Monday Morning Update 7/10/23

Top News

An Epic analysis of 1.7 billion clinical notes written by 166,318 outpatient providers during a nearly three-year period finds that average note length increased just over 8%, while the average time spent on documentation decreased 11%.

Analysts also determined that providers spent less time on reviewing clinical activities within the EHR, and that providers who decreased their use of copy/paste functionality and smart documentation tools reduced their average note length.

The analysis was undertaken to determine if CMS changes made in 2021 to evaluation and management CPT billing codes did indeed lead to a hoped-for reduction in administrative burden.

Webinars

July 12 (Wednesday) 2 ET. “101: National Network Data Exchanges.” Sponsor: Particle Health. Presenter: Troy Bannister, founder and CEO, Particle Health. It’s highly likely that your most recent medical records were indexed by a national Health Information Network (HIN). Network participants can submit basic demographic information into an API and receive full, longitudinal medical records sourced from HINs. Records come in a parsed, standardized format, on demand, with a success rate above 90%. There’s so much more to learn and discover, which is why Troy Bannister is going to provide a 101 on all things HIN. You will learn what HINs are, see how the major HINS compare, and learn how networks will evolve due to TEFCA.

July 26 (Wednesday) 1 ET. “Lessons We’ve Learned Since Launching our Cancer Prevention Program.” Sponsor: Volpara Health. Presenter: Albert Bonnema, MD, MPH chief medical information officer, Kettering Health System, and Chris Yuppa, product owner for oncology services and cancer prevention, Kettering Health System. Kettering’s IT department has played a critical role in providing an EHR-driven framework to bring cancer risk assessment and individual prevention plans to more than 90,000 patients. Primary care, OB/GYN, oncology, and imaging providers are now able to assess the hereditary, genetic, and lifestyle factors that affect the risk of developing lung, breast, ovarian, colon, and prostate cancer in any patient encounter. Learn how Kettering brings together people, processes, and technology to be more proactive in the fight against cancer and where its cancer prevention program is headed next.

July 27 (Thursday) noon ET. “Why You Shouldn’t Wait to Use Generative AI.” Sponsor: Orbita. Presenter: Bill Rogers, co-founder, president, and chairman, Orbita. The advent of generative AI tools truly represents a paradigm shift. And while some healthcare leaders embrace the transformation, others are hesitant. Invest 20 minutes to learn why you shouldn’t wait. When combined with natural language processing, workflow automation and conversational dialogs, generative AI can help leaders address a raft of challenges: from over-extended staff, to the rising demand for self-service tools, to delivering secure information to key stakeholders. You will learn where AI delivers the greatest value for providers and life sciences, how it can solve critical challenges faced by healthcare leaders, and how Orbita has integrated generative AI into its conversational platform so healthcare leaders can leverage its full capabilities safely and securely.

Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present or promote your own.

People

Loyal names Lauren Struck (BioDigital) chief people officer.

Announcements and Implementations

Lovelace Health System in New Mexico implements CareHarmony’s AI-powered care coordination software to help patients with two or more chronic conditions better manage their treatment, including medications.

Government and Politics

CMS proposes a voluntary pathway, dubbed Transitional Coverage for Emerging Technologies, that will enable companies with emerging medical “breakthrough devices” to more easily secure Medicare coverage.

Other

Intermountain Health expands its Pediatric Telehealth program to give its ER doctors access to virtual consults with pediatric specialists at Primary Children’s Hospital in Utah.

Sponsor Updates

• CereCore publishes the latest edition of its Partnership Perspectives magazine.
• Meditech makes available to customers presentations and recordings from its Clinical Informatics Symposium.
• NeuroFlow releases a new Bridging the Gap Podcast featuring EvolvedMD co-CEO Erik Osland.
• KLAS Research names Nuance as the clinical documentation integrity leader in partnering with customers to drive efficiency and outcomes.
• PerfectServe announces that customer satisfaction with its clinical communication solutions have been highlighted in a new KLAS Research report, “Clinical Communication Platforms 2023: A Closer Look at Customer Adoption.”
• Surescripts releases a new There’s a Better Way Podcast, “Mayo Clinic CIO Criss Ross: Finding Opportunity in the Face of Adversity.”

Blog Posts

• Eliminating Communication Breakdowns in Post-Acute Care with NLP AI (Consensus Cloud Solutions)
• Net Health Tissue Analytics’ Successful Wound Care Programs Draw the Spotlight in New Zealand (Net Health)
• Effective HCP Engagement in the Emerging Biosimilar Landscape (OptimizeRx)
• Healthcare Coding Series: CPT & HCPCS (Pivot Point Consulting)
• Nurses of Note 2023: The Nurse of Many Titles (PerfectServe)
• Leveraging AI to Enhance Revenue Cycle Management (PMD)
• Onramp to the Cloud Faster with Redox + Google (Redox)
• Advance Care Planning: A Deep Dive on Advance Directives, Healthcare Proxies, Medical Powers of Attorney and Living Wills (Trualta)
• Rapid Cycle Improvement Programs Deliver Speedy Results, Require Significant Effort (Zynx Health)
• Healthcare Applications in the Cloud: Is it Really the Easy Button? (CereCore)

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
Get HIStalk updates.
Send news or rumors.
Contact us.

Morning Headlines 7/7/23

Telehealth startup TytoCare lays off 10% of workforce

TytoCare will reportedly lay off 20 employees, or 10% of its workforce.

Johns Hopkins Medicine joins national move to charge patients for messaging their doctor

Johns Hopkins Medicine (MD) joins at least 14 other healthcare providers across the country in charging patients for certain types of messages sent through their patient portals.

After years of planning, Finger Lakes Health will join URMC becoming UR Medicine Finger Lakes Health

Finger Lakes Health will implement Epic when it becomes a part of the University of Rochester Medical Center (NY) system in August.

News 7/7/23

Top News

Sleep management technology company ResMed acquires Somnoware, a sleep and respiratory care diagnostics software vendor based in California.

Webinars

July 12 (Wednesday) 2 ET. “101: National Network Data Exchanges.” Sponsor: Particle Health. Presenter: Troy Bannister, founder and CEO, Particle Health. It’s highly likely that your most recent medical records were indexed by a national Health Information Network (HIN). Network participants can submit basic demographic information into an API and receive full, longitudinal medical records sourced from HINs. Records come in a parsed, standardized format, on demand, with a success rate above 90%. There’s so much more to learn and discover, which is why Troy Bannister is going to provide a 101 on all things HIN. You will learn what HINs are, see how the major HINS compare, and learn how networks will evolve due to TEFCA.

