News 1/3/22

Top News

Behavioral health EHR vendor Qualifacts + Credible acquires InSync Healthcare Solutions, a Florida–based company that offers EHR, practice management, and RCM technologies.

Private equity firm Warburg Pincus acquired Qualifacts for $300 million in 2019. It merged the company with PE-owned Credible Behavioral Health the following year.

HIStalk Practice Musings

Happy New Year! It’s nice to be back in the HIStalk saddle after the holiday break. (Though I have to admit, I wasn’t expecting to return to work amidst our first snowfall of the year!) I hope that, like me, you were able to find ample time for rest, relaxation, and reflection on how wonderful life truly is, despite the craziness 2021 brought our way.

I was able to put in some ample couch time, catching up on When Calls the Heart, Friday Night Lights, and Gilmore Girls. My local library has been slow to process requested books over the last several weeks, so I’ve turned to an oldie but goodie, “The Lord of the Rings.”

While I watched plenty of Christmas movies (Hallmark and the classics), I stumbled across Fisherman’s Friends, a gem of a movie based on the true story of 10 singing fishermen from Cornwall. Being a fan of the Cornish Poldark book and television series, I was especially keen on seeing modern-day Cornwall in all its provincial glory. Come to find out there’s a companion book that I’ll add to my must-read list for 2022.

What content did you consume over the break? Share your guilty pleasures and recent finds with me here.

Webinars

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

On-demand house call company DispatchHealth acquires mobile medical imaging vendor Dynamic Mobile Imaging for an undisclosed sum. The deal complements DispatchHealth’s acquisition of Professional Portable X-ray last April.

Virtual women’s health clinic Kiira Health raises $4 million in seed funding. The startup focuses its services on academic institutions, employers, and health plans. Kiira CMO Candice Fraser, MD is also medical director of women’s health at Juno Medical, a New York City-based in-person and virtual family practice.

People

Satellite Healthcare, a dialysis center operator, names Bindu Purushothaman (Optum) CIO.

Deepak Suri (ArmadaHealth) joins Healthmap Solutions as CIO.

Announcements and Implementations

El Centro Family Health, an FQHC network based in New Mexico, has implemented NextGen Enterprise, which includes EHR, practice management, virtual visit, EDI, patient engagement, and behavioral health software.

Government and Politics

Wisconsin’s Enhanced Prescription Drug Monitoring Program will use a $1.6 million federal grant to improve its direct workflow integrations and access to provider EHRs, especially those working in rural and underserved areas.

Other

Staff at OSU College of Osteopathic Medicine at the Cherokee Nation’s outpatient health center establish a book nook to promote health literacy. ““By ensuring access to free books at CNOHC,” says interim dean Natasha Bray, DO “we not only promote literacy, which is linked to improved health outcomes, but we also have an opportunity to inspire future healthcare providers who will care for us.”

Texas ENT alerts 535,000 patients of an August data breach that may have compromised patient information.

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 12/15/21

Top News

Physician performance analytics company Embold Health raises $20 million in a Series B investment round, bringing its total funding to $50 million.

Launched by former Walmart Care Clinics CMO Daniel Stein, MD in 2017, the company was tapped by the giant retailer in 2019 to create lists of physicians its employees can use when selecting healthcare services. Those who wind up seeing a provider not on the list pay more for their benefits.

Reader Comments

From Nasty Parts: “Re: Binge-watching during the holidays. Really like Lost in Space as well! This is the last season so I hope its a good one. Just started. Hallmark movies …. yes. It’s amazing how many princes of small European countries come to NYC to mix with the regular folk.”

Email me with your binge-watching recommendations, please. I’ll be taking a holiday break through the first of the year, and am planning to devote plenty of time to being a couch potato.

Webinars

None scheduled through the end of the year. Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present your own.

People

NextGen Healthcare promotes CMIO Bob Murry, MD to CMO.

Army veteran Jennifer Peña, MD (Nurx) joins K Health as its first CMO.

