoughts are being exposed to a tool that offers limited privacy assurances.
Sponsor Updates
PerfectServe surpasses $100 million in contracted annual recurring revenue, a testament to the accelerating adoption of its Unite healthcare communication and scheduling platform.
Black Book Research announces that Meditech Expanse has been ranked the top EHR for community hospitals under 150 beds.
Surescripts publishes a new data brief titled “Care Teams Seek Tools to Improve the Patient Experience.”
Meditech announces that customers are now live with the latest workflow advancements to its Traverse Exchange interoperability solution, which now includes consolidated patient summaries.
Altera Digital Health, Artera, HealthMark Group, Infinx, Meditech, MRO, Nym, PerfectServe, TruBridge, and Waystar will exhibit at the MGMA Leaders Conference September 28-October 1 in Orlando.
Nordic releases a new episode of its “Designing for Health” podcast titled “Interview with Justin Schrager, MD and Nick Sterling, MD, PhD.”
Sevaro Health raises $39 million in a Series B funding round.
The company’s Synapse AI technology connects hospital-based providers with virtual neurology care.
Sponsored Events and Resources
None scheduled soon. Contact Lorre to have your resource listed.
Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock
Bambu Ventures and Innova Capital Partners acquire telehealth company Lemonaid Health from what’s left of 23andMe, which is currently in the midst of bankruptcy proceedings, for $10 million. 23andMe acquired Lemonaid Health in 2021 for $400 million.
Provider workforce management software startup Assured raises $6 million in seed funding.
The feud between OpenEvidence and Doximity heats up, with Doximity now countersuing OpenEvidence for defamation and false advertising. OpenEvidence sued Doximity in June for “brazen corporate espionage” related to Doximity executives allegedly impersonating various physicians and using their NPI numbers to gain access beyond what they were entitled to, with their alleged ultimate goal being to grab OpenEvidence code. (Dr. Jayne had fun summarizing the suit when she came across it several months ago.) Both companies are looking to create a ChatGPT-like tool for healthcare.
Sales
Sutter Health (CA) customer support teams will use Hyro’s AI-based voice and chat capabilities.
People
Todd Holling (University of Texas Health San Antonio) will join Kootenai Health (ID) as interim CIO.
Konza Health promotes David Dooley, MBA to VP of software solutions and engineering, Melissa Talley to VP of clinical data quality, and Sara Warnock to VP of health IT.
Announcements and Implementations
Ardent Health implements Ambience Healthcare’s AI software for documentation, coding, and clinical workflows across its ambulatory sites.
University Hospitals (OH) launches a Connected Care Team virtual nursing program at its Lake West Medical Center using technology from Vitalchat.
Other
Mayo Clinic’s Department of Nursing develops Nurse Virtual Assistant, a generative AI tool that displays patient care summaries and evidence-based nursing resources in a tab within Mayo Clinic’s EHR.
Sponsor Updates
Infinx sponsors The Cancer Research Collaboration & RadNet Golf Tournament in Mission Viejo, CA.
Ellkay sponsors the Emerson Health (MA) Auxiliary Golf Tournament.
First Databank names David Beam strategic account manager, Ethan Donohue software engineer, and Crystal Krebs clinical informatics pharmacist.
Five9 develops an AI-powered integration for ServiceNow.
Fortified Health Security names Grant Thorburn enterprise regional director.
Healthcare IT Leaders sponsors the SCHIMSS Annual Fall Golf Tournament & Scholarship Fundraiser.
Health Data Movers wins a Best Firms to Work For Award from Consulting Magazine.
MRO will exhibit at the NAHRI Revenue Integrity Symposium September 25-26 in Westminster, CO.
September 17, 2025NewsComments Off on Healthcare AI News 9/17/25
News
Meditech announces several AI enhancements to its MyHealth patient portal and Expanse EHR at its customer event, including the addition of chatbots and the integration of Commure’s AI-powered clinical documentation software with its Expanse Now app. Meditech is also working to bring agentic AI to its billing and operational workflows.
URAC launches a healthcare AI accreditation program with pathways for AI developers and users of AI in healthcare delivery.
Sutter Health (CA) customer support teams will use Hyro’s AI-based voice and chat capabilities.
Ardent Health implements Ambience Healthcare’s AI software for documentation, coding, and clinical workflows across its ambulatory sites.
Business
The FDA grants clearance for the upgraded Tempus Pixel cardiac imaging platform from precision medicine vendor Tempus AI. The company acquired Paige, a developer of FDA-cleared AI pathology tools, last month for $81 million.
AI-powered virtual care startup Doctronic announces $20 million in Series A funding. The company has developed a chatbot that can assess symptoms, offer guidance, and connect users with virtual care providers.
Automated patient billing and payments software vendor Inbox Health announces $20 million in new funding.
Healthcare AI operating system developer Innovaccer acquires Story Health, which offers a digital specialty care management platform.
Research
Researchers at Stanford University develop healthcare AI benchmarks to help users determine how well AI agents can automate tasks that clinicians typically perform manually in EHRs.
Mount Sinai Fuster Heart Hospital (NY) launches a cardiac catheterization AI research lab to explore how AI can improve patient care and outcomes.
Other
HHS makes ChatGPT available to its employees, noting that it’s a helpful tool for summarizing long documents and advising users to to read results with a healthy dose of skepticism.