July 26 (Wednesday) 1 ET. “Lessons We’ve Learned Since Launching our Cancer Prevention Program.” Sponsor: Volpara Health. Presenter: Albert Bonnema, MD, MPH chief medical information officer, Kettering Health System, and Chris Yuppa, product owner for oncology services and cancer prevention, Kettering Health System. Kettering’s IT department has played a critical role in providing an EHR-driven framework to bring cancer risk assessment and individual prevention plans to more than 90,000 patients. Primary care, OB/GYN, oncology, and imaging providers are now able to assess the hereditary, genetic, and lifestyle factors that affect the risk of developing lung, breast, ovarian, colon, and prostate cancer in any patient encounter. Learn how Kettering brings together people, processes, and technology to be more proactive in the fight against cancer and where its cancer prevention program is headed next. 

July 27 (Thursday) noon ET. “Why You Shouldn’t Wait to Use Generative AI.” Sponsor: Orbita. Presenter: Bill Rogers, co-founder, president, and chairman, Orbita. The advent of generative AI tools truly represents a paradigm shift. And while some healthcare leaders embrace the transformation, others are hesitant. Invest 20 minutes to learn why you shouldn’t wait. When combined with natural language processing, workflow automation and conversational dialogs, generative AI can help leaders address a raft of challenges: from over-extended staff, to the rising demand for self-service tools, to delivering secure information to key stakeholders. You will learn where AI delivers the greatest value for providers and life sciences, how it can solve critical challenges faced by healthcare leaders, and how Orbita has integrated generative AI into its conversational platform so healthcare leaders can leverage its full capabilities safely and securely.

Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present or promote your own.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Constellation Software’s Harris Computer business acquires the US-based EHR, practice management, and RCM assets of Canadian company CloudMD for $6.3 million.

TytoCare will reportedly lay off 20 employees, or 10% of its workforce. The company, which has offices in Israel and New York City, offers a virtual care app and companion diagnostic devices.

Sales

• Northwell Health (NY) and Nebraska Medicine select healthcare workforce management software from Laudio, which announced a $13 million Series B funding round last month.

People

Cincinnati Children’s promotes Tony Johnston to VP of information services and CIO.

CMS Digital Service Director Andrea Fletcher takes on the additional role of chief digital strategy officer.

Announcements and Implementations

Habersham Medical Center goes live on Epic as part of its transition to the Northeast Georgia Health System.

In New York, Finger Lakes Health will implement Epic when it becomes a part of the University of Rochester Medical Center system in August.

Government and Politics

The Georgia Health Information Network will use a $1 million USDA grant to develop a telehealth network that will improve patient access to care in rural communities. GaHIN will work on the project with HealtHIE Georgia, Jefferson Hospital, Emanuel Medical Center, Wills Memorial Hospital, Washington County Regional Medical, Ready Computing, and InterSystems.

Other

Johns Hopkins Medicine (MD) joins at least 14 other healthcare providers across the country in charging patients for certain types of messages sent through their patient portals. Beginning July 18, patients with private insurance can expect to incur charges of between $10 and $50 for messages pertaining to health issues that require clinical judgment and more than five minutes to answer.

Sponsor Updates

• Central Virginia Health Services upgrades to the latest EClinicalWorks technology to enhance efficiency and care coordination for more than 50,000 patients.
• AGS Health publishes a new e-book, “Does My Healthcare Organization Need Computer-Assisted CDI?”
• Baker Tilly publishes a new case study, “MedTech company launches digital health platform with help of effective clinical study design.”
• Biofourmis unveils its innovation lab at its offices in Boston.
• CereCore releases a new podcast, “Healthcare CIO Advice on Leading Through the Complexities of Change.”
• Elsevier launches ClinicalKey Now in India to accelerate access to localized clinical guidelines and content for clinicians at the point of care.
• Fortified Health Security names Anton Mekhael strategic account manager.
• MedPeds (MD) successfully upgrades to EClinicalWorks V12.
• Konza National Network announces that an additional 123 Konza-powered members have been awarded NCQA’s DAV accreditation, bringing the total to 348.
• Rhapsody publishes a new guide, “Enterprise Master Person Index (EMPI): Everything healthcare product leaders need to know now.”
• OSF HealthCare (IL) details its use of Current Health’s remote patient monitoring technology.

Blog Posts

• 5 Reasons Why It Is Necessary for Hospitals to Upgrade from Traditional Forms Processes (Access)
• How to surface data at the point of care to serve complex populations (Arcadia)
• Opioid Challenge Leadership Roundtable – Balancing Cost, Technology, and Governance (CHIME)
• 3 Predictions for Accumulators by 2024 (ConnectiveRx)
• Driving Faster Prior Authorizations in Healthcare with NLP and AI Technology (Consensus Cloud Solutions)
• Finding Your Path in the Healthcare Technology Industry: Advice from Healthcare IT Recruiters (Direct Recruiters)
• What to Know in Preparation for Your Epic Hyperdrive Migration (Divurgent)
• IT: The Unsung Heroes of Health Education (Healthwise)
• Snowflake Partners with Nvidia and Microsoft Azure: What Does it Mean for Healthcare? (Healthcare IT Leaders)
• Combatting the Rising Diabetes Numbers Post COVID-19 with Lucem Health AI Solutions (Lucem Health)
• Navigating Healthcare Application Management (Medhost)

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
Get HIStalk updates.
Send news or rumors.
Contact us.

EPtalk by Dr. Jayne 7/6/23

I mentioned recently that July marks the traditional start of the new training year for medical education in the US. Those interns are approaching the end of their first week on the job and are likely to be using a variety of coping strategies to figure out how they’re going to make it through the next three to 10 years of their lives. Figuring out when and what you’re going to eat when you have little time is usually a big part of that survival strategy. Jenn clued me in to this cooking contest for vegan hospital food. The District of Columbia Hospital Association recently held its third annual Healthy Hospitals Initiative Cooking competition with a “secret ingredient” this year of carrots. The event is also sponsored by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and winners included MedStar National Rehabilitation Hospital with its purple carrot ravioli and carrot halwa pistachio trifle.

I read with interest this piece about Cleveland Clinic opening a new telehealth hub at one of its hospitals. The facility’s 57 rooms are equipped with technology to allow patients to have consultations with physicians who are at other locations. Knowing that they plan to staff cases remotely, it will be interesting to see what kinds of providers and staff are actually in place at the facility. I’m guessing they’ll go with a minimum staffing approach, and as far as licensed providers, probably will leverage nurse practitioners and/or physician assistants more than you might at a facility with traditional staffing. I hope someone is doing outcomes research and looking at how these patients fare compared to those being cared for under usual care models. If research proves this approach is equivalent but less costly, or drives better outcomes with the same cost, it will truly be a game changer.

