Today was a whirlwind of activity. I hit the exhibit hall as soon as the doors opened. I was looking for a few specific solutions for my clients, so I had to make the day count.
One of my first stops was eMedApps to check out their EHR archive solution. I think we’re starting to see a new wave of people migrating away from legacy EHRs who don’t want to tackle conversions. Archiving data but linking to it within the patient chart seems like a nice compromise.
From there, I visited First Databank for a deep dive into the FDB Targeted Medication Warnings solution. I had a great conversation with their experts about finding the balance between presenting adequate alerts to clinicians and not killing them with too many. Sometimes people think it’s a bad thing when alerts aren’t being surfaced very much, but their team brought up the fact that it’s a good problem to have – it means clinicians are doing the right thing the majority of the time, allowing the alerts to catch the edge cases where they really matter. Given the diversity of FDB’s products, the conversation was wide ranging, and we touched on pharmacogenomics as well. Finally, we talked a bit about FDB Vela, which was announced this week. It has the potential to shake up the world of e-prescribing and I’m looking forward to seeing how things unfold over the next few months.
Then I met up with Nordic Chief Medical Officer Craig Joseph, who is possibly one of the most entertaining booth crawl partners I’ve had in a while. He has so many funny stories and kept me laughing. We were distracted by this shirtless model at Butterfly and stopped in to learn more about their point of care ultrasound solutions. I didn’t know exactly why their technology was so affordable, but their rep Melissa explained it to us, then took us to a workstation for a deeper dive. She was one of the most knowledgeable and enthusiastic reps I have interacted with the show and handled our wacky questions with ease as we put on our “cranky doctor” and “cranky CFO” hats to explore the solution. I wish I had been able to have one in my pocket when I was in the in-person urgent care trenches.
Juno Health had a booth with t-shirt artists printing creations that said, “Kiss me, I’m a Provider.” Not sure which audience I’d want to wear that around, so I took a pass.
Socks were a big giveaway in the exhibit hall this year, and I was trying to pick up a few cool sets for someone at home. I noticed the Skyflow booth, not only for their well-displayed socks, but also for their sales team, which was facing out and engaging the crowd. I loved their “excuse me, but could you tell me what that orange sticker is on your badge?” play as a way to start conversations. They gave me a straightforward rundown on their product and also humored me with some conversation about the cost of living in Palo Alto. Props to the team for a job well done.
From there, I learned about Prescription Digital Therapeutics courtesy of Pear Therapeutics. What they’re doing with substance abuse treatment is fascinating and they’ve also launched a solution for chronic insomnia. There is a huge need for the latter, especially with the small number of cognitive behavioral therapists who specialize in treating the condition. I was excited to see migraine therapy on their road map and will be keeping an eye on them.
Onward I went to Healthwise to check out the Healthwise Advise solution that they’ll be taking live this summer with their Epic clients. I’ve been a fan and a user of their products for quite some time and am an even bigger fan of solutions that make the clinicians’ lives easier while helping patients better manage their health conditions.
I stopped by the Epic booth for some conversation about telehealth solutions and patient engagement as well as to check out their Cheers customer relationship management system. The booth was smaller than previous years (as were many vendors’ booths) but the artwork was great as always, including a carousel-style unicorn covered in bottle caps and a supersized dog.
I always enjoy a spin through the innovation area and the team at Skedulo was spot-on at engaging prospects and getting them to stop and listen. They work in other industries beyond healthcare and made my list of companies to read about on the flight home.
I also enjoyed chatting with the team at VisiQuate and learning about their solutions. They were channeling blue and yellow in support of Ukraine, including both shoes and shirts.
Continuing to stroll the booths with one of my HIMSS BFFs, we stopped by the Arcadia “Sips and Socks” happy hour so I could complete my sock collection and learn about what they’re doing to support managed care. They’ve got some great success stories and serve a diverse client base, which always makes doing business more interesting.
The Wednesday party scene was a good one, starting with Redox at Taverna Opa. Attendees were greeted by performers in stilts wearing LED lights, which was a fun reminder of how HIMSS used to be. Years ago, you might see those kinds of antics in the booths. They also had a custom cocktail that was being poured through an ice sculpture, which was fun. We ended up there at the end of the night and the sculpture was ceremonially smashed, which was really something.
I also dropped in on the Lightbeam Health event at Cuba Libre, which featured hand-rolled cigars as well as the chance to visit with the team from CareSignal, which the company recently acquired. I’ve worked with both teams in a variety of capacities and it was fun to catch up.
From there, I met up with friends and we ended up splitting into two groups, those who headed out for karaoke and those who knew when to call it a night. The fact that today’s walking total was close to nine miles made a member of the latter, so I was glad to get back to the hotel, put my feet up, and start the mental game of Tetris as I contemplate repacking my suitcase.
What’s the best thing you’ve seen this week? Leave a comment or email me.
It was quieter and cooler in the exhibit hall today, which was more enjoyable to me. I expect it will be really slow and laid back Thursday, but I’ll remind booth reps that the last day is when decision-makers sometimes emerge to roam unfettered among the thinned exhibit hall crowds. Also, the HIMSS conference is a great place for companies to find partners, and that too is easier and thus possibly more likely on the last day. Don’t just pile up luggage and clock-watch.
I saw very few booth reps immersed in phone-land yesterday and today, which was encouraging. It felt like more reps were not only more heads-up in noting their surroundings, but also making eye contact and offering greetings. As basic as it sounds, sometimes you pass a booth and feel unwelcome because nobody looks up or acknowledges that you are standing there clearly waiting for assistance while reps look phoneward or gab with each other.
I realized today that I’ve yet to see even one instance of HIMSS22 fist- or elbow-bumping as handshaking is back as the standard. Also rarely seen is attendees picking up hand sanitizer giveaways. COVID-19 spread is almost entirely via the respiratory route, so it makes sense to worry less about spreading by touch. Wearing masks would be a theoretically good idea given that HIMSS didn’t require a negative COVID test, but sightings of those are rare.
Another item that is MIA – at least in my limited convention center travels – were those ball cap-wearing people sticking Healthcare IT News print copies in your face at every opportunity. Maybe they don’t do that any more.
I asked several exhibitors how the conference was going for them. Most common answer: “slow,” but they were trying to be upbeat about it. One exhibitor who was worn out from doing ViVE last week and said they didn’t feel that conference was worth it because few providers came to the exhibit hall, so they were a lot happier with HIMSS22.
I’ve heard from attendees of recent conferences that some people are annoyed with the member organization CEO inserts themselves into scripted entertainment or oratory in the opening session. I’ve also observed this over the years and have been kind of turned off. I think the CEOs of those member organizations forget that 99% of members don’t know or care who they are, so trying to serve as a highly visible host or presenter causes eye-rolling because that’s not why people attend. Certainly an organizational update or report is welcome if it’s short and not too “insider,” but the conference is a separate entity from the group’s leadership to most people and taking a self-congratulatory victory lap as the group’s executive doesn’t play well. I don’t go to a concert expecting to see the CEO of the band’s record label make a speech.
Curation Health was excited about becoming a new HIStalk Platinum Sponsor, so I feel bad that I forgot to mention them in Tuesday’s various posts because it was late and I was tired. Jenn will give them the full introduction in Thursday night’s news, but I’ll acknowledge them now with thanks. Curation Health was founded by a team of healthcare veterans and clinicians to help providers and health plans effectively navigate the transition from fee-for-service to value-based care. Its advanced clinical decision support platform for value-based care drives more accurate risk adjustment and improved quality program performance by curating relevant insights from disparate sources and delivering them in real time to clinicians and care teams. With Curation Health, clinicians enjoy a streamlined, comprehensive clinical documentation process that enables better clinical and financial outcomes while simultaneously reducing clinical administrative burdens on providers. The company takes pride in combining the flexibility and speed of a startup with decades of leadership experience and know-how from roles in leading services companies including Clinovations, Optum, Evolent Health, and The Advisory Board Company. Thanks to Curation Health for supporting HIStalk.
People from Mississippi-based Howard Medical were giving out Moon Pies in various flavors. My flavor choice was yellow.
Alan from EK USA explained that Cat Crap is a crazy good cleaner and anti-fogger for glasses that has boomed lately because masks-wearers always struggle with fogged-up specs. I checked out their website and an ingenious offering is Not A Lock, a massive padlock that doesn’t actually lock – bad guys don’t usually actually test a padlock and this fake one prevents the owner from locking themselves out. Problems will always encourage people to create interesting solutions.
The people at Kit gave me a review of their mail-out lab test offering, where patients are sent sampling kits that they then return for lab processing. The list of available tests is short since most labs require venipuncture, so until someone invents a “blood draw at home” technology, they can only go so far in eliminating that particular last mile problem. The company was acquired by Ro last year just 17 months after its founding, with one of the draws (no pun intended) being Kit’s procedure for monitoring the test process so that life insurance companies, for example, can use the results to approve policies without sending someone into the applicant’s home to verify that their testing process was followed.
Alpesh from Vayyar gave me a demo of the company’s senior monitoring solution, in which a small device is mounted to a wall or ceiling (it looks like a small smoke alarm) to monitor a patient’s movement without cameras or wearables. The radar-type device uses AC power, covers about 13×16 feet, and updates itself over the air. It can check for falls, room presence, in and out of bed status, and respiration (coming later this year). Providers or companies can design their own alerts and analytics per their specifications. I like this way, way better than phone-powered wearables.
I looked at Visier, which offers “people analytics” that can analyze various HR systems to answer questions about nurse retention, for example, to determine which employees are motivated by career advancement or educational opportunities instead of other benefits such as free parking.
I now know that Innovaccer’s name comes from “innovation accelerator.” It manages data for population health management and pay-for-performance programs.
EClinicalWorks has a new product called Prisma that’s like a search engine and singular view for patient records, including those collected through Carequality and claims data. It can also collect and display data from wearables.
ESRI has theater presentations that cover a wide variety of interesting use cases for GIS in healthcare.
I thought the Silex people were kidding with the “free beer” cooler since it was 11 a.m., but it was the real thing. The beer came from a microbrewery in the company’s Nashville home and the unfamiliar can design meant that one could (theoretically, you understand) roam the hall sipping a cold one around folks who still had egg on their breath. Silex was exhibiting with AbacusOne to offer RCM automation. They weren’t aware that ViVE is coming to Nashville next March and seemed pretty excited about it, as I kind of am since I’ve never been to Nashville except to visit one of my health system’s hospitals near there a few times many years ago.
SkyFlow explained its Healthcare Data Privacy Vault, a quickly implemented API solution that manages role-based and policy-based access, consent-based sharing, IP and geolocation controls, and time-based access.
That’s one big fireplace. Or being in the pun-heavy world of health IT, is that FHIRplace?
Maybe the two saddest days in health IT were Neal Patterson dying and now to see what is likely the final exhibit of Cerner as an independent company.
Day 1 is in the books, and let me tell you it was a blur like I’ve not experienced in a long time. I’m sure my conference attendance muscles have atrophied over the last couple of years, but it was good to be back in person. I’m pretty sure I’m going home with COVID, though – virtually no one is masked. There are a lot of comments about people doing ViVE all week and being OK, but usually their expressions change when I remind them that attendees at ViVE had to show a documented negative COVID test, unlike at HIMSS.
The opening keynote was moderately attended, with plenty of empty seats in the back of the room. Attendance figures were quoted at 26,000 but it wasn’t clear whether that included both in-person and digital attendees. After greetings from the HIMSS team and the mayor of Orlando, Jonathan Bush delivered a brief keynote. He had some great analogies about HIMSS being like Hogwarts of Harry Potter fame, as well as it being like “the savanna” where prospective customers visited a feeding ground where vendors could hunt them. He skewered organizations for how much money they spend on HIMSS, and putting on my patient hat, it’s entirely appropriate to question the funding. People forget that every dollar spent at or on this show came from a patient or a taxpayer in one way or another.
The main keynote speaker was Ben Sherwood of Disney fame. He gave a great history of Walt Disney World and what it did to the growth of the Orlando economy. As someone who does a lot of work on sustainability and the environment, I noted that he completely left out the impact on the land and other downsides of the vast growth of tourism. He also talked about the Battle of Trafalgar and how Horatio Nelson had the ability to see the world differently as he planned his strategy for the battle. Sherwood noted that Nelson was killed in the battle and his body was taken back to England in a barrel of spirits, which is a detail that always reminds me of my days in gross anatomy lab.
