News 9/4/14

Top News

CVS rebrands itself as CVS Health and becomes the first retail pharmacy to eliminate all tobacco products from its store shelves. The loss of tobacco sales, which was originally scheduled to take place October 1, will see the company take a $2 billion hit in annual revenue. The CVS/pharmacy, CVS/caremark and MinuteClinic names will remain unchanged.

HIStalk Practice Announcements and Requests

If your company is a HIStalk sponsor and plans on being at MGMA in late October, don’t miss out on the opportunity to be included in our “Must See Exhibitors Guide.” Send me your company name, logo, booth number, and a brief description of your company’s services by September 30 to ensure a spot. I’ll also include contact information for companies not exhibiting but looking to schedule one-on-one meetings. It will be my first time attending, and I am looking forward to thanking sponsors in person for their support, as well as reporting from the show floor. Feel free to keep me abreast of fun networking events I absolutely must attend.

Don’t miss upcoming HIStalk webinars:

September 4 (Thursday) 2:00 p.m. ET. MU2 Veterans Speak Out: Implementing Direct Secure Messaging for Success. Presented by DataMotion. Moderator: Mr. HIStalk. Panelists: Darby Buroker, executive director of health information exchange, Steward Health Care; Anne Lara, EdD, RN, CIO, Union Hospital of Cecil County, MD; Andy Nieto, health IT strategist, DataMotion; Mat Osmanski, senior application analyst, Steward Health Care; Bill Winn, PhD, Meaningful Use service line executive, Navin, Haffty & Associates. Panelists will discuss the strategy and tactics of meeting the transitions of care requirements for MU2, including assembling the team, implementing Direct Secure Messaging, getting providers on board, and reporting results.

September 11 (Thursday) 1:00 p.m. ET. Electronic Health Record Divorce Rates on the Rise — The Four Factors that Predict Long-term Success. Presented by The Breakaway Group, A Xerox Company. Presenters: Heather Haugen, PhD, CEO and managing director, The Breakaway Group, A Xerox Company; Bill Rieger, CIO, Flagler Hospital, St. Augustine, FL. Many users are considering divorcing their EHR as dissatisfaction increases. Many are spending 90 percent of their time and resources on the wedding  (the go-live) instead of the long-term commitment to new workflows, communication, education, and care outcomes (the marriage). Hear more about the findings of research published in “Beyond Implementation: A Prescription for Lasting EMR Adoption” about EHR adoption and success factors. Registrants get a free electronic or paper copy of the book.

Listening: The Doctors Lounge Radio Show, every Thursday at 8 a.m. ET. Hosted by Hal C. Scherz, MD and Michael J. Koriwchak, MD, this week’s show will focus on big data, and why physicians are as unhappy as some media outlets report.

Watching: Anything but action movies. New research from Cornell University’s Food and Brands Lab finds that “the fast cuts and sharp variations in sound levels typical of action movies appear to spur consumption of snacks in viewers.” Undergraduates involved in the study snacked on foods more often while watching 20 minutes of The Island than those that were subjected to Charlie Rose for the same amount of time. The evidence certainly brings new meaning to the phrase “binge watching.” 

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

EHR vendor Telus Health acquires ZoomMed’s Web-based ZRx Prescriber technology, making it the first Canadian healthcare IT company to offer insurance coverage validation nationally at the point of prescription. Telus plans to gradually integrate the ZRx technology into EHRs used by over 13,000 physicians across Canada.

Nexus Medical launches its Analytix Health division, which will provide practices with healthcare financial consulting, and management and business services.

Government and Politics

President Obama praises the government of Estonia for its ability to move many government functions online, including medical records. The country, which implemented a national EHR for just $10 per citizen in 2009, provides its 1.3 million residents with digital IDs they can use to log in to a variety of government services, including the EHR. An e-signature system has also helped streamline authorization of contracts and submission of government documents.