Speaking of telehealth, it’s often cited as being key to solving the access problem for patients in need of mental health services. Author Health, which has a platform for seniors on Medicare Advantage, just announced a $115 million funding round with Humana as a payer partner in south Florida. The platform also addresses substance use disorders. Author Health delivers care both virtually and in-person with a cross-functional team including physicians, therapists, nurses, and community health workers. All of the resources are virtual except the community health workers. They’re hoping to manage workforce issues by recruiting providers first and getting them licensed in target states, rather than trying to recruit those who already have specific licensure. That’s easy in some states but harder in others, so I’m sure it will drive their expansion plans.

In reading more about the Author Health arrangement with Humana, it appears to be based on a fee-for-service model with a goal of transformation to a value-based model in the future. They also hope to be able to demonstrate improved outcomes for patients’ comorbid medical conditions, such as diabetes. It will be interesting to see how the platform grows over time and whether or not the partnership with Humana helps it yield results faster than competitors. I enjoyed learning a little about their branding – the name Author Health is drawn from the idea that patients should be writing their own life story and defining how they want the next chapters to unfold. I’ve got the company on my tracking list, so we’ll see how it fares over the coming months to years.

Mental health apps are also a big topic of conversation as a way of solving the access issue. I ran across this article looking at the pros and cons of direct-to-consumer virtual mental health apps. Before reading the article, my major concern with these offerings was the protection of patient data. Most patients don’t realize that the majority of apps aren’t required to protect the privacy of patient data nor do they know that some app developers are actually selling their personal data. I’m sure the number of consumers that actually reads the full Terms and Conditions when downloading an app is very small. According to the article, there may be between 10,000 and 20,000 mental health apps out there. Although the sheer number might be a good thing, the article brings up additional pitfalls beyond privacy and security concerns. It notes that we don’t know for sure whether apps can deliver the same quality of care as existing treatments do, and that traditional healthcare providers and payers need to play a role in making sure that quality is assessed.

Given the fact that digital therapeutics companies who have the proof of their outcomes have struggled to make a go of it, I’m not optimistic about the ability of front-line care providers to participate in the process to prove whether an app meets the standard of care. The boom in app use in other disciplines has contributed to provider frustration, as many have to spend already scarce clinical time explaining why some apps might be a bad idea. Many of my colleagues in women’s health have spent a lot more time counseling patients on the risks of using period tracking apps because patient privacy cannot be guaranteed, especially for patients in states that have restricted abortion care. I used to occasionally have to counsel patients about the validity of various home blood pressure cuffs and the data they generated, and with current technology patients can send me hundreds of data points at the click of a button that I now have to figure out how to reconcile. There can be a lot of effort needed for physicians to figure out what to do with all this information, and given the conversation in the physician lounge, people may be less than enthusiastic about rising to this particular challenge.

Bad news for those of us who like our downtime: There may be a link between napping and esophageal cancer. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified prolonged sleep as a risk factor for esophageal adenocarcinoma, with those sleeping nine hours per night having double the risk of individuals sleeping seven hours per night. They also found increased risk in patients who slept less than six hours per night. In looking at patients who slept or napped during the day, they also identified increased risks. Researchers think that the link to increased cancer risk might be due to disruption of sleep/wake cycles that leads to reflux of stomach acid, or to immune dysfunction that might cause increased cancer risk. Thinking as an average person, it sounds like this isn’t terribly conclusive. There may be other factors involved such as obesity, although the researchers did adjust their data for sex, smoking status, body mass index, and whether or not patients engaged in shift work. I consulted my favorite otolaryngologist and we both agreed that a good afternoon nap is probably worth the risk.

When is the last time you had to do an all-night upgrade or IT work that made you want to nap the next day? If you’re a napper, are you willing to give it up to lower your cancer risk? Leave a comment or email me.

Email Dr. Jayne.

Morning Headlines 7/6/23

Mount Sinai Launches Center for Ophthalmic Artificial Intelligence and Human Health

In New York, Mount Sinai’s Icahn School of Medicine launches the Center for Ophthalmic Artificial Intelligence and Human Health to help ophthalmologists diagnose eye disease and assess underlying health conditions.

CloudMD Divests Non-Core U.S. Electronic Medical Records and Practice Management Business

Constellation Software’s Harris Computer business acquires the US-based EHR, practice management, and RCM assets of Canadian company CloudMD for $6.3 million.

ResMed Acquires Somnoware, a Leader in Digital Sleep and Respiratory Care Diagnostics Software

Sleep management technology company ResMed acquires Somnoware, a sleep and respiratory care diagnostics software vendor based in California.

BlueKey Equity Partners Invests in Telemetrix

Remote patient monitoring vendor Telemetrix secures an undisclosed amount of funding from BlueKey Equity Partners.

Anatomy IT Enhances Value-Based Care Services Through Acquisition of MIPS Business Unit from MarsdenAdvisors

Health IT and cybersecurity business Anatomy IT acquires the MIPS/value-based care business of MarsdenAdvisors.

Healthcare AI News 7/5/23

News

In New York, Mount Sinai’s Icahn School of Medicine launches the Center for Ophthalmic Artificial Intelligence and Human Health to help ophthalmologists more quickly diagnose eye disease and assess underlying health conditions. The center will initially work with AI models in Mount Sinai’s ophthalmology tele-consult program, tele-retina program, and eye stroke service.

Business

A local Dallas media outlet profiles Sniffle, an AI-powered virtual care app that offers telemedicine to patients, and white-label virtual consult capabilities to physicians. The State of Arkansas has invested in the company, and its technology is now used by 85 physicians in 10 Arkansas clinics.

Research

Crisis call support line operator Protocall Services and Lyssn will use a $2 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to customize Lyssn’s AI technology for use in the analysis and review of crisis calls. Lyssn’s call evaluations and summary dashboards are intended to help call center counselors improve their assessment of a caller’s suicide risk. The companies will soon begin an 18-month study to determine whether or not Lyssn’s software improves the performance of counselors over time.

UPMC researchers develop a machine learning algorithm for the ECG diagnosis of occlusion myocardial infarction in patients with chest pain that outperforms providers and other ECG interpretation software.

Other

The Responsible AI in Healthcare consortium launches to help health systems and other providers safely use AI. Backed by the Responsible AI Institute, Harvard Business School, and NHS in the UK, the group is working to develop a Responsible Generative AI Safety Index scoring system for healthcare.

Mayo Clinic scientists develop an AI-augmented kidney stone test to help providers pinpoint any underlying health conditions that may have contributed to the patient’s condition.