Three high school seniors in Nebraska develop MedFinanceAI, a bilingual chatbot designed to help Omaha residents better understand local medical costs. The team sourced the online tool’s data from local hospitals and medical databases.
The National University Health System in Singapore initiates AI-free periods amongst its providers to help prevent clinical de-skilling.
A patient in southeastern Pennsylvania uses Confluence Health’s AI tool to successfully appeal her insurer’s repeated denial of coverage for her ADHD medication. The insurer, however, claims the denial was initially caused by a physician reviewer error and that the AI-generated, 11-page appeal letter had no bearing on its final decision.
September 16, 2025NewsComments Off on News 9/17/25
Top News
Innovaccer acquires Story Health, which offers a digital specialty care management platform. Innovaccer will incorporate Story Health’s technology with its AI-enabled Healthcare Intelligence Cloud operating system for health systems.
Reader Comments
From Danger Mouse: “Re: Siemens Healthineers. Have you heard the rumor about Siemens Healthineers in preliminary negotiation to sell its Diagnostics division? If yes, do you have further details?” There were rumblings at the end of last year, when Siemens execs began taking a long, hard look at their Healthineers ROI. Bloomberg let the “exploring strategic alternatives” cat out of the bag last week, causing an uptick in company stock. Sources say the sale could bring in as much as $7 billion.
Sponsored Events and Resources
None scheduled soon. Contact Lorre to have your resource listed.
Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock
Automated patient billing and payments software vendor Inbox Health announces $20 million in new funding, bringing its total raised to $55 million since launching in 2014.
Virginia Mason Franciscan Health (WA) initiates a second round of layoffs within its Virtual Health Services division, with the elimination of 24 roles expected to begin in November. The health system laid off 116 virtual health employees in June, citing financial problems.
Virtual mental healthcare company Cerebral raises $25 million in new funding, bringing its total raised to nearly $500 million. Cerebral acquired competitor Resilience Labs, its first acquisition, last month.
Post-acute care coordination startup MedSetGo raises $2.4 million in seed funding.
AI-powered virtual care startup Doctronic announces $20 million in Series A funding. The company has developed a chatbot that can assess symptoms, offer guidance, and connect users with virtual care providers.
Sales
Hospice of the Western Reserve (OH) selects Netsmart’s CareFabric platform.
Bergen New Bridge Medical Center (NJ) will go live on Epic in early 2027.
People
Health Catalyst names Ben Albert (Upfront Healthcare) president and COO. Health Catalyst acquired Upfront in January.
Alan Roga, MD (TruLite Health) joins Transcarent as chief clinical officer.
WittKeiffer hires Jeffrey Sturman (Memorial Healthcare System) as managing partner and IT practice leader.
Agfa HealthCare names Chris LaFratta (Ascom Americas) SVP of client services, North America and Colleen Healy (Microsoft) VP of customer growth, North America.
Announcements and Implementations
North Valley Hospital District (WA) implements Oracle Health.
Meditech adds Commure’s AI-powered clinical documentation software to its Expanse Now app.
Sentara Health (VA) rolls out HealthSnap’s remote patient monitoring and chronic care management capabilities at 12 primary care locations.
Hospital General Castañer in Puerto Rico implements emergency room EHR software from EClinicalWorks.
Government and Politics
HHS OCR and ASTP release an updated version of the free Security Risk Assessment Tool for small and midsized providers.
Sponsor Updates
Wolters Kluwer Health will exhibit at Magnet & Pathway Conference 2025 October 8-10 in Atlanta.
CereCore publishes a new info sheet titled “Meditech Optimization Results.”
In observance of World Patient Safety Day, Black Book Research recognizes top vendors by patient safety technology category, including the following HIStalk sponsors: Elsevier and Wolters Kluwer Health (diagnostic and treatment accuracy tools), PerfectServe (care coordination and communication safety), AvaSure (fall prevention and safety sensors), and RLDatix (reporting and safety intelligence platforms).
The FDA grants clearance for the upgraded cardiac imaging platform of precision medicine vendor Tempus AI, sending the company’s shares up 14% on Thursday to reach a market cap of $15 billion.
Billionaire Tempus founder and CEO Eric Lefkofsky, JD was a co-founder of Groupon and remains chair. He started Tempus in 2015.
HIStalk Announcements and Requests
Here’s what last week’s poll respondents see as AI risks.
New poll to your right or here: Does Oracle’s size and use of application code generators give it an edge over Epic in addressing healthcare problems? Larry Ellison made the claim during the earnings call, as his net worth was rising that day by $100 billion.
This ad popped up during my morning time-wasting ritual.
Sponsored Events and Resources
Online Event: September 16 (Tuesday) 11:30 a.m. ET. “Waystar Innovation Showcase: Activating Advanced Automation + AI to Transform Healthcare RCM.” Join us for Waystar’s Fall Innovation Showcase to see the tools and tactics that are transforming healthcare payments and driving real, measurable results, like a 36% boost in workforce efficiency. In just one hour, we’ll reveal major advancements helping teams streamline processes, ensure accuracy, and speed reimbursement with AI + less manual work.
Virtual chronic condition care provider Goodpath raises $17 million in a Series A funding round.
Government and Politics
A whistleblower lawsuit accuses Alphabet-owned Verily of misusing patient data, with its former diabetes business chief commercial officer alleging he was fired for reporting HIPAA violations to company leaders.
