Healthcare AI News 3/19/25

News

Nvidia releases GR00T N1, an open source foundation model for generalist humanoid robots.

Google unveils new health-focused features at its The Check Up healthcare event:

• What People Suggest, a new search feature that summarizes online discussions from individuals with the same condition.
• FHIR support for Health Connect, which is now API-enabled to read and write medical data in FHIR format.
• Loss of pulse detection, an FDA-cleared Pixel Watch 3 feature that automatically calls emergency services if the wearer’s heart stops.

Korea-based LG AI Research announces Exaone Deep, an LLM with advanced reasoning capability that the company says beats DeepSeek R1 on math benchmarks while being 95% smaller.

Researchers find that Metat’s open source AI model Llama outperformed OpenAI’s GPT-4 in diagnosing complex medical cases. Open source LLMs offer healthcare advantages such as auditability, bias detection, and domain-specific tuning for medical literature and patient records. They integrate more easily into healthcare systems, reduce costs, prevent vendor lock-in, and can be deployed locally or in secure environments to protect patient data.

Illinois lawmakers advance bills to restrict online behavioral health providers from using AI for therapy sessions and to limit insurer use of AI to deny coverage.

India’s Apollo Hospitals will increase its investment in AI with the goal of freeing up 2-3 hours daily for doctors and nurses. AI is being used to suggest diagnoses, recommend tests and treatments, transcribe physician notes, and generate daily schedules from nurse documentation.

Business

R1 and Palantir launch R37, an AI lab that will focus on developing automation solutions for healthcare reimbursement.

Urgent care operator CityMD will use Notable’s AI platform and agents for patient scheduling, messaging, registration and intake, and payments. CityMD is owned by VillageMD, whose majority owner Walgreens Boots Alliance is expected to seek a buyer for the business after its own acquisition by a private equity firm.

Other

A JAMA Viewpoint article argues that since lawmakers are unlikely to expand the FDA’s oversight of AI standards, private governance mechanisms — such as licensing agreements between AI developers and health systems — will be necessary. The authors also warn that litigation over AI-caused patient harm will rise, but that won’t drive safety improvements because physician users will bear the brunt of liability.

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
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Morning Headlines 3/19/25

Veradigm Files Fiscal 2022 Form 10-K and Restated Financial Statements

Veradigm files its long-overdue 2022 10-K in an effort to regain its listing on the Nasdaq.

DispatchHealth and Medically Home to Merge, Increasing Access to Hospital-Level Care at Home for Americans

App-enabled house call provider DispatchHealth acquires Medically Home, which offers hospital-at-home care software and services.

Canvas Medical Launches Hyperscribe, an Open Source AI Copilot for Clinicians

EHR vendor Canvas Medical announces an open source AI copilot and ambient documentation system.

News 3/19/25

Top News

Veradigm files its long-overdue 2022 10-K, which also contains certain restated financial statements for periods in fiscal year 2022, 2021 and 2020.

Total revenue rose slightly in 2022, but EPS from continuing operations plunged from $0.92 to –$0.18, with an $86 million loss.

Nasdaq delisted MDRX in February after the company failed to file its 2022 report and multiple quarterly statements. Veradigm attributed the issue to a software error that overstated financials over six quarters.

MDRX shares, which now trade on the OTC market, have fallen 40% in the past year. The company hopes to regain Nasdaq listing status.

Veradigm spent eight months through January 2025 seeking a buyer, but received no offers from 30 interested parties.

HIStalk Executive Watercooler

I’m bringing back a simple way for health system technology executives to share their candid insights anonymously, effortlessly, and with influence. See this example of the result back when I called it the HIStalk Advisory Panel.

Once a month, I’ll email you one quick question. Just hit reply with your thoughts. I’ll compile responses (stripping out anything identifiable to maintain your anonymity) and write them up for HIStalk. You will be influencing industry conversations with minimal effort.

I’m looking for executives from health systems, ACOs, and hospital-owned medical practices; CMIOs, CNIOs, and clinical informaticists; health system IT leaders; and digital health executives. Provider-side only, please. Thank you for signing up to be part of the HIStalk Executive Watercooler.

Sponsored Events and Resources

Live Webinar: March 20 (Thursday) noon ET. “Enhancing Patient Experience: Digital Accessibility Legal Requirements in Healthcare.” Sponsor: TPGi. Presenters: Mark Miller, director of sales, TPGi; David Sloan, PhD, MSc, chief accessibility officer, TPGi; Kristina Launey, JD, labor and employment litigation and counseling partner, Seyfarth Shaw LLP. For patients with disabilities, inaccessible technology can mean the difference between timely, effective care and unmet healthcare needs. This could include accessible patient portals, telehealth services, and payment platforms. Despite a new presidential administration, requirements for Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) have not changed. While enforcement may unclear moving forward, healthcare organizations still have an obligation to their patients for digital accessibility. In our webinar session, TPGi’s accessibility experts and Seyfarth Shaw’s legal professionals will help you understand ACA Section 1557 requirements, its future under the Trump administration, and offer strategies to help you create inclusive experiences.

Live Webinar: March 27 (Thursday) noon ET. “How to Improve Clinical Workflows with AI Chart Summaries and Risk Predictions.” Sponsor: Health Data Analytics Institute. Presenters: Scott Cullen, MD, senior advisor, Health Data Analytics Institute; David Clain, chief product officer, Health Data Analytics Institute. Learn how the EHR-embedded HDAIAssist tool is transforming the ability of clinicians to pull insights out the mountains of data that have accumulated in the EHR, quickly, accurately, and cost-effectively. HDAlAssist, which is part of HealthVision, the intelligent health management system, combines AI chart summaries and granular risk predictions to quickly inform care planning decisions, especially for the most complex, high-risk patients.

Contact Lorre to have your resource listed.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

AI-powered RCM vendor Infinx marks its second acquisition of the year with the purchase of Glidian, a prior authorization automation company based in California. It acquired pathology billing and RCM business MedReceivables Advisor earlier this year.

People

Nordic appoints Steve Eckert, MBA (Cook Children’s Health Care System) chief growth officer.

Siemens Healthineers names John Kowal president and head of the Americas. He was formerly president of the Americas at Varian Medical Systems, which Siemens acquired in 2021.

Loyal names Nanette Oddo (Truveris) CEO.

Jeff Evans (CAE Healthcare) joins Qventus as chief commercial officer.

J. Michael Kramer, MD, MBA (Health Value Leadership) joins Cone Health (NC) as CMIO.

Announcements and Implementations

EHR vendor Canvas Medical announces an open source AI copilot and ambient documentation system.

Government and Politics

NHS England informs 5,000 patients of an administrative error that blocked them from receiving routine screening reminders. The decades-long issue, initially identified on a small scale last year, stemmed from GP practices failing to fully complete patient registrations, preventing automatic transfer of data to screening reminder systems.

Sponsor Updates

• Altera Digital Health publishes a new client story titled “Psychology service digitised and integrated into trust-wide EPR at Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital.”
• AvaSure will exhibit at AONL March 30-April 2 in Boston.
• Capital Rx releases a new episode of “The Astonishing Healthcare Podcast” titled “Building Judi, the Healthcare Infrastructure of the Future, with Liya Lomsadze.”
• Censinet releases a new case study titled “Enhancing Rural Healthcare Cybersecurity and Risk Management at Faith Regional.”
• Clearwater publishes a first-of-its-kind report examining the cybersecurity performance of private equity-backed portfolio companies in healthcare.
• DrFirst announces its products have earned HITRUST i1 certification for information security.
• CliniComp wins a Platinum Pinnacle Award for its role as a Trailblazer in Healthcare Technology.

