News 8/18/15

Top News

Riding high on the coattails of the transition to ICD-10, coding software and services company Aviacode secures a $16 million investment from growth equity firm Frontier Capital. The Salt Lake City-based company plans to use the funds to expand sales and marketing, and scale up product development.

HIStalk Practice Announcements and Requests

I have yet to encounter a physician’s office during unexpected downtime. After reading Dr. Jayne’s latest Curbside Consult, I can only imagine the frustration staff and patients must feel in dealing with unorganized paper-based workflows. I encourage you to take a look at her recommended best practices for just such a situation. I recommend a big dose of patience for those patients who unknowingly encounter just such a situation. It’s times like these that make me seriously consider signing up for a mobile-friendly PHR. 

Webinars

August 25 (Tuesday) 1:00 ET. “Cerner’s Takeover of Siemens: An Update (Including the DoD Project).” Sponsored by HIStalk. Presenters: Vince Ciotti, principal, HIS Professionals; Frank Poggio, president and CEO, The Kelzon Group. Vince and Frank delivered HIStalk’s most popular webinar, "Cerner’s Takeover of Siemens, Are You Ready?" which has been viewed nearly 6,000 times. Vince and Frank return with their brutally honest (and often humorous) opinions about what has happened with Cerner since then, including its participation in the successful DoD bid and what that might mean for Cerner’s customers and competitors, based on their having seen it all in their decades of experience.

Previous webinars are on the YouTube channel. Contact Lorre for webinar services including discounts for signing up by Labor Day.

#HIStalking Tweet Chat: Compliance from the Patient’s Point of View

Join @ThePatientsSide (Amy Gleason, COO of CareSync and White House Champion of Change for Precision Medicine) and me (@JennHIStalk) for a discussion on using healthcare technology to drive patient compliance. Preview Amy’s #HIStalking discussion questions here.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Rehab therapy EHR vendor WebPT acquires Therabill, a PM software firm specializing in physical and occupational therapy, speech-language pathology, and behavioral health. The combined company’s technology will provide practices with an integrated tool for documentation, scheduling, reporting, and billing.

Announcements and Implementations

Texas-based Urgent Clinics Medical Care implements EHR, PM, and billing solutions from DocuTap at its seven locations across Houston.

23andMe announces it will offer additional health product tests by the end of this year, including tests that indicate autosomal recessive traits. The company is obviously clearing the regulatory hurdles it has encountered over the last several years. Readers may recall the FDA forced 23andMe to stop marketing its $99 “spit kit” as a testing tool for susceptibility to genetic-related conditions, causing the company to focus that product on consumer ancestry. Bloomberg reports that it is planning to raise $150 million in new venture capital financing, and has hired new CFO and Director of Operations Dean Schorno to lead the charge back into healthcare.

Clinical Architecture launches Content Cloud, a content update service that delivers updated healthcare terminologies in a standard and consistent format.

People

The National Medical Association elects Edith Mitchell, MD president. In addition to  her work as a practicing oncologist, Mitchell is also a retired brigadier general in the U.S. Air Force – the first female physician to attain that rank.

Nitin Karandikar (DeVero) joins DigiSight Technologies as vice president of engineering.

Telemedicine

CVS Health Research Institute summarizes findings from its 2014 telehealth pilot project at MinuteClinic locations in California and Texas, concluding (without a hint of bias, I’m sure) that 95 percent of patients were highly satisfied with the quality of care they received, the ease with which telehealth technology was integrated into the visit, and the timeliness and convenience of their care. One-third of the program’s 1,700 patients noted they preferred a telehealth visit to one with a clinician in the same room.

Government and Politics

HHS encourages health IT-savvy practices of any size to submit nominations for the 2015 Million Hearts Hypertension Control Challenge. Practices that have achieved hypertension control rates of greater than 70 percent are eligible to enter through October 31.