Other
A LinkedIn post by Archbold Medical Center (GA) CIO/CMIO Kendall Wyatt, MD, RN summarizes the just-concluded Oracle Health and Life Sciences Summit:
Several clients are using the company’s new EHR.
The company is moving beyond “listen and create a patient note” ambient AI capability to creating orders for physician review based on their practice patterns.
The Clinical AI agent is being used by nurses and medical assistants at BayCare Health System to chart by voice.
Also mentioned: prior authorization approval prediction, automated coding, patient history summaries, and answering questions using the patient history.
He predicts that Epic is now like the former Cerner, which lost customers because bolting new capabilities onto an old EHR led to disconnected workflow and design.
Today’s bizarre company news: Medical Care Technologies announces that it is supporting its AI health diagnostics mission by acquiring a collection of sports trading cards and memorabilia.
Sponsor Updates
Censinet announces that enrollment is now open for the 2026 Healthcare Cybersecurity Benchmarking Study.
AdvancedMD will exhibit at the 2025 Psych Conference September 17-21 in San Diego.
Vyne Medical publishes a new guide titled “Machine Learning vs. RPA in Healthcare: Finding the Right Automation for Intelligent Data Processing.”
Netsmart will exhibit and present at the 2025 Ohio Council for Home Care & Hospice Annual Conference September 15-17 in Columbus.
Meditech releases a new case study titled “Wooster Community Hospital Health System Frees Up Nurses’ Charting Time by Almost 1,600 Hours Annually in Expanse.”
Tegria publishes a new case study titled “Accelerating Revenue Cycle Performance for Measurable Financial Gains.”
ReferWell names Natalie Dahle manager of people and culture.
TrustCommerce, a Sphere company, offers a new white paper titled “Demystifying Healthcare Payments: A Practical Overview.”
Bolton NHS Foundation Trust in England extends its rollout of Altera Digital Health’s Sunrise EPR to its community services.
TeamBuilder signs a partnership agreement with Workday.
Waystar will exhibit at the 2025 Biennial HFMA Tri-State Conference September 17-19 in Florence, IN.
OpenEvidence, which offers ad-supported medical search and AI for clinicians, acquires advertising company Amaro to enable advertising on its site.
Sponsored Events and Resources
Online Event: September 16 (Tuesday) 11:30 a.m. ET. “Waystar Innovation Showcase: Activating Advanced Automation + AI to Transform Healthcare RCM.” Join us for Waystar’s Fall Innovation Showcase to see the tools and tactics that are transforming healthcare payments and driving real, measurable results, like a 36% boost in workforce efficiency. In just one hour, we’ll reveal major advancements helping teams streamline processes, ensure accuracy, and speed reimbursement with AI + less manual work.
Penguin Ai raises $30 million in funding. The company offers AI solutions for administrative workflows that include medical coding, prior authorizations, claims adjudication, and medical chart summarization.
Ascend Learning acquires Laudio, which sells a workforce management system for frontline leaders in health systems. I interviewed Laudio co-founder and CEO Russ Richmond, MD last year.
Bayer will shut down its radiology AI businesses, discontinuing Calantic Digital Solutions AI and the service offerings of Blackford Analysis.
Musculoskeletal care navigation vendor TailorCare acquires Stabl, which offers a computer vision monitoring platform.
Humana-owned CenterWell will acquire bankrupt The Villages Health, the North Florida-based healthcare system that serves 55,000 patients in the sprawling retirement community.
People
Joel Klein, MD, MA (University of Maryland Medical System) joins Hackensack Meridian Health as chief digital and information officer.
Announcements and Implementations
Oracle CTO Larry Ellison — who briefly became the world’s richest person Wednesday as his ORCL shares rose by $101 billion — fielded a fanboy-style analyst question about enterprise application competitors during the earnings call.
It’s a huge advantage to be on both sides of that equation, both being an application builder and a builder of the application generation technology, the underlying AI application code generators. That’s a huge advantage. Let me give you another advantage, which is often a disadvantage. We’re very large. We no longer sell individual discrete applications. We sell suites of applications. We decided to go into the medical business against Epic, believing that we could solve much more of the problem because we’re much bigger than they are. By the way, we’re much bigger than Workday or ServiceNow, and we’re solving a larger portion of the problem. We’re able to do all of ERP, then we can add all of CRM, but all the pieces are engineered to fit together. That makes it so much easier for customers to consume.
Oracle launches the Oracle AI Center of Excellence for Healthcare, which will provide a dedicated company team, a resource hub, and advice on regulatory requirements.
Oracle will add OpenAI-powered features to its patient portal, including test result explanations, plain-language translations of medical terms, visit preparation, provider message drafting, and follow-up scheduling. General availability is expected in 2026. The company also announced that it will add precision medicine features from DNAnexus to its EHR.
Apple’s new Watch Series 11 offers hypertension notifications and sleep scoring. Prices start at $399.
A study in England finds that primary care physicians who use Eko Health’s AI-enabled smart stethoscope increased detection of heart failure by 2.3 times, atrial fibrillation by 3.5 times, and valvular heart disease by 1.9 times.
Homecare Homebase will incorporate Element5’s agentic AI platform in its EHR.