A task force co-chaired by HISTalk Practice contributor Micky Tripathi presented its preliminary findings at a recent ONC meeting of a review of a report by the JASON advisory group.  The JASON report concludes that “EHRs and health information exchanges are currently woefully inadequate in what they provide to health care professionals,” and advocates moving to a common markup language, common data standards, and a library of open APIs to give third-party developers access to existing systems. The group also called for eventually moving to a “unifying software architecture for the exchange of health information” that would allow for encrypted provider and patient exchange of and interaction with health data.

Announcements and Implementations

The Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center (IL) launches new telepharmacy, teleretinal imaging, and telecardiology services at three of its outpatient clinics in Wisconsin and Illinois.

University of Toledo Physicians (OH) selects athenahealth’s athenaOne suite of EHR, revenue cycle management, and patient engagement services for its 260-provider network, which includes 214 specialty and primary care physicians.

Global Partnership for Telehealth joins the American International Health Alliance and Zambian Department Force to develop and implement a telemedicine program for the African country’s citizens and military. The program will begin with the establishment of telemedicine presentation sites at five Zambian military bases, which will connect them with the military hospital in the capitol of Lusaka.

The VA announces it will launch mobile versions of its Summary of Care and Blue Button apps, both of which ranked highly during a recent family caregiver pilot project. The apps will be available by mid-fall through an app store run by the VA and created by Longview International Technology Solutions. Hopefully the apps will be more reliable than the desktop HealtheVet portal, which appears to have exceeded user capacity.

People

David Watson (Oracle) joins CAL Index as CEO.

The local business paper profiles Surescripts CEO Tom Skelton, who officially took over from his predecessor, Harry Totonis, last week.

Research and Innovation

Swatch makes a potential play in the fitness tracking/wearables space with the announcement that it will release a touchscreen smartwatch next summer. Rumor has it that the Smart Touch watch will also feature a step counter and Bluetooth syncing.

A study finds that over 13 percent of cloud services used in healthcare are high-risk and 77 percent are medium risk, when stacked up against 54 different security attributes. Yes, hacked celebrity photos underscore the ease with which nefarious data thieves can easily gain entry into cloud services, but it also highlights the lax attitude cloud service providers like Apple take when it comes to security. Healthcare organizations certainly have their work cut out for them: The study found that 53 percent of healthcare employees use three or more devices at work, and 73 percent of malware attacks occur outside operating hours.

Other

Speaking of the cloud and security, thanks to @gtsports for alerting me to the Norse Live Threat Map, a fascinating, real-time display of cyber attacks by type, organization, origin, and target.

The Open Source Electronic Health Record Alliance Open Source Summit is in full swing just outside of Washington, D.C. The event features what looks like three full days of sessions with speakers from the VA, Harris Corp., MITRE, and a number of other government-related businesses and agencies.

Box’s more consumer-friendly (and likely hipper) BoxWorks conference is also happening this week, featuring such speakers as Vinod Khosla, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Aneesh Chopra, and HIStalk Practice contributor Darren Dworkin. No doubt the sessions and exhibit hall will be abuzz with commentary on the Apple iCloud hack, and the fact that surprise guest Jared Leto lent attendees his Oscar for selfie-taking.

Contacts

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

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

Get HIStalk Practice  updates.
Contact us online.

News 9/2/14

Top News

CMS officially delays Stage 3 of Meaningful Use until 2017, and tells providers they can meet Stage 2 requirements using technology certified to 2011 standards only through the remainder of this year. Only EHRs certified to 2014 standards will be acceptable starting in 2015. Providers that do not achieve MU by next year will be subject to Medicare payment reductions. In making the announcement, CMS Administrator Marilynn Tavenner explained that, “We listened to stakeholder feedback and provided [certified EHR technology] flexibility for 2014 to help ensure providers can continue to participate in the EHR Incentive Programs moving forward. We were excited to see that there is overwhelming support for this change.” The phrase “overwhelming support” may be a bit of a stretch, as backlash has already begun (and over a holiday weekend, no less), with CHIME expressing its deep disappointment in the decision. It will be interesting to see if physician-practice stakeholders make their displeasure known in any meaningful way. I hope readers will chime in with opinions via the comments section below.

