News 12/1/21

Top News

K Health secures an unspecified amount of funding from actress Gal Gadot and her husband, producer Yaron Varsano. The company, which has raised over $271 million, offers app-based primary and urgent care, including an AI-powered symptom checker that enables users to review the diagnoses and treatments of millions of patients.

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 The EHR problem list can be cluttered with redundant, missing, and outdated diagnoses, and displays don’t always help clinicians process the available data correctly.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 most common clinical technology contributors to alarm fatigue and clinician burnout. They will describe how improving three clinical workflows can increase care team collaboration and reduce non-patient care workload and explain how a clinical communication platform simplifies finding care team members and pulling actionable information from the EHR.

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

People

Kaia Health hires Lumeris co-founder Nigel Ohrenstein as CEO.

Announcements and Implementations

The National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers will use technology from behavioral health IT vendor Kipu Health to power its Foundation for Recovery Science and Education treatment outcomes programs. The FoRSE programs will offer participating providers site-specific analytics and benchmarking reports using aggregated and de-identified clinical data.

Truepill, a white-label telemedicine, diagnostics, and pharmacy company, develops a COVID-19 virtual care program that includes video visits and prescription and delivery of oral antiviral medication. The company, which already offers COVID-19 testing capabilities, caters its services to payers, pharma manufacturers, and healthcare companies like K Health and GoodRx. It announced a $142 million funding round last month.

Other

Senior-focused Cano Health will install MedAvail pharmacy kiosks at four of its clinics in California. The kiosks enable to virtually consult with pharmacists, fill their prescriptions at the clinic, or have them delivered to their homes. MedAvail markets its SpotRx MedCenter kiosks to clinics that primarily serve Medicare patients.

Healthcare connectivity vendor Ellkay shares its sweet potato casserole recipe that of course includes its “homegrown” honey. The company maintains several beehives on the top of its headquarters in New Jersey. I’m fairly certain it’s a favorite giveaway at tradeshows.

Eko will donate its smart stethoscopes and telehealth kits to 59 clinics affiliated with the National Association of Free & Charitable Clinics.

Sponsor Updates

Blog Posts

• Vendor HIPAA Breach Affects 319K Patients & Their Providers (AdvancedMD)
• The Future is Online Appointment Scheduling (EClinicalWorks)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 11/29/21

Top News

Greenway Health promotes Pratap Sarker to CEO, effective January 1. Sarker replaces Richard Atkin, who will take on the role of executive chairman.

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.

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Nurse Disrupted raises $700,000 in seed funding. Co-founded by former Epic nursing innovation and project lead Bre Loughlin, RN the telehealth startup helps to provide remote care for rural health clinics, shelters, and community organizations that don’t have on-site clinicians.

Announcements and Implementations

Advanced Imaging Concepts in Florida implements RIS, PACS, speech recognition, care communication, and physician portal software from ERAD.

Research and Innovation

A patient engagement survey of 500 consumers conducted last summer has found that:

• Nearly 40% had not had an in-person visit during the previous 12 months, though 53% did report an increase in use of telemedicine, with convenience and safety being top reasons for the switch to virtual care.
• Of those who scheduled in-person appointments over the phone, nearly 40% were dissatisfied with the experience, largely due to long wait times.
• Sixty-four percent of patients preferred virtual waiting rooms over their physical counterparts.
• A third cited email as their preferred method of communicating with their provider.

Other

The Prendergast Library in Western New York installs a telemedicine booth that patrons may reserve for virtual care appointments. The unit was funded, fittingly enough, by a grant from the National Library of Medicine.

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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News 11/24/21

Top News

HHS allocates $35 million to help Title X family planning providers enhance and expand their telehealth infrastructure and capacity. Sixty one-time grants will be awarded to qualifying applicants. Applications are due February 3.

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 15 (Wednesday) 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.

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

Announcements and Implementations

Cranberry Peak announces GA of Scriptaid, software designed to help practices streamline radiology order processing.