A new KLAS report on end-to-end revenue cycle outsourcing ranks Ensemble highest, while clients of R1 RCM and Optum report low satisfaction. Most vendors are investing in AI, but clients say it has yet to deliver operational or financial gains.
Government and Politics
The FDA will convene an advisory panel on November 6 to review AI-powered digital mental health tools.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton drops the state’s lawsuit against a pediatric endocrinologist who he had accused of falsifying medical records in providing transgender youth care. Paxton’s office said that it found no legal violations after reviewing the doctor’s medical records, but warned that it will continue to pursue cases against “delusional, left-wing medical professionals.”
Privacy and Security
US Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) asks the FTC to investigate Microsoft over Ascension’s 2024 ransomware attack, which his office says began when a contractor clicked a malicious Bing search result. The incident was enabled by Microsoft’s continued support of the outdated RC4 encryption standard, which the company had pledged to fix in October 2024.
Sponsor Updates
Medicomp Systems achieves implementation milestones across Southeast Asia.
Vyne Medical publishes an automation guide e-book titled “Machine Learning vs. RPA in Healthcare: Finding the Right Automation for Intelligent Data Processing.”
HCTec staff sort and pack 3,420 pounds of food at the Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee during the company’s volunteer day.
Health Data Movers names Anthony Velazquez integration engineer.
A new study using Inovalon data published in the Journal of the American College of Radiology reveals a decline in the number of US radiologists dedicating most of their clinical effort to pediatric imaging.
Oracle reports Q1 results: revenue up 12%, EPS $1.01 versus $1.03, missing Wall Street expectations for both.
ORCL shares jumped 22% in after-market trading on the news that its performance obligations – contracted revenue that has not yet been recognized — stands at $455 billion, up 359% year-over-year.
Sponsored Events and Resources
Online Event: September 16 (Tuesday) 11:30 a.m. ET. “Waystar Innovation Showcase: Activating Advanced Automation + AI to Transform Healthcare RCM.” Join us for Waystar’s Fall Innovation Showcase to see the tools and tactics that are transforming healthcare payments and driving real, measurable results, like a 36% boost in workforce efficiency. In just one hour, we’ll reveal major advancements helping teams streamline processes, ensure accuracy, and speed reimbursement with AI + less manual work.
Hartford HealthCare (CT) selects healthcare AI technology from Abridge.
In England, Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust and Essex Partnership University Trust will roll out Oracle Health next year.
Hospital for Special Care renews its contract with Altera Digital Health through 2032 and has adopted the company’s Sunrise Health Record intelligent faxing solution.
People
Konza Health names Joshua Mosier, MS, MPA (Bamboo Health) VP of operations.
Ajai Sehgal, MEng (Mayo Clinic) joins IKS Health as its first chief AI officer.
WhiteSpace Health CEO Gautam Char, MS will take on the additional role of chief strategy officer of parent company Omega Healthcare.
Mindyra names Bruce Brandes, MBA (Care.ai) as CEO.
Announcements and Implementations
Community Medical Center and Family Medicine Clinics (NE) go live on Epic.
Starr Regional Medical Center (TN) launches a tele-ICU program at its Athens and Etowah sites using clinical services from Equum Medical and technology from Caregility.
Cedars-Sinai will implement AI documentation from Regard, in which it is an investor.
CitiusTech launches Knewron, an AI platform to accelerate time-to-market for healthcare developers.
WellSky expands its partnership with Google Cloud to incorporate predictive insights, AI-first use interaction, and proactive care into its solutions.
Government and Politics
The 436th Medical Group at Dover Air Force Base (DE) collaborates with Maxwell Air Force Base (AL) and Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst (NJ) to offer virtual pediatric care during times of limited staff availability. Teams customized protocols, set up staff permissions in MHS Genesis, and createf dedicated messaging pools for efficient communication.
Sponsor Updates
Arrive Health team members volunteer at the Greater Chicago Food Depository as part of the company’s Community Give Back initiative.
Altera Digital Health publishes a new client story titled “Keeping care front and center: Columbus Community Hospital and Ventus Intelligent Coding.”
Censinet will present at the KLAS Digital Health Investment Symposium September 10 in Park City, UT.
Consensus Cloud Solutions will sponsor the Bluebird Leaders Annual Conference September 24-26 in Boulder, CO.
CloudWave will sponsor Meditech Live 25 September 17-19 in Foxborough, MA.
Waystar will host its True North client conference, which will include an Innovation Showcase, September 15-17 in Nashville.
TruBridge announces a strategic partnership with Graphio.ai to enhance execution clarity, align cross-functional teams, and support data-driven decision-making.
September 7, 2025NewsComments Off on Monday Morning Update 9/8/25
Top News
A federal judge partially grants Epic’s motion to dismiss claims that were brought against it in a September 2024 lawsuit by Particle Health (my summary is here). Most monopoly-related claims survived because the judge wasn’t comfortable evaluating the payer market or its players in the limited context of a dismissal motion. The four of nine claims that were not dismissed will proceed to discovery.
Epic claimed that some of Particle’s customers were retrieving medical records for claimed treatment purposes but were actually using them to identify potential plaintiffs for class action lawsuits.
The judge said further proceedings must determine whether a distinct “payer market” exists and whether Epic and Particle actually compete in it.
Claim 1: monopolization in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act (not dismissed).
Claim 5: violation of New York business law (dismissed).