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
Get HIStalk updates.
Send news or rumors.
Contact us.

Morning Headlines 7/4/23

Alfie nets $2.1M for obesity management

Virtual obesity management clinic Alfie raises $2.1 million in a pre-seed funding round.

WHO and HL7 collaborate to support adoption of open interoperability standards

The World Health Organization and Health Level Seven International will work together to support the global adoption of open interoperability standards.

Apple closes at $3 trillion market cap

Apple becomes the first company to close a day of trading with a $3 trillion market cap.

Curbside Consult with Dr. Jayne 7/3/23

In advance of the holiday, the HHS Office of Inspector General dropped this sweet hundred-plus page final rule on information blocking. It includes the details of the civil monetary penalties that health IT developers will be subject to if they’re caught and OIG determines that information blocking did indeed occur. The document won’t be fully official until it is published in the Federal Register, and the majority of it will go into effect 30 days after that publication date.

I like the OIG’s clear description of the problem that it is trying to address: “Information blocking poses a threat to patient safety and undermines efforts by providers, payers, and others to make the health system more efficient and effective. Information blocking may also constitute an element of a fraud scheme, such as by forcing unnecessary tests or conditioning information exchange on referrals.” The fact that the mention of patient safety is the first thing on the list is important. Often, in the technology space, I see organizations that forget that none of the things that we’re trying to do mean anything if there’s not a patient at the center. Personally, I know I can give better care when I have full access to all of the patient’s information, but I often don’t have it.

This final rule specifically addresses civil monetary penalties for practices that are “likely to interfere with, prevent, or materially discourage access, exchange, or use of electronic health information (EHI) if the practice is conducted by an entity that is: a developer of certified health information technology (IT); offering certified health IT; a health information exchange (HIE); or a health information network (HIN) and the entity knows or should know that the practice is likely to interfere with, prevent, or materially discourage the access, exchange, or use of EHI. Most of the information blocking that I see as a physician isn’t being done by healthcare IT developers. I’ve been behind the scenes with the development teams of multiple EHRs over the last two decades and I’ve seen a tremendous amount of effort around data sharing. One of those vendors helped me stand up the first HIE in my state “way back when” and was as shocked as I was when we couldn’t get healthcare delivery organizations to play nicely with us.

On the flip side, the HIE in a neighboring state was charging what I thought was an exorbitant fee for providers to connect. In digging deeper, their entire pricing model was built around the idea of connecting large health systems to the HIE, with little consideration for independent providers. I was working as a locum tenens physician at the time, providing coverage across a number of organizations in the state and was trying to get my own credentials to access the system so that I could have the most data at my fingertips regardless of where I was seeing patients. They had no way of accommodating anything like that at the time and said they could only do a direct EHR connection. Even if a smaller practice (most of the ones I was working with had five physicians or less) wanted to connect, the price tag was daunting. They definitely wouldn’t be going to the expense and time commitment of a project like that just because I asked for it, so I was never able to get connectivity to better serve my patients.

In reality though, the majority of information-blocking activities that I see in real life are directly related to behaviors by health systems and care delivery organizations. The hoops that patients go through to try to make sure that consulting physicians receive the records needed to render service are unreal. And sometimes, the physicians themselves don’t even understand what needs to happen or how to help make the system effective even when organizations are freely sharing data. I’m a member of a number of online physician forums, and questions about this come up frequently. Just this past week, there was a complaint from a primary care physician that a consulting physician sent back a “snarky” letter about a patient’s condition, suggesting that the primary care physician hadn’t taken appropriate steps to address the patient’s condition before sending a referral.

In digging deeper, the relatively inexperienced primary care physician assumed that since they and the consultant were on the same enterprise EHR, that the consultant would have full access to the chart. It didn’t occur to them that the consultant might not want to (or have the time to) wade through the dozens of encounters that were present trying to figure out what was going on, especially if those encounters contained a lot of confusing cut-and-paste documentation. Since the EHR’s referral module was largely about handling insurance referrals and ensuring payment for the consultant versus conveying useful clinical information, there wasn’t clear communication about the nature of the consultation request. Several more senior physicians chimed in with stories of “back in my day” before we could easily share records, where we’d draft a one-page letter to the consultant, summarizing what had already been done, our thoughts, and what questions we had for them. It sounds like the primary care physician didn’t do anything like this, and ultimately the patient’s time was wasted (not only at the appointment but the multi-month wait leading up to it) as well as the consultant’s time.

Unfortunately, this is all too often the kind of care we see now that everyone is operating under great pressure – whether it’s time pressures created by administrative teams, or whether it’s due to the scarcity of certain kinds of consultants, or whether it’s due to physician burnout, patient care ultimately suffers. Information-blocking rules aren’t going to fix that. The current information-blocking rules also aren’t going to fix the problem of health systems dragging their feet releasing records or images to competing health systems, although many of us are hopeful that a proposed rule for provider penalties will help with that particular problem. As a patient who watched organizations argue with each other about some pathology slides a couple of years ago, I’m supportive of most anything that will make things easier for the patients.

Over the weekend, we slipped from June into July. For many of us who are physicians, July 1 has a special place in our memories because it’s traditionally the date that newly minted physicians become interns at training hospitals. For other residents, it’s the day you move up in the hierarchy, becoming a supervisor of the brand-new interns who just started. For those just using their medical degrees for the first time, it can be terrifying, especially when you’re called in the middle of the night to look at a STAT x-ray or to give orders in response to lab results for patients you’ve never met. I was fortunate to be part of an amazing intern class that you could always count on to have your back. Even decades later, we know we can call each other for things big or small. Honestly, I would hop on a plane with a moment’s notice if one of them needed me, because those are the kinds of relationships that are forged when you go through those kinds of circumstances with a team like that. A toast to my class, and a salute to all the new interns who are on Day 3 of the rest of their lives.

If you’re a physician, what’s your best or worse memory of internship? Leave a comment or email me.

Email Dr. Jayne.

Morning Headlines 7/3/23

Santa Monica-based Headspace meditation app maker lays off 15% of employees

Mental health and meditation app Headspace Health lays off 181 employees, its second round of job cuts since December.

LIJ Forest Hills Hospital to implement telehealth pilot program for burn patients

Northwell Health’s Forest Hills Long Island Jewish Hospital launches a tele-burn virtual consult service, giving on-site providers the ability to virtually consult with specialists at Staten Island University Hospital’s Regional Burn Center.

Mountain View Hospital restores clinical functions; culprit behind cyberattack still unknown

Mountain View Hospital and Idaho Falls Community Hospital and its partner clinics restore their clinical systems after a cyberattack forced them offline over a month ago.