Community Care Physician Network (NC) implements Innovaccer’s Health Cloud and its population health analytics.

Other

United Health Centers (CA) announces that it was the victim of an August ransomware attack that resulted in some patient information being found on the dark web. The FQHC, which operates a dozen clinics, restored its systems from backups.

Direct Relief launches its Power for Health program, which will distribute $5 million to community health centers and free clinics in need of back-up generators, batteries, and solar systems.

Sponsor Updates

• Healthwise wins several Digital Health Awards.

Blog Posts

• How to Respond to Negative Reviews (AdvancedMD)
• PDMP: Helping Ensure Safety in Prescribing (EClinicalWorks)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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News 11/22/21

Top News

Private equity firms Bain Capital and Hellman & Friedman will jointly acquire Athenahealth from Veritas Capital and Evergreen Coast Capital for $17 billion, confirming reports of a sale that have been circulating for several months. Veritas and Evergreen will retain a minority investment in the company, and the current management team will remain in place.

Hellman & Friedman’s health IT portfolio includes Change Healthcare and PointClickCare, while Bain Capital’s includes HST Pathways.

Webinars

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

Announcements and Implementations

Cantata Health Solutions announces GA of Arize, new EHR and care coordination software for behavioral health and human services organizations. Cantata acquired behavioral health software vendor ProComp earlier this month.

Long Valley Health Center selects remote patient monitoring technology from BlueStar Telehealth.

Next Level Urgent Care will implement the Allscripts Touchworks EHR and Microsoft Azure hosting and services across its facilities in Houston.

Florence Health implements Athenahealth’s AthenaOne technology, which incorporates EHR, RCM, and practice management capabilities.

Other

In Chicago, family practice physician Valerie Mayuga, MD kicks off her second annual holiday card drive for hospitalized patients. Last year, she collected over 1,000 cards, which she distributed among three hospitals and four nursing homes. She also collected nearly 100 donated tablets so that patients could visit with loved ones over video. Send your holiday cards to:
Dr. Valerie Mayuga
222 East Pearson Street
Chicago, IL 60611

Sponsor Updates

Blog Posts

• You can’t always get what you want (Nordic)
• Accelerating Speed to Care with Unified Healthcare Communication (PerfectServe)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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News 11/17/21

Top News

Behavioral health telemedicine startup AptiHealth raises $50 million in a Series B round of funding, bringing its total raised to $65 million.

Founded in Troy, NY in 2018, the company plans to move its headquarters to an existing office in Boston, which it plans to expand.

Webinars

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

Here’s the recording of our recent webinar titled “Increasing OR Profitability: It May Be Easier than you Think,” sponsored by Copient Health.

People

Tele-mental healthcare company Prairie Health hires Christopher Reist, MD (Relias) as chief medical officer.

Sean Banerjee (SOC Telemed) joins CentralReach as CTO.

Announcements and Implementations

Primary care provider Florence Health adopts the Innovaccer Health Cloud.

Direct care practice management vendor Hint Health adds RubiconMD’s e-consult capabilities to its HintOS member management platform.

Research and Innovation

A Kaiser Permanente analysis of 2.2 million primary care encounters between its providers and members in Northern California between 2016 and 2018 reveals that video, phone, and in-person visits had similar rates of follow-up care. The analysis also found that medication was prescribed and labs ordered at higher rates during in-person visits, though the study’s authors point out that patients may opt for in-person visits because they feel their condition has worsened.

Sponsor Updates

• EClinicalWorks releases a new podcast, “PDMP Software for Safe Prescribing of Controlled Substances.”
• The Behavioral Healthcare Executive Podcast features AdvancedMD President Amanda Hansen.

Blog Posts

• A Better Billing Solution for Modern Healthcare (EClinicalWorks)
• Engaging Our Community with Event-Based Vaccine Information and Advocacy (Healthwise)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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Contact us online.
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