He closed with some comments on E. M. Forster’s novel “Howard’s End,” which happens to be not only one of my favorites, but one upon which I did some scholarly work during my undergraduate years. He urged people to heed the advice given at the end of the book, and in thinking of how we all need to work together to solve the many problems facing healthcare, I agree with the wisdom: “Only Connect.”
From there it was straight into the craziness of the exhibit hall. I stopped by to see the Dash offering by Relatient (booth 4879) and to catch up with the team about how the tool brings communication and scheduling solutions together for better patient care.
Bandwidth (booth 1927) caught my eye with their sparkly sequined jackets and their plush unicorn giveaways (also wearing sequined tops). Their staff was friendly and engaged, but I’m glad they turned away for a moment so I could capture the picture.
Pure Storage (booth 2421) kicked off the exhibit hall social hour with a fantastic bourbon tasting. I was happy that Dr. Nick van Terheyden @drnic1 spotted it during our first annual booth crawl. It certainly made the afternoon more smooth. He had a lot of great things to say about the newest evolution of DAX (Dragon Ambient eXperience) at Nuance (booth 1941). Apparently, it’s come a long way since the last time I saw it in a demo, so I’ll be sure to see it before the week ends.
There was a strong footwear game happening at Intelligent Medical Objects (IMO, booth 3849) during the social hour as well. IMO is one of my favorite companies and I was glad to see some longstanding colleagues for a catch-up.
I managed to score a Pink Socks scrunchie courtesy of my most longstanding HIMSS pal. Based on the humidity and the rain, I’ll need it tomorrow. Other giveaways that caught my eye included socks, cotton candy, and of course hand sanitizer. Less thrilling was the booth rep who was leaping at people in the aisles asking “would you like a light-up pen” and he asked me at least three times in the span of 10 minutes. There were of course plenty of disengaged booth reps, which is sad for Day 1 of the conference. If they couldn’t make it through 2 p.m., I have no idea how they’ll have the stamina to do it again tomorrow.
Edifecs (booth 5171) is again running their #WhatIRun campaign to support women in healthcare IT. The initiative highlights the fact that women are estimated to be involved in 80% of healthcare decisions but continue to be underrepresented in leadership roles. For each social share of the #WhatIRun hashtag, they’ll donate $1 to brightpink.org. I’ve been a long-time fan, so please stop by and give them a shout out. I met some fascinating women today, including some cybersecurity experts, and had the chance to learn about one’s experience with the Chief membership network. HIMSS is always a great place to learn things you never expected and to make new connections.
Tonight was my big dinner out for the week, courtesy of Nordic (booth 3965) at the Sharks Underwater Grill at Sea World. It was great to have the opportunity to talk with other CMIOs and people who are directly working in healthcare IT and to hear their experiences and challenges. The conversation was great and the drinks were flowing, and of course the sharks were fascinating. After dashing through the rainstorm at the end of the night and trying to find my Uber at the mysterious rideshare pickup point, I was starting to feel like these two chaps that I spotted at the bottom of the tank. My feet were done for the night, so I was glad to just head back to the hotel to recharge and prepare for Wednesday.
What were your personal highlights from the show floor? Anything particular I should check out? Leave a comment or email me.
March 15, 2022NewsComments Off on From HIMSS 3/15/22
From Fault Line: “Re: HIMS22. Not sure about others, but for me, it was 45 minutes for cab at airport, then and outside and inside line to check in at hotel. Why did we miss traveling again?”
Tuesday’s commingled lines for health check, registration, and badge pickup snaked forever through the convention center with nobody from HIMSS directing folks where to line up. It’s a rare logistical slip-up by HIMSS that caused folks to be late for their sessions or for the 10:00 a.m. exhibit hall opening. Someone behind me said the lines were like Space Mountain, snaking down the hall and around corners. I guess that’s a good thing for HIMSS, which supposedly announced in-person attendance of 26,000 in the opening session that I didn’t attend.
I secretly want to be a bus driver as my next job. Every time I attend a HIMSS conference, I’m envious of their bouncy seats and horizontal steering wheels.
It felt like a pre-HIMSS20 conference, as the exhibit hall was packed with no extra spacing, masks were optional and therefore rarely seen, and the booths featured snacks, performers, and throngs of people. I’m sure the exhibitor and square footage count were down from their pre-pandemic prime, but the energy was excellent. It’s like a band that could either fill a 1,000-seat theater or half-fill an arena – the theater wins on vibe and excitement.
I threw smoked brisket away for the first time in paying $19 for a horrible lunch from the 4 Rivers Smokehouse exhibit hall stand. I love barbeque in nearly every form, but this was inedible. I should have known this from the non-existent line and their use of homey skillets to hold badly prepared smoked meat and macaroni and cheese. I threw half away and still felt queasy for hours after.
Know what we have? A truck. A big one. So there.
Salesforce had an impressive booth. I don’t really understood its point, but it was like summer camp for technology folks.
I tend to like booths that while phony, imitate life. So I was more than OK with 3M’s.
And Intelerad’s, which was like a homey restaurant booth with cushions.
My favorite booth was that of McKessson-owned CoverMy Meds. It was beside the booth of Redox. I feel some parental pull toward both companies because they sponsored HIStalk before anyone had heard of them and are now a big deal. I don’t usually call out favorite companies, but CoverMyMeds is a spectacular success story and co-founder Matt Scantland has impressed me both times I’ve interviewed him.
Nice summary, Experian Health.
Tax-advantaged provider, investor in for-profit-companies, and vendor? Correct answer — all of the above. Big booth.
Epic claims to have no marketing people, but someone’s doing an excellent job regardless of their title.
The Epic booth person told me that its Cheers CRM is just the same old products like MyChart overarched with a new name. I’m not sure if that’s correct, but they would know better than I.
The Vocera booth was quite busy.
Change Healthcare was taking headshot photos, which judging from the LinkedIn profiles of some attendees, are desperately needed.
The nicest exhibitors are always the folks from the Philippines, who not only provide more nurses to the US than any other country, they offer advantages for outsourcing health IT companies in various forms. I have never been to that country in my somewhat limited world travels, but they always make a positive impression at HIMSS conferences.
I liked Glooko’s remote patient monitoring platform for diabetes.
The folks at Pro Forma were cool in describing their promotional products. They agreed with me in wondering where the out-of-the-blue trend came from of exhibitor employees wearing outdoor-type vests, which I saw all over the hall. Other sartorial trends – light brown shoes with suits of any color, tennis shoes with suits, and semi-dress shoes worn without socks.
I took a look at HPE’s Zerto ransomware testing and recovery tool.
UKG (Ultimate Kronos Group) had a big booth, which I would guess at times was invaded by customers irate at its weeks-long cloud payroll system downtime that left hospitals in endless arguments with employees who weren’t paid correctly.
Palo Alto Networks gave me a nice overview of their system that monitors the network, finds and fixes performance problems, and evaluates the network problems of individual users such as those trying to participate in a Zoom call. They’re giving away a home appliance that does the same thing while looking cool.
I don’t know if I detected any particular HIMSS22 trend, but candidates would be cybersecurity and interoperability.
I saw people riding on Segways who were not G.O.B. Bluth.
Vendors – make your booth people disperse within the confines of your booth. It is off-putting to have them talking with each other in a closed circle that is unwelcome for prospects to penetrate.
Sphere is giving away ring lights for those who don’t have them for their Zoom or Teams sessions.
I went to a session in which Meditech and Google Health laid out their partnership to make Google Health’s Care Studio search tool available in Expanse. Meditech EVP/COO Helen Waters suggested that perhaps EHR vendors should focus on their platform and assume that companies like Google Health are amply equipped to overlay their products with consumer-grade UI. Meditech is looking for Care Studio to integrate its legacy products with Expanse.
Pondering – are booth reps playing with their phones because nobody is there, or is nobody there because booth reps are playing with their phones? I didn’t see nearly as much “expensive phone booth” time as in years past, so good job, folks.
I tried to use the HIMSS22 app, but it kept freezing on the title screen.
I skipped out early because my regrettably untested shoes weren’t up to the carpet-trodding task and therefore my back and legs were paying dearly for exhibit hall miles, but I’ll be back Wednesday. If you’ve seen something amazing that I should check out, let me know.
Health data integration company Lyniate will acquire patient identity management vendor NextGate for an undisclosed sum.
HIStalk Announcements and Requests
Mr. HIStalk and Dr. Jayne are busy in HIMSS-land while I hold down the fort at the virtual HIStalk hacienda. Hopefully, Mr. H has finally made it through the registration and badge pick-up line, which, based on his tweet from earlier today, doesn’t seem likely. In lieu of show-floor convos with our wonderful readers that typically involve attempts to get me to divulge Mr. H’s true identity, I’ll instead reminisce about past HIStalkapaloozas. (Is there a better party band than Party on the Moon?) I’m still saddened by the fact that my footwear over the years earned me no HIStalk accolades, though I like to think it did help me make my case for joining the team nearly eight years ago. Help me stay busy this week by emailing me any health IT news you’re afraid might get lost in the #HIMSSanity.
Webinars
April 6 (Wednesday) 1 ET. “19 Massive Best Practices We’ve Learned from 4 Million Telehealth Visits.” Sponsor: Mend. Presenter: Matt McBride, MBA, founder, president, and CEO, Mend. Virtual visits have graduated from a quickly implemented technical novelty to a key healthcare strategy. The challenge now is to define how telehealth can work seamlessly with in-person visits. This webinar will address patient satisfaction, reducing no-show rates to single digits, and using technology to make telehealth easy to use and accessible for all patients. The presenter will share best practices that have been gleaned from millions of telehealth visits and how they have been incorporated into a leading telemedicine and AI-powered patient engagement platform.
Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present your own.
Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock
OptimizeRx acquires EvinceMed, a Las Vegas-based company that automates specialty pharmacy transactions.
Avant-garde Health, which offers analytics for surgical and procedure-based care, raises $12 million in a Series A funding round.
Komodo Health will reportedly go public this summer. The offers de-identified patient data and analytics, has raised $314 million, and earned a $3.3 billion valuation.
Precision medicine and clinical dataset vendor Prenosis secures funding from Pace Healthcare Capital, bringing its total raised to over $20 million.
Healthcare payment analytics company Clarify Health acquires Embedded Healthcare, an analytics vendor focused on changing provider behavior to encourage value-based care. The acquisition comes a year after Clarify raised $115 million in a Series C funding round, and six months after its acquisition of Apervita’s value optimization business.
Drug knowledge and decision support company First Databank launches the Vela e-prescribing network, giving prescribers, payers, and pharmacies an additional industry option for medication eligibility and benefits information. FDB partnered with RxRevu and RxLightning to offer real-time pharmacy benefits and specialty prescription enrollment and processing functionalities as part of the new network.
Sales
EMC Healthcare in Indonesia will implement the InterSystems TrakCare EHR across its six hospitals.
People
Kevin Schweikert (Veradigm/Allscripts) joins Cota as VP of life sciences.
Announcements and Implementations
Clinical Architecture announces GA of SeekDX, a diagnosis search and documentation tool; and Nomad, a fully managed interoperability and data normalization solution designed to help organizations comply with the 21st Century Cures Act.
Leidos will integrate Clearsense’s health data archiving and management capabilities with its managed services offerings.
Caregility announces GA of its subscription-based Inpatient Virtual Engagement service, comprising an administration portal, access point of care system, and management tool for telehealth devices.
Cape Cod Healthcare (MA) will use $1.5 million in federal funding to connect 90 providers from independent practices and community health centers to its Epic system.
InterSystems releases a cloud-based version of its HealthShare Health Connect integration engine.
Consensus Cloud Solutions develops NLP- and AI-based technology that enables providers to convert unstructured clinical content into usable data for improved decision-making.
Meditech will pilot the FHIR-enabled integration of Google’s search and summarization capabilities within its Expanse EHR.
Main Line Health (PA) enhances its website with Yext’s Find-a-Doc search tool and Stericycle’s appointment-booking software.
Philips announces GA of cloud-based, interoperable, enterprise imaging technology, and performance analytics for radiology and cardiology.
Kootenai Health in Idaho has replaced 11 EHR systems with Epic.