HIStalk Practice Announcements and Requests

I hope those of you back at work after a long weekend are refreshed and ready to tackle the thankfully shortened workweek. My sincerest thanks goes out to those healthcare professionals who stayed in the trenches over the holiday break. I spent some of it with a family member who underwent scheduled surgery, and I’m happy to report that positive, caring attitudes combined with diligence and a good bedside manner still trump technology any day. (Though I have to admit easy access to hospital Wi-Fi makes it that much easier to commit to a full day in an inpatient/outpatient setting.)

I also took advantage of the break to book my flight and accommodations for MGMA, taking place October 26-29 in Las Vegas. My next step is to put together a list of “Must See” vendors for HIStalk readers to peruse as they make exhibit hall plans that week. If your company plans on being at the show and would like to be included, send me your company name, logo, booth number, and a brief description of what you do that is to the point and free of fluffy buzzwords. I’ll also include contact information for companies not exhibiting but looking to schedule one-on-one meetings.

Announcements and Implementations

Healthpointe (CA) announces its 24 hour-a-day urgent care telemedicine service will go live at the end of this month.

The Rhode Island Quality Institute and the Providence Veterans Affairs Medical Center (RI) collaborate to make the health data of veterans available for the first time to VA providers across the state via Rhode Island’s CurrentCare HIE. Over 1,800 providers in 450 practices across 700 sites use CurrentCare services.

Walmart Care Clinics open in Georgia and South Carolina. No mention has yet been made about what type of healthcare IT the clinics are using, though it has been made know that clinic nurses and physicians are sourced from health center management company QuadMed. President Sue Buettner joined QuadMed in April after time spent as senior vice president at Aurora Health Care (WI).

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Apple’s big day draws closer, with just a week to go until the company launches its new, larger iPhone; some sort of much-ballyhooed wearable device (most likely the iWatch); and a mobile payments system. As a consumer, my interest in a larger phone and a separate, connected device is minimal. I typically use my carrier’s upgrade option to purchase a refurbished, slightly older iPhone for free at renewal time, and am not in the market for a wearable that will likely debut at an unattractively high price point (likely in the $400 range). I do wonder, though, how many iWatches I’ll see as the giveaway du jour at HIMSS next year.

Government and Politics

This article highlights the DoD’s painfully slow Health Artifact and Image Management Solution (HAIMS), designed to give the VA nearly instant access to the complete, certified military medical records of anyone who left service after Jan. 1, 2014. Access has been far from instant, to the detriment of veterans waiting on disability claims to be processed. Between January 1 and June 3 of this year, the VA asked the DoD for 7,300 electronic service treatment records, but the DoD had only completed 29 percent of those requests at the time of the OIG audit.

Research and Innovation

Research finds that technology-assisted interventions in the primary care setting does in fact help patients achieve weight loss. Technologies in the study included software that guided physicians to better counsel their patients, in-home DVD programs, Web-based applications, and self-monitoring and feedback systems. Noted challenges included poor Web utilization, the need for improved ease-of-use for both physician and patient, more open access to technologies, and keeping pace with industry. I question whether this study was particularly conclusive (or necessary), as researchers found that tech-assisted interventions resulted in weight loss of only up to 12 pounds over a three-year period.

Contacts

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

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

Get HIStalk Practice  updates.
Contact us online.

News 8/28/14

Top News

CMS names Kevin Counihan to the newly created position of CEO of Healthcare.gov. The agency has high hopes for Counihan, who oversaw the state of Connecticut’s health insurance exchange. Access Health CT was the first state marketplace to surpass enrollment targets by signing up nearly 260,000 people.