Monday Morning Update 7/3/23

Top News

Staffing and consulting services company Optimum Healthcare IT acquires ECloud Managed Solutions, a cloud adoption and digital transformation firm based in Georgia. ECloud Managing Partner Eric Sanders will transition to Optimum as head of business development.

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

A majority of patients have been receptive to their physician’s decision to not prescribe a desired drug or treatment.

New poll to your right or here: How will health IT business conditions change in the next 12 months?

Webinars

July 12 (Wednesday) 2 ET. “101: National Network Data Exchanges.” Sponsor: Particle Health. Presenter: Troy Bannister, founder and CEO, Particle Health. It’s highly likely that your most recent medical records were indexed by a national Health Information Network (HIN). Network participants can submit basic demographic information into an API and receive full, longitudinal medical records sourced from HINs. Records come in a parsed, standardized format, on demand, with a success rate above 90%. There’s so much more to learn and discover, which is why Troy Bannister is going to provide a 101 on all things HIN. You will learn what HINs are, see how the major HINS compare, and learn how networks will evolve due to TEFCA.

July 27 (Thursday) noon ET. “Why You Shouldn’t Wait to Use Generative AI.” Sponsor: Orbita. Presenter: Bill Rogers, co-founder, president, and chairman, Orbita. The advent of generative AI tools truly represents a paradigm shift. And while some healthcare leaders embrace the transformation, others are hesitant. Invest 20 minutes to learn why you shouldn’t wait. When combined with natural language processing, workflow automation and conversational dialogs, generative AI can help leaders address a raft of challenges: from over-extended staff, to the rising demand for self-service tools, to delivering secure information to key stakeholders. You will learn where AI delivers the greatest value for providers and life sciences, how it can solve critical challenges faced by healthcare leaders, and how Orbita has integrated generative AI into its conversational platform so healthcare leaders can leverage its full capabilities safely and securely.

Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present or promote your own.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Specialty medication enrollment software startup RxLightning opens an office – its first – in Indiana after having been a remote-only company since its launch in 2020.

Bright Health exits the insurance business with the sale of its California Medicare Advantage business to Molina Healthcare for $600 million. The company, which now solely operates 70 clinics in California, Florida, and Texas, announced in March that it had overdrawn its credit and was unsure about its ability to remain in business. Its valuation at the time was down 97% since its IPO height of $11 billion two years ago.

Mental health and meditation app Headspace Health lays off 181 employees, its second round of job cuts since December.

People

Vyne Medical names Caleb Manscill (DentalRay) president.

Kathleen Bresette (DrFirst) joins RxLightning as chief revenue officer.

Announcements and Implementations

In New York, Northwell Health’s Forest Hills Long Island Jewish Hospital launches a tele-burn virtual consult service, giving on-site providers the ability to virtually consult with specialists at Staten Island University Hospital’s Regional Burn Center.

Government and Politics

Amazon Pharmacy’s PillPack will pay $300,000 to settle allegations that it failed to keep accurate records of controlled substances. Amazon acquired PillPack in 2018 for $753 million.

Privacy and Security

In Idaho, Mountain View Hospital and Idaho Falls Community Hospital and its partner clinics restore their clinical systems after a cyberattack forced them offline over a month ago. Administrative functions, including billing, have yet to be fully restored.

Sponsor Updates

• Black Book releases its analysis of top customer-rated vendors serving the payer industry. Recognized HIStalk Sponsors include NTT Data (infrastructure and core IT modernization services), Wolters Kluwer (member and consumer education solutions), and Optum (payer analytics outsourcing/end-to-end RCM outsourcing).
• AdvancedMD releases over 25 product enhancements to drive greater productivity for private practices.
• Memorial Health System evolves its patient engagement app using Meditech’s Greenfield Workspace.
• Nordic releases a new Designing for Health Podcast featuring Memorial Hermann Health System VP of Consumerism Dense Worrell.
• OptimizeRx wins a Digital Health Merit Award for its connected digital health point-of-care programs.
• Waystar publishes a report with HFMA featuring research and insights on denials in healthcare.

Blog Posts

• Fostering collaboration and connection among healthcare professionals at Meditech Live (Meditech)
• Net Health Tissue Analytics’ Successful Wound Care Programs Draw the Spotlight in New Zealand (Net Health)
• Unpacking the Complete Care Act: The Future of Integrated Care (NeuroFlow)
• Improve workflow efficiency and save time with intelligence-infused AI (Nuance)
• How to Select the Best Value-based Care Models for Post-Acute Physician Practices (Netsmart)
• From back office to partners in care: The evolution of hospital information technology departments (Nordic)
• Adopting Agile: The Power of Iteration in Healthcare IT (Optimum Healthcare IT)
• The Future of Managing IT Departments (Pivot Point Consulting)
• How to Improve Patient Transfers with Better Communication (PerfectServe)
• The link between the quadruple aim and improved clinic communications (Spok)
• George Van Antwerp Rides the Bus (Surescripts)
• Rapid Cycle Improvement Programs Deliver Speedy Results, Require Significant Effort (Zynx Health)

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
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Morning Headlines 6/30/23

Optimum Healthcare IT Acquires eCloud Managed Solutions

Staffing and consulting services company Optimum Healthcare IT acquires ECloud Managed Solutions, a cloud adoption and digital transformation firm based in Milton, GA.

RxLightning opens 8,000-square-foot New Albany headquarters

Specialty medication enrollment software startup RxLightning opens an office – its first – in Indiana after having been a remote-only company since its launch in 2020.

HHS Office for Civil Rights Settles HIPAA Investigation with iHealth Solutions Regarding Disclosure of Protected Health Information on an Unsecured Server for $75,000

IHealth Solutions will pay $75,000 to settle potential HIPAA violations related to the 2017 unauthorized transfer of PHI from an unprotected server.

News 6/30/23

Top News

Just in time for the long holiday weekend, HHS publishes a 130-page final rule outlining the civil money penalties health IT developers will incur for information-blocking. HHS may publish a proposed rule for provider penalties in September.

Webinars

July 12 (Wednesday) 2 ET. “101: National Network Data Exchanges.” Sponsor: Particle Health. Presenter: Troy Bannister, founder and CEO, Particle Health. It’s highly likely that your most recent medical records were indexed by a national Health Information Network (HIN). Network participants can submit basic demographic information into an API and receive full, longitudinal medical records sourced from HINs. Records come in a parsed, standardized format, on demand, with a success rate above 90%. There’s so much more to learn and discover, which is why Troy Bannister is going to provide a 101 on all things HIN. You will learn what HINs are, see how the major HINS compare, and learn how networks will evolve due to TEFCA.