Privacy and Security
Registered nurses file a class action lawsuit against their employer, University of Massachusetts Memorial Medical Center, for allegedly depriving them of accurate wages after last December’s Kronos data breach. The cyberattack on the payroll vendor led to a payment freeze for all UMass Memorial hourly workers, resulting in inaccurate or unpaid paychecks. The suit seems to be separate from a similar filing by RNs initiated in January. Update: UMass Memorial Health EVP and CFO Sergio Melgar clarifies that, “To avoid disruption during the Kronos issue, we used the previous week as a base for pay in order to provide our caregivers with some wages. We did not freeze wages nor miss a pay period. We communicated with our caregivers that their pay might not be accurate at the time, but that we planned to go back and adjust as we worked through this national issue.”
Other
Caledonia Health Center Office Team Lead Cassie Baker and Office Manager Amy DeGood win first place in the University of Michigan Health-West’s inaugural Big Pitch competition for their idea to use Nuance’s AI-powered documentation software to develop an automated prescription messaging and approval process for patients.
Apple’s latest Iphone software update enables masked Face ID users to unlock their phones.
Sponsor Updates
Surescripts has expanded its specialty medications solutions to enable more prescribers, pharmacists, and patients to benefit from the accelerated speed to therapy supported by these innovations.
Availity will donate $25,000 to the UN Refugee Agency to help Ukrainian refugees, and will offer to match up to the same amount on behalf of associates who donate.
Bluestream Health joins the N50 Project to provide virtual care and telehealth services to marginalized communities around the globe.
Change Healthcare expands its relationship with AWS to accelerate healthcare transformation.
Olive and NTT DATA will co-develop new Loops – applications that work on Olive’s platform to provide real-time intelligence – and new machine learning and robotic process automation (RPA) models, initially focusing on improving supply chain and IT efficiencies.
CoverMyMeds signs on as the first employer partner in Fortuity’s Pathways Workforce Development program, which helps prepare highly qualified candidates for call center employment with local businesses.
Elsevier Clinical Solutions publishes “Clinician of the Future: a 2022 report.”
End users give the following HIStalk sponsors top user satisfaction marks, according to a Black Book survey of specialty practices:
Netsmart (behavioral and mental health, home health large agency & hospice, psychiatry)
Cerner (colon and rectal surgery, general surgery, internal medicine, pediatric surgery)
They say travel is broadening. I’m not sure how much I learn from the travel experience itself, but lately travel has become an exercise in patience and trying to remain calm in the face of craziness.
My flight to Orlando was delayed, which wasn’t much of a problem because the airline alerted me early. I used the time to pick up a beautiful deli sandwich to enjoy in my car at the airport parking garage. Unfortunately, when I arrived at the check-in area, I immediately understood why flights were being delayed. The baggage system had malfunctioned, preventing agents from sending bags on their merry way down the conveyor belts. Instead, they were piled all around the ticket counters and spilled towards the TSA screening areas, making me wonder if my bag would ever make it onto the plane.
It seemed there were plenty of people around who are either new travelers or who haven’t flown recently. I watched two large families realize they had no luggage tags and have to scramble to fill out the flimsy airline ones. I was glad I was flying at a non-peak time, but as is typical with non-stop flights to Orlando, the gate area was full of fussy youngsters whose schedules were off due to travel. It’s par for the course with springtime travel and I’d rather be surrounded by children who might have a good excuse for their behavior rather than be surrounded by obnoxious adult travelers doing video calls without headphones or who insist on trying to convince the gate agent that their three carry-on bags are really only two. After more than a decade of being a road warrior, I’ve learned to tune most of it out, which I suppose is a useful life skill.
I’m staying at my usual hotel just a hop, skip, and a jump from the convention center and appreciate the predictability of the experience. The weather is also much appreciated, especially since it’s been sub-freezing the last week and I’m tired of dirty snow and salt everywhere. The week looks to be mild except for some occasional rain showers, which I think I can cope with.
I also spent some quality time with the ironing board since I opted for breezy linen shirts for this year’s conference. No more suit jackets for me, thank you very much. Hopefully there will be a continued move towards more casual dress, but regardless, I plan to be comfortable this week. The new normal has negatively impacted the hotel breakfast for sure. I’m usually fine with an English muffin or a bagel to get me on my way, and neither of those were to be found. My choices included a prepackaged gluten-free muffin, a prepackaged breakfast taco, some kind of baby quiche, or a bowl of oatmeal. Fortunately, there was yogurt available, which worked well with the trail mix that I always carry.
I also put the finishing touches on my plans for the exhibit hall. Some of the booths I have lined up for opening day include:
Healthwise (booth 2571) is launching its new Healthwise Advise solution at HIMSS22. Designed for Epic customers, it’s FHIR-enabled and reduces maintenance and content updates. As if the time savings wasn’t enough of a draw, it also has greater integration with Epic than the previous solution and allows easier selection of patient-specific information as well as information on how patients have engaged with the materials. It’s also designed to learn how clinicians select materials and to anticipate their needs, so I’m excited to see how it works in person.
Cisco (booth 1559) as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives, is donating $5 to the Pediatric Cancer Foundation for every individual scanned in the booth or at their View from the Top session. They’re donating up to $10,000 so stop by and let’s see if we can max it out.
First Data Bank (booth 3659) is making a big announcement and I can’t wait to hear what they’re up to.
I picked up my badge at the Hyatt and the process was smooth because I had printed my vaccine validation and my HIMSS barcode. For those who didn’t have those documents, they had several workers checking vaccine cards and IDs to get them through the process quickly. SWAG was minimal and included the obligatory tote bag along with the conference guide, a pen, and a HIMSS mask. We’ll see how many people actually sport the HIMSS-branded masks since overall masking is pretty minimal and the majority of those who are masking seem to be wearing medical-grade ones.
HIMSS is all about networking, and I was happy to run into one former colleague at the registration desk and two more while I was poolside. We’ve all been on a long strange journey through the healthcare IT universe, so it’s good to see a friendly face.
From there it was off to the opening reception, where comfortable shoes were the order of the day for both ladies and gentlemen. Bar service was adequate, with minimal lines by the time we arrived. There were multiple food options, but vegetarian options were scarce except for the tofu and portabella mushroom kebabs and the ice cream bar.
From there, we were off to the ServiceNow/GDIT party, which had much better food options including a delightful goat cheese and pickled onion bruschetta as well as cheese pizza, lobster rolls, and sliders. Big thanks to the team working the door at one of the most sought-after parties of the night.
After that, I was able to connect with an old friend (and make a new one) followed by a trip to the Hyatt lobby bar, where I had a quick catch-up with Jonathan Bush. It felt like old times, although most of us were contemplating an earlier return to our hotel rooms than we have at HIMSS past. Tuesday’s keynote will come early enough, so it’s time to take out the contact lenses, drink some water, and get ready for another big day at HIMSS.
What’s on your list of must-sees at the exhibit hall? Leave a comment or email me.
From the Oracle earnings call on Friday, following Q3 results that beat revenue expectations but fell short on earnings:
CTO and Chairman Larry Ellison says that healthcare is “the largest industry on Earth” and Oracle has as ERP/HCM customers Tenet, Kaiser, Mayo, Cleveland Clinic, Northwell, Mount Sinai, and Atrium.
He notes that Oracle is replacing Kronos in 83-hospital Community Health Systems.
He says that hospitals are an Uber-like gig economy because doctors and now nurses are increasingly independent contractors, making workforce payment complicated.
Ellison says that the company will be “going after the entire integrated ecosystem,” which influenced its decision to acquire Cerner.
He also called out connecting clinical trials with hospitals and tracking hospital supplies by RFID.
ORCL shares are down 15% versus the Dow’s 6% loss since the December 20 announcement that it will acquire Cerner for $28 billion
HIStalk Announcements and Requests
ViVE attendees sent me a few comments about attending. Feel free to send more thoughts, and for those who will have attended both ViVE and HIMSS22, to weigh in afterward on how the events compared.
Here’s what poll respondents said about their life now versus a year ago.
New poll to your right or here: What will you be doing at work this week during HIMSS22?
Last-Minute HIMSS22 Notes
Don’t forget to set your clocks forward Sunday morning. Sunrise in Orlando each day will be 7:30 a.m. and sunset at 7:30 p.m.
Expect warm but rainy and cloudy weather in Orlando, with daily highs around 80.
Masks are optional for in-person attendees.
Review the pocket guide to plan your days before you arrive.
Tuesday’s opening keynote is at 8:30 a.m. and the exhibit hall opens at 10:00 a.m.
Dr. Jayne and I will report from the Orlando ground, while Jenn — atypically from my usual HIMSS week process – will publish daily headlines and news posts.
Webinars
April 6 (Wednesday) 1 ET. “19 Massive Best Practices We’ve Learned from 4 Million Telehealth Visits.” Sponsor: Mend. Presenter: Matt McBride, MBA, founder, president, and CEO, Mend. Virtual visits have graduated from a quickly implemented technical novelty to a key healthcare strategy. The challenge now is to define how telehealth can work seamlessly with in-person visits. This webinar will address patient satisfaction, reducing no-show rates to single digits, and using technology to make telehealth easy to use and accessible for all patients. The presenter will share best practices that have been gleaned from millions of telehealth visits and how they have been incorporated into a leading telemedicine and AI-powered patient engagement platform.
Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present your own.
Sales
Genesis Physician’s Group (TX) will develop the GenesisLink HIE for the DFW area using KONZA’s national network.
API platform vendor Particle Health will use Verato Univeral MPI to track patients and data flow.
In England, Bedfordshire Hospitals chooses VitalHub’s Intouch patient flow solutions to help manage its elective care backlog.
People
Amazon hires Aaron Martin, MBA (Providence) as VP of health. Martin was Providence’s EVP, chief digital officer of Providence St. Joseph’s Health, and managing GP of Providence’s venture fund. He had been with the health system since January 2014. Before that, he worked for Amazon’s self-publishing business for eight years.
Relatient hires Craig McCoy (Ciox Health) as chief growth officer, names Josh Byrd (Savista) as VP of marketing, and promotes Emily Tyson, MBA to COO.
Eric Rose, MD (US Department of Veterans Affairs) joins precision medicine drug discovery TenSixteen Bio as head of clinical informatics.
University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and UC Health name Umberto Tachinardi, MD, MS (Regenstrief Institute) as VP / chief health digital officer and associate deal of health informatics.
Eric Sato, MBA (Baxter International) joins Symplr as VP of marketing.
Rauland hires Michelle Allen, MEM (Ametek) as division VP and business unit manager.
Announcements and Implementations
Vyne Medical launches Refyne Cloud Fax as part of its SaaS-based Refyne denials management platform.
WVU Medicine goes live on Volpara Health’s AI-based breast imaging software tools, which it will use to maintain and improve mammographic quality in its 24 facilities in four states.
Government and Politics
Congress re-inserts a ban on funding a national patient identifier in HHS’s proposed FY2022 budget.
Florida-based government medical contractor Comprehensive Health Services will pay $930,000 to settle false claims charges that it billed the State Department the $500,000 cost of developing a secure EHR, but left paper record scans on a drive that non-clinicians could access.
Other
A Cedars-Sinai study finds that 0.25% of patients whose Apple Watch warned them of possible atrial fibrillation were candidates for starting anticoagulants. The percentage rose to just 36% even when AFib was positively diagnosed. The authors conclude that while the benefit of the Watch’s AFib detection was tiny, the combined Watch and EHR data could help target those patients with the highest potential benefit.
Sponsor Updates
Olive adds expanded connectivity and integration features to its automation platform for healthcare processes and operations.
Optum sponsors and will present during SXSW’s Health and MedTech conference track March 14 in Austin, TX.
IDC’s latest Marketscape Report recognizes Symplr’s Payer solution as a Major Player for its comprehensive offering and product vision.
Protenus publishes the “2022 Breach Barometer Report.”
Sectra publishes its nine-month interim report, highlighting top rankings in customer satisfaction surveys in the US, Canada, and Asia/Oceania.
Upfront Healthcare publishes an update on its growth in 2021, doubling in size and revenue for the third straight year.
I asked readers who attended the inaugural ViVE conference, offered by CHIME and HLTH, to give feedback about their experience.
CHIME Track
Even though this was a conference that was about innovation and transformation, the rest of the CHIME conference emphasized the focus groups that CHIME keeps pushing members to attend. If you decline after several attempts to bring you in at $100 each, they stick multiple sessions on your calendar anyway. I assume they promised the vendors that are paying that they would have a certain number of attendees.
