News 6/17/10

From Newt: “Re: relevance of CCHIT. Naive, but the comments are warming up.” Newt sent over this article discussing CCHIT and reasons its relevance could be increasing or fading. On the waning side, the author cites competition with other certifying bodies, the possibility that RECs won’t select a CCHIT-certified product (I find that unlikely, at least any time soon), and the chance that new vendors will place less importance on CCHIT certification. On the other hand, CCHIT is the most experienced certifying body and represents the safest bet for buyers.

GE Healthcare unveils Centricity Advance, a new SaaS solution that includes EMR/PM and portal solutions. It sounds as if it might be a “lite” version of GE’s traditional offering, designed for small practices and requiring less upfront investment, minimal training and easier implementation. The most surprising thing about this announcement is that it’s taken GE this long to jump on the SaaS/low-end bandwagon.

Mark Goines, a former SVP and GM of Intuit’s consumer division, joins Practice Fusion’s board of directors.

Virginia HIT names Allscripts, athenahealth and MDLand as preferred EHR partners. All three vendors will provide SaaS-modeled EHRs for primary care physicians working with the REC.

The HIMSS EHR Association elects new leadership and adds an executive member. Epic EVP Carl Dvorak will head the board, with NextGen VP Charlie Jarvis taking over as vice chair. Pamela Chapman, director of clinical product management for e-MDs, is the Executive Committee’s newest member.

The 21-physician Jackson Heart Clinic (PA) partners with TSI Healthcare to provide NextGen implementation services.

National Coordinator for HIT David Blumenthal says that providers are still concerned about the cost of adding EHRs, losing productivity, and overcoming the technical challenges of implementation. He also points out that if physicians don’t have EHRs, they may have difficulty recruiting new partners or selling their practices because newer generation physicians won’t “tolerate a paper world.”

eClinicalWorks purchases 100,000 square feet of office space in Westborough, MA to support its growing operations. eCW plans to add 100-200 more people over the next 12 months, supplementing its current 1,100-member workforce.

Greenway Medical Technologies launches BlogEHR, a new blog site focusing on HIT and written by Greenway executives.

AT&T issues a statement saying that the iPhone 4 pre-orders were an incredible 10 times higher those for the iPhone 3G S last year. In order to catch up inventories, AT&T is suspending pre-orders and Apple’s Web site says pre-orders won’t ship until July 14th. I think I placed a pre-order Tuesday and requested to pick up the new phone up in the Apple store June 24, but I had such problems on the Apple site that I won’t be surprised if I come home 4G-less that first day.

Here’s a new tool for the price-conscious patient. Startup Castlight Health is establishing a Web site that allows patients to search for doctors offering a particular service nearby and to also find out the costs based on insurance coverage. The company’s founder and CEO is Dr. Giovanni Colella, the founder of RelayHealth. athenahealth founder and current HHS CTO Todd Park is a co-founder.

From researchers at Henry Ford Hospital: patients are more likely to routinely take their medicines for asthma control when their physicians monitor their medication use and review detailed e-prescribing information.

Florida internist Cecil B. Wilson is inaugurated president of the AMA.

NoMoreClipboard partners with Washington DC-area providers to use PHRs with cell phones to help diabetics improve outcomes and reduce costs. The program targets high-risk Medicaid patients who may not have access to home PCs. On the other hand, administrators note that “everyone has a cell phone.”

Because truckers need maintenance too, Roadside Medical Clinic + Lab opens three new locations in Pilot Travel Centers. The new and existing clinics all have a full PM/EHR (TotusMedica.us) complete with iPads and telemedicine.

E-mail Inga.