Blog Posts

• High-Risk Medical Coding: Debridement Coding & Documentation (AGS Health)
• The Latest from Vital Signs: Healthcare Jobs on the Rise, Patient Portal Message Volumes, and Prior Authorization Challenges (AdvancedMD)
• Rethinking Revenue Management with AI–Efficiency, Security and Growth (FinThrive)
• Medical Billing Services for Small Practices: Solving Your Revenue Cycle Challenges (Inovalon)
• Building a healthier future together: Wolters Kluwer’s commitment to strategic collaborations (Wolters Kluwer Health)
• Better care, lower costs: The advance care planning solution hospitals ignore (Nordic)
• RCM resource roundup: Activating AI for prior authorization + denial prevention (Waystar)
• What happened in Vegas: Top takeaways from HIMSS25 (Altera Digital Health)
• Healthcare dashboards: 8 impactful models + metrics to track (Arcadia)
• A Hierarchy of Healthcare Interoperability Needs (Clinical Architecture)
• A Health IT Leader’s Wish List for 2025: Tech Equity and Health Equity (Consensus Cloud Solutions)
• HIMSS25: Reflecting on a Successful Event (Dimensional Insight)
• How to Build a Diverse Workforce in Healthcare Through Human-Centered Recruiting (Direct Recruiters)
• Glimmers From HIMSS: Announcements, Recognition, and Collaboration Shine Bright in Glittery Las Vegas (DrFirst)
• Unveiled: You’ll Need to Know These Innovative Strategies Healthcare CIOs are Using (CereCore)

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
Get HIStalk updates.
Send news or rumors.
Follow on X, Bluesky, and LinkedIn.
Contact us.

Morning Headlines 3/18/25

Glidian Joins Infinx to Advance Prior Authorization Automation and Expand Market Reach

AI-powered RCM vendor Infinx acquires Glidian, a prior authorization automation company based in California.

CareCloud Reports Record Breaking Full Year 2024 Net Income

CareCloud reports nearly flat year-over-year Q4 revenue of $28.2 million, with annual revenue down slightly to $111 million.

Cerebral Vet’s New Behavioral Health Venture Raises $6.2M

AdvocateMH, founded by former Cerebral CEO David Mou, MD, MBA will use $6.2 million in new funding to further develop its behavioral health triage software.

Curbside Consult with Dr. Jayne 3/17/25

In this week’s Monday Morning Update,  Mr. H launched a poll that asks about reader strategies to reduce the time spent in meetings that are less than productive.

After a couple of decades in healthcare IT, with many of those spent working on large and lengthy projects, I feel like I’ve attended more than my share of unproductive meetings. I can’t wait to see the poll results, but here are my recommendations for productive meetings (most of which are directly related to having high performing teams, so I’ll include those too).

• Consider making meetings shorter than standard blocks. I’m a huge fan of having 50-minute meetings rather than hour-long ones, or 25-minute meetings rather than half-hour ones. This approach provides attendees time between meetings to prepare and arrive promptly for the next.
• Start meetings on time with no apologies. One of my favorite hobbies is to calculate the cost per minute when people start “just a few minutes late to allow others to arrive.” I’m regularly in meetings with high-level executives and multiple external consultants where the burn rate is in excess of $3K per hour. Every minute counts in those situations.
• Be mindful of small talk and whether it’s good for your team dynamics. If team members are stressed about other projects or a previous meeting, odds are they may not want to hear about what everyone did over the weekend.
• Have an agenda before the meeting is scheduled. No agenda, no meeting.
• Distribute any key materials that will be discussed with the meeting invitation and agenda. There’s nothing worse than trying to read and understand things that are brand new to you while someone is also talking about them and presenting slides that may or may not summarize the concepts.
• Use time-boxed agendas to keep people on track.
• Assign specific meeting roles. including timekeeper and scribe. The latter can be outsourced to AI tools, although a human scribe should still proofread it and make any necessary corrections.
• For standing meetings with a designated set of regular attendees, consider creating a Team Operating Agreement that defines how the team operates and how it handles team members that either don’t participate or that tend do monopolize the meeting. This can enable the team to self-police and discuss when people aren’t interacting with the group at the expected level. Many of us hated group projects when we were in school, and having a Team Operating Agreement is often a good antidote to bad behavior.
• As you’re creating your Team Operating Agreement, be mindful of how you want to manage video calls and people who are not on camera. I’ve been in plenty of meetings where people have been called out for not being on camera and not in a nice way. As a consultant who has worked in dozens of organizations over the years, this can be a minefield. Maybe someone wants to turn their camera off to blow their nose, eat their lunch, or just decompress for a few minutes because they’ve been on for four hours straight. These should all be OK. If you’re concerned about someone being excessively off camera, address the issue privately.
• If you’re working across multiple time zones, there’s a good chance that you’ll be scheduling during someone’s typical lunch time. Consider identifying these as camera-off meetings to allow people to eat lunch without having to apologize about it. Back in the days when I was in an office full time at a health system ,we routinely had brown bag lunch meetings and everyone ate in front of each other, so it still feels a little weird to me that people have to apologize for taking care of a basic physical need.
• For meetings that are hybrid with some attendees in person and some remote, make sure someone knows how to operate the cameras and screens effectively so that everyone feels like they have the same level of participation and engagement. The same thing goes for telephones and audio hookups.
• For meetings where people are expected to deliver status reports, require them to submit those reports in advance and distribute them to the group along with the agenda (you might see a theme here). Then you can do a speed round of “any questions” and reduce the likelihood of conducting a meeting that should have been an email.
• If decision makers or required participants are not in the room, reschedule. Don’t waste everyone’s time going through an agenda if it’s all going to have to be repeated in a meeting after the meeting.
• Learn how to use your calendar’s scheduling assistant. If you need to send an invite outside someone’s typical work hours or when they have a conflict, ask them if they can shift their workday before scheduling the meeting. Even if you can’t accommodate an individual, the fact that you at least asked / discussed the issue goes a long way towards building a good working relationship as opposed to just sending people appointments at 4am in their time zone without any recognition of the fact that it might be inconvenient.
• If you’re going to do a presentation during a meeting, make sure you know how to share your screen and how to either enter presenter mode or how to share your slides through your meeting app. There’s nothing more distracting than watching a side deck being delivered by clicking through the editable presentation.
• Allow for a recap at the end of the meeting where action items and their owners are reviewed. This helps prevent surprises.
• Make corrected minutes / notes available within one business day, while people still remember at least some of the meetings they attended.
• Consider having “no meeting” blocks where colleagues have dedicated time to actually get their work done and honor these blocks like they are sacred. I’ve seen plenty of organizations put these events on their calendars and then schedule right over them, so it does take a certain amount of cultural commitment to actually make it happen.

There you have it, folks. It’s like a free hour of management consulting from someone who has definitely been there and done that. In the meantime, visit the poll and let us know how you tackle the issue of unproductive meetings. If you have a great story to share, leave a comment or email me.

Email Dr. Jayne.

HIStalk Reader Survey Results 2025

Thanks to everyone who completed my reader survey. My readers come from all corners of healthcare and bring a wide range of experience and expectations. I’ve learned that designing by committee usually leads to something that pleases no one in the quest to please everyone, so I pay attention to individual survey responses. I earn a passing grade if readers keep coming back.

I also try not to let my enthusiasm lead me to promise more than I can deliver. Everything on the site, except for Dr. Jayne’s pieces, is put there by two people who work here less than full time. I might agree with some reader suggestions but still pass due to the reach-versus-grasp resource situation.

Some major points from the survey:

• 94% of respondents have worked in the industry for more than 10 years.
• 42% work for a vendor, 25% for a hospital or health system.
• 29% have purchasing influence of greater than $10,000 for a provider organization, while 28% have that level of authority in a vendor organization.
• 91% have a higher appreciation for companies that we write about.
• 51% have a higher interest or appreciation for companies that sponsor HIStalk.
• 96% say that reading HIStalk helped them do their job better in the past year.
• 54% based a recent strategic business decision (purchase, partnership, RFP, contract renewal, executive hire, investment, etc.) on something they read on HIStalk.