CHIME Chief Analytics Officer Steve Lieber described how CHIME is now going to harvest all the information that its members submit as part of Most Wired for a new analytics service. If we want to do some benchmarking with this data, we can now pay them for access to information we handed over to them. Will make me now consider if Most Wired is really worth it, which I already had doubts about anyway. I think this recognition has run its course.
I actually spent less time on the CHIME stuff, other than the focus groups, and felt comfortable among the vendors, which is not usually the case. Perhaps that also is a comment on the CHIME topics for the larger sessions.
CHIME did a good job, but it felt more disjointed than previous spring CIO forums when it was the day before HIMSS.
Most of the CHIME general sessions had more people than seats available, so I suspect CHIME was pleased.
I enjoyed the combo of the two events and felt like I attended CHIME and HIMSS in one setting, which is a plus for me.
CIO Participation
There was little CIO representation on the exhibitor floor. It was easy to distinguish attendees as CHIME members, as we had a dark blue and black badge lanyard and everyone else had a neon green one. As I walked the floor, I was usually one of very few without a green lanyard.
It was a nice effort to attempt to bring the startup community together with the CIO community. One would think that would be a good thing, but it I do not think it worked. From the outside looking in, it may have seemed to resonate with everyone buzzing around, but it was really what amounted to two separate conferences.
There were plenty of CIOs walking around the exhibit hall and the corridors. While chatting with a colleague for 20 minutes, I counted 15 other CIOs that walked past. The CIOs did not have a badge that stood out, so it might have been harder for those who don’t know faces.
Education Sessions
Some of the fireside chats and startup roundtables were really interesting. I have great respect for many of these founders who are putting a lot of effort into solving some very discrete health care problems.
Hosted Buyer Program
I paid the registration fee instead of agreeing to meet with eight vendors so I could control who I spoke to. Others may have found value in that program.
As an academic medical center CIO, I loved the hosted buyer concept and found it quite valuable. I received a registration rebate in return for having eight 15-minute meetings with vendors – both parties had to agree to meet in advance.
Exhibit Hall
It was low key on the exhibit hall floor since each booth has limited staff and most were approachable. I talked to many interesting companies, even if they did become repetitive. Established, non-startup vendors seemed underwhelmed about the value to them for attending. .
As an exhibitor, you’ll get zero out of it if you don’t do pre-conference prep make appointments. You can’t just show-up and hope that the CIO of a 17-hospital system takes time to pop into your booth just because they like the fuzzy socks you’re giving away.
You would have had a field day with all the booth workers in their phones as CIOs walked right past them.
Many of the CHIME CIOs were on the exhibit floor. Our booth was non-stop busy with questions and demos. Very happy with the experience and looking forward to next year in Nashville.
Overall Conference Reaction
There was little use for the CHIME side of ViVE. If you look at it as just a smaller HLTH conference, participating as if it was, it delivered.
I found ViVE to be very well done for a first-time effort.
The number of startups and PE firms was impressive.
As an introvert, I was on stimulation overload by the end of the day Tuesday and looking for quiet. I was out of practice for this type of event, and frankly have not stood so long over a two-day period in some time.
Smaller booths, fewer vendors, and the reverse trade show (Hosted Buyers) format were fresh changes from HIMSS.
I also love the smaller cities it can go to versus Orlando, Las Vegas, and Chicago.
I see it as my new choice over HIMSS.
The vibe of the event was very high energy. People seemed to feel paroled from COVID and I can say I saw and talked with many CIOs in the vendor area. Most of us were seeing vendors we knew, friends in the business, and some of us tried very hard to learn something new without being pressed for a sales commitment. The challenge, as the venue was so big and beautiful, was to timely get to all of your events.
I will certainly go back.
I will never attend HIMSS again. ViVE was everything I hoped it would be and more. It was not too big, not to small = just right. Kudos to CHIME + HLTH for an outstanding event.
As a 20+ year HIMSS attendee, I found ViVe refreshing and energizing. Fun touches like a DJ, Betty White tribute, bright signage and excellent navigation in the right-sized convention center were truly appreciated. I attended HLTH last Fall and felt the educational sessions included too much future casting, not enough real-world implementation. This was not the case at ViVe’22. The UC Davis Summit was particularly helpful along with sessions that included CIOs (like Vanderbilt’s CIO on obtaining ROI for IT investments). Great work to Team ViVE’22!
ViVE was exciting as it brought together health systems, vendors, and partners who collectively were looking for innovative ways to transform healthcare with technology. ViVE wasn’t the same old, same old HIT trade show with typical sellers, buyers, and tire-kickers. Rather, the content and interaction was fresh, with an intentional focus on digital transformation in healthcare.”
ViVE was great. It could be because it was in real life for the first time and without masks but they did a good job imho of balancing the various elements of a conference (education, fun, & networking).
Symplr acquires GreenLight Medical, which offers healthcare supply management software.
The deal is Symplr’s 11th acquisition since November 2018, when it was acquired by private equity firm Clearlake Capital.
The company’s previous acquisitions include Conduent’s Midas solutions (a $340 million deal in January 2022), Halo Health, SpinFusion, HealthcareSource, Phynd, TractManager, ComplyTrack, The Patient Safety Co., IntelliSoft Group, and API Healthcare.
Clearlake provided Symplr with $1.6 billion of equity capital in January 2022 to purse its organic growth and acquisitions.
Reader Comments
From Hyaline Tissue: “Re: ViVE. It was entirely vendors – I don’t think any of the CHIME CIOs were on the exhibit floor, although I saw some floating around the events. It was focused on startups and people working on big problems, like interoperability, and trying to move the needle. Food, drinks, and events were incredible and Miami is a much cooler and fun location than Orlando. ViVE is clearly the replacement for Health 2.0 and its venture capital money and there’s a LOT of that floating in right now. HLTH obviously knows how to make an event that VC money wants to hang around. They were intentional about doing well those things that HIMSS has done poorly and I think they will get bigger very quickly.” Thanks for the report. I would enjoy hearing feedback from others and I’ll keep you anonymous. I will also ask for similar feedback after next week for folks who attended both ViVE and HIMSS22 – either as exhibitors or regular attendees — and thus can offer the inevitable comparison. The big marketing win for ViVE, other than HLTH and CHIME themselves, goes to Clearsense, which sponsored the apparently amazing performance of Wyclef Jean. It’s going to be tough for attendees of either or both conferences to return to staring at screens looking out windows at wintry monochrome. Maybe you can recreate the conference vibe at home by wearing a Hawaiian shirt with shorts, putting a box of sand underfoot, and standing in front of your coffeemaker for 20 minutes before pouring.
HIStalk Announcements and Requests
The impending presence of a bomb cyclone in the Northeast makes me think of previous HIMSS conferences, where the frazzled Meditech folks would show up a day or two late waiting for Boston to dig out. Orlando weather calls for mid-70s with clouds and occasional rain Monday through Thursday.
Here’s what my sponsors told me they will be doing at HIMSS22.
I see on LinkedIn that Hyland will once again feature “corporate magician” David Harris, aka Magic Boy, aptly described as “a skilled marketer in the body of an entertainer.” He’s my second-favorite HIMSS entertainer after the amazing magician, psychic, and comic Bob Garner, who I see from his Instagram has lost 69 pounds and a visual 30 years by moving to a vegan diet, embracing meditation, and exercising like a madman.
Welcome to new HIStalk Platinum Sponsor TigerConnect. The Santa Monica, CA-based company offers the healthcare industry’s most widely adopted and integrated communication platform, bringing together all aspects of care collaboration, physician and resident scheduling, patient engagement, and alarm management into a single, scalable, and mobile solution. TigerConnect modernizes the way doctors, nurses, care teams, staff, and patients communicate – inside a facility, across multiple locations, and throughout the healthcare ecosystem. A cornerstone for digital transformation, the TigerConnect platform integrates with EHRs, nurse call, scheduling, and other systems to unify communication, streamline workflows, reduce costs, and improve patient outcomes. HIPAA-compliant and HITRUST-certified, TigerConnect delivers 99.99% verifiable uptime and is trusted by more than 7,000 healthcare organizations across the US and Canada. Thanks to TigerConnect for supporting HIStalk.
I found this new TigerConnect overview on YouTube.
Welcome to new HIStalk Gold Sponsor Bravado Health of West Palm Beach, FL. Bravado Health’s award-winning designers created the dynamic patient engagement platform, Ayva, to simplify the care journey from preparation to recovery across the entire spectrum of surgeries, procedures, and disease management. Ayva packages care plans, educational videos, messaging, remote patient monitoring, and more into an accessible web-based experience that’s proven to engage patients, improve outcomes, and increase patient satisfaction. Ayva shares engagement data with the patient’s care team, helping clinicians make more well-informed decisions. Say hello to them next week at HIMSS22 in Booth 5349. Thanks to Bravado Health for supporting HIStalk.
Webinars
April 6 (Wednesday) 1 ET. “19 Massive Best Practices We’ve Learned from 4 Million Telehealth Visits.” Sponsor: Mend. Presenter: Matt McBride, MBA, founder, president, and CEO, Mend. Virtual visits have graduated from a quickly implemented technical novelty to a key healthcare strategy. The challenge now is to define how telehealth can work seamlessly with in-person visits. This webinar will address patient satisfaction, reducing no-show rates to single digits, and using technology to make telehealth easy to use and accessible for all patients. The presenter will share best practices that have been gleaned from millions of telehealth visits and how they have been incorporated into a leading telemedicine and AI-powered patient engagement platform.
Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present your own.
Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock
Oracle shares were down 6% in early after-hours trading Thursday as the company announced Q3 results that beat revenue expectations but fells short on earnings. Some analysts noted before the announcement that the company’s pending acquisition of Cerner has caused investor consternation and urged the company to explain its healthcare vision.
Healthcare Triangle announces Q4 results: revenue up 2%, EPS –$0.12 versus $0.07. The company went public in October 2021 at an IPO price of $4.00. Share price jumped 13% to $1.03 following the earnings announcement, valuing the company at $36 million.
UPMC makes an unspecified investment in Kyruus and will collaborate in developing the company’s ProviderMatch patient access platform. The company has raised $148 million through a Series D funding round.
Vivante Health, which offers employers a digestive health management program, raises $16 million in a Series A funding round.
UNC Health will implement Philips Oncology Pathways software that gives oncologists evidence-based treatment suggestions and matches patients to open clinical trials.
Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare will implement Health Catalyst’s Data Operating System and DOS Marts.
People
LexisNexis Risk Solutions hires Kelly Thompson, JD (Strategic Health Information Exchange Collaborative) to lead its newly formed Government Health Team.
Wireless ultrasound vendor Clarius Mobile Health names Ohad Arazi, JD (Zebra Medical Vision) as president. He will take over as CEO later this year.
Announcements and Implementations
Google Health previews Conditions, an enhancement to Care Studio that extracts condition information from EHR data and organizes them by acuity with access to related labs, meds, reports, and notes.
Health Data Movers announces the ACE Team of advisory consulting executives who will offer on-demand services such as interim C-suite, providers, analytics, data integration, and sales and marketing.
Quil launches Assure, a connected home platform for seniors who are aging in place that monitors routines based on the individual’s privacy choices.
TigerConnect adds resident scheduling to its physician scheduling solution, which helps chief residents efficiently create schedules that comply with rotation time requirements.
Medhost launches a clinician-driven anesthesia management solution that provides medication documentation, vital signs graphing, anesthesia charting, and orders.
Orbic launches SmartWrist, a smart watch for Verizon / Android users that measures pulse oxygen, pulse, body temperature; tracks fitness goals and sleep; and offers SOS and fall detection with auto-dial of emergency contacts or services. It uses geofencing to enable alerts for when the wearer leaves a designated safe zone.
Healthwise announces Advise, which allows Epic customers to provide tailored, evidence-based health education to patients in 19 languages.
Sphere adds digital wallet support for Google Pay and Apple Pay for patient payments in its TrustCommerce platform that is integrated with Epic MyChart.
Anthem will change its name to Elevance Health, noting that its business extends beyond offering Blue Cross health plans to digital health and other services that involve 118 million consumers and 90,000 employees. The company was known as WellPoint before changing its name to Anthem in 2014. ANTM shares are up 39% in the past 12 months versus the Nasdaq’s flat performance, valuing the company at $113 billion. President and CEO Gail Boudreaux, MBA, who previously served as CEO of UnitedHealthcare, was an all-American in women’s basketball and shot-put at Dartmouth.