Research and Innovation

An informal survey finds that millenials might not be as averse to the traditional primary care office visit as we might stereotypically think. Author Christina Farr (herself a millenial) points out that, “What surprised me in my research is that while millennials do shop around for primary care, similar to how they compare auto insurance or airline flights, many said they were willing to commit once they’ve found a doctor who fits the bill. Others told me that they would prioritize seeing their regular doctor and would only consider seeing a new doctor via Doctor On Demand or One Medical if the wait time for a visit surpassed a couple days.”

Researchers conclude that, despite well-documented abandonment rates, exercise apps really do help people exercise more. Of the 726 people studied, current app users had lower BMIs (25.16) than past and non-users (26.8 and 26.9, respectively). Researchers conclude that “exercise apps can be viewed as intervention delivery systems consisting of features that help users overcome specific barriers.” As a “past user,” I can conclude that using an exercise app for just one week caused me to be more mindful of my activity levels, not to mention my need to decrease overall screen time.

Other

Practices looking for the latest and greatest WiFi router take note: Google launches the $199 wireless OnHub via online retailers today, with an in-store launch planned for early next month. The company claims the new device, managed via a companion app, is easier to use and more reliable and secure than competing products. No word yet on whether yet whether OnHub will remain in Google or will be spun into another part of the new Alphabet holding company.

Contacts

Jennifer,  Mr. H, Lorre, Dr. Jayne, Dr. Gregg, Lt. Dan

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

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5 Questions with Jill Monroe, Wellness Program Manager, City of Kansas City, MO

Jill Monroe is wellness program manager within the Benefits Division of the City of Kansas City, MO’s Human Resources department. The city partnered earlier this summer with the Kansas City Health Care Trust, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City, and Mosaic Life Care to install a telemedicine kiosk for employees at City Hall.

What was the impetus for installing the telemedicine kiosk?
The City of Kansas City, MO is dedicated to the health of its employees. The City understands that employees are busy and continue to become busier, so having an opportunity to provide an easily accessible, affordable option to get quality healthcare is a win for everyone.

Have employees found it beneficial?
Yes, since the implementation of the telemedicine kiosk, the employees have embraced and used it.

How do you hope it will help improve employee health and wellness?
To improve the health and wellness of the employees, the City has provided the telemedicine kiosk, an Employee Health Care Trust Medical Clinic, and a robust Fountain of Health Employee Wellness Program to employees. By integrating services, we’re hoping to provide quality preventative and chronic disease care, along with concentrating on the employee’s total wellbeing and work/life balance.

Did the city have prior experience with telemedicine (i.e. installing units in schools, health centers, etc.)?
Telemedicine is new to the City; however, we have had excellent guidance from our insurance provider and Mosaic Life Center, which operates the kiosk.

What sort of due diligence was done with regard to checking out telemedicine vendors, and how other city governments have used telemedicine to benefit their workforce?
Due diligence was done by the City’s insurance broker and provider prior to bringing the telemedicine kiosk to the City’s Health Care Trust Committee.

Do you foresee installing additional kiosks in other city government facilities?
Only time will tell. The kiosk has been open and accessible to City employees for just over a month. At this point, the City is focused on the success of the telemedicine kiosk at City Hall and the medical clinic that we have at our Health Department location for employees.

Contacts

Jennifer,  Mr. H, Lorre, Dr. Jayne, Dr. Gregg, Lt. Dan

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

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Contact us online.
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News 8/17/15

Top News

Y Combinator graduate Circle Medical launches a unique house/office-call service in San Francisco, offering patients insurance-covered, full-service appointments with full-time physicians. Its accompanying app sets a high bar for practices of any stripe, allowing consumers to see physician profiles and check out potential copays in advance.

Webinars

August 25 (Tuesday) 1:00 ET. “Cerner’s Takeover of Siemens: An Update (Including the DoD Project).” Sponsored by HIStalk. Presenters: Vince Ciotti, principal, HIS Professionals; Frank Poggio, president and CEO, The Kelzon Group. Vince and Frank delivered HIStalk’s most popular webinar, "Cerner’s Takeover of Siemens, Are You Ready?" which has been viewed nearly 6,000 times. Vince and Frank return with their brutally honest (and often humorous) opinions about what has happened with Cerner since then, including its participation in the successful DoD bid and what that might mean for Cerner’s customers and competitors, based on their having seen it all in their decades of experience.