I focus on results from the “helped you do your job better” question. I would hope that the 96% of readers who say that reading HIStalk helps them do their job better will keep coming back.

I extracted some respondent comments. Italicized comments are mine.

• I love HIStalk and literally visit this website every day. I always learn something new, interesting, and relevant to healthcare IT. You do incredible work! I love Dr. Jayne and all the contributors.
• While I like that you do interviews with various folks, I don’t read them that often. I come mostly for the news and rumors and your take on what is happening (you’ve got a great perspective).
• A (very) slight facelift to modernize the formatting would be welcome. I keep thinking about how to do this with minimal disruption. I could probably get someone to spiff up the font or make minor layout changes. Ideas?
• I miss the webinars. We’ve cut back on producing webinars because it didn’t feel like we were adding enough value. Companies got pretty good at doing their own during the pandemic and potential attendees were getting tired of looking at a Zoom screen all day, which limited attendance. Some people like our YouTube channel, so maybe we will archive company webinars there or something in addition to helping promote them.
• I always value any commentary on where the political and regulatory winds seem to be shifting. Especially in current uncertain climate that’s a more important topic than ever, so more content on that would be great.
• I would love to be able to hear more about the research, successes, and pitfalls that the industry is seeing with RPM tools. Along with this, I’m also very interested in learning more about how people are deploying patient engagement tools to actually change patient actions. Less about the ability to send texts, nudges, etc. and more how are these tools being used successfully to get patients to improve their health habits (exercise, diet, med adherence, etc.)
• More opinions from industry experts (including Mr. H). I see a lot of the press releases, announcements, etc. from other sources too, but hearing the opinion/reaction from people who have been in this space a long time helps add context that I don’t really get anywhere else. What I would really like is to get the opinions of expert readers. The challenge is that people are busy and maybe not comfortable throwing their two cents out there. The biggest lesson that I’ve learned over the years is that everybody likes to consume content, but not to create it, and to rely on reader interaction is a good way to fail fast (see: HIMSS Accelerate).
• Maybe in six months would be great to interview couple of CIO/CXOs on areas of clear value from AI vs. what’s still to-be-proven. I would be really happy to do this. It’s hard to get provider executives to be interviewed. I will flag my calendar to solicit volunteers in six months and will be surprised if I get any.
• I would appreciate more coverage around FHIR and other interoperability developments and trends. You do cover it a little but I am definitely interested in finding out as much as I can on the direction of the industry as a whole in this space. I really appreciate all your recent coverage on the trends of AI in healthcare.
• More opinions from Mr. HIStalk. He knows more than everyone else. Give us more editorialization. I don’t know more than everyone else. I know a little about a lot of topics and I enjoy learning as I go, which might provide the illusion of omniscience. I have hundreds or thousands of readers who know more about any given topic than I do, but the challenge is to get them to actively participate. I also don’t want to let my experience and opinions bleed over into objective coverage of straight news.
• I like not knowing what the topics will be, it’s often something I know little to nothing about and I get educated. That’s exactly how writing HIStalk makes me feel. The best way to learn is by teaching, or in my case, by writing.
• I believe we critique sometimes more than is fair. This is not to mean that we should lessen how much we critique, but rather we should honestly praise even the losers when they make progress. Not everyone can afford Epic. If we acknowledge that, it’s still fair to call a dog a dog and even when they improve, that gap typically gets even wider, but let’s at least occasionally toss a bone to the dog when they make something better. The challenge is that not all companies and providers actively announce their news. That includes Epic, which almost never announces anything. It’s logical to ask “why don’t you ever say something negative about Epic” or “why didn’t you list our new sale,” but I only know what someone tells me.
• Would love to see a job posting area made available to subscribers. I tried that once before and it flopped, the same as reader discussion areas and online meet-ups that require reader participation. I’ll leave job boards to others. 
• It would be really helpful to interview CIOs, CMIOs, etc. of a variety of healthcare organizations to see where other folks see their greatest needs and greatest successes. Agreed, but it’s hard to get those folks to participate. I’ve been interviewed in my health system job and it requires a bunch of approvals and sometimes final review of what is published. I still can’t decide if it’s reasonable that a long-ago health system executive told leadership that we needed his approval to be interviewed because “I’ve been burned by that before.”
• Love the summarized reader comments at top and your commentary. Reader comments are the best.
• I am particularly interested in patient use of technology and don’t see much of that on HIStalk. It’s a good topic, but not one that generates a lot of news to cover outside of phone or watch apps.
• Loving the AI only section; please continue and expand this section. Thanks for keeping HIStalk objective and avoiding the political fray. I started the AI section because, as in the case when I started doing COVID updates, it gave me a reason to keep learning.
• More comprehensive reporting on sales of health IT solutions to healthcare provider organizations. The current coverage seems to miss many sales by secondary vendors in particular. I would bet that those vendors don’t announce those sales or let me know since I include everything significant that I see. It’s not like I know about it but decide to keep it to myself.
• I don’t know what I’m missing bc HIStalk is the source of news and keeps me in the loop on a broad array. I’ve been in public health, quality improvement, ACO, and now research and HIStalk covers all of that. Dr Jayne is always a good read and
• akes me wish I could take my PCP out for dinner and get her take on all of it.
• I’ve noticed that while HIStalk covers a broad range of EHR-related topics with depth and analysis, there seems to be a notable absence of any coverage that could be construed as critical of Epic Systems. Given the scrutiny that other major EHR vendors receive in your coverage, the lack of similar critique towards Epic stands out. I’m curious – does this reflect an editorial stance, a lack of sources willing to speak critically, or something else? See above. I can only report what I know. Epic is tighter with information than any vendor I can recall and their customers and even employees on Reddit don’t say much. I challenge those readers who believe I’m underreporting some to show me where they saw it elsewhere. I have no moles to report dirt.
• More direct content on useful tools for Value Based Care. While as physician, I appreciate Dr. Jayne’s perspectives, it is singular physicians perspective and at times seems to veer toward subjectivity and tilts left.
• Adding the AI newsletter was a big plus for me. Speaking of AI, as companies announce the use of various models, I would love t know their thoughts on ROI of those investments.
• Right now the information you provide is valuable and influences my day-to-day and year-to-year career. You do a great job of trying new things, ending experiments to don’t pan out, and keeping everything fresh without seeming to shake things up just for the novelty.
• More content from actual health care providers ( rather than CEO’s of some healthcare tech company). I agree, but vendor CEOs volunteer to be interviewed a lot more often that health system C-level executives. It’s the same with Readers Write articles, which mostly originate with vendor PR people and rarely from provider-employed readers.
• This may seem counter-intuitive for a news site, but any chance of scaling back production? I have fond memories of twice/week updates from HISTalk. Now there’s at least 4x/week and in 2025 I think it’s closer to 5x/week. Please don’t make enjoying your outlet a chore (one which I will stop performing). I’m open to ideas for writing shorter news updates or posting on fewer days of the week if that’s what most readers want. Or I suppose I could create separate signup forms for just the news posts versus everything else. Or, insert a keyword so you could create a mail filter rule to see only the parts you like.
• I like it as is. I always learn interesting and thought provoking info. I tend to scroll quickly past the info on newly appointed people but, as a woman in medicine and tech, even that is informative in seeing the mix of people in different roles. I also value Dr. Jayne’s columns in terms of my CMIO responsibilities. Keep up the excellent work!!!
• Love it as it is. I am much better at what I do thanks to HIStalk, both as a CEO of a healthcare IT company and a physician.