July 27 (Thursday) noon ET. “Why You Shouldn’t Wait to Use Generative AI.” Sponsor: Orbita. Presenter: Bill Rogers, co-founder, president, and chairman, Orbita. The advent of generative AI tools truly represents a paradigm shift. And while some healthcare leaders embrace the transformation, others are hesitant. Invest 20 minutes to learn why you shouldn’t wait. When combined with natural language processing, workflow automation and conversational dialogs, generative AI can help leaders address a raft of challenges: from over-extended staff, to the rising demand for self-service tools, to delivering secure information to key stakeholders. You will learn where AI delivers the greatest value for providers and life sciences, how it can solve critical challenges faced by healthcare leaders, and how Orbita has integrated generative AI into its conversational platform so healthcare leaders can leverage its full capabilities safely and securely.

Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present or promote your own.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

The Idaho Health Data Exchange prepares to exit bankruptcy after filing for Chapter 11 last August. The nonprofit found itself facing insolvency after government funding dried up and business deals fell through, leaving it $4 million in debt and facing lawsuits from creditors. The exchange, which replaced its executive director several weeks ago, plans to achieve funding through user fees, which may be a challenge given that only 46 healthcare organizations are currently signed up for IHDE’s top tier of service.

Sales

• Ochsner Health (LA) selects Aidoc’s enterprise AI implementation and integration platform and imaging AI algorithms.

People

Cordea Consulting names Mike Blundell (Sharp HealthCare) VP of consulting and delivery.

Evelyn Daniels (2Morrow) joins Laguna Health as VP of business development.

Announcements and Implementations

Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center (IL) integrates Sonifi Health’s patient engagement and educational content with its interactive bedside television system.

Community Health Northwest Florida rolls out EClinicalWorks across its 19 locations.

Cleveland Clinic prepares to open a new hospital in Ohio that will offer patients in each of its 57 rooms the ability to access telehealth services from off-site specialists.

EMPI vendor 4medica announces GA of its new EZReg patient registration software.

AtlantiCare leverages Unite New Jersey, the care coordination and social services referral network developed by Unite Us.

Government and Politics

IHealth Solutions, doing business as medical coding, billing, and health IT services vendor Advantum Health, will pay $75,000 to settle potential HIPAA violations related to the 2017 unauthorized transfer of PHI from an unprotected server.

Sponsor Updates

• EClinicalWorks releases a new podcast, “Redesigned Dashboard: Transforming Safety & Compliance.”
• VisiQuate announces its selection as the number-one solution for hospital and health system financial IT revenue analytics by Black Book Research.
• Carson Medical Group (NV) successfully transitions to the EClinicalWorks Cloud EHR.
• Everest Group names AGS Health a leader in RCM operations for the third consecutive year.
• Pivot Point Consulting partners with HIMSS as part of the HIMSS Digital Health Technology Partnership Program.
• First Databank names Eddye Hernandez advanced software engineer, Paul Kuzma software test engineer, and C. Brett Smith business development representative.
• The Health Information Resource Center honors Healthwise with six digital health awards for its medical illustrations and health education videos.
• Cordea Consulting names Bill Smith (Affirm) director, Epic practice; Aubrey Sherffius (Cerner) senior revenue cycle consultant; Henry Jemiola (Meditech) HIS consultant; and Kendra Krauss (Krames) strategic account director.
• Interbit Data partners with Florie, bringing its connected communications application to Interbit’s Beacon Active downtime solution.

Blog Posts

• Is Driving Revenue Growth Your Top Priority? Spoiler: It Better Be (Get-to-Market Health)
• Technology integration is key to improving the patient experience (Wolters Kluwer Health)
• How Analytics Can Help in the Emergency Department (Dimensional Insight)
• The Power of RPA in Reducing Burnout in Healthcare (Divurgent)
• Solving the Top Reasons Patients LWBS: Wait Time (Experity)
• What Do Your Calls Look Like? (Five9)
• How health systems can reduce their attack surface with VTM (Fortified Health Security)
• Health Information Management Budgets: What You Need to Know (HealthMark Group)
• How to Prepare for Your Facility’s Next EHR Upgrade (HealthTech Resources)
• Nuvolo Implementation Prep: Getting the Data Right (Healthcare IT Leaders)
• Unlocking Testing Efficiency and Reliability: A Case Study Anthology on EMR Test Automation (Keysight)
• Longitudinal care records: How an EMPI can help make these a reality (Rhapsody)
• Linking People and Processes: IT Implementation for Community Hospitals (Medhost)

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
Get HIStalk updates.
Send news or rumors.
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EPtalk by Dr. Jayne 6/29/23

Telehealth is here to stay, and the Creating Opportunities Now for Necessary and Effective Care Technologies (CONNECT) for Health Act has been reintroduced in the US Senate, this time by a bipartisan group of 60 Senators. A companion bill was also introduced in the US House of Representatives. The bill was first introduced in 2016 and aims to expand coverage of telehealth services through the Medicare program. It would amend the Social Security Act and includes provisions to: expand the range of health professionals who can deliver telehealth services; remove requirements for in-person visits in tele-mental health programs; expand telehealth in rural health clinics and health centers; remove geographic restrictions on telehealth services; and require research on the impact of telehealth on quality of care.

Broadening the reach of telehealth is part of the overall solution package needed to deal with the physician shortage, disparate distribution of physicians between urban and rural areas, and lack of access for many in the US. It’s naturally complimentary to other strategies such as team-based care, nontraditional appointment times, and the ability for patients to be seen at a location that is convenient to them. In speaking with members of my community, a large number of people aren’t aware of the care options available to them, including after-hours clinics and telehealth. In addition to legislation, health systems and care delivery organizations need to do a better job informing patients of their options for care beyond the traditional doctor’s office. It seems like payers and employers are doing a better job pushing telehealth (most likely because they see it as a lower-cost alternative to in-person visits), but depending on where they’re steering patients, it might be contributing to fragmented care. We’ll have to see how this bill makes it way through Congress or if it will just sit there on Capitol Hill like so many other bills.

I’ve been following some public health informatics issues, and was surprised to see a recent write up describing the transmission of malaria in the US. A handful of cases have been detected in Florida and Texas, after being eliminated from the US in 1951. (An eight-person cluster of cases was identified in Florida in 2003 without further spread.) Although the risk of being infected with the disease is low in the US, there are plenty of other reasons to either use insect repellent or wear long pants and long sleeves during outdoor activities. Malaria is a serious medical condition and most physicians in the US don’t think about it when they’re seeing patients who haven’t traveled to areas in the world where transmission is more common. I’ve seen a couple of professional organizations issue bulletins to their members, so hopefully this will help get the word out as well. Maybe some of us in the CMIO trenches can consider clinical decision support interventions to help our clinicians think of diseases that might not yet be on their radar. Symptoms include fever, chills, headache, and fatigue. Although patients typically get sick within a few weeks, there can be a lag of up to a year after the initial infection, which adds to the difficulty in diagnosis.