NTT Data launches a Hospital at Home solution to help US health systems develop home-based care models. It includes a command center, acute rapid response, and support for advanced clinical tools such as virtual reality, remote imaging, and robotics.
Get Well enhances its digital engagement solution for payers to support digital member navigation, member experience and care gap closure, digital care management, and vulnerable population engagement. Sutter Health Aetna reported a 25% increase in member retention and a 10% increase in PCP visits from implementing its member navigation solution.
CareMesh launches a public developer sandbox to allow hospitals, physician groups, payers, and life insurance companies to find and contact providers using its national provider directory. The directory contains 20 million FHIR R4 records from 400 sources that are accessed via configurable APIs.
LG and Amwell will co-develop device-based virtual care solutions, starting with solutions for use in hospitals, where LG is the leading provider of smart TVs for patient rooms.
A new KLAS report on healthcare AI finds that previous market share leader Jvion has lost many customers who report financial constraints and lack of outcomes, ClosedLoop.ai scores highly in customer satisfaction, while Health Catalyst has seen satisfaction jump as it offers more analytics-powered prescriptive guidance. Customers of Cerner and Epic report struggles to get their published models up and running, and while Epic customers complain about nickel-and-diming since prebuilt models are priced individually, they are increasingly licensing its Cognitive Computer Developer Platform that allows them to deploy their own models. Respondents provided some tips:
Start with analytics before jumping into predictive or prescriptive models.
Identify the problem you are trying to solve, then decide whether AI is the right tool.
Set clear goals for use cases.
Don’t obsess with perfecting incoming data. The machine learning should be applied to data in its current form.
Model testing takes longer than you expect.
Focus on defining the intervention more than perfecting the model.
Government and Politics
The EU will publish a governance framework for health data that will affect EHRs, medical software products, and wellness apps, according to a news site that reviewed a draft. The goals of the regulation are to increase efficiency, advance scientific research, and foster the development of new digital health services and products. A proposed European Digital Identity Framework would establish cross-border functionality; individuals could restrict or share their data; the allowed secondary use of patient data would be explicitly spelled out; and a European Digital and Health Data Board of experts would foster cooperation among authorities. The proposal would require EHRs to be certified for interoperability and security and a common infrastructure called MyHealth@EU would be used to exchange health data across borders.
The VA says last week’s unplanned, two-day Cerner downtime at its only live site in Spokane – in which admissions were halted because patient screens were showing the information of different patients – was caused by a Cerner programming error . A review has found only a few corrupted records so far, some of those at its Columbus location where Cerner is not yet live. The VA admits that it probably shouldn’t have been making programming changes so close to the system’s next go-live in Walla Walla, WA on March 26.
Sixteen Midwestern defendants who worked for a chain of pain clinics, including 12 doctors, receive prison sentences for a $250 million healthcare fraud scheme in which they refused to prescribe opioids unless patients – which included addicts and drug dealers — agreed to being given high-reimbursing back injections. Their pill mill doctors worked just a few hours each week in hoping to avoid DEA attention, but even then were among Michigan’s highest prescribers of oxycodone at 6.6 million doses. The doctors bought expensive real estate, luxury cars, indoor basketball courts and swimming pools, and gold bars.
Privacy and Security
A TV station notes that The Work Number holds the payroll records of more than half the country’s workforce, as the Equifax-owned company is the payroll outsourcer for two million employers. They will, for $55, verify someone’s employment and provide their pay history. Equifax also provides Social Security number validation, education verification, property ownership verification, and IRS tax records. Chinese military hackers breached Equifax in 2017, compromising 150 million credit reports.
Other
I don’t usually post job openings, but I saw on LinkedIn that Walgreens is looking for a manager of clinical informatics to work remotely, which I though might interest someone. Job responsibilities included working with its Healthcare Clinic providers to optimize system workflow and use, perform release testing, and lead EHR training. Three years of health informatics experience and two years of direct leadership are required, while a graduate informatics degree and clinician experience are preferred.
A hospital in India draws review-bombing after someone claiming to be a surgeon there posts a Twitter video of himself performing surgery, complete with close-ups of the patient’s face and medical records, during which he also argued with gaming fanboys that PlayStation is better than Xbox.
Sponsor Updates
Mach7 Technologies receives new orders from existing customers Trinity Health and Penn State’s Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.
KLAS recognizes PatientBond at ViVE for performance.
Nuance expands AI-powered reporting features in its PowerScribe platform.
NTT Data and Lirio announce a strategic alliance focused on enabling healthcare providers to deliver more personalized care.
Epic announces Garden Plot, an Epic version for independent medical groups that is offered directly from Epic instead requiring a Community Connect agreement with a health system.
Epic provides the system in a software-as-a-service model that includes hosting, support, updates, and integrated third-party products.
Integrated products that are included in the offering are from Availity, Biscom, Change Healthcare, Healthwise, Intelligent Medical Objects, Iron Bridge, Lyniate, OSG Billing Services, Solarity, Sphere, Surescripts, and Wolters Kluwer.
HIStalk Announcements and Requests
I’m fast-roping into HIMSS22, arriving Monday evening and heading out early Thursday. Two days in the exhibit hall is it for me, the shortest time I’ve ever stuck around. The asterisked HIMSS21 almost convinced me to skip this year’s version entirely, but I’m like a migratory bird that can’t stay home.
I appreciate the many folks who have connected with me on LinkedIn in the past few days, some of them adding nice comments about how long and/or enjoyably they have been reading HIStalk. My only viewpoint of HIStalk is as an empty screen demanding to be filled from my frequently occupied chair, so hearing from actual humans boosts me. For those who ponder the advantages of connecting (can’t we just be ROI-free online pals?), it’s a short list:
I’ll see your postings.
LinkedIn will notify me when you change jobs and I will list your new gig in my “People” section if it meets my criteria, even in the absence of a an official announcement.
You’ll be connected to thousands of like-minded people, although I confess that I don’t really use LinkedIn beyond superficially and thus I don’t really know what benefits that offers.
You can send me messages via LinkedIn.
You’ll make me feel more relevant, which makes me more confidently snarky if you consider that to be an HIStalk feature rather than a bug.
Speaking of LinkedIn, I keep seeing cookie-cutter messages from people who have joined Chief, so I had to look up what that’s about. I wish I had thought of its business model, which combines vanity, networking, and employer-paid expensive dues:
It’s an investor-funded private network for C-suite females who have at least 15 years of career experience.
The company has raised $40 million from investors.
Annual dues are $5,000 to $9,000, usually paid for by the member’s employer.
Chief says it has thousands of members and thousands more on the waitlist.
It offers meetups, mentorship connections, online discussion groups, and physical clubhouses in four cities.
ViVE attendees seem to be having a ball, with most of the Twitter photo evidence being beaming party photos. Despite the fact that I’m a certified curmudgeon with a mild case of FOMO, I am glad to see people happily interacting face to face after the long COVID drought. Hopefully healthcare cost, quality, and patient experience will get at least passing attention among the glossy good times and startup salivation. I’ll also say this for the conference timing and location — it has sucked all the air out of the HIMSS22 room, made direct comparisons inevitable, and possibly consumed much of the energy of the overlapping attendees and exhibitors who will do it all over again upstate next week. I thought it was a mistake to schedule ViVE so close to HIMSS (although not as disastrous as the initial HLTH conference right after HIMSS18 in Las Vegas), but HLTH and CHIME might have been thinking more strategically.
Meanwhile, ViVE announces that its next iteration will be March 26-29, 2023 in Nashville, ending 19 days before HIMSS23 in Chicago. I hadn’t paid attention to the HIMSS23 location — HIMSS banned its home town from future conferences twice, once because of nasty exhibit hall Teamsters and once for hotels giving RSNA attendees better rates. I assume HIMSS will save some much-needed cash with the Chicago home court advantage, with a slight negative being the chance of a blizzard like at the HIMSS09 opening reception there.
Welcome to new HIStalk Platinum Sponsor Optum. Optum is a leading information and technology-enabled health services business dedicated to helping make the health system work better for everyone. With more than 190,000 people worldwide, Optum delivers intelligent, integrated solutions that help to modernize the health system and improve overall population health. Optum is part of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH). Thanks to Optum for supporting HIStalk.
Here’s a recent YouTube video that describes Optum’s provider careers.
Webinars
April 6 (Wednesday) 1 ET. “19 Massive Best Practices We’ve Learned from 4 Million Telehealth Visits.” Sponsor: Mend. Presenter: Matt McBride, MBA, founder, president, and CEO, Mend. Virtual visits have graduated from a quickly implemented technical novelty to a key healthcare strategy. The challenge now is to define how telehealth can work seamlessly with in-person visits. This webinar will address patient satisfaction, reducing no-show rates to single digits, and using technology to make telehealth easy to use and accessible for all patients. The presenter will share best practices that have been gleaned from millions of telehealth visits and how they have been incorporated into a leading telemedicine and AI-powered patient engagement platform.
Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present your own.
Former Livongo executives launch Homeward Health with a $20 million investment from General Catalyst. The startup aims to provide Medicare Advantage plan members in rural communities with primary and specialty care using local teams that provide in-person and virtual services and in-home remote patient monitoring. It is initially focusing its evidence- and value-based care model on cardiology.
Health data exchange company Consensus Cloud Solutions acquires Summit Healthcare, a health IT vendor specializing in data integration, care continuity, and workflow automation. This marks the first acquisition for Consensus, which became an independent business after parent company J2 Global split into two publicly traded companies last year.
Healthcare API developer Health Gorilla raises $50 million in a Series C funding round, bringing its total raised to $80 million.
Pro Medicus co-founder and CEO Sam Hupert says that the Australian medical imaging software vendor, parent company of Visage Imaging, won’t bid for government work because of “too many gates and hoops” in the procurement process, which is led by “bureaucrats, with clinicians very much in the background. How would a bureaucrat know what makes a good clinical desktop for a radiologist?” The company recently expanded into Europe and has contracts with seven US hospitals, which provide the bulk of its revenue. Hupert and his co-founder Anthony Hall each hold nearly $1 billion worth of shares.
Sales
The Social Security Administration’s Disability Determination Services will use Veradigm EChart Courier software from Allscripts to automate medical records retrieval.
Johns Hopkins HealthCare Solutions will offer Glooko’s remote patient monitoring capabilities to diabetic patients who are enrolled in its Blossom diabetes management program.
Integris Health (OK) selects population health analytics and data integration from Loopback Analytics to enhance its specialty pharmacy program.
Northwell Health (NY) signs a 10-year agreement with Clinithink for its NLP-enabled Clix RCM technology.
The US Defense Health Agency chooses MediQuant’s DataArk for archiving military health records as DoD transitions to Cerner.
Stanford Health (CA) promotes Nigam Shah, PhD to the newly formed role of chief data scientist.
EHealth Technologies names Dan Torrens (ConnectiveRx) as CEO.
Virtual patient monitoring vendor AvaSure hires Adam McMullin, MBA (FDS) as CEO.
Health System Informatics promotes Stephanie Hojan to president.
Mitre hires Stephen Ondra, MD (Cygnus-AI) as chief medical adviser.
UnitedHealth Group promotes Cara Griffin to VP of marketing.
Announcements and Implementations
CloudWave announces GA of OpSus Vault, a cloud-based data storage service that is designed to protect backups from cybersecurity threats.
Tift Regional Medical Center (GA) integrates Wolters Kluwer Health’s POC Advisor sepsis monitoring software with Cerner.
Mount Desert Island Hospital and Health Centers in Maine implements Cerner.
Tausight announces a real-time detection platform to detect, track, and analyze PHI activity.
Allscripts renames its Application Store to Allscripts App Expo and opens it to all active developers with a certified solution.
Olive announces increased investment in interoperability and intelligence capabilities in its platform.
Other
I missed this a couple of weeks ago. Several states and CMS investigate Center for Covid Control, whose 242 locations tested 400,000 samples for COVID-19 using untrained workers who ignored the manufacturer’s instructions, stored and labeled specimens improperly, faked results, and told insured patients not to list their coverage on the form (they were billing the federal government for testing uninsured patients). Some patients received negative results before they were actually tested. Its associated lab – whose mailing address is a UPS store and which apparently is owned by the same couple — billed the federal government for $120 million worth of testing for uninsured people, posting “free COVID testing” signs in decrepit empty storefronts and at pop-up sites. Owners Akbar Ali Syed (35) and his wife Aleya Siyak (29) put the company together quickly in 2020 after operating a wedding photo business, a doughnut shop, and an axe-throwing lounge. They bought a $1.36 million mansion, a $3.7 million Ferrari, and several Lamborghinis. I suspect the already ample amount of healthcare fraud has been increased dramatically by the government’s frantic attempts to manage the pandemic using poorly vetted contractors and vendors.