HIStalk Practice Announcements and Requests

Don’t miss these upcoming HIStalk webinars:

September 4 (Thursday) 2:00 p.m. ET. MU2 Veterans Speak Out: Implementing Direct Secure Messaging for Success. Presented by DataMotion. Moderator: Mr. HIStalk. Panelists: Darby Buroker, executive director of health information exchange, Steward Health Care; Anne Lara, EdD, RN, CIO, Union Hospital of Cecil County, MD; Andy Nieto, health IT strategist, DataMotion; Mat Osmanski, senior application analyst, Steward Health Care; and Bill Winn, PhD, Meaningful Use service line executive, Navin, Haffty & Associates. Panelists will discuss the strategy and tactics of meeting the transitions of care requirements for MU2, including assembling the team, implementing Direct Secure Messaging, getting providers on board, and reporting results. 

September 11 (Thursday) 1:00 p.m. ET. Check out the video above for a fun overview of Electronic Health Record Divorce Rates on the Rise — The Four Factors that Predict Long-term Success. Presented by The Breakaway Group, A Xerox Company. Presenters: Heather Haugen, PhD, CEO and managing director, The Breakaway Group, A Xerox Company; Bill Rieger, CIO, Flagler Hospital, St. Augustine, FL. Many users are considering divorcing their EHR as dissatisfaction increases. Many are spending 90 percent of their time and resources on the wedding (the go-live) instead of the long-term commitment to new workflows, communication, education, and care outcomes (the marriage). Hear more about the findings of research published in “Beyond Implementation: A Prescription for Lasting EMR Adoption” about EHR adoption and success factors.  Registrants get a free electronic or paper copy of the book.

September 18 (Thursday) Time TBD. Save the date for a presentation with Dim-Sum, HIStalk’s very own DoD insider. The mid-day presentation will touch on the DoD’s $11 billion EHR RFP, as well as its healthcare reach, current systems, relationships with contractors and other government agencies, and selection process.

Favorite Tweet of the Week, courtesy of @pedshospdoc by way of HIStalk Practice contributor @aspooner:

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

The latest S&P Capital IQ Hedge Fund Tracker shows that IT and healthcare stocks saw the largest growth in new hedge fund buying activity during the second quarter of 2014. IT claimed the top spot for a second quarter in a row, coming in at $1.45 billion. Healthcare came in slightly under at $1.4 billion. McKesson jumps out to me as the biggest healthcare IT company mentioned. One thing is for sure: It’s a good time to be in healthcare IT, though I wonder how much of this money will actually trickle down to improved access and outcomes for patients.

Announcements and Implementations

NexGenic launches ImageInbox, an app that enables patients and physicians to securely store and send medical images and diagnostic reports to each other. The Apple version of the app includes a social-sharing feature (HIPAA red flag?), should patients be so inclined to share their latest baby ultrasounds.

McGree Medical becomes the first physician’s practice within the St. James Healthcare (MT) network to connect to its Epic Community Care EHR. (Is it just me or does the gentleman in the picture above look a little nervous about the roll out?) The health system rolled out the MyChart patient portal earlier this summer.

The Georgia Health Information Network upgrades its GeorgiaDirect product to include access to the national network of providers and facilities within the DirectTrust Community. Medicity provides the technology behind the state HIE product.

Greenway Health completes implementation of the Walgreens Health Cloud EHR – the largest cloud-based EHR system ever deployed in a pharmacy setting. Pharmacists at over 8,200 Walgreens locations now have access to patient prescription, immunization, and health testing records. Greenway’s user conference kicks off next week, and I would love to hear from attendees. Feel free to send me observations, rumors, and pictures.

North Carolina Pediatric Associates will deploy the NextGen Ambulatory EHR, PM, and patient portal.

Research and Innovation

A study finds that blood pressure management and medication changes done at home result in healthier blood pressure levels than when performed in a physician’s office. The year-long study followed 450 patients with previous heart trouble, strokes, diabetes or kidney disease. No mention is made before the paywall of what, if any, technology was used by the self-care patients. I wonder how easy it would be to replicate these findings if patients were given blood-pressure monitoring apps from a company like iHealth or Withings.

Research shows that HIV screening rates increase when clinical staff are prompted by screening alerts from EHRs. Data show that HIV testing at Urban Health Plan sites increased from 8 percent of patients in 2010 to 56 percent from January 2011 to  September 2013 after implementation of the new screening program.

