News 2/16/22

Top News

HHS awards $55 million to 29 HRSA-funded community health centers to aid them in expanding their virtual care capabilities. Virtual visits at health centers have increased from 478,333 in 2019 to 28,550,608 in 2020 – a 6,000% increase. The number of health centers offering virtual care has also skyrocketed, jumping from 592 in 2019 to 1,362 in 2022.

Webinars

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Virtual care company Ro raises $150 million in a funding round led by ShawSpring Partners. The company has also launched a digital clinic for skincare. It plans to unify all of its services (telemedicine, diagnostics, labs, in-home care, and pharmacy services) and offerings – under new branding that will be launched sometime this year.

Announcements and Implementations

EHR and practice management vendor SimplePractice enables end users to connect to the NC HealthConnex HIE using bidirectional health data exchange capabilities from Smartlink Health Solutions.

ThoroughCare adds population health analytics to its care management technology for private practices, hospital groups, and ACOs.

EHR vendor Akute Care leverages Health Gorilla’s health information network to expand its lab and diagnostic ordering capabilities. 

Other

The NYC Test & Trace Corps begins offering free COVID-19 home testing kits at 14 libraries and cultural sites, including the Bronx Museum of Arts and the American Museum of Natural History. The Corps is managed by the NYC Health + Hospitals health system.

Sponsor Updates

Blog Posts

• All the Ingredients for Population Health Management (EClinicalWorks)
• We Need to Talk: Why Vital Conversations Are So Important in Healthcare (Healthwise)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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News 2/14/22

Top News

Las Vegas-based Brisk Health launches app-based telemedicine and urgent care house call services. The startup began offering similar services for pets last December.

Webinars

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

Announcements and Implementations

Andrew Weil, MD Integrative Health incorporates Oxygen Healthcare’s EHR and patient portal with its telemedicine platform.

The Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities will leverage technology and services from StationMD during an 18-month acute care telemedicine pilot project.

Research and Innovation

Researchers at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine have launched the MILBox Project, which aims to create a person’s digital twin using health and environmental data collected at home from wearables and in-home sensors. AI could then be used to evaluate and deliver more precise treatments and medications than would normally be available with anonymized patient data culled from a larger population. The first phase of the project will study the link between poor sleep and health disorders.

Other

Cue Health airs its first Super Bowl commercial, touting its smart home testing lab voiced by actress Gal Gadot. The company offers an integrated care platform that includes virtual care, COVID-19 testing, and diagnostics. (Gadot is no stranger to home-based digital healthcare, having invested, along with her husband, in virtual care app K Health last November.) Fun fact: NBC sold 2022 Super Bowl ads for as much as $6.5 million per 30-second commercial. San Diego-based Cue has raised nearly $1 billion over the last seven years.

I love this: Physicians in four Canadian provinces are now able to prescribe national park passes to patients through a partnership with Parks Canada and the PaRx Initiative, which was inspired by a similar program for physicians in the US. The program recommends that patients spend two hours in nature each week, for at least 20 minutes at a time. “There’s almost no medical condition that nature doesn’t make better,” according to family physician and PaRx Director Melissa Lem.

#HealthPolicyValentines are trending on Twitter.

Sponsor Updates

• EClinicalWorks releases a new podcast, “Handling Hospital Notifications with Direct Messaging.”
• Nordic releases a new podcast, “How interoperability and cloud transformations can support healthcare organizations.”

Blog Posts

• Where Will “Homeless Data” Live? (Nordic)
• Healthcare Trends in 2022: Top 6 Needs to Consider for Medical Groups (PerfectServe)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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News 2/9/22

Top News

KLAS releases its Best in KLAS awards. Epic, Meditech, NextGen, Athenahealth, and Allscripts took top EHR marks, while Athenahealth, Epic, NextGen, Kareo and Greenway ranking highest in practice management categories. Top-ranked specialty EHR vendors include PCC, ModMed, and Office Practicum.

Webinars

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Thirty Madison, a direct-to-consumer telemedicine company focused on chronic conditions, acquires Nurx, which offers consumers virtual care for dermatology and reproductive and sexual health. The companies have raised a combined $320 million.

Announcements and Implementations

CVS Health will incorporate Medable’s clinical trials software into clinical workflows at several of its MinuteClinic locations. CVS Health Clinical Trials Services will oversee implementation and management of the technology.

Direct primary care infrastructure vendor Hint Health develops Hint Connect, a portal that enables employers and third-party administrators to find DPC practices.

Senior-focused primary care company Patina selects Canvas Medical’s EHR and billing software.

Sponsor Updates

Blog Posts

• Oracle and Cerner: Epic Challenger or Epic Failure? (Medicomp Systems)
• What’s the difference between Credentialing & Contracting a provider? (AdvancedMD)
• One Key for 2022: Staying Focused on Patients (EClinicalWorks)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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News 2/7/22

Top News

Virtual headache clinic Neura Health raises $2.2 million in a seed funding round. The app-based provider offers members headache and migraine treatment, with plans to expand into treatments for multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, and Parkinson’s. It also hopes to collect a massive, anonymized data set on neurological conditions and outcomes to share with researchers and pharmaceutical companies to improve treatment.