Previous webinars are on the YouTube channel. Contact Lorre for webinar services including discounts for signing up by Labor Day.

#HIStalking Tweet Chat: Compliance from the Patient’s Point of View

Join @ThePatientsSide (Amy Gleason, COO of CareSync and White House Champion of Change for Precision Medicine) and me (@JennHIStalk) for a discussion on using healthcare technology to drive patient compliance. Preview Amy’s #HIStalking discussion questions here.

Announcements and Implementations

Greenwood, IN-based AmeriVeri develops verification software to help physicians reduce coding and billing errors. 

People

Practice Fusion replaces its founder and CEO Ryan Howard ahead of an expected IPO announcement. New CEO by Tom Langan has only been with the company for a year, and was promoted from his position as chief commercial officer.

Dan McGraw (Nuance Healthcare) joins SRSsoft as senior vice president of sales.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

East Lansing, MI-based Medical Advantage Group, a subsidiary of medical malpractice insurer The Doctors Company, acquires physician practice consulting firm Health Care Management for an undisclosed sum.

The New York Times paints a fascinating yet cringe-inducing portrait of the inner workings of Amazon, where founder Jeff Bezos seems to have instilled a do-or-die work ethic that has enabled the $250 billion company to sell “everything to everyone everywhere.” Aside from a steady stream of employee crying jags and discouragement of work/life balance, Amazon’s management philosophy has prompted some to go above and beyond: “I was so addicted to wanting to be successful there,” says Dina Vaccari, who left the company last year. “For those of us who went to work there, it was like a drug that we could get self-worth from.”

Telemedicine

Much has been made of telemedicine’s growth trajectory for patients of the two-legged variety, but what about for pets? UK-based PawSquad launches this month to capture what is sure to become a booming market given that pet owners will often pay obscene amounts of money for insurance and vet bills. (Not to mention the fact that vet/pet EHRs and PHRs have made news recently for being so user friendly.) The only catch is that the company won’t offer diagnoses or prescriptions, and will instead focus on behavioral issues.

Research and Innovation

American Heart Association researchers believe mobile apps and wearable sensors have the potential to help people live healthier lives, despite limited scientific evidence backing their effectiveness over the long term. Researchers came to that conclusion after reviewing a decade’s worth of clinical trial and analysis data, which showed that studies have been short-term and limited in size. “The fact that mobile health technologies haven’t been fully studied doesn’t mean that they are not effective,” explains Lora Burke, lead research author and professor of nursing and epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh. “Self-monitoring is one of the core strategies for changing cardiovascular health behaviors.”

A MeriTalk report finds that governments spend $342 billion annually on providing care through public programs to people who aren’t eligible. Lack of data integration is thought to be a big contributing factor: 44 percent of IT professionals surveyed contend they aren’t able to access all the necessary data due to system and integration challenges. Just over 20 percent say their current IT system is “analytical,” while only 16 percent believe their system to be “intuitive.”

Other

Aprima Medical Software welcomed nearly 800 attendees to its annual user group meeting. The event, held over three days in Dallas, coincided with the launch of the company’s new cross-platform technology. Kudos to the staff and attendees who made over 100 fleece blankets throughout the event for patients in the ICU at The Children’s Medical Center of Dallas.

I had no idea evolutionary robotics was this advanced: Scientists at the University of Cambridge design a robot that builds baby robots, with the ability to use data from each round of building to make even better bot offspring. Lead researcher Fumiya Iida assures us that human-shaped robots are still decades away. “It’s still a long way to go before we’ll have robots that look, act, and think like us,” Iida said. “But what we do have are a lot of enabling technologies that will help us import some aspects of biology to the engineering world.”

Contacts

Jennifer,  Mr. H, Lorre, Dr. Jayne, Dr. Gregg, Lt. Dan

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

Get HIStalk Practice  updates.
Contact us online.
Become a sponsor.