Claim 6: tortious interference with contractual relations (not dismissed).
Claim 7: tortious interference with prospective business relations (dismissed).
Claim 8: defamation (dismissed).
Claim 9: trade libel (dismissed).
My take: winning a monopoly cases is rare, and Particle must prove a specific payer market where Epic and Particle are the only players with no viable substitutes. The judge wasn’t signaling the validity of Particle’s claims by failing to dismiss them, only reinforcing that a dismissal petition review wasn’t the place to judge them. Should Particle’s monopoly claims fall short, Claim #6 — in which Particle claims that Epic encouraged XCures to breach its Particle contract — is the only one that could harm Epic, and the economic value of that claim seems low. Also, the similar Claim #7 was dismissed because “general awareness of a competitor’s success” isn’t enough to prove tortious interference, so Particle will need to prove that Epic pressured XCures to break its contract without justification.
Reader Comments
From Pointy Ears: “Re: Oracle Health. They are learning the lessons that every company learned when trying to dabble in healthcare. It’s not their fault.” Oracle seemed surprised at Cerner’s dated technology and shaky business only after shelling out $28 billion in cash, so due diligence wasn’t their long suit. The old-school read of the acquisition is that they saw healthcare as a big growth market that is dominated by little-known vendors. The modern view is that they wanted to upsell Cerner’s customers, grab patient data, one-up the cloud giants with a sexy story for stock analysts, and indulge Larry Ellison’s vanity project. Outsiders rarely do well in healthcare software, with Microsoft (via Nuance) and Philips the exceptions and Google, GE, Haven, and IBM the train wrecks. Larry’s political ties will likely protect the VA contract unless any system-related veteran harm is widely reported, but three years in, Oracle has mostly lost share to Epic, laid off the people who knew the business, and overpromised an Oracle-branded wrapper on top of the same old Millennium system that was already driving customers away (years-long customer problems with Cerner’s RCM didn’t involve UI). History also shows that the employees and customers who stick around through such turmoil are usually the ones who have the fewest options, i.e. aren’t the ones you would choose. Cerner may be Oracle’s Siebel Systems, and if you’re asking what the heck is Siebel, then that’s the point.
HIStalk Announcements and Requests
Poll respondents predict that health systems will be significantly hurt by recent federal policy changes.
New poll to your right or here: What risk is most often overlooked when adopting clinical AI?
I’m sympathetic to the Oracle Health folks who are being cut loose because of management’s failings rather than their own. Is your company looking people like those who might have been made involuntarily available? I’ll waive my policy and encourage you to comment on this post that you’re hiring and maybe specify the type of roles you have open.
Thanks to the following companies that recently supported HIStalk. Click a logo for more information. Your support helps when it’s time for companies to renew their annual sponsorship because they often want to know the result (ad clicks, comments, buzz, and market awareness).
Sponsored Events and Resources
Online Event: September 16 (Tuesday) 11:30 a.m. ET. “Waystar Innovation Showcase: Activating Advanced Automation + AI to Transform Healthcare RCM.” Join us for Waystar’s Fall Innovation Showcase to see the tools and tactics that are transforming healthcare payments and driving real, measurable results, like a 36% boost in workforce efficiency. In just one hour, we’ll reveal major advancements helping teams streamline processes, ensure accuracy, and speed reimbursement with AI + less manual work.
MediSpend and RLDatix subsidiary RLDatix Life Sciences will merge to offer software, data, and workflow tools for life sciences.
Sales
Allina Health selects Five9 as its cloud contact center provider.
People
Brian Pruitt (NetApp) joins CloudWave as SVP for enterprise growth.
Privacy and Security
Sutter Health fires several urgent care employees who posted “insensitive” TikTok videos of themselves posing with patient bodily fluids. Most surprising is that the former employees didn’t bother obscuring their identities, which wasn’t smart even by TikTok user standards.
Other
Scammers are using AI to create videos in which doctors appear to pitch quack products, which a cybersecurity group attributes to a global operation. Eric Topol, MD reports that dozens of AI-generated knockoffs of his new book are being sold on Amazon, some of which were bought by his patients.
Sponsor Updates
SmartSense by Digi supports the Snoqualmie Indian Tribe Ancestral Lands Movement as a sponsor of its charity golf tournament.
Medicomp Systems releases a new episode of its “Tell Me Where IT Hurts” podcast featuring PointClickCare CMO Hamad Husainy, DO.
Symplr publishes its fourth annual Compass Survey titled “Progress Stalled: How Crisis Culture is Costing Healthcare.”
Nordic releases a new episode of its “Designing for Health” podcast featuring Marina Gerner, PhD.
Nym names Lihi Shoham and Dvir Winder software engineers, Shahar Siman Tov and Ido Lindman medical data analysts, Reina Suescun director of strategy and operations, and Niv Eckhaus NLP research engineer.
Rhapsody will present at the Civitas Networks for Health Annual Conference September 29 in Anaheim, CA.
TeamBuilder will present at The Millenium Alliance’s Transformation Assembly September 9-10 in Dallas.
Visage Imaging announces it has been granted an Authority to Operate for the Veterans Affairs Enterprise Cloud by the VA for its Visage 7 CloudPACS.
Waystar will exhibit at EClinicalWorks Day September 10 in Houston.