Clinical Connect Health Information Exchange in Pittsburgh promotes Phyllis Szymanski to president.

Announcements and Implementations

Konza announces GA of Translate, ambulatory electronic lab-reporting software intended to help physician practices send compliant COVID-19 lab reports to public health registries.

Wheel adds GoodRx’s prescription savings software to its white-label virtual care offering.

Midwest Cardiovascular Institute (IL) implements EHR, analytics, chronic care management, and reporting software from Objective Medical Systems.

CareCloud develops CareCloud Connector, an interface and data management engine.

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 12/13/21

Top News

House call company Pivotal Heath raises $1.3 million in an investment round it hopes will eventually include another $10 million. Launched last year, the startup offers in-home urgent care in Madison, Wisconsin. It will soon launch an appointment-booking app, and expand into Milwaukee.

Pivotal Health CEO Sal Braico helped to launch the company after four years as COO of SymphonyCare.

HIStalk Practice Musings

With the holidays upon us, I’ve carved out a bit of extra time to find and binge-watch movies and shows. My couch-potato time will likely increase as Christmas creeps closer and I finally cross everything off my shopping list. Given my newfound love of Friday Night Lights (which is based on a movie based on a book, by the way) and the newest season of Lost in Space, I was pleased to come across this article highlighting the benefits of binge-watching. Apparently, I’ll be doing myself a favor when I watch several Hallmark Christmas movies in a row! It does mention that healthy snacks should be on hand, so I’ll have to get creative when it comes to indulging in homemade Christmas treats, like these classic sugar cookies.

What will you be binge-watching during the holidays? Have any favorite recipes you’d care to share? Email me.

Webinars

December 14 (Tuesday) 1 ET.  “Using Cloud to Boost AI and Enterprise Imaging.” Sponsor: CloudWave. Presenters: Larry Sitka, MS, VP/CSIO of enterprise applications, Canon Medical Informatics; Jacob Wheeler, MBA, senior product manager, CloudWave. Enterprise imaging has remained a holdout of data center complexity despite the benefits the cloud offers. The presenters will discuss innovative ways to reduce complexity and lead with disruptive technology using AI, enterprise imaging, and the cloud.

December 15 (Wednesday) 1 ET. “Improve Efficiency, Reduce Burnout: Leveraging Smart Clinical Communications.” Sponsor: Spok. Presenters: Matt Mesnik, MD, chief medical officer, Spok; Kiley Black, MSN, APRN, director of clinical innovation, Spok. The presenters will identify the technologies that most often contribute to clinician burnout, then explain how improving common clinical workflows can help care teams collaborate better and focus on what they do best—taking care of patients. They will describe how a clinical communication and collaboration platform can automate clinical consults and code calls to alleviate burnout.

Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present your own.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Behavioral health IT vendor CentralReach acquires ABA Tools, a company that offers digital learning materials for applied behavioral analysis therapy. ABA Tools co-founder Patrick Roper will join CentralReach as senior instructional designer.

Patient intake technology company Phreesia acquires Insignia Health, developer of the Patient Activation Measure program.

Digital care management company ChronWell raises $6 million, bringing its total funding to just over $13 million. The Florida-based company focuses its programs on chronic GI conditions and, most recently, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

Announcements and Implementations

FQHCs including Green River Medical Center in Utah and Northeast Valley Health in Los Angeles have implemented Rimidi’s remote patient monitoring capabilities.

Sponsor Updates

• The Digital Workplace Group honors Nordic Consulting Senior Director Dawn Hancock with its Digital Workplace Leader of the Year Award.

Blog Posts

• Toward the Liberation of Medical Data (EClinicalWorks)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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News 12/8/21

Top News

AI-powered medical scribe vendor Robin raises $50 million in a Series B funding round that brings its total raised to $65 million.