Morning Headlines 3/17/25

HHS braces for a reorganization

Government insiders say that White House-mandated HHS cost cutting could reduce ASTP’s headcount from 180 to 30.

What is NHS England – and what does abolishing it mean?

In England, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer announces plans to dissolve NHS England in a move the government estimates will save $130 million by eliminating duplicate costs.

Nimblemind.ai Raises $2.5M to Unlock AI-Ready Clinical Data for Healthcare Providers

Nimblemind.ai will use $2.5 million in new funding to further develop and market its data infrastructure platform, which enables healthcare organizations to turn unstructured clinical data into AI-ready formats.

Monday Morning Update 3/17/25

Top News

Several private equity firms have submitted bids to acquire revenue cycle management company AGS Health at a valuation of around $1 billion.

The company’s Sweden-based investment firm owner paid $320 million for the company in 2019.

The 14,000 employees of AGS work from offices in India, the Philippines, and the US.

Reader Comments

From Borat: “Re: Epic Research. Who needs the CDC now, Elon? Kidding, but only sort of. You can’t beat the recency of the data versus the 3-4 year delay in CDC reports.” Epic Research enables the rapid sharing of vetted insights that are drawn from Epic’s Cosmos database of the de-identified patient data from customers. As the organization puts it, unlike traditional research and publication as a journal article, “It is designed to make good data available sooner rather than perfect data available too late.” This approach bypasses the lengthy process required for peer-reviewed journal. The CDC has turned to Epic Research for help with urgent public health and pandemic-related issues that couldn’t afford delays. Also, while I’m not sure how the CDC selects its research priorities, their focus likely leans less toward publishing findings that are immediately actionable for health systems. Add in the uncertainty surrounding which CDC projects will be defunded and how many experts it may lose and Epic Research becomes even more appealing. Meanwhile, Larry Ellison has stated that Oracle Health intends to pursue similar real-world evidence research, so it will be interesting to see what they produce. Regardless, the ability to quickly analyze and apply real-world data is an increasingly valuable asset.

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

Poll respondents aren’t confident about the 2025 prospects of their employers, with commenters citing federal government dysfunction, potential cuts in Medicaid and Medicare, and the threat of a recession.

New poll to your right or here: What ways have you recently used to reduce the time you spend on unproductive meetings? I didn’t ask how you recognize that a meeting is going to be a waste of time, but here are some signs from years of reading the hospital conference room:

• Nobody seems to know who’s running the meeting, what results are expected, or whether the group has any actual authority.
• The convener starts the meeting late to accommodate tardy invitees, fails to create an agenda with goals, and allows the meeting to end without creating assignments and minutes.
• The attendee count keeps growing because everyone who is affected mistakenly believes that their input is both invaluable and urgently needed.
• Status updates that could have been managed via email become a competitive verbal sport of sounding busy.
• Knowledgeable but quiet attendees let the loud but less-informed attendees dominate.
• Attendees ramble endlessly to make sure that they clock the same amount of suck-up airtime as peers.
• People talk about their feelings or concerns.
• A high-ranking attendee – who may be known for missing meetings, coming in late, or not paying attention – mistakes their trite anecdotes and gut feelings for keen insight that makes it logical for them to override group decisions.
• No actual decisions are made because in hospitals, nobody has the power to say yes, but everyone has the power to say no.

Sponsored Events and Resources

Live Webinar: March 20 (Thursday) noon ET. “Enhancing Patient Experience: Digital Accessibility Legal Requirements in Healthcare.” Sponsor: TPGi. Presenters: Mark Miller, director of sales, TPGi; David Sloan, PhD, MSc, chief accessibility officer, TPGi; Kristina Launey, JD, labor and employment litigation and counseling partner, Seyfarth Shaw LLP. For patients with disabilities, inaccessible technology can mean the difference between timely, effective care and unmet healthcare needs. This could include accessible patient portals, telehealth services, and payment platforms. Despite a new presidential administration, requirements for Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) have not changed. While enforcement may unclear moving forward, healthcare organizations still have an obligation to their patients for digital accessibility. In our webinar session, TPGi’s accessibility experts and Seyfarth Shaw’s legal professionals will help you understand ACA Section 1557 requirements, its future under the Trump administration, and offer strategies to help you create inclusive experiences.

Live Webinar: March 27 (Thursday) noon ET. “How to Improve Clinical Workflows with AI Chart Summaries and Risk Predictions.” Sponsor: Health Data Analytics Institute. Presenters: Scott Cullen, MD, senior advisor, Health Data Analytics Institute; David Clain, chief product officer, Health Data Analytics Institute. Learn how the EHR-embedded HDAIAssist tool is transforming the ability of clinicians to pull insights out the mountains of data that have accumulated in the EHR, quickly, accurately, and cost-effectively. HDAlAssist, which is part of HealthVision, the intelligent health management system, combines AI chart summaries and granular risk predictions to quickly inform care planning decisions, especially for the most complex, high-risk patients.

Contact Lorre to have your resource listed.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Informa’s annual financial report reveals that it paid $110 million for its July 2023 acquisition of the HIMSS conference. The last pre-COVID HIMSS tax filing from 2019 reported $43 million in conference revenue against $16 million in expenses, suggesting that Informa paid about four times earnings. That would represent about 24% of the total revenue of HIMSS.

People

CTG hires Dan Stoke (Nordic Global) as VP of its US healthcare business. He replaces Christine Blanchard, who is retiring.

Government and Politics

In England, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer announces plans to dissolve NHS England, which was established in 2013 to oversee NHS funding, policies, and major initiatives like digital health transformation. Its functions will be absorbed by the Department of Health and Social Care, a move the government estimates will save $130 million by eliminating duplicate costs. Of NHS England’s 15,000 employees, 9,000 are expected to lose their jobs as part of the transition.

Government insiders say that White House-mandated HHS cost cutting could reduce ASTP’s headcount from 180 to 30.

Sponsor Updates

• A Black Book Research survey of global health IT buyers and decision-makers outside of the US reveals a growing preference for non-US electronic patient health record providers.
• Optimum Healthcare IT releases a new case study titled “Closing the Workday Skills Gap at OU Health.”
• PerfectServe launches the 2025 Nurses of Note Awards Program with new categories.
• Praia Health publishes a new case study featuring Providence titled “Praia Health delivers standard of digital engagement ROI health systems.”
• TrustCommerce, a Sphere company, will exhibit at the East Coast CORE Spring Meeting March 19-21 in Tampa, FL.
• TeamBuilder will present at The Millennium Alliance’s Transformation Assembly March 19-20 in Austin, TX.
• WellSky releases a new case study titled “UF Health St. Johns Care Connect: Uniting a community to address social determinants of health.”
• AGS Health, FinThrive, Inovalon, MRO, Nym, SmarterDx, TruBridge, VisiQuate, and Waystar will exhibit at the HFMA Revenue Cycle Conference March 19-21 in San Antonio.

Blog Posts

• How Data Analytics is Transforming A/R Optimization in Healthcare (FinThrive)
• Choosing the Right Medical Billing Software: A Guide for Healthcare Providers (Inovalon)
• A new era in healthcare innovation highlighted at HIMSS 2025 (Wolters Kluwer Health)
• Optimizing today, innovating for tomorrow: how dual transformation can enhance Canadian healthcare (Nordic)
• How Do You Find the Budget for Experience Orchestration? (Praia Health)
• Don’t Leave Person Data to Change: Use AI (Rhapsody)
• 5 Guidelines for Researching & Developing Privileging Content (Symplr)
• Reimbursement roundup: Telemedicine, Medicare + reimbursement rate changes in 2025 (Waystar)

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
Get HIStalk updates.
Send news or rumors.
Follow on X, Bluesky, and LinkedIn.
Contact us.