Compliance from the Patient’s Point of View – #HIStalking Tweet Chat Thursday, August 20 at 1pm ET

Join @JennHIStalk and @ThePatientsSide (Amy Gleason, COO of CareSync and White House Champion of Change for Precision Medicine) for a discussion on using healthcare technology to drive patient compliance. Preview #HIStalking discussion questions below and brush up on how to participate in a tweet chat towards the end of this post.

Chronic disease has a huge effect on our healthcare system as a whole. For example, seven out of 10 deaths are due to a chronic disease. Half of Americans have one chronic disease, and 25 percent have two or more. Eighty-six percent of healthcare spending each year is on people with one or more chronic diseases. I have spent most of my career working to automate medical records so that we can become more efficient and provide better care. The dream was to also make life better for patients and clinicians. However, healthcare today is anything but easier, more efficient or effective for patients and clinicians.

Five years ago, my sweet 11 year-old daughter Morgan was diagnosed with a rare auto-immune disease called Juvenile Dermatomyositis. We went through the painful experience of being misdiagnosed and struggling to find a diagnosis for one year and three months. The healthcare systems I was so proudly helping to create and implement failed my daughter and her doctors. Instead, her records were fragmented among seven different doctors we saw in that timeframe. None of them could see what the others were doing. We were blindly going from appointment to appointment and not seeing that all of these things were related.

Not only did we contribute to that 86-percent of healthcare spending figure, we contributed to the waste as well. We didn’t mean to, and I know that the vast majority of patients and doctors also don’t want to waste resources, either. However, she would frequently have “just another X-ray” or “just a recheck of labs” because they didn’t have the information available when they were seeing her. Because information wasn’t shared, she required two ER visits that could have been avoided.

Fast forward three years, and my never-a-smoker mother was diagnosed with lung cancer. When she was sent to an oncologist, her pulmonologist sent her records by FedEx to her doctor. They arrived and were signed for, but when my mom got to see the doctor, the records were misplaced and unavailable to her. This trip was in a different state, and she had flown to the visit. Imagine the wasted cost of this visit without the records being available! Thankfully, my mom had her records on her CareSync iPhone app and could share them herself at the visit. For most patients, this is not the reality. My mom only had them because I had gotten the records for her.

I hear a lot about patient “non-compliance” and that this is the reason for a lot of waste. I know there is a lot of “non-compliance” out there. However, I don’t think most patients have really been given the help they need to be compliant. As my family found, it is a lot harder to be “compliant” than you would think. Specialists send you to more specialists who send you back to the original specialist. That process can take weeks and by then you can be in the ER or admitted to the hospital. The orders are saved in the visit, but patients are rarely given clear instructions or guidance.

That being said (my story being told), I am very excited about hosting this month’s #HIStalking chat and getting to discuss these issues with HIStalk readers!

#HIStalking Discussion Questions

Q1 How can we make the confusing healthcare experience easier to navigate for the consumer?

Q2 What successes have you seen in getting patients to be “compliant” and  engaged in their own care?

Q3 Other industries have more advanced information exchange. How can we speed up this process in healthcare?

Q4 How can we make medical records easier for doctors and patients to consume instead of for record keeping?

Q5 If you could change one thing in the healthcare experience, what would you change?

Tweet Chat Instructions

It’s easy to join the Twitter conversation by logging into TweetChat, which automatically keeps you in the conversation by tagging all tweets with the #HIStalking hash tag. If you are unable to access the TweetChat room, simply search in Twitter for #HIStalking and follow the conversation. To contribute, be sure and tag your tweets with #HIStalking so they can be seen by other chat participants.

Contacts

Jennifer,  Mr. H, Lorre, Dr. Jayne, Dr. Gregg, Lt. Dan

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

Get HIStalk Practice  updates.
Contact us online.
Become a sponsor.

Population Health Management Weekly Wrap Up 8/14/15

Top News

Texas-based Guadalupe Health Network implements population health management technology from Lightbeam Health Solutions across its 100 locations. GHN is hopeful the new solution will help its 230 providers better manage claims data from CMS and 25-plus EHR vendors.

