News 2/6/23

Top News

Athenahealth will lay off 178 employees, re-deploy 100 to more high-priority areas, and consider making changes to its office space in Watertown, MA, according to paywalled reporting by The Boston Globe. The company’s last round of layoffs, in 2019, impacted nearly 4% of its workforce.

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HIStalk Practice Musings

 

My reading so far this year has tended toward the Dark Ages, as I’ve become engrossed in Bernard Cornwell’s “The Last Kingdom” series. I’ve yet to see the Netflix show, which I can only imagine is just as bloody, if not bloodier, than the warfare between Saxons, Britons, and a host of other post-Roman tribes depicted in the novel. I’ve also strayed into Cornwell’s Arthur series, which offers an interesting, brutal take on the more typical depictions of the Arthurian saga. Cornwell is my kind of author, spinning tales into a dozen books.

Readers may remember my mention last year of the book “Russian Winter” by Daphne Kalotay. She was kind enough to let me know that her new book, The Archivists, will be released in April.

Finally, I can’t help but mention that I thoroughly enjoyed comedian Nate Bargatze’s new Amazon Prime comedy special, Hello World. I bring it up here because he did at least 30 seconds on his frustration with filling out the same paper medical forms at every doctor’s appointment he’s ever been to.

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Webinars

None scheduled soon. Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present your own.

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Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Simple HealthKit raises $8 million in a Series A funding round led by Initialized Capital. The company offers a digital health platform encompassing diagnostics and follow-up care to groups including providers, retail clinics, employers, and universities. Founder Sheena Menezes was a former director at Scanadu, a Tricorder-like medical device manufacturer that aimed to put a smartphone-powered diagnostic tool in everyone’s pocket before rebranding and being acquired by Health.io in 2020.

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Announcements and Implementations

Houston-based Legacy Community Health Clinic will use $1 million in federal funding to upgrade its 10 year-old EHR. The clinic will go live on the new, unspecified system across its 55 facilities in October.

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Research and Innovation

Physician practices are focused on the following healthcare trends, according to anonymous user data from AdvancedMD customers: patient-centric payment capabilities, integrating behavioral and mental health offerings, automation technologies that can improve workflows, remote patient monitoring, and digital patient self-service tools.

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Other

Cardiovascular Associates (AL) notifies patients of a data breach late last year in which an unauthorized third party gained access to certain CVS systems that contained patient information. Some of that data was copied and removed from the network.

Fast Company profiles Fresh Connect, a Boston-based nonprofit that has created a credit card physicians can “prescribe” to their patients to help them pay for fruits and vegetables. The Fresh Connect card is scanned at check out, and the cost of fruits and vegetables is deducted from the bill’s balance. Cards are typically funded with $100, with overall funding coming from programs like Medicaid and other nonprofits. Shopping data can be tied to a patient’s EHR for analysis of patient experience and food access, outcomes, and costs. Massachusetts-based ACO Community Care Cooperative has used the card as part of a larger pilot project focused on patients with complex health needs.

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Sponsor Updates

• Nordic releases a new podcast, “Making Rounds: The up and downside of disintermediation.”
• Nordic publishes DocTalk Ep. 202, “The Marvel of In-House Business Intelligence.”

Blog Posts

• Improving Patient Safety Through Unified Clinical Collaboration (TigerConnect)
• Increasing access to behavioral health resources (Nordic)

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Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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