Morning Headlines 3/14/25

Skeptical judge sides with smaller analytics firm against giant PointClickCare over data blocking tactics

A federal court upholds an injunction granted last summer that prohibits senior care EHR vendor PointClickCare from blocking Real Time Medical Systems from its systems.

Global buyout funds line up for AGS Health

Four investment firms including Blackstone and General Atlantic express interest in acquiring AGS Health at a $1 billion valuation, up slightly from the valuation its parent company floated last September when announcing it would explore a sale.

TruBridge Announces Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2024 Results and Provides Initial 2025 Outlook

TruBridge announces Q4 results: revenue up 2%, EPS –$0.38 versus –$2.92. TBRG shares have gained 206% in the past 12 months, valuing the company at $415 million.

Scottish software company Craneware reports record results

Scotland-based Craneware reports record results, which it attributes to US hospitals refocusing on efficiency following the presidential election.

News 3/14/25

Top News

A federal court upholds an injunction that prohibits senior care EHR vendor PointClickCare (PCC) from blocking Real Time Medical Systems (RTMS) from its systems.

The injunction, which was granted in July 2024, found that PCC violated the 21st Century Cures Act by using an unsolvable CAPTCHA to block RTMS’s web-scraping bots that collect skilled nursing data for analytics.

RTMS alleges that PCC took the action after ending discussions to acquire RTMS and instead developed a competing product.

Circuit Court judges agreed that PCC’s actions were anticompetitive and were not justified by its stated cybersecurity concerns.

Reader Comments

From Skeeter: “Re: VA. Is the GAO just beating a dead horse at this point? Yet another report highlights the VA’s failure to follow up on GAO’s previous recommendations related to EHR modernization, which include clarifying the project’s total cost, master schedule, or performance targets.” Meet the new report, same as the old report. Its recommendations are clear and necessary for project completion, even as the VA dodges discussions of cost, timelines, and performance targets that it is unlikely to meet. Oracle Health isn’t going anywhere, thanks to (a) a lack of viable alternatives; and (b) its no-bid selection under Jared Kushner in the first Trump administration, which likely shields it from budget cuts. Oracle has also ingratiated itself with the federal government in ways Cerner never could have, such as making former CMS Administrator Seema Verma the EVP/GM of Oracle Health. Plenty of verbal vaporware has been dispersed from all sides, none of which has scared VA leadership enough to force real commitments or change. Congressional frustration at spending up to $50 billion with little to show for it so far is palpable, most of it aimed at the VA and not Oracle Health, which the DoD implemented just fine.

From AnInteropGuy: “Re: Veradigm. Has performed a RIF, effective Friday. Not sure how many, but the Payer and Life Sciences units have been affected.” Unverified, but entirely likely.

From Barn Burner: “Re: Mark Cuban. Says companies who are buying insurance should hire a healthcare CEO to make benefits decisions rather than allowing an HR leader or insurance broker to run the program.” Cuban observes that healthcare is the only industry where a employer company’s CEO and CFO are blocked from accessing their expense data (such as prescription claims) to help make benefits decisions. Contracts bar executives from discussing pricing or supply with drug manufacturers, who themselves can’t see claims data. He also faults pharmacy benefit managers for not pressuring manufacturers and payers, advocating instead for a pass-through PBM that charges fixed administrative fees rather than profiting from hidden rebates and discounts.

From Slinky: “Re: Epic ERP. I interviewed with Neal Patterson for a position at Cerner in the 1990s. I asked why the company’s plans for Health Network Architecture didn’t include a patient accounting systems. His response was, ‘Why would I want to go spend millions of dollars on a me-too product and think that I can be successful starting with zero percent market share?” That was probably a sound short-term decision as CEO of a publicly traded company, but not so good for future-proofing since patient accounting shortcomings cost Cerner a lot of customers.

From Doggedly: “Re: CHIME. They are taking the HIMSS direction and creating a vendor-friendly media company.” CHIME is looking for a sales pro “with a hunter mentality” to “drive engagement with healthcare technology vendors.” It states HIMSS-like aspirations to “position CHIME as the premier media and research partner for healthcare technology vendors.” I don’t find this objectionable since it’s targeting salespeople. However, it’s a reminder that member organizations love revenue and largely generate it by charging supplier members for access to potential buyer members in publications and conferences, which usually makes “news” synonymous with “PR fluff.” I started HIStalk because HIMSS Media was where seldom was heard a discouraging word about vendors, i.e. the target audience for selling ads and conference booths.

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

Spare a minute to fill out my reader survey and you’ll be helping me make HIStalk better (or maybe prevent me from making it worse).

Thanks to Dan for letting me know that my “subscribe to updates” option wasn’t working. Fixing the issue changed the link, so click here to get email updates.

I’ve hit a weekly rhythm with these LinkedIn carousels. Let me know if you have ideas for other uses of this fun format.

Welcome to new HIStalk Platinum Sponsor Infinx. Founded in 2012, Infinx provides scalable, AI-driven solutions to optimize the financial lifecycle of healthcare providers across all functions of patient access and revenue cycle management. Our cloud-based software, powered by AI and automation, is leveraged by experienced consultants and billing specialists across the US, India, and the Philippines. We help 172,000 healthcare professionals across 4,000 facilities capture more revenue, stay ahead of changing regulations and payer guidelines, and focus on patient care. Thanks to Infinx for supporting HIStalk.

Here’s a good Infinx explainer video that I found on YouTube.

Sponsored Events and Resources

Live Webinar: March 20 (Thursday) noon ET. “Enhancing Patient Experience: Digital Accessibility Legal Requirements in Healthcare.” Sponsor: TPGi. Presenters: Mark Miller, director of sales, TPGi; David Sloan, PhD, MSc, chief accessibility officer, TPGi; Kristina Launey, JD, labor and employment litigation and counseling partner, Seyfarth Shaw LLP. For patients with disabilities, inaccessible technology can mean the difference between timely, effective care and unmet healthcare needs. This could include accessible patient portals, telehealth services, and payment platforms. Despite a new presidential administration, requirements for Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) have not changed. While enforcement may unclear moving forward, healthcare organizations still have an obligation to their patients for digital accessibility. In our webinar session, TPGi’s accessibility experts and Seyfarth Shaw’s legal professionals will help you understand ACA Section 1557 requirements, its future under the Trump administration, and offer strategies to help you create inclusive experiences.

Live Webinar: March 27 (Thursday) noon ET. “How to Improve Clinical Workflows with AI Chart Summaries and Risk Predictions.” Sponsor: Health Data Analytics Institute. Presenters: Scott Cullen, MD, senior advisor, Health Data Analytics Institute; David Clain, chief product officer, Health Data Analytics Institute. Learn how the EHR-embedded HDAIAssist tool is transforming the ability of clinicians to pull insights out the mountains of data that have accumulated in the EHR, quickly, accurately, and cost-effectively. HDAlAssist, which is part of HealthVision, the intelligent health management system, combines AI chart summaries and granular risk predictions to quickly inform care planning decisions, especially for the most complex, high-risk patients.

EBook: “7 Performance Benchmarks Every Medical Practice Must Know.” Sponsor: UnisLink. This free EBook lists seven critical KPIs for revenue cycle efficiency, how to calculate each one, steps to improve, and benchmarking data.

Contact Lorre to have your resource listed.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

TruBridge announces Q4 results: revenue up 2%, EPS –$0.38 versus –$2.92. TBRG shares have gained 206% in the past 12 months, valuing the company at $415 million.

Scotland-based Craneware reports record results, which it attributes to US hospitals refocusing on efficiency following the presidential election.

Sales

• New Mexico Health Care Authority chooses Findhelp to power a statewide closed-loop referral system.
• Citizens Memorial Hospital will implement the closed-loop referral system of Unite Us, which it will integrate with Meditech Expanse.