Webinars

August 25 (Tuesday) 1:00 ET. “Cerner’s Takeover of Siemens: An Update (Including the DoD Project).” Sponsored by HIStalk. Presenters: Vince Ciotti, principal, HIS Professionals; Frank Poggio, president and CEO, The Kelzon Group. Vince and Frank delivered HIStalk’s most popular webinar, "Cerner’s Takeover of Siemens, Are You Ready?" which has been viewed nearly 6,000 times. Vince and Frank return with their brutally honest (and often humorous) opinions about what has happened with Cerner since then, including its participation in the successful DoD bid and what that might mean for Cerner’s customers and competitors, based on their having seen it all in their decades of experience.

Previous webinars are on the YouTube channel. Contact Lorre for webinar services including discounts for signing up by Labor Day.

Tweet Chat

Don’t miss the next #HIStalking tweet chat on August 20 at 1pm ET. Amy Gleason (@ThePatientsSide), COO of CareSync and White House Champion of Change for Precision Medicine, will host. Stay tuned for topics.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Vancouver-based Phemi secures $12.2 million in a Series A funding round, just five months after raising $2.8 million in seed financing. The two-year-old company, which initially geared its services toward population health management and clinical research, is now looking to replicate its data-mining success with the finance, insurance, and public sector industries.

Announcements and Implementations

Christus Health expands its partnership with Wellcentive, implementing the company’s value-based care and population health management solutions and services at 10 hospitals across three additional markets in Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana.

Exeter Hospital (NH) implements Invision Market Viewer analytics from IVantage Health Analytics. The community hospital selected the solution through its membership with the Yankee Alliance GPO.

ElderCare Network (ME) selects the Ibis predictive analytics solution from Senscio Systems to optimize healthcare services at its seven home centers.

Physician services company Continuum Health Alliance adds Kryptiq’s cloud-based chronic-care management solution to its telephone-based coaching and call-center support services.

North Shore-LIJ Health System signs a joint venture agreement with population health management system vendor Newport Health Solutions. The new company will complete the installation of Newport’s Health Connect throughout NS-LIJ, then try to sell it commercially.

People

Shelly Peters (Legacy Data Access) joins Huntzinger Management Group as practice director, data analytics.

Research and Innovation

Researchers at AAFP’s Robert Graham Center work to incorporate “community vital signs” – poverty level, health food and water sources, walkable streets and parks, etc. – into the EHRs of physicians in an effort to enhance population health management efforts. Researchers are testing the idea by by adding patient location and social determinant data, along with information about their communities, to each patient’s EHR.

Duke University and Accenture partner to develop an analytics research program that will focus on healthcare management research. Initial projects include applying predictive analytics to the development of patient care and disease management programs, and developing “data marts” that can answer specific clinical care or research questions.

Other

Hearst Health and the Jefferson College of Population Health of Thomas Jefferson University call for submissions for their inaugural Hearst Health Prize, which will recognize achievement in managing or improving a population’s health with a $100,000 prize. The deadline for submissions, which must describe an implemented project with improved outcomes, is October 23.

The Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association creates an infographic on the “Working Definition of Population Health.” It’s interesting to note that clinical care accounts for only 20 percent of the given factors.

Heads up to those traveling to North Korea this weekend: The always zany and unpredictable country creates a new “Pyongyang time” zone, setting its clocks back 30 minutes to mark its freedom from Japanese imperialism at the end of World War II. Clocks reset August 15.  

Sponsor Updates

• E-MDs offers a free ICD-10 Survival Kit.
• Greenway Health posts “Electronic Prescribing of Controlled Substances: a Convenient Tool to Improve Patient Care and Safety.”
• Healthwise offers “Engaging Moms on Medicaid.”

Contacts

Jennifer,  Mr. H, Lorre, Dr. Jayne, Dr. Gregg, Lt. Dan

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

Get HIStalk Practice  updates.
Contact us online.
Become a sponsor.