In other public health news, healthcare expenditures due to pickleball are on the rise. UnitedHealth Group has detected an increase in healthcare utilization due to pickleball-related injuries. The game is increasingly popular among the senior set and may be contributing in the neighborhood of $377 million to healthcare costs for procedures such as emergency department visits, outpatient visits, knee surgeries, and hip replacements. It would be interesting to see if the increase in costs is similarly associated with paddle tennis, which is a similar concept but “not remotely the same” according to my racquet-wielding friends who can cite the differences like they’re defending a dissertation. Pickleball growth continues with estimates that the number of players will reach 22.3 million this year, with seniors accounting for nearly a third of the pickleball regulars.

Complaining about the EHR is a common activity for many physicians, especially those whose organizations haven’t taken steps to tame the inbox or provide adequate support staff to manage the rising numbers of patient-generated messages and requests. A recent study in JAMA Network Open notes that part-time primary care physicians spend more time using the EHR per hour of clinic than their full-time colleagues, and also spend more time outside scheduled appointments. Data from the University of Wisconsin-Madison looked at 11 months between May 2021 and March 2022. EHR measures were normalized per week and per eight hours of scheduled patient time. The authors found that panel size, visit volume, or message volumes didn’t explain the additional time spent by part-time physicians.

They did find that the part-timers spent more time in their inboxes but were unable to fully draw conclusions from that finding, hypothesizing that “more EHR work outside scheduled hours … may allow them to feel caught up or allocate more time for panel management work ….” The study is limited by the fact that it was done at only one center and had a relatively small number of participants. It also included non-patient-care EHR administrative work that part-timers (such as your friendly neighborhood CMIO, super user, or practice champion) might do. Understanding exactly what is going on in the EHR with various providers is the key to improving their efficiency. I continue to see physicians who refuse to take advantage of EHR features that are designed to make their lives easier, and who would rather type the same phrase 20 times each day than spend the seconds it takes to create it as a favorite for future use. It’s baffling, and I struggle to get into the user psychology that supports it, but I’ll continue to advocate to get physicians on the happy path.

On a recent trip, my inbound aircraft was carrying the remains of a fallen soldier. I was impressed by the level of respect shown by those waiting at the gate as well as the airport staff. Resources from the airport fire department and security offices were lined up on the tarmac in tribute alongside what appeared to be family members. The flight crew held all passengers on the plane while an honor guard transferred the flag-draped coffin from the aircraft to a waiting hearse. For that moment in time everything stopped – a fitting tribute to someone willing to give his or her life in service of our country. Well done, MKE, well done.

For those of you preparing for the Independence Day holiday and the potential family gatherings this weekend – be safe, enjoy the time with family, celebrate our nation’s birth, and don’t forget the insect repellent.

Email Dr. Jayne.

Morning Headlines 6/29/23

Regulations to govern use of AI in health records could come later this year

ONC hopes to finalize a rule later this year that will require EHRs that use predictive solutions like AI and algorithms to provide end users with an explanation of how that technology works, as well as a description of the data used.

Blueprint Raises $9 Million Series A to Help Therapists Deliver Higher Quality Care in Less Time

Blueprint, which offers mental health providers patient tracking and outcomes assessment technologies, raises $9 million in a Series A funding round.

Cleveland Clinic to open first telehealth hub at new Mentor Hospital

Cleveland Clinic prepares to open a new hospital in Ohio that will offer patients in each of its 57 rooms the ability to access telehealth services from off-site specialists.

Healthcare AI News 6/28/23

News

Navina develops a generative AI assistant to help improve the workflows of primary care physicians.

Ballad Health will use MedAware’s AI-powered medication safety monitoring platform to identify and prevent medication-related safety errors.

Former Optum Health Chief AI Officer Dennis Chornenky joins UC Davis Health as its first chief AI advisor, tasked with establishing an AI strategy for the health system.

Nuance will make its Dragon Ambient EXperience Express solution available to select Epic users this summer. The AI-powered tool can automatically generate draft clinical notes after a patient visit, as well as quickly generate notes from real-time recordings of physician/patient interactions.

Business

Medical imaging data and AI company Flywheel raises $54 million in a Series D investment round.

BeeKeeperAI, a San Francisco-based AI development and deployment support startup, announces $12 million in funding.

Research

In an effort to even out workloads for cancer patient navigators, researchers at OSF Healthcare develop a smart algorithm that predicts upcoming navigator workloads and then distributes new patients to navigators accordingly. The health system plans to incorporate the algorithm within its OSF Community Connect automated workflow platform and pilot it when its new OSF Cancer Institute opens next year.

A new report from the World Economic Forum highlights the challenges and promises of using AI in healthcare, noting that provider shortages, an exponential growth in health data, and increasingly swift advances in AI technology make its adoption and utilization an almost foregone conclusion in the areas of diagnosis and risk stratification, outbreak prediction, and clinical trial optimization.

Researchers determine that large language models like ChatGPT may potentially assist primary care providers in making clinical decisions, evaluating patients, and ordering appropriate imaging tests for breast cancer screenings and breast pain.

Other

FedScoop reviews an ONC proposed rule, released in April, that would require EHRs that use predictive solutions like AI and algorithms to provide end users with an explanation of how that technology works, as well as a description of the data it uses. ONC is reviewing comments now and hopes to have a final rule published later this year.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) pushes forward with potential legislation regulating AI, highlighting national security, misinformation and bias, and transparency from AI developers.

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
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Morning Headlines 6/28/23

Revolutionizing Medical AI Development: Flywheel Announces $54 Million in Series D Funding led by Novalis LifeSciences and NVentures

Medical imaging and AI company Flywheel raises $54 million in a Series D investment round.

Riverside Partners’ Portfolio Company UnisLink Acquires HST

RCM and population health management company UnisLink acquires RCM vendor Healthcare Support Technologies.

BeeKeeperAI Raises $12.1 Million Series A to Accelerate AI Development on Privacy Protected Healthcare Data

BeeKeeperAI, a San Francisco-based AI development and deployment support startup, announces $12 million in new funding.

THL explores sale of healthcare IT firm Nextech

THL Partners considers selling specialty practice-focused health IT vendor Nextech in a deal that could be worth $1.5 billion.