People

Symplr hires Mike Valli (Optum) as chief commercial officer and Scott Sbihli, MBA (Inovalon) as chief product officer.

Announcements and Implementations

A new KLAS report on physician message burden notes that 59% of patients are using technology to communicate with their provider’s office before and after visits, which has driven message volume up and EHR satisfaction down. Recommend solutions:

• Have staff triage and manage messages that don’t involve clinical decision-making.
• Provide dedicated time for clinicians to manage charting and messages.
• Limit message length and the number of messages a patient can send in a given time period.
• Don’t let patients send messages if they haven’t had an appointment in more than one year.
• Auto-delete old messages.
• Use a single platform for all message types and improve remote access to charts.
• Provide message search and filter functions.
• Use automated messages to let the patient know their message was received and when they can expect a response.

Government and Politics

Two US representatives reintroduce the Patient Matching and Transparency in Certified Health IT Act of 2025, directing the HHS secretary to convene stakeholders to establish patient matching standards and track match rates. The bill also requires ASTP to develop a minimum data set for patient matching as part of EHR certification.

Sponsor Updates

• CMS approves UnisLink as a Qualified Clinical Data Registry for the 2025 MIPS reporting program.
• Black Book Research’s latest analysis features the top six customer-rated virtual care platforms in 2025.
• Wolters Kluwer Health announces that it is integrating its UpToDate clinical decision support solution with the healthcare agent service in Microsoft Copilot Studio.
• Health Data Movers releases a new episode of its “Quick HITs” podcast titled “Optimizing Medical Technology: Cost Savings, AI, and the Future of Healthcare with Ramana Sastry.”
• Healthmonix names Emily Krysa-Hobson sales development representative.
• Linus Health announces that its leaders, staff, and affiliates have authored 72 peer-reviewed publications and presented at 75 conferences since 2019.

Blog Posts

• Reflections on HIMSS 2025: Insights, Innovations and the Path Forward (FinThrive)
• Oracle Health EHR Slow? Not So Fast (Goliath Technologies)
• Transforming Stroke Care (Impact Advisors)
• Preventing Harm to Achieve Harmony: How Patient Safety Software Transforms Care (Inovalon)

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
Get HIStalk updates.
Send news or rumors.
Follow on X, Bluesky, and LinkedIn.
Contact us.

EPtalk by Dr. Jayne 3/13/25

It’s rare for me to see patients without having at least some discussion about the cost of care. Patients usually want to know if the medication I’ve prescribed is a generic, or if they’re in a high-deductible health plan, whether it’s going to be cheaper if they use GoodRx or another discount program.

I trained in a place where generic prescribing was not only encouraged but expected, so many of these conversations are fairly straightforward unless I’m having to recommend a second- or third-line medication after others haven’t worked, or if I’m stuck prescribing one that I know tends to have coverage issues. Patients are becoming more financially savvy when it comes to healthcare costs, which is good considering that patients in the US borrowed $74 billion to cover healthcare costs last year. The US leads the world in medical bankruptcies, and according to recent data, nearly a third of patients are “very concerned” about the possibility of medical debt.

EHRs have become better at embedding data about drug pricing, sometimes putting it at the point of prescribing. This can be cool when implemented well, but when implemented poorly, it’s annoying. For example, if most of the medications that I prescribe cost less than $15 because they’re generic, I really don’t want to see warnings telling me that the drug is going to cost $6 or $8 or whatever it is. EHR-embedded data is also less than helpful when it doesn’t take into account things like deductibles or coinsurances or patients who have both primary and secondary insurance coverage. Maybe we can put some AI resources to work making that information more actionable and also more accessible.

The University of Michigan is planning to reach rural patients through the use of AI-powered mobile clinics. The aspirational goal is one where “general practitioners with AI help could make diagnoses, run and interpret tests, and perform procedures like specialists.” The project is in partnership with the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) and would use vehicles “equipped somewhere between a doctor’s office and hospital.” Even without consideration of the AI element, the devil is in the details for something like this. What kind of lab services will be performed? Is it considered a moderate complexity lab? What is the location of service? How will regulators think about a facility that is constantly on the move?

Those interviewed in the article note that AI agents would “coach” physician assistants and nurses to performed more advanced procedures. I’d like to offer a wild solution to help increase the numbers of advanced procedures that are done across the US. How about we allow family physicians (MDs and DOs) to perform the procedures for which they were trained?

I trained in a high-acuity residency program and developed the skills to perform a variety of outpatient surgical procedures, endoscopies, and even C-sections. But there’s not a hospital in a 100-mile radius that would allow me to have privileges to perform any of those unless I’m a member of a residency program’s faculty. It seems that if we could leverage the skills that highly trained physicians are actually mastering during their training, we could help more patients without the expense of developing and implementing AI. Just a thought. But of course, AI is a lot sexier than allowing family physicians to operate at the top of their licensure, so there you have it.

I was excited to learn that progress has been made in having state licensing boards and hospital credentialing offices remove certain questions from their applications that raise the risk that professionals won’t seek mental health services when they are needed. The Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes’ Foundation has been instrumental in promoting this effort to reduce the stigma of mental health issues among licensed clinicians. The foundation honors the memory of Dr. Lorna Breen, a long time emergency physician who died by suicide during the spring of 2020 while serving on the front lines of COVID. Many of us were in very dark places during that time as well as during other points in our careers. Thank you to the foundation for working to make sure that physicians can get help when they need it rather than worrying whether they will lose their licenses.

I missed this article the first time through the inbox, but I was glad to have caught it later. An original investigation that was published in JAMA Network Open looked at “Clinician Experiences With Ambient Scribe Technology to Assist With Documentation Burden and Efficiency.” The study follows roughly four dozen clinicians at the University of Pennsylvania Health System during two months in 2024, when they were using the DAX Copilot AI tool. Interesting tidbits: while use of the tool correlated with improved efficiency, reduced cognitive burden, and improved patient engagement during appointments, there was “mixed feedback regarding the length and quality of ambient scribe-generated notes.” Some users noted high error rates, but it’s unclear if that has any association with clinician subspecialty since there were 17 specialties represented among the 46 participants.

Notes were about 20% longer, which isn’t always a good thing, although sometimes having more details can make the difference long term. Multiple clinicians felt that the time they spent editing the notes balanced out any time savings during the workday. One of the most interesting tidbits, at least for this data nerd, was that net promoter scores (NPS) were all over the map. Thirteen clinicians were promoters, 11 were passive, and 13 were detractors, leading to an overall NPS of zero. It’s certainly not the overwhelming victory that those who are paying for it were likely hoping for.

I’d love to see this kind of project reproduced in single-specialty cohorts, matching for patient complexity and other factors. I’d also like to see it done at more than one academic institution. Another study limitation was the fact that all participants opted in, which certainly doesn’t reflect how I see physicians embracing (or not embracing) new technologies in the real world.

Have you personally used ambient documentation tools, and what did you think of them? Leave a comment or email me.

Email Dr. Jayne.

Morning Headlines 3/13/25

Motivity Announces $27M Growth Investment from Five Elms Capital to Advance Innovation and Scale Operations

Applied behavior analysis software vendor Motivity raises $27 million and announces new leadership.

Greenspace Health Secures Series B Investment from ABS Capital to Advance Innovation in Behavioral Health through Measurement-Based Care

Greenspace Health, which offers measurement-based care software for mental healthcare providers, secures Series B funding from ABS Capital Partners.

Knack RCM Announces Acquisition of PPM Partners, Expanding Expertise in Anesthesia Revenue Cycle Management

Knack RCM acquires PPM Partners, an Alabama-based company that offers anesthesia billing and practice management services.