A survey finds that over 50 percent of 1,100 consumers in the U.S. and U.K. say they value primary-care physicians. Respondents gauged them on putting patients first, empowerment and access, and science and innovation. The numbers shift when it comes to the perceived value of hospitals, with 54.3 percent of UK respondents and 39.3 percent of US respondents giving hospitals a rating of six or seven on a seven-point scale based on the same criteria.

Government and Politics

ONC issues a general solicitation for public input on its nationwide interoperability roadmap. Comments on the first draft of the roadmap are due Friday, September 12. Version “1.0” of the roadmap will likely be released early next year.

The VA will open a RFP for a commercial patient scheduling system in September and will award a contract by the end of the year. VA CIO Stephen Warren says the agency will “acquire a commercial, off-the-shelf scheduling system,” but then oddly adds that it wants a system “tailored specifically for our Veterans.”

People

Frank MacLeon is promoted to vice president of client relations and performance management at Continuum Health Alliance.

The local paper covers the retirement of David Scheiner, MD former physician to President Obama during his days in Chicago. Scheiner has no love for EHRs, and “has been a fierce critic of Obama’s signature accomplishment, the Affordable Care Act.”

Ryan Alverson joins WRS Health as director of customer support.

Other

The Oregon Health Care Quality Corp. releases its annual scores for primary care physicians. The scores, which for the first time include Medicare data, enable patients to compare how clinics perform in areas such as preventive care, chronic disease care, and appropriate use of healthcare services.

Sponsor Updates

• PerfectServe announces the formation of its customer advisory panel.
• NextGen Healthcare’s Ambulatory EHR earns 2014 ONC HIT Cancer Registry Certification.

Contacts

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

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

Get HIStalk Practice  updates.
Contact us online.

DOCtalk with Dr. Gregg 8/27/14

Voice Recollection & Otto Collect

A wonderful ENT physician and good buddy recently decided to try a new EHR system. (Let’s call him “Charlie” to protect the innocent.) He was raving about it and sent me a letter using his new system with its incorporated voice recognition and, apparently, its autocorrect function. I don’t think he read it before hitting “Send.”

Thought you might enjoy:

High Greg,

I’m absolutely loving my new HER! As you no, I half never used voice recollection before, sew it has really been quite the new advent for me. Butt I think I’m finale starring to get the hang of it.

The new HER system has many great feats that I haven’t even begun to underhand yet, but the sales guy assumed me that I would need and us them all, eventfully. I stated with the voice recollection stuff early, because it seemed as if it might be funeral and maybe even shortchange my Daley charting work low. Thus, I’m actuarially speaking this letter too you while I’m driving down to a see Emmy seminary in Cincinnati. (Getting a little refreshment on current happing’s in eEmpty, like a cute Otis media, sinus I tis, and coop.) Donut worry, my wife is driving while I work on my I pad.

I like big butts and I cannot lie. You other brothers can’t deny. [I’m guessing he had the car radio on!]

Anyway, I think I may stat using this voice recollection to do moor of my chatting. Its fun and seems like it might bee pretty easy to.

That said, attacked is the consort note on our Mutual of Omaha patient, John Smith.

Best rigors,

Charlie

ATTACHMENT:

Subjunctive: Patient is a 3 year old wife mail who presets today for follow up of bicameral tympany tube placemats. Patient has dun well since tube placemat.

Objection: Patient is allured and active. Tympany tubes are in good position and tympany members are clear. External audit camels are clear and without train age.

Asses mat: 3 year old wife mail statist post tympany tube placemat, doing fairy well.

Plan: Flow up in sick moths to retest earring.

And they say electronic notes are easier to read than handwritten!

From the trenches…

(No slights intended to the wonderful voice recognition folks or any hardworking autocorrect programmers. Such tools really are much better than this extreme – and admittedly silly – example portrays.)

“I had to inject her with an epic penis…

…Damn autocorrect!…

…Epi Pen.”