WellSky publishes a new report titled “Addressing today’s healthcare workforce challenges: Results from a national study.”
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. says that the agency will increase resources to enforce healthcare information blocking, which the HHS announcement says “was not a priority under the Biden Administration.”
ASTP says it is reviewing reports involving certified health IT developers. ASTP and HHS OIG will “take an active enforcement stance against health care entities that restrict patients’ engagement in their care by blocking the access, exchange, and use of electronic health information.”
Reader Comments
From Unashamed Cerner: “Re: Oracle Health layoffs. It’s tough being walked out, but remember that what you did here matters, whether it was for Cerner, Oracle Health, or an acquired company. Larry Ellison seems intent to prove that the most effective way to ‘disrupt’ healthcare is to simply fire everyone who knows how it works.”
Sponsored Events and Resources
Online Event: September 16 (Tuesday) 11:30 a.m. ET. “Waystar Innovation Showcase: Activating Advanced Automation + AI to Transform Healthcare RCM.” Join us for Waystar’s Fall Innovation Showcase to see the tools and tactics that are transforming healthcare payments and driving real, measurable results, like a 36% boost in workforce efficiency. In just one hour, we’ll reveal major advancements helping teams streamline processes, ensure accuracy, and speed reimbursement with AI + less manual work.
The local press profiles Dallas-based Scribematic, a 15-employee firm that sells a white-labeled ambient documentation system to mid-sized and specialty EHR vendors. Owner and CEO Calvin Carter says Epic’s launch of its own AI scribing tools threatens smaller vendors with customer losses and warns them that building a competing product is risky and difficult.
A Kansas City TV station confirms Oracle Health layoffs, adding that the company’s KC headcount has dropped from 11,000 during its Cerner days to 6,000 now. Online discussion was extensive.
Online weight loss prescription vendor Remedy Meds will acquire Thirty Madison for $500 million in stock. Thirty Madison runs online prescribers Nurx (birth control), Cove (migraine), and Keeps (men’s hair loss). The companies report annual revenue of $450 million for Remedy and $220 million for Thirty Madison.
The new private equity owner of Walgreens will split the company into five standalone businesses — Walgreens (US drugstores), The Boots Group (international pharmacies), Shields Health Solutions (specialty pharmacy), CareCentrix (home health), and VillageMD (primary care).
Federal contractor GovCIO acquires SoldierPoint Digital Health, which holds a seven-year, $2 billion VA contract for telehealth and connected care solutions in the Connected Care Integrated Network.
Digital health vendor HealthLynked will conduct a reverse split on its shares, which at the current price of under $0.03 value the company at $7 million.
WellSpan Health elevates its three-year collaboration with General Catalyst’s HATCo — which combines innovation, investment, and ownership of the Summa Health health system — to become its first Transformation Partner. It will co‑develop AI solutions that it expects to save 400,000 clinical hours annually and boost operational performance over the next five years.
Sales
FQHC Primary Health Solutions will deploy call center voice agents from SoundHound AI.
Hamilton Health Sciences implements the Philips Capsule Medical Device Integration system to provide Epic with continuous data from ventilators; intra-aortic balloon pumps; cardiac monitors; continuous renal replacement therapy; and ECMO.
Comanche County Memorial Hospital (OK) will implement Meditech Expanse.
People
Trimedx hires Srilekha Akula (Alto Pharmacy) as chief data and AI officer.
Justin Neece, MBA (Azara Healthcare) joins MedeAnalytics as chief growth officer.
Announcements and Implementations
TigerConnect launches an interfacility transfer coordination product.
A new KLAS report looks at enterprise imaging, specifically vendor-neutral archive and universal viewer. It notes that radiology and cardiology are the most widely stored and viewed image types, with growth in some areas, but few organizations are storing POCUS (wound care and dermatology images) and little progress has been made in digital pathology usage.
Government and Politics
HHS will restore health and sciences webpages and data it had deleted as settlement terms of a lawsuit that was brought by the Washington State Medical Association. HHS had deleted information on pregnancy risks, opioid-use disorder, and AIDS under the White House’s order to stop using the term “gender.”
Other
New York City hospitals say that FDNY’s new policy that requires ambulance crews to take patients to the computer-chosen closest hospital – regardless of physician privileges, patient preferences, or condition – is endangering patients. FDNY’s commissioner disagrees, saying that “We’re not the Uber business or Lyft business to take people where they want to go” and that the change was needed to reduce 911 response times.
Sponsor Updates
CereCore releases a new episode of its podcast titled “The Value of Advocacy in Rural Health: A CFO’s Perspective.”
Agfa HealthCare will exhibit at ASE 2025 September 5-7 in Nashville.
Artera publishes a new report titled “Trends in Patient Engagement.”
AvaSure will integrate Ascom’s Healthcare Platform Suite and Myco devices with its Virtual Care Platform.
Consensus Health Solutions will exhibit at the National Tribal Health Conference September 7-12 in Chandler, AZ.
DrFirst; TrustCommerce, a Sphere company; and First Databank will sponsor the New England Epic-users Collaborative Fall Summit October 27 in Waltham, MA.
AI-powered medical records retrieval and insights startup Predoc raises $30 million in seed and Series A funding.
Reader Comments
From We’re All Gonna Get Laid (Off): “Re: Oracle Health. RIFfed a reported 20% of its remaining health division employees this morning.” The percentage is unverified, but the human capital liquidation – which was ironically timed just after Labor Day — is not.