Healthcare AI News 3/12/25

News

OpenAI introduces a developer platform for building AI agents that includes tools to perform web and file searches and to perform web-based tasks similar to its Operator browser.

NHS England is deploying an AI tool that can predict a patient’s risk of falling with 97% accuracy. The software, which was developed by Cera, is also being used to predict deterioration in home care patients.

A study finds that patients slightly preferred AI-generated responses to their portal questions over human-written ones, but reported lower satisfaction when told that the response came from AI. The authors conclude that patients should be told that AI was used since it didn’t reduce satisfaction significantly. They also polled patients on their preferred wording of the disclosure, with the winner being, “This message was written by Dr T. with the support of automated tools.”

Business

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center completes a pilot of Abridge’s AI ambient documentation and plans a broad rollout over the next two years.

AI drug discovery company Insilico Medicine deploys a “bipedal humanoid” to train AI systems on the tasks performed by laboratory scientists. They are also using the robot, called “Supervisor,” to assist with lab tours, telepresence, and lab supervision.

Research

Researchers find that LLMs show promise in reducing pediatric medication dosage errors. A medication ChatGPT and Claude were more accurate and faster than pediatric and neonatal nurses, while Llama performed poorly due to an apparent weakness in its calculation logic. The authors recommend evaluating specific LLMs rather than treating all of them as equally capable.

LLMs exhibit “anxiety” when processing emotional mental health topics like interpersonal violence and accidents. Researchers found that mindfulness-related prompts could help regulate the model’s responses, similar to how human therapists manage their emotional reactions while maintaining empathy.

Stanford researchers use AI to identify a naturally occurring prohormone that is as effective as Ozempic in weight loss without the side effects of nausea, constipation, and loss of muscle mass.

Other

Patients are using LLMs to analyze their hospital bills for charges that exceed state and national averages. New startup OpenHand is offering similar analysis, after which the company negotiates with providers to lower the bill.

TikTok users report that AI-generated deepfake doctors are spreading medical advice on topics like surgery, diet, and cosmetic procedures. Some use the Captions app to create and edit AI videos that can be easily replicated with different messages, which is how the users noticed the fakes.

Epic and Agentic AI

A reader asked for my take on Epic’s plans for agentic AI. I have no inside knowledge, so this is pure spitballing.

Some background. Agentic AI acts independently to achieve goals without human oversight while responding dynamically to its environment. Think self-driving cars. It renders robotic process automation (RPA) obsolete, as RPA relied on rigid rules and predefined inputs. It’s hard to believe it’s been just four years since Olive was health tech’s hottest startup.

Non-agentic AI, by contrast, requires human direction. Chatbots are an example. They answer questions and retrieve information but don’t take external actions like scheduling appointments. In between are limited function, app-specific copilots that assist users without initiating decisions.

The business case for agentic AI is workflow automation, reduced labor costs, real-time monitoring (cybersecurity, throughput, resource allocation), and rapid feature deployment. Instead of modifying core systems via traditional coding, testing, and releases, AI can introduce new functionality faster and allow customization at the client level. It also streamlines integrations with external systems. All of this is theoretical, of course, and is heavily dependent on the vendor and user organization.

Epic has already embedded non-agentic AI across its platform, with use cases like drafting patient replies, simplifying documents, automating prior authorizations, and enabling voice control. These are quickly becoming table stakes with AI’s ubiquity.

Agentic AI is the logical next step, and Epic seems to be out front, although Oracle Health’s plans aren’t quite clear yet either. Early implementations will likely focus on low-risk back-office tasks, then expand into clinical support, population outreach, and automated reminders. Unlike third-party AI vendors that rely on brittle workarounds like screen scraping, Epic can integrate AI natively and provide scalability and stability.

AI’s role in clinical decision support is gaining acceptance, as long as a human remains in the loop as FDA requires to avoid inviting regulation as a medical device. Future AI applications could preassemble patient histories, flag care gaps, match patients to clinical trials, and pull relevant literature. AI could also be used to personalize the patient’s treatment and communication.

Few vendors have the resources to develop and support AI agents that have unknown ROI. Reputational risks from AI errors and regulatory scrutiny will be a deterrent for some companies. Another possible barrier is the willingness of a developer-focused software company to allow an AI agent to take over software flow but still support normal user interaction.

Epic benefits from its homogeneous customer base and a track record of incremental software development. It doesn’t need to chase AI-jazzed investors, so it can roll out tools when it’s ready in an Minimum Viable Product-type approach. 

Epic also has advantages such as its Cosmos data repository, the ability to integrate deeply with its existing products, and the market power to influence what partners and competitors do.

I would expect Epic to deploy both agentic and non-agentic AI initially to reduce clinician burden and surface relevant insights within workflows. It will probably have another group working on reducing the health system labor that is needed to basically push (electronic) paper that someone outside the health system requires. It will eventually use AI to adapt its underlying software to user preferences. It will probably tread lightly at first with clinical functions, making sure to allow opt-outs and human overrides when the AI’s confidence is low.

On the big-picture operational side, Epic will position itself as offering an intelligent, proactive platform for hospital management, which people have been talking about for years. That will be a significant development assuming that early adopters show measurable improvement in moving from “tools” to “systems.”

Success depends on Epic’s ability to build new expertise in AI and determine the level of cloud dependency its customers will accept. It’s likely already working with an early adopter cohort, though we won’t hear much outside of UGM presentations. By August, we should have a clearer picture of its direction. Anything in the meantime is speculation, which I wouldn’t have offered if the reader hadn’t asked. Your thoughts are welcome.

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
Get HIStalk updates.
Send news or rumors.
Follow on X, Bluesky, and LinkedIn.
Contact us.

Morning Headlines 3/12/25

Hinge Health Files Registration Statement for Proposed Initial Public Offering

Digital physical therapy provider Hinge Health files IPO paperwork.

Tempus Announces Acquisition of Deep 6 AI

Precision medicine technology vendor Tempus AI acquires Deep 6 AI, which has developed software that matches patients with clinical trials using EHR data.

RLDatix acquires IPeople Healthcare

RLDatix, which offers healthcare governance, risk, compliance, and workforce management solutions, acquires downtime continuity and Meditech-focused professional services company IPeople Healthcare.

Vori Health Secures $53 Million in Series B Funding to Transform Value-Based Musculoskeletal Care

Virtual orthopedic care provider Vori Health raises $53 million in a Series B funding round, bringing its total raised to $103 million.

News 3/12/25

Top News

Digital physical therapy provider Hinge Health files IPO paperwork.

The company’s most recent funding round in October 2021 raised $600 million, valuing it at $6 billion.

Hinge sells its services to employers and payers. It estimates the direct and indirect costs of back and joint pain at $1.3 trillion per year.

Reader Comments

From Pomme: “Re: Epic ERP. Judy Faulkner used to tell the story of ‘Atalanta and the Golden Apples’’ to represent opportunities that Epic must ignore to stay on mission. It describes how Hippomenes won a race against Atalanta by dropping golden apples that Atalanta stopped to pick up, which slowed her down just enough to allow Hippomenes to win. ERP sounds like a bushel of golden apples. I hope she is just messing with Oracle.”

From Bill Spooner: “Re: Epic ERP.  Developing a full ERP system is not a quick and easy task. Epic needs to decide if this is right for them. It’s hard to imagine it replacing Workday or Oracle, yet it could be a smart play for smaller institutions.”

From  Brendan Keeler: “Re: Epic ERP.  The announcement is not surprising in the slightest. It is concretely related to their Health Grid strategy —  build network effects products to new verticals as a wedge / beachhead and offer a related system of record (CAPS, CTMS, ERP, LIS, pharmacy information system) that natively performs between with those network effects products. Along the same lines, they also announced a clinical trials management system. I predicted this last month.”