Sponsor Updates
Clearsense sponsors a pre-ViVE2022 golf tournament that has raised $42,000 for the CHIME Opioid Task Force.
AGS Health and Clearwater achieve Cybersecurity Transparent certification through a voluntary risk assessment process and program from Censinet and KLAS.
Baker Tilly will exhibit at the 34th Annual Roth Conference March 13-15 in Dana Point, CA.
Bluestream Health helps long-time partner MedStar Health deliver more than 1.5 million telehealth encounters during the pandemic.
Ellkay partners with Astrata to help health plans improve quality measurement.
Current Health expands its support for chronic care management by adding new features to its platform, including access to more integrated, third-party devices; a single platform across all populations; and new communication tools.
Lumeon appoints former Partners, Cerner, and Siemens executive John Glaser to its board.
Health data exchange company Consensus Cloud Solutions acquires Summit Healthcare, a health IT vendor specializing in data integration, care continuity, and workflow automation.
MDisrupt will use $6 million in seed funding to expand its service, which enables digital health entrepreneurs to connect with experts, and generate real-world data needed to commercialize and scale their solutions.
Microsoft closes its $19.7 billion acquisition of Nuance.
Reader Comments
From Craptacular: “Re: chief digital officer. Did you see this article claiming they are more important than the health system’s CEO?” I did not, but I’ll throw out this challenge to the author, a doctor-turned-salesperson who has never been a CEO or CDO – prove your premise with an example in healthcare, or any other industry, where the CDO is paid more than the CEO. I’m all for improving the healthcare experience with consumer-facing technology, but the motivation of big-profit health systems is more preservation of the status quo rather than its disruption, thus limiting the CDO’s star power.
A summary of reader comments (paraphrased slightly by me) on Allscripts selling just about all of its non-Veradigm business to Harris:
The sale price of $700 million was stunningly low. Harris has years of profits ahead by collecting maintenance fees and reducing costs as customers go through the time-consuming steps to replace the former Allscripts products.
Northwell represents 12.5% of the 2021 revenue of Allscripts, about $188 million. Companies can provide service when they have one big customer like Northwell paying the bills, but that doesn’t work if you have only small health systems to bankroll support and development.
Harris probably won’t enhance the acquired products, but maybe it is better than Allscripts at keeping the lights on instead of focusing on acquisitions and Veradigm. “Allscripts users will get the cheap corporate experience that comes from harvesting dated enterprise software investments. And they’ll avoid the unfocused, hostile, hot garbage experience that comes from being used as a component to complement another more strategic corporate investment.”
The last publicly traded EHR company bites the dust.
The projected revenue drop isn’t surprising, but the company’s projection of a 10-15% drop in EBITDA may suggest that Allscripts has been aggressive on financial engineering around depreciation and amortization, especially on legacy hardware.
“I could never figure out what leadership was doing on the Allscripts side of the house. DbMotion was declining year-over-year in sites, their Population Health Analytics solution was finally put down after years of not being able to calculate the most basic of conditions or generate a cohort list. The DbMotion solution itself was extremely expensive to configure and maintain, and the resulting data was often — troubled. The Community Integration Agent (CIA) that fed it from the Allscripts product was written by the same team that wrote Avenel. Avenel was a bowl of spaghetti that couldn’t do basic EHR functions nor even Alexa-level transcription. TouchWorks was a hot mess, being passed back and forth between continents, having outside contractors rewriting the middle tier only to have to rewrite it again, then to let the entire team go that worked on the uplift the week it was released.”
Who wants to take bets that the company will rebrand to Veradigm by the next HIMSS conference and bury the name Allscripts for good?
HIStalk Announcements and Requests
The most common healthcare financial problems that poll respondents had – of those who had any at all – were unexpectedly high out-of-pocket costs or insurance paying less than expected.
New poll to your right or here, which I like to run every couple of years: What’s better about your life now compared to a year ago?
To those sunning in Miami, my sponsors are doing stuff at ViVE they want to tell you about. I would also appreciate getting on-the-ground reports and photos. I’m interested in how ViVE intersects with the co-located but separate CHIME Spring Forum, which is open only to CHIME members and foundation partners, as Russ Branzell explained to me a few weeks ago. Attendee and exhibitor composition, exhibitor satisfaction, and general buzz are the most important aspects of both ViVE and HIMSS for 2022, especially since it’s the first ViVE and the first real HIMSS conference since 2019. I’m curious to see how ViVE’s “hosted buyer” program plays, in which providers must attend eight one-on-one vendor sales pitches to get in free instead of paying $2,500. I’ve been a buyer attendee of similar conferences over the years and it was a great experience for me (expensive accommodations, food, and events for free for attending a few awkwardly misguided pitches) but the vendors didn’t seem to be getting much value in return.
On a HIMSS22 downer note, I’m crestfallen after scanning the exhibitor list that MedData won’t even have a booth, much less use it to bake the scones of the gods.
LinkedIn users – I invite you to connect with me (I approve all non-scammy connection requests) so I can keep up with what you’re up to. While you’re there, please check your headshot and replace it if it’s tiny, grainy, taken at your wedding 10 years ago, or features a distracting background or the obvious presence of poorly cropped out others. We all have phones, so there’s not much excuse for not taking 60 seconds to take and post a clear, identifiable picture on your profile. Omission makes you look careless or ashamed of your appearance, while poor photo quality suggest sloppiness or failure to master basic Internet concepts, both of which are puzzling for someone who bothered to post a profile in the first place. It is surprising how many times I Google for a decent headshot to accompany a job change or company announcement and the Internet comes up blank.
Folks have mentioned some of their HIStalkapalooza memories on Twitter this week. Here’s video from the 2012 version, which I enjoyed more than any other because ESD was a magnificent sponsor, their folks did an amazing job making exactly what I wanted happen, and the scale was manageable. Do you see yourself or anyone you know? I was also checking out photos from the 2015 edition and reviewing the final one in 2017. I just realized that this is the first year since it ended that nobody has emailed me asking for tickets. Update: Lorre read this and let me know that she just received a request to attend this year’s event even though the final one was five years ago, which is actually kind of flattering.
Welcome to new HIStalk Gold Sponsor CTG. The Amherst, NY company is a leading provider of digital transformation solutions and services that accelerate clients’ project momentum and achievement of their desired IT and business outcomes. With more than 35 years of experience in the healthcare industry, it has earned a reputation as a faster and more reliable, results-driven partner focused on improved data-driven decision-making, meaningful business performance improvements, new and enhanced customer experiences, and continuous innovation. CTG has operations in North America, South America, Western Europe, and India. Thanks to CTG for supporting HIStalk.
Thanks to these companies that recently supported HIStalk. Click a logo for more information.
Webinars
April 6 (Wednesday) 1 ET. “19 Massive Best Practices We’ve Learned from 4 Million Telehealth Visits.” Sponsor: Mend. Presenter: Matt McBride, MBA, founder, president, and CEO, Mend. Virtual visits have graduated from a quickly implemented technical novelty to a key healthcare strategy. The challenge now is to define how telehealth can work seamlessly with in-person visits. This webinar will address patient satisfaction, reducing no-show rates to single digits, and using technology to make telehealth easy to use and accessible for all patients. The presenter will share best practices that have been gleaned from millions of telehealth visits and how they have been incorporated into a leading telemedicine and AI-powered patient engagement platform.
Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present your own.
Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock
Shares in the Global X Telemedicine & Digital Health exchange-traded fund dropped 4.5% in the past 30 days versus the Nasdaq’s 4% decline. EDOC shares are down 11% since the fund’s July 2020 inception versus the Nasdaq’s 26% gain. Its 10 biggest holdings are Illumina, DexCom, Agilent Technologies, Tandem Diabetes Care, Labcorp, Cerner, UnitedHealth Group, Nuance, Omnicell, and Change Healthcare.
People
Lisa Potter (Data Innovations) joins JTG Consulting Group as chief growth officer.
Stephanie Sames, MBA joins Harris-owned PulseCheck as EVP.
Rx. Health hires Neri Cohen, MD, PhD (GBMC HealthCare) as CMIO.
Announcements and Implementations
Vanderbilt University Medical Center describes in a JAMIA article its Clickbusters program that reduced Epic clinical decision alerts by 15%. The ultimate alert success measure is of course whether the clinician changed their behavior as a result of a warning or suggestion, although it gets somewhat murky after that since choosing a “why I’m doing it anyway” drop-down reason is often driven by the easiest-selected choice rather to provide a useful explanation.
QGenda launches ProviderCloud, a scheduling-centric provider operations platform that brings together several of its systems.
Google-owned Fitbit recalls its Ionic watch that was manufactured from 2017 to 2020 after dozens of reports of burn injuries that were caused by an overheated battery.
Philips and its foundation will provide a 24-bed mobile hospital and mobile check-up units to Ukraine. The company will also provide financial assistance to displaced citizens and collect employee donations for a humanitarian relief fund.
Government and Politics
Spokane’s VA hospital warned users on Thursday to stop using its recently implemented Cerner system and to “assume all electronic patient data is corrupted / inaccurate.” The problem forced Mann-Grandstaff VA Hospital to stop new admissions, suspend the filling of prescriptions, and to review whether surgeries could be performed safely. The VA says the system went back online Friday morning. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) says she was told that the problem was a VA database update that was performed to communicate patient demographics with Cerner, which suggests that the Cerner system itself might not have been the problem. At least one veteran reported seeing another patient’s information when they logged in to the patient portal. The VA’s second go-live is set for March 26 and another round is scheduled for June.
A federal judge awards a whisteblower $390,000 for helping the federal government recoup $18.3 million from Athenahealth for paying kickbacks to doctors and other EHR vendors to recommend AthenaClinicals. The company was accused of providing luxury trips to sporting events to decision-makers, paying customers to refer prospects, and paying competitors who were discontinuing their EHR to recommend Athenahealth as a replacement.
Other
A New York Times article notes that customer service chatbots – known for creating a “spiral of misery” of poor understanding and scripted replies — are becoming more helpful and capable of carrying on more human-like conversations. It provides an example in insurer Anthem, whose mobile app is 90% accurate in answering questions about co-payments and medications. Anthem’s long-term plan is to use AI to merge claims, clinical, and fitness tracking data to provide personalized health advice, such as offering people with diabetes the “patients like me” best suggestions for diet, exercise, and medications.
Sponsor Updates
PerfectServe Values Awards winners include Sales Manager Joe Faso for collaboration, Enterprise Solutions Manager Alex Van Buren for integrity, Customer Solutions Director Cameron Shahnazi for innovation, Customer Success Advisor Courtney Allnutt for service, Deployment Manager Phil Towne for purpose, People Operations & Office Coordinator Kerry Mathews for inclusion, and VP of Customer Solutions Lois Hester for leadership.
Premier releases a new episode of The Conductiv Podcast, “How Henry Ford Health System is Leading the Way in Supplier Diversity.”
In England, the National Pathology Imaging Co-operative expands its use of Sectra’s pathology solution.
Talkdesk is named Cloud Innovator of the Year and Cloud Innovator of the Decade in the 2021-22 Cloud Awards.
Volpara Health will exhibit and present at NCBC 2022 Annual Interdisciplinary Breast Center Conference March 10-11 in Las Vegas.
Wolters Kluwer Health adds BioDigital’s 3D anatomy platform to its Ovid medical research platform for an immersive teaching and learning experience.
Allscripts will sell its Hospitals and Large Physician Practices business segment to Canada-based Harris for up to $700 million in cash. The segment includes Sunrise, Paragon, TouchWorks, Opal, Star, HealthQuest,and DbMotion. It generated 2021 revenue of $928 million.
The deal is expected to close in Q2.
From the investor call:
The company sold the business because it has shrunk for three straight years and will likely continue to do so; Veradigm is growing 6% to 7% organically; and managing unrelated businesses under a single corporate structure was becoming increasingly hard.
Allscripts hopes to “unlock value” of its shares, whose price it feels is discounted compared to peers, by “separating pieces of the company.”
The business had adjusted EBITDA of $145 million on revenue of $928 million. Management expects the unit’s revenue to drop 3-4% in 2022 and EBITDA to shrink 10-15% year over year.