From Joe Schneider, MD: “Re: vaccine recommendations in CDS. It’s fascinating to watch the silence of the big EHR companies as they ponder whether to support the AAP and ACOG COVID vaccination recommendations in their Clinical Decision Support tools. The recommendations of the groups differ, most importantly from the reconstituted ACIP by recommending COVID coverage for children 6-23 months and for pregnant women. Having seen newborn babies and new moms struggling with COVID and the damage it does, I hope Epic, Cerner, and the others have the guts to take a stand. The AAP thinks this is just the first salvo of a broader attack on vaccinations. Sue Kressly is the president and she just did a podcast on this. It’s got some ads in the beginning, but the wait is worth it. It also has good vaccination advice at the end.” Thanks. The podcast is here.
HIStalk Announcements and Requests
The most common needs of the minority of poll respondents who used online services from unfamiliar clinicians were primary or urgent care, weight loss, and mental health.
New poll to your right or here: How hard will Medicaid cuts and higher ACA premiums hit health systems by increasing the number of uninsured patients? Medicaid’s “unwinding” will disenroll a lot of people, and ACA plans will become even less affordable because of rising premiums and the possibility that existing tax credits will be allowed to expire. Hospitals in rural areas and non-expansion states will see the biggest impact.
Sponsored Events and Resources
None scheduled soon. Contact Lorre to have your resource listed.
Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock
Healthcare AI governance and risk management startup Alignmt AI announces $6.5 million in seed funding.
Digi International will incorporate newly-acquired Jolt Software’s operations technologies into its SmartSense business, which offers operational intelligence and compliance automation software for healthcare and other verticals.
Prescription routing and affordability solutions vendor Eversana acquires Waltz Health, which provides software-powered drug marketplaces.
Stat reports that AI scribe vendor Abridge met with hospital customers late last week to reassure them after Epic announced its development of potentially competing Microsoft/Nuance-powered products.
Sales
Connecticut Children’s Care Network will implement data activation, population health analytics, and quality reporting solutions from Innovaccer.
People
ReferWell names Imad Ahmed (Universal Health Services) as COO and chief product officer, and Glen Olson (Shearwater Health) as SVP of sales.
Cris Ross, MBA (Mayo Clinic) and John Driscoll (Walgreens Boots Alliance) join health tech venture studio Aegis Ventures as venture partners.
Announcements and Implementations
Logan Health’s Shelby campus (MT) goes live on Oracle Health as part of a systemwide implementation.
Government and Politics
HHS develops a public dashboard that offers insight into organ donations, including those that occur out of order and cases where organs aren’t used. The launch is part of the government’s overhaul of the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, which has faced criticism for increased cases of “skipping the line” and organ procurement organizations ignoring signs of life that are incompatible with donation.
Privacy and Security
University of Iowa Health Care and affiliate UI Community HomeCare notify 211,000 patients and employees of a July 3 data breach. The hacker was able to view and take copies of files from within HomeCare’s computer system, which prompted both organizations to take their shared systems offline for one day.
Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center recovers from an outage that began during a system upgrade last Friday. The hospital reverted to downtime and diversion procedures over the weekend.
Other
Oracle Health lists the former Malvern, PA campus of Cerner-acquired SMS / Siemens at 51 Valley Stream Parkway for sale.
Clinics in South Australia report surging abuse from patients who are unable to get appointments after several practices stopped taking new patients. One clinic logged 15 incidents in a single day, with front desk staff berated by visitors shouting “If I die, it’ll be your fault” and slamming doors when told that no GPs in the state’s second-largest city are accepting new patients. Some patients have turned to ChatGPT and TikTok for medical advice, but attempts to redirect them to telehealth services have mostly failed.
A Utah judge awards $1 billion to the family of a newborn girl who was left permanently disabled during delivery at Steward-owned Jordan Valley Medical Center (UT). The mother, who was visiting Utah briefly, was attended by newly trained nurses and a doctor who reportedly dismissed concerns about the developing complications and went back to bed in the on-call room. Judge Patrick Corum remarked that the mother “would have been better off delivering this baby at the bathroom of a gas station, or in a hut somewhere in Africa.” Lawyers say Steward’s bankruptcy makes full collection unlikely, but they hope to secure the $500 million in punitive damages.
Sponsor Updates
Symplr employees assemble hygiene products during volunteer time with Giving the Basics.
Arcadia publishes a new report titled “ Scaling Smarter: The Data Strategies Powering High-Performing Health Plans.”
Wolters Kluwer Health adds an AI Article Summary feature to its Ovid platform for medical researchers.
Vyne Medical publishes a new case study titled “How Automation is Shaping the Future of Document Management at VHC Health.”
KLAS Research names Nym a top performer in a new report titled “Autonomous Coding 2025: A Promising Start for an Early Market.”
PerfectServe will exhibit at the MGMA Leaders Conference September 28-October 1 in Orlando.
Redox releases a new episode of its “Shut the backdoor” podcast titled “The Quiet Disruptor – Inside an Intern’s AI Innovation.”
The company has hired former health tech executives from Doximity and the investment community.
Business Insider reports that OpenAI is considering developing both consumer-facing and enterprise tools, including clinical triage, clinical documentation, and patient engagement.