Webinars

December 9 (Thursday) 1:30 ET. “Cone Health: Creating Extreme Efficiencies in Surgical Services.” Sponsor: RelayOne. Presenters: Wayne McFatter, RN, MSN and Sharon McCarter, RN co-directors of perioperative services, Cone Health. The presenters will discuss how they have empowered the entire surgical care team, including vendor representatives, to get real-time access to surgery schedules and case requirements in the palms of their hand. RelayOne CEO Cam Sexton will also present the findings of a recent study of 100 hospital leaders regarding their operating room optimization plans for 2022.

December 14 (Tuesday) 1 ET.  “Using Cloud to Boost AI and Enterprise Imaging.” Sponsor: CloudWave. Presenters: Larry Sitka, MS, VP/CSIO of enterprise applications, Canon Medical Informatics; Jacob Wheeler, MBA, senior product manager, CloudWave. Enterprise imaging has remained a holdout of data center complexity despite the benefits the cloud offers. The presenters will discuss innovative ways to reduce complexity and lead with disruptive technology using AI, enterprise imaging, and the cloud.

December 15 (Wednesday) 1 ET. “Improve Efficiency, Reduce Burnout: Leveraging Smart Clinical Communications.” Sponsor: Spok. Presenters: Matt Mesnik, MD, chief medical officer, Spok; Kiley Black, MSN, APRN, director of clinical innovation, Spok. The presenters will identify the technologies that most often contribute to clinician burnout, then explain how improving common clinical workflows can help care teams collaborate better and focus on what they do best—taking care of patients. They will describe how a clinical communication and collaboration platform can automate clinical consults and code calls to alleviate burnout.

Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present your own.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Lyn Health launches with funding from Summer VC to offer patients with multiple chronic conditions access to virtual care and support services. Co-founder and CEO Rick Abbott comes from Premera Blue Cross, having also done stints at Castlight Health, Imagine Health, and BCBS.

Raintree Systems, which offers EHR, practice management, and RCM software to therapy and rehab clinics, raises funding from Serent Capital.

Pair Team raises $7.3 million, bringing the startup’s total funding to $10 million. The San Francisco-based company provides digital assistants and tech-enabled care teams to community health centers. Co-founders Neil Batlivala and Cassie Choi, RN spent time together at Forward, a vendor of AI-powered primary care and telemedicine, and UCSF Medical Center.

Announcements and Implementations

ExamRoom Live announces GA of its white-label telemedicine app that features billing, time tracking, and secure messaging.

AllianceChicago will offer FQHCs Athenahealth’s EHR software with Wellsheet’s predictive clinical workflow software.

Linc adds GenieMD’s Continuum remote patient monitoring software to its own RPM service.

Monmouth Family Health Center (NJ) selects NextGen’s suite of FQHC-focused health IT.

Government and Politics

The Maryland Department of Health recovers from a ransomware attack over the weekend that forced it to take several systems offline.

Research and Innovation

A Cedar healthcare billing experience survey of 1,500 patients finds that 26% have left a negative review to share their frustration with unexpected costs or a frustrating billing process. Fifty-seven percent say they are more likely to recommend a physician if offered a seamless digital experience.

Other

The healthcare community on Canada’s Prince Edward Island launches a physician recruitment program that incorporates virtual reality. Interested candidates are sent PEI goods and a VR headset pre-loaded with tours of local healthcare facilities. It seems a far cry from the days of “Anne of Green Gables” author Lucy Maud Montgomery and the family doctoring of Anne’s husband, Gilbert Blythe. Speaking of Avonlea, I was happy to come across “Marilla of Green Gables,” a prequel of sorts by Sarah McCoy. Gilbert’s father, John, seems to have been just as mischievously flirtatious as his son.

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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News 12/6/21

Top News

Well Health Technologies acquires CognisantMD, a Canadian developer of patient engagement and referral software, for nearly $14 million.

HIStalk Practice Announcements and Requests

Thanks to Healthwise for recently supporting HIStalk Practice. Click the logo for more information.