– Actual autocorrect texts from anonymous “Dad”

Dr. Gregg Alexander, a grunt in the trenches pediatrician at Madison Pediatrics, is Chief Medical Officer for Health Nuts Media, an HIT and marketing consultant, and sits on the board of directors of the Ohio Health Information Partnership (OHIP).

Contacts

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

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

Get HIStalk Practice  updates.
Contact us online.

HIStalk Practice News 8/26/14

Top News

The DoD issues the multi-billion dollar DHMSM RFP to replace many of its legacy healthcare IT systems, including the Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application (AHLTA), Composite Health Care System (CHCS), and the majority of the Theater Medical Information Program-Joint (TMIP-J). The department expects to select the solution in the third quarter of 2015, with initial operation beginning in the Pacific Northwest in 2016 and other regions added in waves. The new system will enable the DoD to share health data between the VA and private sector, ultimately supporting 9.6 million DoD beneficiaries and over 153,000 military health system personnel.

This news makes me even more eager to tune into the HIStalk mid-day webinar on September 18 featuring DoD insider Dim-Sum, who will describe the DoD’s healthcare reach, current systems, relationships with contractors and other government agencies, and selection process. Stay tuned for registration details.

HIStalk Practice Reader’s Survey

Thanks to all who took the time to fill out the annual HIStalk Practice Reader’s Survey, not to mention those that tacked on an encouraging or welcoming comment. I was pleased to see that 36 percent of respondents work for a health system or physician practice, and a majority of those are providers with purchasing authority (good news for our sponsors and a good indication of the type of news to keep covering). One such reader noted that he or she “picked a new EHR mainly on the basis of information gained here.” (And no, I didn’t make that up.)

News, rumors, and humor top the list of what readers enjoy most about HIStalk Practice (though one respondent did comment that it has become a bit too stuffy). Over 75 percent of respondents noted they have a higher interest or appreciation for companies when they read about them here, and that reading HIStalk Practice has helped them better perform their jobs. Both of those statistics correlate directly with many write-in comments like these:

“Sharing the rumors or news with my executives makes me look like I am ahead of the curve.”

“Kept me in the know, gave me some relevant talking points I could share with leadership. Now I am recognized as someone who is abreast of what is going on in the industry.”

I’m not one to shy away from constructive criticism, and appreciate readers sharing their thoughts on how we can improve coverage. More humor seems to be on the radar of many respondents, so I’ll do my best to keep things light where appropriate. Other suggestions that piqued my interest include:

• Coverage/recommendations of practice-centric healthcare IT trade associations.
• Quarterly recaps of “hot” industry topics and developments.
• How to best utilize clinical decision support.
• Ambulatory healthcare IT coverage from a government insider’s perspective (thankfully, we’ve got Micky Tripathi back on board).
• Interviews with practices dropping out of Meaningful Use.
• Talk to an ambulatory Epic user about strengths and weaknesses.

If you are an expert in any of the above areas, please drop me a line and let me know if you’re up for an interview or the role of guest contributor. Our rumors and interviews are only as juicy as the industry insiders who provide them!

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

The state of Vermont signs a revised contract with Optum to the tune of $9.5 million for additional work on the Vermont Health Connect health insurance exchange. Optum will help the state prepare for open enrollment on November 15, and assist it in transitioning away from CGI, whose contract is up on September 20. Optum will continue to fulfill its $5.6 million contract for consulting work at VHC customer service call centers.

Beedie Capital Partners commits to investing $3.5 million in Nightingale Informatix Corp., which develops the Nightingale EHR and related software services. The company plans to use the investment to launch Nexia, its next-generation EHR platform.

After a rough week in which a data center outage caused unplanned downtime for its customers, Practice Fusion announces it will partner with online appointment booking and patient review site Vitals. Patients who visit the Vitals site will now have access to physicians who use the Practice Fusion EHR and consumer-facing website Patient Fusion. Those physicians will in turn have greater exposure to those potential patients.