From Slow Green: “Re: Greenway Health. The profiles of CEO Pratap Sarker and Chief of Staff Frank Pirantino have been removed from the company’s leadership page.” Verified. The page now lists industry veteran Richard Atkin, who served as CEO from 2018 to 2022, as CEO once again. Atkin is a principal with Vista Equity Partners, which owns Greenway and tried to sell it, apparently unsuccessfully, a year ago.

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

Drop your knowledge bombs in my reader survey, which you can complete in a minute or two. I haven’t done one since 2021, so it needs a refresh.

Sponsored Events and Resources

Live Webinar: March 20 (Thursday) noon ET. “Enhancing Patient Experience: Digital Accessibility Legal Requirements in Healthcare.” Sponsor: TPGi. Presenters: Mark Miller, director of sales, TPGi; David Sloan, PhD, MSc, chief accessibility officer, TPGi; Kristina Launey, JD, labor and employment litigation and counseling partner, Seyfarth Shaw LLP. For patients with disabilities, inaccessible technology can mean the difference between timely, effective care and unmet healthcare needs. This could include accessible patient portals, telehealth services, and payment platforms. Despite a new presidential administration, requirements for Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) have not changed. While enforcement may unclear moving forward, healthcare organizations still have an obligation to their patients for digital accessibility. In our webinar session, TPGi’s accessibility experts and Seyfarth Shaw’s legal professionals will help you understand ACA Section 1557 requirements, its future under the Trump administration, and offer strategies to help you create inclusive experiences.

Live Webinar: March 27 (Thursday) noon ET. “How to Improve Clinical Workflows with AI Chart Summaries and Risk Predictions.” Sponsor: Health Data Analytics Institute. Presenters: Scott Cullen, MD, senior advisor, Health Data Analytics Institute; David Clain, chief product officer, Health Data Analytics Institute. Learn how the EHR-embedded HDAIAssist tool is transforming the ability of clinicians to pull insights out the mountains of data that have accumulated in the EHR, quickly, accurately, and cost-effectively. HDAlAssist, which is part of HealthVision, the intelligent health management system, combines AI chart summaries and granular risk predictions to quickly inform care planning decisions, especially for the most complex, high-risk patients.

Contact Lorre to have your resource listed.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Oracle reports Q3 results: revenue up 6%, EPS $1.02 versus $0.85, missing Wall Street expectations for both. The only healthcare-related mention was in Larry Ellison’s response to a question about AI agents. He sounded pretty stoked about it, with these snips from his lengthy answer:

• Oracle’s key differentiator in healthcare is the quality of its AI agents, which include ambient documentation and a pre-visit provider summary.
• The company is also developing an AI-powered prior authorization tool, which Ellison expects to drive healthcare sales by  reducing costs.
• He says, “We’re selling more and more healthcare systems because we have a lot of AI agents embedded in them.”

RLDatix, which offers healthcare governance, risk, compliance, and workforce management solutions, acquires downtime continuity and Meditech-focused professional services company IPeople Healthcare.

Digital health and remote patient monitoring company CoachCare acquires virtual care vendor VitalTech, its eighth acquisition in the last two years.

Virtual orthopedic care provider Vori Health raises $53 million in a Series B funding round, bringing its total raised to $103 million.

People

SmarterDx names Jacob Schiftan (Viz.ai) VP of product and Tom Dougherty, MBA (Care Continuity) head of sales.

Agfa HealthCare appoints Omar Sunna, MBA (Microsoft) chief customer officer for North America.

Trent Green, MBA, MHA (One Medical) joins NRC Health as CEO.

Emids names Abhishek Shankar, MBA (Tech Mahindra) CEO.

OptimizeRx promotes Steve Silvestro, MLA to CEO.

Announcements and Implementations

Zoom pilots its new AI-enhanced Workplace for Clinicians technology, which was developed for in-person and virtual appointments.

ECRI lists its most significant threats to patient safety for 2025:

• Dismissing the concerns of patients, family members, and caregivers.
• Lack of governance of artificial intelligence.
• The spread of medical misinformation.
• Cybersecurity breaches.
• Caring for veterans in non-military health settings.
• Substandard and falsified drugs.
• Diagnostic error in cancers, vascular events, and infections.
• Healthcare-associated infections in long-term care facilities.
• Inadequate coordination during patient discharge.

Government and Politics

In England, former health secretary Steve Barclay says that NHS “spends too much on foreign IT systems” and should prioritize British companies instead.

The US Navy will offer sailors and their dependents free access to digital services from Talkspace as part of a new mental healthcare program that is being piloted at six bases.

Privacy and Security

Therapists at the VA’s clinical resource hubs are protesting being forced to conduct virtual mental health sessions from open cubicles. The therapists, who worked remotely until ordered to return to the office, are housed in facilities that lack private offices. VA leadership reportedly stated that “screen protectors, a white noise machine, and a headset is [sic] sufficient to ensure patient privacy in a large bullpen of cubicles.”

Business Insider reports that some states are requiring Bamboo Health to track the prescribing of abortion pills in their prescription monitoring programs that were designed for opioid tracking. Louisiana has reclassified misoprostol and mifepristone as controlled substances, which requires clinicians to log them into Bamboo’s system. Texas, Indiana, and Idaho are considering similar measures. Bamboo says that it is legally obligated to monitor the drugs in states that require it. Doctors are raising concerns about data access, as the information isn’t protected by HIPAA and can be viewed by state health departments, medical examiners, and law enforcement under certain conditions.

Other

HIMSS26 will be held March 9-12 in Las Vegas next year, according to parent company Informa Connect. ViVE, meanwhile, will take place February 22-25, this time in Los Angeles.

Consultants discover that Health New Zealand, whose annual budget is $18 billion, manages its finances using a single Microsoft Excel worksheet. The health minister recently highlighted HNZ’s fragmented digital infrastructure, which includes 6,000 apps and 100 digital networks.

Sponsor Updates

• AGS Health publishes a new white paper, “The RCM Maturity Framework: A 4-Stage Journey to Digital Transformation and Operational Excellence.”
• Wolters Kluwer Health announces that Phrase Health will integrate its UpToDate clinical decision support solution with Phrase Health’s EHR workflow optimization software.
• A new Waystar report identifies the top six RCM trends of 2025.
• CereCore releases a new podcast titled “From AI to EHR: How to Approach Healthcare Innovation Today.”
• Black Book Research shares highlights from its recent survey of AMIA members on AI-driven healthcare innovations and interoperability advancements.
• Capital Rx releases a new episode of “The Astonishing Healthcare Podcast” titled “How First-Movers are Taking Control of their Health Plans in 2025, with Jeff Hogan.”
• The “Thriving Practice” podcast features Arrive Health CEO Kyle Kiser in an episode titled “From Hours to Minutes: Transforming Prior Authorizations with Arrive Health.”
• Artera exhibits at AAOS through March 14 in San Diego.
• Censinet releases a new report titled “Choosing the Right Healthcare TPRM and ERM Solution.”
• Clearwater announces new innovations in its Security Operations Center Portal and IRM|Analysis software.
• NHS Ayrshire & Arran in Scotland implements TrakCare as a Service from InterSystems.
• Symplr releases the results of its “2025 State of Healthcare Supply Chain Survey” in a new e-book.
• MRO introduces automated HEDIS data retrieval.

Blog Posts

• People-First Tech Strategy Demands More from EHR and Gen AI (CereCore)
• Digital Health Rewired 2025: A supported, connected and flexible approach from Altera Digital Health (Altera Digital Health)
• Cybersecurity Essentials for Rural and Critical Access Hospitals (CloudWave)
• Glimmers From HIMSS: Announcements, Recognition, and Collaboration Shine Bright in Glittery Las Vegas (DrFirst)

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
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Morning Headlines 3/11/25

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