Reader Comments
From Alabaster: “Re: Dr. Jayne’s concerns about OpenEvidence. What risks do you see for physician users?” I’m not an attorney, but my cursory review of the company’s Terms of Use and Business Associate Agreement suggests some areas of concern that, to be fair, are true of many clinician-targeted applications and services:
The company can sell de-identified data and use records of detailed user interactions to train its models or for commercial purposes. That de-identified data may still contain enough specificity to allow re-identification of patients, especially in rare or unusual cases that are described in user prompts and are more likely when using a tool like this to find information.
The BAA does not restrict the use of non-PHI or tracking technologies for ad targeting, which likely aligns with the company’s intent to sell ads to drug companies.
The platform is labeled as educational only, leaving physicians fully liable for any clinical decisions it suggests or patient harm that results. The company caps its own liability at $100.
Physicians may not be able to reproduce the AI’s previous outputs in a legal defense since the tool doesn’t guarantee version control or output retention.
Doctors who submit patient-specific information without a signed institutional BAA could violate employer policy and HIPAA. The Terms of Use prohibit use on behalf of a hospital without legal authorization, and the tool may bypass hospital IT controls that were designed to ensure compliance. Using the product without institutional review and approval puts the risk squarely on the physician, with no guarantee of support in what could be a high-profile case given the trendy AI angle.
Sponsored Events and Resources
None scheduled soon. Contact Lorre to have your resource listed.
Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock
Alphabet’s Verily business shuts down its medical device division and doubles down on “precision health, AI, and data,” according to an internal memo obtained by media.
Suresh Krishnan (Cone Health) joins Memorial Health (IL) as SVP/CIO.
Announcements and Implementations
Providence evaluates Nuance DAX ambient documentation for family medicine physicians who were identified in Epic as working after hours or taking over a week to close notes. Burnout dropped from 57% to 27%, documentation frustration fell from 89% to 39%, and more doctors reported better patient connection. After-hours “pajama time” decreased from 107 minutes to 81. Note: the study group was tiny.
France-based HeartFocus launches FDA-cleared heart exam software in the US on Butterfly Network’s handheld ultrasound devices. The AI-powered tool enables any clinician to perform heart scans for early detection.
West Virginia University scientists develop AI models that detect signs of heart failure from ECGs rather than less-available echocardiography by incorporating local socioeconomic and environmental factors.
Altera Digital Health integrates Medicomp’s Quippe Clinical Intelligence Engine into its new ambient documentation solution for the TouchWorks EHR.
Artisight says that its smart hospital platform is the first that can autonomously document OR activity in the EHR using AI and computer vision. The system records patient entry and exit and procedure start and end time. It also prompts staff to complete next steps in their workflow.
Government and Politics
CMS opens a research challenge to identify innovative solutions that can detect Medicare fraud using claims data.
Drug companies launch a lobbyist-sponsored watchdog group whose goal is to limit Medicare drug price negotiations by requiring analysis of CMS data. A spokesperson for one of the lobbying firms says, “The vast majority of our effort is focused on the analytics, and we didn’t see anybody, including CMS, publicly reporting at this level of granularity. This data is hard to work with, so we are investing in this kind of information.”
HHS shifts enforcement of substance use records confidentiality from SAMHSA to the Office for Civil Rights, which also handles HIPAA enforcement. Observers worry that OCR, which was already stretched thin by staffing and budget cuts, won’t be able to complete investigations in a timely manner.
Privacy and Security
Mount Sinai Health System will pay $5.3 million to settle a proposed class action lawsuit that accused it of using pixel tracking tools to send patient portal and website visitor information to Facebook.
Sponsor Updates
Capital Rx staff volunteer at a back-to-school event with the New York City Football Club and Niño de la Caridad Foundation.
The Medicomp Systems “Tell Me Where IT Hurts” podcast releases a new episode titled “The Evolution of FDB” with FDB Executive Chairman Charles Tuchinda, MD.
Artera announces that it has been named the named the 2025 Frost & Sullivan Technology Innovation Leader in the patient engagement platforms and solutions industry.
Inovalon will work with Google Cloud to develop an AI-powered prior authorization solution for its Inovalon One Platform.
Healthcare Growth Partners advises EVideon during its sale to TigerConnect.
Health Data Movers releases a new episode of its “Quick HITs” podcast titled “Shaping the Future of Pediatric Healthcare IT, with Dr. Anita Harris-Brown.”
Healthcare IT Leaders will exhibit and present at Workday Rising September 15-18 in San Francisco.
Infinx releases a new episode of its “Revenue Cycle Optimized” podcast titled “Building a Strong Foundation in Soft Collections & Patient Services.”
Navina will present at Hospitalogy’s VBC Retreat September 18 in Austin, TX.
This week, healthcare technology company RLDatix announced the launch of Smart Entry, a new AI-enabled feature designed to streamline documentation for safety event reporting. Proven to give time back to frontline staff, RLDatix’s Smart Entry is reducing event reporting time by up to 70%. RLDatix will be exhibiting with an immersive booth experience related to its Safety & Risk Management module, which houses Smart Entry, at the upcoming ASHRM 2025 conference from September 28-30, 2025. (Sponsor Spotlight is free for HIStalk Platinum sponsors).
Traditionally Professional Courtesy is something that physicians gave each other - but we had to be careful with it when…