Government and Politics

A British newspaper points out the correlation between suits and T-shirts when it comes to productivity at the White House, shining a spotlight on Mikey Dickerson, head of the new U.S. Digital Service. “People want to know if I’m wearing a suit to work every day,” Dickerson said. “Because that’s just the quickest shorthand way of asking: ‘Is this just the same old business as usual or are they actually going to listen?’” Dickerson seems to have his wits about him on his first day at the new job, as the short video above shows, though I’m surprised the ubiquitous can of Red Bull was nowhere to be seen.

ONC Coordinator Karen DeSalvo, MD alerts followers to the fact that National Health IT Week will be held September 15-19, and will revolve around advocacy activities planned largely by HIMSS. Am I right in thinking physicians in the trenches will not be observing the festivities this year?

Announcements and Implementations

Telemedicine kiosk company HealthSpot announces it will install 100 kiosks in community pharmacies across Ohio. The company will target locations that have high ER visit rates and long wait times using information culled from patient focus groups and claims data analysis conducted with CareSource, a health plan that serves 1.2 million consumers in Ohio and Kentucky. (You can read the HIStalk Connect interview with HealthSpot founder and CEO Steve Cashman here. It would seem Cashman has not quite given up on retail clinics, which he is less than enthusiastic about in the interview.)

CarePoint Health System (NJ) selects the eClinicalWorks EHR for its 45 medical practices. It will also utilize eCW’s Care Coordination Medical Record for population health management.

People

Todd Park will reportedly step down as US CTO but will remain a White House employee, moving back to the Silicon Valley to work on brokering relationships between technology companies and the federal government.

Research and Innovation

The Washington Post delves into the impact consumer-generated health data has on public-event and -health reporting. Jawbone’s chart on sleep patterns during the recent California earthquake shows not just what time the quake hit, but also paints a picture of the collective anxiety many users felt for hours afterwards. FitBit is also in on the trend as it attempts to sell its devices to large corporations, promising aggregate group reports on things like how far employees walk and how much they exercise.

Other

Wearable technology company OMsignal and Ralph Lauren partner to outfit ball boys (and presumably girls) at the U.S. Open with connected shirts that broadcast their vitals to a smartphone or display. Given that I am one among many who has ditched a wearable activity tracker shortly after receiving it, I see the commercial allure of skipping accessories altogether and heading straight for apparel. The $200 price tag, however, would definitely give me pause should I ever be in the market to wear something like this to my next ALTA match.

Mr. H has covered the healthcare IT vendor side of the ALS #IceBucketChallenge, so now it’s my turn to showcase the viral attempts of providers. Staff at South Dakota-based Pro Motion Physical Therapy and Black Hills Neurosurgery & Spine take the challenge, and pledge to donate $100 per employee to the ALS Association. They have also officially challenged Black Hills Surgical Hospital, Black Hills Orthopedics, and Black Hills Urgent Care to take on raising awareness of the disease.

A professor at the University of Michigan makes the case for data visualization as a better way for the average patient to understand lab results. Having logged into a few patient portals to view lab results, I tend to agree with his opinion that, “The present situation, in which patients are given direct access to their lab test results in highly numerical tables, is a poor status quo. If we are going to spend money making sure that patients can see their results, we have an obligation to change the way we display them by making the format more intuitive.”

Recently released data from South Korea’s National Tax Service show that companies in that country spent just over $8.5 billion on entertainment expenses between 2009 and 2012. Given that budgets for fall conference season and HIMSS 15 are likely already set, it would be interesting to hear from readers just how much money the healthcare IT complex plans to spend on wooing its customers.

Sponsor Updates

• Atlanta Gastroenterology Associates chooses Greenway PrimeSUITE EHR/PM.
• Hayes Management Consulting is named to Modern Healthcare’s 2014 Best Places to Work in Healthcare list.
• NextGen’s NextGen Share solution achieves full DirectTrust accreditation from EHNAC.
• Kareo executives complete the ALS #IceBucketChallenge.

Contacts

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

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

Get HIStalk Practice  updates.
Contact us online.