The unit being sold generates 60% of the company’s revenue and one-third of its free cash flow.
Allscripts will use its expected after-tax proceeds of $600 million for share repurchase and potential M&A related to Veradigm.
Interesting: the investor slides are copyrighted and footnoted as Veradigm, with the name Allscripts only appearing on the title slide.
Reader Comments
From Former Eclipsii: “Re: Allscripts. So just under 12 years after buying Eclipsys for $1.3 billion, nine years after picking up DbMotion, and five years after acquiring Paragon from McKesson, Allscripts is selling its various parts for a loss? When I was at Eclipsys, we had looked at buying Allscripts and decided it wasn’t worth the effort.” Allscripts reportedly paid $235 million for DbMotion and $185 million for Paragon, so Allscripts spent $1.72 billion in acquisition costs alone for businesses that it is selling years later for $700 million, less than one year’s revenue. But wait, there’s more – it threw in former flagship TouchWorks as well. Last week’s earnings call made it clear that Allscripts was unhappy that its share price undervalues the company, a complaint that it makes just about every quarter, and that Veradigm is its future. I would be interested in hearing the reaction of Allscripts customers to the acquisition announcement. Also, what happened to the puffy 2019 announcement that Allscripts and Northwell would develop a next-generation EHR following the never-left-the-ground flop of Avenel?
From Mark Words: “Re: Allscripts. I predict that Harris / Constellation will acquire Meditech next since its business model is exactly what Constellation looks for – mission-critical software, high recurring revenue, and a somewhat stable market position in a mature market. Not to mention that Meditech is pretty strong in Canada and Harris already owns Iatric Systems, which has strong Meditech focus.” I agree it would be a good target. Constellation’s business model would support paying around $400 million for Meditech, which I doubt would entice its owners to sell.
HIStalk Announcements and Requests
Welcome to new HIStalk Platinum Sponsor Baker Tilly. Baker Tilly US, LLP is a leading advisory CPA firm, providing clients with a genuine coast-to-coast and global advantage in major regions of the US and in many of the world’s leading financial centers. On March 1, Baker Tilly merged in Orchestrate Healthcare, a multi-year Black Book and Best in KLAS awarded healthcare IT consulting firm. Combined with Baker Tilly’s legacy healthcare practice, their combined practice brings providers solutions for financial sustainability, integration and interoperability, EHR implementation and optimization, healthcare analytics, information security, and healthcare IT staffing. The company’s healthcare IT consultants are seasoned professionals with both a broad range of experiences and a deep understanding of how to listen, analyze, and innovate for process improvement. With over 1,400 healthcare IT engagements from Orchestrate and more than 3,100 healthcare clients from Baker Tilly, the company’s team of healthcare specialists excels at what they do, so your organization can excel at what you do. Baker Tilly is an independent member of Baker Tilly International, a worldwide network of independent accounting and business advisory firms in 148 territories, with 36,000 professionals and a combined worldwide revenue of $4 billion. Thanks to Baker Tilly for supporting HIStalk.
I’ve updated my guide to what HIStalk sponsors will be doing at ViVE next week. You can also download a PDF version. Want to make me look good? Let them know at the conference that you saw them listed.
Speaking of which, HIStalk sponsors who are participating in HIMSS22 should fill out my form by end of day Friday, March 4 to be included in my guide for that conference.
And speaking of HIMSS22, six exhibitors will staff booths of at least 4,000 square feet – EClinicalWorks, Epic, Microsoft, Cerner, IBM, and Athenahealth.
Don’t try this at HIMSS22: I’ve noticed several ViVE-related meetings and social events that will be held on boats. I’ve been on a couple of these in years past and they were fun, although choose your host carefully because you’ll be captive for hours.
Webinars
None scheduled soon. Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present your own.
Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock
Cognizant develops a remote patient monitoring solution using Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare.
Cancer risk assessment software vendor CancerIQ raises $14 million in a Series B funding round.
Israel-based research data discovery platform vendor MDClone raises $63 million in a Series C funding round.
Sales
University of Rochester Medical Center selects Spok Care Connect to replace its operator console and support clinical communications at Strong Memorial Hospital.
Behavioral health staffing and services provider EvolvedMD will implement NeuroFlow’s patient registry and mobile technology to enrich collaboration with HonorHealth’s 24 locations.
Orbita and OnCall Health choose Lyniate to solve data-sharing challenges.
Health Gorilla will incorporate clinically validated social determinants of health scores from LexisNexis Risk Solutions in its Health Interoperability Platform.
Respiratory remote patient monitoring platform vendor Spire Health chooses Redox for EHR integration.
Hospice of Wichita Falls will implement WellSky’s hospice and palliative care solution.
Opioid use disorder virtual care provider Bicycle Health will use Bamboo Health’s Pings and Spotlights for real-time insights into ED and inpatient care utilization.
Healthwise will integrate First Databank’s Meducation multilingual monographs into its digital point-of-care and patient education solutions.
People
John Chelico, MD, MA (Northwell Health) joins CommonSpirit Health as SVP/CMIO.
Harmony Healthcare IT hires Tamara Korbel, MBA (PDS) as SVP of operations and client experience.
Christine Yang (Stanford Health Care) joins Alameda Health System as VP/CTO.
Laurence Kessler, MPH (NThrive) joins Healthrise as SVP of growth and partnerships.
Announcements and Implementations
Styker-owned Vocera announces Minibadge, a hands-free, voice-driven communications device for mobile healthcare workers.
Diameter Health releases a technology and services solution for HIEs and data aggregators that are undertaking NCQA’s Data Aggregator Validation program.
CareMesh implements FHIR-based integration of its Navigate clinical program management system with Epic and Cerner.
VCU Health System went live on Epic on December 2021 with the assistance of CTG, which provided legacy system support, go-live preparation, data conversion, optimization, training, and at-the-elbow support.
CVS Health launches a Health Dashboard to allow people who received COVID-19 vaccination from CVS Pharmacy or MinuteClinic locations to access their record and print a QR code. The company says the dashboard will be expanded beyond vaccination and COVID test records.
Government and Politics
I missed this a couple of weeks ago: a federal jury convicts a Palm Beach, FL psychiatrist for billing private health insurers $110 million for drug urine screenings at a sober living living facility that was taking kickbacks to refer patients. The doctor, who was also the sober living facility’s medical director, wrote standing orders for the facility in exchange for a monthly fee and then had the patients sent to his office so he could bill several tests per week per patient at up to $9,000 per test. We hear a lot about insurers that are powerfully armed with big data capabilities, but how hard would this have been to detect given the dollar volume, the obviously frequently repeated tests, and the fact that it’s South Florida? Maybe this supports the argument that insurers have limited zeal for chasing fraud since it’s easier to raise premiums.
Sponsor Updates
Cerner President and CEO David Feinberg, MD joins Humana’s board.
Bicycle Health, a virtual care company specializing in treatment for opioid use disorder, expands its use of Bamboo Health solutions to include Pings and Spotlights solutions for real-time insights into ED and acute inpatient care utilization.
March 3, 2022NewsComments Off on Allscripts Sells Its Hospitals and Large Physician Practices Business to Harris
Allscripts will sell its Hospitals and Large Physician Practices business segment to Canada-based Harris for up to $700 million in cash.
The segment includes Sunrise, Paragon, TouchWorks, Opal, Star, HealthQuest,and DbMotion. Its 2021 revenue was $928 million. Allscripts will retain Practice Fusion, Professional, and Veradigm.
The companies expect the deal to close in Q2.
Harris is a subsidiary of Toronto-based, publicly traded Constellation Software, which acquires and operates mission-critical software companies with strong recurring revenue. It has sold just one of its 500 acquisitions in its history of more than 25 years. It historically has paid below-market rates for its acquisitions, 0.8 times annual sales, which is the value of this acquisition. It typically runs businesses under their own brand identity and leaves management intact. Constellation’s market cap is nearly $40 billion.
Some of the healthcare software units of Harris are Iatric Systems, QuadraMed, Ingenious Med, Obix by Clinical Computer Systems, and Picis.
Amazon announces that Alexa users can access virtual care from Teladoc Health on its Echo devices. The audio-only service, prompted by the command, “Alexa, I want to talk to a doctor,” connects users to a Teladoc call center. Visits may be covered by insurance or will otherwise cost $75, the same cost as initiating a virtual visit directly through Teladoc.
Teladoc’s stock jumped on the news, which caused some to speculate that Amazon might eventually acquire the telehealth company. Teladoc Health CEO Jason Gorevic said last year that he didn’t consider Amazon a threat to Teladoc’s business since Amazon Care’s business was overrated given its limited client base. That base has since expanded beyond the company’s employees in select markets to nationwide services for its employees and other employers.
Teladoc beat Wall Street expectations with its latest quarterly figures, though its share price has dropped 76% in the past 12 months.
Meanwhile, Teladoc warns in its annual report that its October 2020 acquisition of Livongo has created integration challenges that “will continue to be a time-consuming and expensive process” that could disrupt its business. The company suggests that it will take a non-cash goodwill write-down of between $800 million and $4 billion on the Livongo business in Q1. TDOC, whose market cap is $12 billion, paid $14 billion for Livongo 16 months ago.
Reader Comments
From Cannulater: “Re: HIMSS22. Can you provide a link to your exhibitor tips document that I’ve heard about?” I guess it’s that time of year again. Here you go.
From Ali Cart: “Re: paying for play. How much do you charge for doing an interview?” Zero. Companies can buy only two things from me — an annual sponsorship and webinar promotion – both clearly labeled, neither including editorial involvement. Sites that require payment to interview executives, run vendor-cozy propaganda, and promote white papers apparently hope that readers won’t identify that content as thinly disguised ads, but it’s a credibility karma killer for me. I’ve exited several sites and social media groups lately where the organizer tried to monetize it on the sly by having their ego or wallets stroked silently under the table. Sell space if you want, just have the guts to label it as paid content so we know where objectivity is in question.
From Be There or Be Square: “Re: ViVE conference. Why aren’t you attending?” In a nutshell, it’s too close to HIMSS and too hard (and expensive) to attend anonymously. Attendee reports are welcome.
HIStalk Announcements and Requests
The HIMSS22 web page shows that 74 of the 85 official hotels are sold out of rooms. The exhibitor list includes 945 companies. Sounds pretty bangin’ unless those numbers don’t end up matching the on-the-ground experience.
Webinars
None scheduled soon. Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present your own.
Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock
Cloud-based healthcare supply chain software company GHX will fold newly acquired Syft, a vendor of AI-powered inventory control and end-to-end supply chain management software and services, into its value-based care division.
Virtual reality-based healthcare company XRHealth raises $10 million, bringing its total raised to $35 million. CEO Eran Orr, a former Israeli Air Force executive, founded the company in 2016 after experiencing long rehabilitation processes.
Qventus secures $50 million in growth capital from investors that include Thomas H. Lee Partners and Premier, which announced a partnership with the company last month. Qventus, which has raised nearly $100 million, offers AI-powered software to help hospitals automate operations and patient flow.
Healthcare benefits and management platform vendor Nayya raises $55 million in a Series C funding round.
Cigna will provide an additional $450 million to fund its Cigna Ventures venture capital arm, which will be used for investments in analytics, digital health, and care delivery. Cigna says it will focus on repurchasing shares rather than M&A in 2022, but will consider strategic investments and bolt-on acquisitions.
Tenet cancels plans to spin off its Conifer Health Solutions revenue cycle management business due to improved Conifer profit and expectations for increased revenue growth.
Sales
AZ Sint-Maria Halle in Belgium selects Sectra’s enterprise imaging software.
The Epsom and St. Helier Hospitals Group will implement Cerner at their four facilities in southwest London.
People
Floyd County Medical Center (IA) hires Cristina Thomas, MBA (The HCI Group) as interim CIO. The hospital is preparing to implement Meditech Expanse in the fall.
Health Gorilla promotes Karla Mills, MS, MBA to COO.
Liza Duncan (Ingenious Med) joins Cloudmed as VP of sales.
David Horrocks, MBA, MPH (CRISP) joins the New York EHealth Collaborative as CEO.
Daniel Chavez, MBA (HealthTech Solutions) joins Santa Cruz Health Information Organization as executive director.
Chuck Suitor, MS retires from MD Anderson Cancer Center after a 26-year IT career, most recently as AVP/CTO.