HIStalk Practice Announcements and Requests

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

Webinars

February 9 (Wednesday) 1 ET. “2022 – Industry Predictions and Medicomp Roadmap.” Sponsor: Medicomp Systems. Presenters: David Lareau, CEO, Medicomp Systems; Jay Anders, MD, chief medical officer, Medicomp Systems; Dan Gainer, CTO, Medicomp Systems. The presenters will provide an update on the health IT industry and a review of the company’s milestones and insights that it gained over the past two years. Topics will include Cures Act implications, interoperability, AI, ambient listening, telehealth-first primary care, chronic care management, and new Quippe functionality and roadmap.

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Kindbody, an in-person and virtual fertility provider with locations in 10 major cities, achieves a $1 billion valuation after acquiring Vios Fertility Institute and its network of clinics.

E-consult company AristaMD acquires referral management platform developer Preferral for an undisclosed sum. Preferral founder and CTO Jon Gautsch will become SVP at AristaMD.

People

Matt Titus (Real Chemistry) joins Epocrates as chief commercial officer.

OneOncology promotes Davey Daniel, MD to CMO.

Stellar Health names Kimberly Lynch (Aledade) COO and Samantha Kelen (Cardinal Innovations Healthcare) as chief compliance officer.

Announcements and Implementations

US Orthopedic Alliance will offer Highmark Interactive’s EQ Remote Monitoring technology to its network of physician practices and ASCs.

Opus Behavioral Health adds behavioral healthcare-focused CRM and business intelligence software from Dazos to its EHR.

Other

Rob Barkett , Jr., MD writes “Simple Medicine: No More Google Searches” to help patients better understand common medical complaints and conditions, screening, medications, and medical testing. Barkett refers to it as a reference book, a CliffsNotes-like read written in easy-to-understand terms that will hopefully empower patients to talk with their physician rather than initially consulting the often terrifying Dr. Google.

Sponsor Updates

• EClinicalWorks publishes a new customer success story, “How Records in Prisma Overcame a Language Barrier.”

• Black Book names PerfectServe its top client-rated secure communications platform for 2022.

Blog Posts

• The Right Tools During Challenging Times (EClinicalWorks)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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News 2/2/22

Top News

Kipu Health appoints Andrew Eckert (Zelis) chairman of its Board of Directors. Eckert is a health IT veteran, having served as CEO of TriZetto and Eclipsys.

Kipu specializes in health IT for behavioral health and addiction treatment providers. It acquired Avea, an RCM vendor for treatment centers, last fall.

HIStalk Practice Musings

Happy Library Lovers Month! Do yourself a favor and check out what your local branch has to offer. Many are beginning to offer services that go beyond checking out the latest best-seller, including passes to local zoos and museums, and hotspots. Some, which I’ve mentioned on this site, are beginning to take the health of their patrons into consideration, offering telemedicine access, bicycle loans, and free at-home COVID-19 tests.

Webinars

February 9 (Wednesday) 1 ET. “2022 – Industry Predictions and Medicomp Roadmap.” Sponsor: Medicomp Systems. Presenters: David Lareau, CEO, Medicomp Systems; Jay Anders, MD, chief medical officer, Medicomp Systems; Dan Gainer, CTO, Medicomp Systems. The presenters will provide an update on the health IT industry and a review of the company’s milestones and insights that it gained over the past two years. Topics will include Cures Act implications, interoperability, AI, ambient listening, telehealth-first primary care, chronic care management, and new Quippe functionality and roadmap.

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

People

Tom Boggs (Bridges Health Partners) joins Brown & Toland Physicians as CEO.

Announcements and Implementations

Montana-based Big Sky Care Connect bolsters its HIE capabilities with Medicom’s image-sharing technology.

MyConnect Solutions adds Bluestream Health’s virtual care capabilities to its MedConnect platform for community health centers and FQHCs.

Lake County Tribal Health (CA) has adopted NextGen’s EHR, practice management, and patient experience software.

House call and telemedicine company MedConnect selects Spect’s virtual eye-screening technology.

Research and Innovation

A Black Book survey of 2,315 providers finds that nearly all plan to enlist a consulting firm to help their organizations implement value-based care programs. Eighty percent of practices with five or more physicians have yet to implement analytics and/or reimbursement solutions for those VBC plans. Respondents ranked CareAllies a top VBC consulting firm in terms of outcomes, experience, and satisfaction.

A separate Black Book survey of nearly 3,000 cybersecurity users, including physicians and practice managers, rated PerfectServe the top-performing vendor for secure communications. Practice managers noted that 85% of their patient data in Q3 2021 was being shared between physicians through unsecured channels.

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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