Webinars

December 8 (Wednesday) 1 ET. “What Lies Ahead for the EHR’s Problem List.” Sponsor: Intelligent Medical Objects. Presenters: James Thompson, MD, physician informaticist, IMO; Deepak Pillai, MD, MBA, physician informaticist, IMO; Jonathan Gold, MD, MHA, MSc, physician informaticist, IMO. The EHR problem list can be cluttered with redundant, missing, and outdated diagnoses, and displays don’t always help clinicians process the available data correctly. The presenters will discuss how improvements in creating, maintaining, and displaying problems could reduce errors and decrease the cognitive load of clinicians while continuing to optimize reimbursement.

December 9 (Thursday) 1:30 ET. “Cone Health: Creating Extreme Efficiencies in Surgical Services.” Sponsor: RelayOne. Presenters: Wayne McFatter, RN, MSN and Sharon McCarter, RN co-directors of perioperative services, Cone Health. The presenters will discuss how they have empowered the entire surgical care team, including vendor representatives, to get real-time access to surgery schedules and case requirements in the palms of their hand. RelayOne CEO Cam Sexton will also present the findings of a recent study of 100 hospital leaders regarding their operating room optimization plans for 2022.

December 14 (Tuesday) 1 ET.  “Using Cloud to Boost AI and Enterprise Imaging.” Sponsor: CloudWave. Presenters: Larry Sitka, MS, VP/CSIO of enterprise applications, Canon Medical Informatics; Jacob Wheeler, MBA, senior product manager, CloudWave. Enterprise imaging has remained a holdout of data center complexity despite the benefits the cloud offers. The presenters will discuss innovative ways to reduce complexity and lead with disruptive technology using AI, enterprise imaging, and the cloud.

December 15 (Wednesday) 1 ET. “Improve Efficiency, Reduce Burnout: Leveraging Smart Clinical Communications.” Sponsor: Spok. Presenters: Matt Mesnik, MD, chief medical officer, Spok; Kiley Black, MSN, APRN, director of clinical innovation, Spok. The presenters will identify the technologies that most often contribute to clinician burnout, then explain how improving common clinical workflows can help care teams collaborate better and focus on what they do best—taking care of patients. They will describe how a clinical communication and collaboration platform can automate clinical consults and code calls to alleviate burnout.

Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present your own.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Ambulatory health IT vendor Modernizing Medicine officially rebrands to ModMed.

Greater Good Health launches as a network for nurse practitioners that will focus on offering NPs value-based care training, technology tools, clinical resources, and professional connections. Its goal is to equip NPs with the tools and connections they need to alleviate staffing shortages in primary care. Founder and CEO Sylvia Hastanan has spent time at GE Healthcare, DaVita Medical Group, and Optum.

Announcements and Implementations

Allied Digestive Health in New Jersey selects billing and patient engagement software from Athenahealth.

The Virginia Healthcare Association will implement I2I Population Health’s PriZim analytics to help its members improve their access and quality initiatives.

Government and Politics

Advanced Spine & Pain Management in Cincinnati will pay HHS $32,150 to settle allegations that it failed to provide a patient with a copy of his medical records in a timely manner.

HHS launches a cybersecurity resource website associated with its Aligning Health Care Industry Security Approaches Program.

Research and Innovation

The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute allocates $23.5 million for research projects that will use virtual care technologies to help patients with smoking cessation, pain management, and depression.

Other

Gulf Power and PanCare Health (FL) surprise local school telehealth nurse Amber Hartman, LPN with a Christmas lights display. PanCare Florida Telehealth Director Brandon Luke, who nominated Hartman for the holiday makeover, says, “She’s great, all of the parents, faculty, the principal, the students … everyone loves her.”

Sponsor Updates

Blog Posts

• How to Improve Nursing Communication and Collaboration (PerfectServe)
• If you try sometimes, you get what you need (Nordic)
• 3 Tips for Writing Mental and Behavioral Health Content (Healthwise)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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