News 6/28/23

Top News

Amazon postpones the launch of its Amazon Clinic expansion by three weeks after lawmakers raise concerns about the company’s privacy practices, specifically its method of collecting and sharing customer health data.

Launched last November, Amazon Clinic offers a form-initiated, message-based telemedicine service in 33 states. Amazon had planned to expand it this week to all 50 states with the additional offering of video-based consults. 

Reader Comments

From NighttimeSleepAid: “Re: First-ever Meditech layoffs.” An internal email shared by NSA indicates the company has decided to “downsize the company by less than 2% of our staff” as it seeks ways to adjust expenses and compensate for overstaffing. Impacted roles will mainly include newer staff hired within the last year and niche roles that are no longer needed.

Webinars

July 12 (Wednesday) 2 ET. “101: National Network Data Exchanges.” Sponsor: Particle Health. Presenter: Troy Bannister, founder and CEO, Particle Health. It’s highly likely that your most recent medical records were indexed by a national Health Information Network (HIN). Network participants can submit basic demographic information into an API and receive full, longitudinal medical records sourced from HINs. Records come in a parsed, standardized format, on demand, with a success rate above 90%. There’s so much more to learn and discover, which is why Troy Bannister is going to provide a 101 on all things HIN. You will learn what HINs are, see how the major HINS compare, and learn how networks will evolve due to TEFCA.

July 27 (Thursday) noon ET. “Why You Shouldn’t Wait to Use Generative AI.” Sponsor: Orbita. Presenter: Bill Rogers, co-founder, president, and chairman, Orbita. The advent of generative AI tools truly represents a paradigm shift. And while some healthcare leaders embrace the transformation, others are hesitant. Invest 20 minutes to learn why you shouldn’t wait. When combined with natural language processing, workflow automation and conversational dialogs, generative AI can help leaders address a raft of challenges: from over-extended staff, to the rising demand for self-service tools, to delivering secure information to key stakeholders. You will learn where AI delivers the greatest value for providers and life sciences, how it can solve critical challenges faced by healthcare leaders, and how Orbita has integrated generative AI into its conversational platform so healthcare leaders can leverage its full capabilities safely and securely.

Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present or promote your own.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

UnitedHealth Group-owned Optum beats out Option Care Health in its bid to acquire home healthcare provider Amedisys in a deal valued at $3.3 billion. Amedisys will join home health and hospice provider LHC Group – acquired by UnitedHealth in February for $5.4 billion – under the Optum umbrella.

Home healthcare provider Signify Health, acquired by CVS Health earlier this year for $8 billion, opens a technology center in Galway, Ireland. It is the Dallas-based company’s first facility outside of the US.

Sales

• Temple University Health System (PA) selects DrFirst’s AI-powered medication history and real-time prescription benefit check solutions.
• The American Lung Association will leverage Azara Healthcare’s data reporting and analytics as a part of its Project Breathe NY asthma control program.
• Amstelland Hospital in the Netherlands will implement Sectra’s enterprise imaging subscription service.

People

Evangelical Community Hospital (PA) promotes Elizabeth Price to VP of information systems and CIO.

Erica Franko (AGS Health) joins Ventra Health as chief transformation officer.

Loyal names Austin Pauls (Stord) as its first CFO.

NHS England promotes John Quinn to CIO.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center (TN) names Vanderbilt professor Paul Harris VP for research informatics.

Announcements and Implementations

The US Virgin Islands Office of Health Information Technology will work with CRISP Shared Services to launch a pilot interoperability program that will serve as the initial infrastructure for its first HIE CRISP supports HIEs in six states and Washington, DC.

Mass General Brigham’s Newton-Wellesley Hospital implements Smart Placement transitions-of-care decision support software from Radial Analytics.

Government and Politics

VA Assistant Secretary for Congressional and Legislative Affairs Patricia Ross assures Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) that the VA “will spare no expense” to maintain services and staff at its hospitals in Spokane and Walla Walla, where budget constraints caused by the troubled Oracle Cerner roll out have led to talk of layoffs.

In England, the NHS mandates that 90% of its nearly 225 trusts should have EHRs by December of this year, while 95% should have them by March 2025; and that 75% of adults should be registered on the NHS app by March 2024.

Other

El Camino Health (CA) launches a healthcare technology innovation fund, initially focusing on investing in projects related to remote patient monitoring, contactless patient check-in, and AI-powered diagnostic imaging, among several others.

Sponsor Updates

• FQHC Mountain Park Health Center increases its number of available appointments using health IT solutions from EClinicalWorks.
• Fakeeh Care Group integrates Wolters Kluwer Health’s UpToDate clinical decision support solution with its YASASII EHR.
• Black Book survey-takers give AQuity top customer satisfaction marks for outsourced medical coding solutions.
• CHIME issues a statement of support for the CONNECT for Health Act.
• Arrive Health publishes a new whitepaper, “Technology’s Increasing Role in Unlocking Pharmacy Value.”
• The Tech Trek Podcast features Artera CTO Ashu Agte, “Inheriting an organization and its transformation.”
• Ernst & Young names Availity CEO Russ Thomas 2023 Florida Entrepreneur of the Year.
• Baker Tilly co-authors a clinical study in the Journal of Comparative Effectiveness Research demonstrating the value of risk assessment tools in managing women at risk for ovarian cancer.
• Bamboo Health names Jonathan Koenig (Numerated) implementation specialist and Sheila Sullivan (Humana) executive director.
• Biofourmis becomes a new Switchboard Health network partner.
• Nuance makes its Dragon Ambient EXperience Express solution available to Epic users.
• Hebrew SeniorLife in Boston implements Meditech Expanse.

Blog Posts

• The digital transformation of healthcare organizations (Wolters Kluwer Health)
• Drowning in Technical Debt? Uncover Big Risks to Patient Care (CereCore)
• Revolutionizing Healthcare: The Shift to Include Mobile EForms in Hospitals (Access)
• Measuring the Value of Clinical Documentation Improvement (CDI) (AGS Health)
• ChatGPT in healthcare: evolution, revolution, or devolution? (Arcadia)
• Return data to hospitals and researchers FOR patients (Aridhia)
• 4 Signs You Need a Real-Time Prescription Benefit Checkup (Arrive Health)
• SDOH and Population Health? What’s Behind the Rise in Importance? (Clearsense)
• Top 10 Cyber Threats for Hospitals and How to Overcome Them (Clearwater)
• Prescribers More Likely to Choose Brands with Automated Processes for Buy-and-Bill Co-pay Assistance (ConnectiveRx)
• A Roadmap for Evaluating Care-at-Home Programmes: 6 Practical Tips to Get Started (Current Health)

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
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Send news or rumors.
Contact us.