The article about Pediatric Associates in CA has a nugget with a potentially outsized impact: the implication that VFC vaccines…
News 6/6/16
Top News
Healthcare staffing and solutions company AMN Healthcare acquires HIM services firm Peak Health Solutions for an undisclosed sum. It’s AMN’s second acquisition in less than a year; the San Diego-based firm bought executive search and advisory services business B.E. Smith late last year.
Webinars
June 28 (Tuesday) 2:00 ET. “Your Call Is Very Important.” Sponsored by West Healthcare Practice. Presenters: Cyndy Orrys, contact center director, Henry Ford Health System; Brian Cooper, SVP, West Interactive. The contact center is a key hub of patient engagement and a strategic lever for driving competitive advantage. Cyndy will share how her organization’s call center is using technologies and approaches that create effortless patient experiences in connecting them to the right information or resource. Brian will describe five key characteristics of a modern call center and suggest how to get started.
Contact Lorre for webinar services. Past webinars are on our HIStalk webinars YouTube channel.
People
Jim Paulson (Viewpoint Construction Software) joins HealthCo Information Systems as CEO.
Telemedicine
Virtual exam technology startup MedWand receives seed round funding from Taiwan-based electronics manufacturer Foxlink Group. Foxlink’s interest was no doubt piqued after MedWand partnered with Doctor on Demand last fall.
Announcements and Implementations
RelayHealth Financial develops software that can automatically track down, inspect, and report accurate reasons for non-payment on claims.
American Society of Clinical Oncology subsidiary CancerLinq will collaborate with Cancer Informatics for Cancer Centers (CI4CC), which represents informatics leaders and chief data scientists at National Cancer Institute-designated cancer centers and other major medical and research institutions. The organizations will establish joint informatics programs, create an informatics advisory council for CancerLinq, and place a CancerLinq staff member on the CI4CC Leadership Board. Nearly 60 oncology practices have joined CancerLinq’s data-sharing initiative since it was developed in 2013.
Government and Politics
Numerous medical associations meet Friday’s deadline to weigh in on how ONC should measure interoperability under MACRA. The AAFP recommends that ONC include non-Meaningful Users in its measurements, and that “measuring interoperability be harmonized a single process to reduce administrative burdens.” It also advocates for data from multiple sources, and patient-centric measures that promote coordination of care. AMA and 36 specialty societies note in their combined comments that current measures are “too focused on the quantity of information moved and not the relevance of these exchanges or the underlying business case for transmitting data.”
Research and Innovation
Allscripts, Athenahealth, and Marshfield Clinic Information Services rank highest in large group practice overall satisfaction and client loyalty for 2016, according to Black Book survey results. The company’s latest research also shows that, while an overwhelming majority of large group practices are happy with vendor EHR and PM improvements, nearly a third are dissatisfied with vendor efforts to improve implementation and training processes.
Other
Atari attempts a comeback via a licensing deal with French connected home device maker Sigfox. Consumers (and charity organizations) can initially expect to see Atari-branded home, pet, lifestyle, and safety devices. I wonder if fitness trackers might eventually be included in the lifestyle category.
I always appreciate a good poke at startup jargon, and Quartz doesn’t disappoint in its latest take on the attempts of young companies to make their products sound more appealing than they actually are. SparkShare co-founder Chris Parker describes his company as a “video reaction network,” when in actuality it’s a video chat app developer. “It’s jargon,” he says, “but it’s the only way that we can start out when we explain ourselves. We could turn the jargon on [even more] and say that we’re a ‘cloud-based streaming content delivery network,’ but we find that it doesn’t resonate with people.”
Sponsor Updates
Blog Posts
- Improving collaboration and patient care through a single patient identifier (PerfectServe)
- Interoperability and Toppling the Tower of Babel (Aprima)
Contacts
Jennifer, Mr. H, Lorre, Dr. Jayne, Dr. Gregg
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