Swisslog Healthcare, owned by KUKA Group, promotes Cory Kwarta, MBA to CEO of Swisslog Healthcare TransLogic and Hans Schuler, MBA to CEO of Swisslog Healthcare Medication Management. Global CEO Stephan Sonderegger will leave the company.
Announcements and Implementations
ChartSpan adds remote patient monitoring program enrollment services to its chronic care management offerings.
Hamilton Health Sciences will go live on Epic in June across its 10 facilities in Ontario, replacing Meditech.
Clearwater announces GA of a 405(d) HICP Assessment solution, software, and consulting service that will help providers that have experienced a breach demonstrate that federally-recognized cybersecurity practices have been in place for at least 12 months.
Meditech makes Expanse Ambulatory available to independent and physician-owned practices.
Government and Politics
ONC has received 249 valid information blocking claims submitted through its reporting portal since the regulation took effect on April 5, 2021, with about two-thirds of those issues being reported by patients and most of them involving providers. The most common complaint of both patients and providers was being excessive charges or delays in obtaining patient information, with providers additionally reporting problems getting their EHR vendor to assist with migrating data to a replacement system. ONC will update its status page monthly, although it won’t indicate whether investigations have been opened or concluded.
Sponsor Updates
Amazon features AdvancedMD in an AWS case study, “AdvancedMD Reduces Time Spent Managing SQL Server Backups by 85% Using Amazon FSx.”
Actium Health releases a new Hello Healthcare Podcast, “Why Good Brands Go Stale ft. Jared Johnson.”
Bluestream Health publishes a new case study, “Heritage Valley Health System Needs an Embedded Virtual Care Solution.”
Current Health publishes a white paper, “Rapid Evaluation of the Virtual Ward at Croydon NHS.”
Dina will exhibit at the Rise National Conference March 7-9 in Nashville.
Ellkay will present at the Rise National Conference March 7-9 in Nashville.
February 27, 2022NewsComments Off on Monday Morning Update 2/28/22
Top News
From the Allscripts earnings call, following Thursday’s announcement of Q4 results that beat analyst expectations for revenue and earnings:
Allscripts says that investment in its core EHRs has driven cross-selling opportunities in hosting, cloud, telemedicine, cybersecurity, interoperability, outsourcing, and revenue cycle.
Two hospitals signed to replace their Paragon system with Sunrise Community Care in the quarter.
Hospital and large practice sales were down for the quarter, while Veradigm’s business grew 9%.
The company will provide Moderna with integrated EHR and claims data for eight real-world data studies of its COVID-19 vaccine.
HIStalk Announcements and Requests
Most poll respondents reported no issue with their most recent PCP visit, although waiting for an appointment and then waiting to seen once arrived were the most common complaints. Kendall says that even though they’ve seen the same EHR-using PCP for decades and is an active patient portal user, the practice still shoves a clipboard at them to write down everything that is already recorded electronically. Greg’s PCP left the practice without a heads-up to patients, so when he called about his chronic condition, staff directed him to urgent care who then sent him to the ED because it was beyond their capabilities, with his insurer expecting him to pay out of pocket for both visits.
New poll to your right or here: What was the cause of your biggest financial problem as a patient in the past 12 months?
Attending ViVE 2022? Check out my guide to what HIStalk’s sponsors will be doing there.
Listening: alternative rockers Cage the Elephant, which I first recommended here in 2011. My interest was rekindled by a YouTube highlights reel of Matt Shultz’s death-defying stage dives. He and his brother are disarmingly charming in all the interview and concert videos I’ve seen, which he describes as, “I’ve been blessed to have the right kind of adversities hit me at the right times to keep it humble. And just continuously chasing after and searching for that thing that makes music utterly exciting again.”
Webinars
None scheduled soon. Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present your own.
Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock
Definitive Healthcare reports Q4 results: revenue up 38%, adjusted EBITDA $13.1 million versus $12.8 million (the company did not provide per-share information). DH shares are down 49% in the past year versus the Nasdaq’s 10% loss, valuing the company at $2.2 billion.
Sales
Bayada Home Health Care extends use of its Dina platform to its longitudinal care management program, which includes identifying risks and tracking interventions to improve transitions from hospital to home-based care.
Aflac will offer NeuroFlow’s self-service mental health resources to its group long-term disability clients.
People
Jared Antczak, MBA (Highmark Health) joins Sanford Health as chief digital officer.
Announcements and Implementations
Sanford Health will go live in April on a workforce optimization system that it co-developed with precision staffing system vendor Flexwise, which will incorporate Sanford-developed features into its commercial product.
Northern Ireland’s Health and Social Care Service goes live on Sectra digital pathology.
Other
Sami Inkinen, CEO of diabetes reversal coaching and app vendor Virta Health, says that employer HR and benefits departments have had a tough challenge in trying to address rising health cost benefits as more and more people become metabolically unhealthy. He classifies the history of their efforts:
2000-2010: the pre-digital era, when employers signed up for health plan services and provider networks, performed health risk screenings, held wellness events, and offered employee assistance programs.
2010-2015: employers tried digital social networks, gamification, and handing out step and fitness trackers despite zero evidence (and nearly zero results) that they work.
2015-2020: digital health entrepreneurs whose lack of company success in “consumers pay via the app store” model started hawking their wares directly to employers, swamping them with sales pitches.
Today: show me the money, show me the outcomes. Healthcare costs keep rising as digital health shiny objects lose their luster. Digital health vendors who can’t prove that their products save employers money will struggle to survive over the next five years.
Sponsor Updates
Current Health customers can now launch Zoom from within its care-at-home platform.
Healthcare Triangle closes its previously announced acquisition of health IT and managed services company DevCool.
G2 awards Symplr Clinical Communications Best Software Product and Highest Satisfaction Product in the category of clinical Communication and collaboration.
Sphere integrates MDofficeManager’s RCM solutions with its payments technology.
Talkdesk publishes a new report, “Creating a better way for health plan member experience.”
Stryker completes its acquisition of Vocera Communications.
Vyne Medical publishes a new case study, “Refyne Connected Care Supports Virtual Collaboration Among Montana Pediatricians.”
Teladoc Health reports Q4 results: revenue up 45%, EPS -$0.07 versus -$3.07, beating Wall Street expectations for both.
TDOC shares dropped sharply on Wednesday following the announcement, then gained 12% on Thursday. They are down 76% in the past 12 months versus the Nasdaq’s flat performance, valuing the company at $11 billion.
Teladoc was touted in August 2020 as having created a $37 billion company with its acquisition of Livongo for $18.5 billion.
HIStalk Announcements and Requests
I’m declining to speculate further on attendance at ViVE and HIMSS22 since they are just 10 and 18 days away, respectively. You’re either going or not at this point. The conference and healthcare attendee environment has been reset since the pre-pandemic, pre-virtual status quo, so it’s early days in figuring out what that market wants in education and networking.
Meanwhile, I received an email from HIMSS whose subject line suggests that the healthcare-irrelevant former occupations of its keynote speakers is the big draw.
Listening: video from the 2014 reunion concert – the surprisingly excellent first of many shows after a 16-year break – of one of my favorite bands, Failure. My favorite track: Daylight. The alt-rockers are touring this summer and my ticket procurement process is underway to make up for considering but not attending that 2014 LA show.
Welcome to new HIStalk Platinum Sponsor VisiQuate. The Santa Rosa, CA-based company empowers healthcare organizations to achieve peak business health, through expert service-enabled technologies that dramatically improve performance and reduce process waste. They deliver optimized enterprise outcomes through a unique combination of complex data curation, deep AI & ML, advanced analytics, and intelligent process automation. Thanks to VisiQuate for supporting HIStalk.
An obvious core competency of VisiQuate is creating compelling and enjoyable videos, so instead of the usual explainer, I’ve chosen from YouTube a fun company overview set to the tune of “I Will Survive.” You may sing along.
Webinars
None scheduled soon. Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present your own.
Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock
Allscripts reports Q4 results: revenue up 1%, adjusted EPS $0.79 versus $0.20.
Specialty remote patient monitoring vendor Story Health raises $23 million in a Series A funding round.
Omada Health, which offers virtual-first chronic condition care, raises $192 million in a Series E funding round that values the company at $1 billion.
Sales
Northern Ireland’s Health and Social Care Board chooses medication ordering decision support from First Databank.
Ciox Health will implement Diameter Health’s Fusion engine to transform patient medical record data into analytics-ready form.
People
Meditech adds COO to the title of 32-year company veteran EVP Helen Waters. The COO role was previously held by President and CEO Michelle O’Connor before her promotion in early 2021.
Patrick Murta (Humana) joins BehaVR as chief platform architect.
Umar Afridi, MPharm, co-founder and CEO of pharmacy fulfillment, telehealth, and diagnostic provider Truepill, is replaced by co-founder and president Sid Viswanathan.
Mark Citrone (Healthfinch) joins Doximity as AVP of national sales.
Announcements and Implementations
Medhost announces two solutions that address CMS’s Promoting Interoperability Program, a Cures 2023 Interoperability Solution and Electronic Case Reporting.
A economic study by healthcare market analytics company Trilliant Health finds that only about one-fourth of Americans have had a telehealth-based encounter during the pandemic and half of those had just one encounter (often to obtain a COVID-19 test), suggesting that people use it mostly when in-person visits aren’t available. The study says that the law of small numbers makes it seem that telehealth is enjoying accelerated adoption, but in reality it hasn’t impacted many people, especially those who need it most, and it hasn’t bridged the gap in available in-person primary care visits. Behavioral care is an exception, where many people prefer virtual visits. The study notes that while the marginal cost of offering a telehealth visit is effectively zero, the retail cost ranges from $59 to $75 and the patient’s payment portion increased by 110% from 2020 to 2021.
A new KLAS report on medication inventory management (par levels, clean room, facility-to-facility transfer tracking, formulary management, ordering and receiving) finds that Epic has the top-rated functionality even though the company’s doesn’t specialize in pharmacy. Customers of Swisslog are least likely to achieve outcomes such as improved compliance, inventory transparency, purchasing efficiency, and usage efficiency and are also least-satisfied with their vendor relationship.
Government and Politics
The Department of Justice sues to block the $13 billion acquisition of Change Healthcare by UnitedHealth Group, saying that the deal would give the insurer details on how competing insurers bill and then undercut them. DOJ also says that UHG could withhold Change Healthcare’s products from its competitors, keep innovations for itself, and give UHG a monopoly in how claims are checked for errors.
Epic sues non-practicing entity (aka patent troll) GreatGigz Solutions for shaking down Christus Health to pay it licensing fees for its use of MyChart. GreatGiz bought some old online job recruiting patents that is says MyChart infringes on and is demanding that Christus buy licenses. GreatGigz has similarly sued Lyft, Uber, DoorDash, Postmates, CVS Health, Subway, ZipRecruiter, Target, Freelancer, Robert Half International, and countless other companies in hopes that they decide that it’s cheaper to pay GreatGigz to go away than to shovel money into mounting a defense. Epic has historically been one of few companies willing to do whatever it takes to defend itself, and in this case, the involvement of one of its customers is likely to unleash its legal dogs.
Privacy and Security
Ireland’s health service says the cost of last year’s ransomware attack has reached nearly $50 million and could rise to over $100 million.
Other
A large Medscape physician survey looks at burnout:
Nearly half of physician respondents said they feel burned out, up 4% from 2020, with female doctors reporting higher rates and critical care being the highest percentage specialty.
Sixty percent of doctors say bureaucratic tasks, such as charting and paperwork, are the main issue, double the #2 factor of lack of respect. Computer issues rank #6, with about one-third of respondents naming it as a problem.
Doctors say the three things that would most reduce their burnout are a better work schedule, higher pay, and more respect (I would say that “higher pay” was more of an aspiration since money isn’t likely to eliminate burnout, just make it more cost effective).
Sponsor Updates
PerfectServe publishes a new report, “The Rise of Emoji in Healthcare Communication.”
TransformativeMed launches its Cores Intelligent Care Platform on Olive’s marketplace, The Library.
Get Well publishes a new white paper, “Today’s Health Equity Goal: Shifting from Headlines to Impact.”
Imprivata has recognized partners Softcat, Conecto, Data#3, and SVA with its international IPartner Awards.
The Engage Your Tribe Podcast features NextGate VP of Global Marketing Richard Dark.
I hear you, and I agree—HIMSS is definitely facing some big challenges right now. The leadership and governance issues you…