Recent Articles:

News 2/15/23

February 15, 2023 News No Comments

Top News

image

Virtual hearing care company Tuned raises $3.5 million. The company, which currently markets its services to employers and payers, plans to offer pediatric care later this year.


Webinars

February 28 (Tuesday) 1 ET. “Words Matter: Simplifying Clinical Terms for Patients.” Sponsor: Intelligent Medical Objects. Presenters: Whitney Mannion, RN, MSN, senior terminologist, IMO; David Bocanegra, RN, nurse informaticist, IMO. The language of medicine can be confusing and contradictory to patients, challenging their ability to prepare for a procedure or pay their bills. This webinar will explore how the words that are used to communicate – online, in print, and in person – must be chosen carefully to allow patients to comprehend their diagnoses, treatments, and care plans. The presenters will also describe how the ONC Final Rule for the 21st Century Cures Act will make clinical and technical language more directly accessible through patient portals.

March 7 (Tuesday) noon ET.  “Prescribe RPA 2.0 to Treat Healthcare Worker Burnout.” Sponsor: Keysight Technologies. Presenters: Anne Foster, MS, technical consultant manager, Eggplant; Emily Yan, MPA, product marketing manager, Keysight Technologies. Half of US health systems plan to invest in robotic process automation by the end of this year, per Gartner. The concept is evolving to help with staff burnout and physician productivity. The presenters will introduce RPA 2.0, explain how to maximize its value, demonstrate how to quickly start on RPA 2.0 and test automation in one platform, and answer questions about healthcare automation.

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


Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Marker Learning raises $15 million in a Series A funding round. The company offers remote learning disability evaluations and support through its virtual platform and network of psychologists and educators.


People

image

Derek Kang (UCLA Health) joins Vytalize Health as chief compliance officer.

image

Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen appoints Timothy Tesmer, MD a private practice ENT specialist, to serve as the state’s next CMO.


Announcements and Implementations

Care Choice Family Clinic, a new practice in Plano, TX, selects healthcare technology from EClinicalWorks.


Research and Innovation

image

A Wolters Kluwer Health survey of 1,000 adults who’ve seen a doctor within the last year finds that the vast majority of patients have questions after the appointments. A third of those surveyed report they didn’t receive any educational materials during their appointments. Nearly 70% say they are more likely to see the same physician again if offered educational content. Survey authors note that providing educational content at the point of care could help cut down on patient portal messaging.


Other

image

In the UK, the Cornish town of Lostwithiel pulls out all the stops in its efforts to recruit a new physician to the town’s clinic, which serves 5,500 patients. Residents participated in a flash mob last month, and more recently have recorded a song, “Lostwithiel Needs A Doctor,” and accompanying video that they hope will get the attention of potential candidates. Organizers consider it “an innovative, yet increasingly desperate, attempt to replace a much-loved retiring GP within two weeks.”


Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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

Jenn_125

News 2/13/23

February 13, 2023 News No Comments

Top News

image

Garrison Women’s Health (NH) attributes a cybersecurity incident that rendered it unable to access its appointment scheduling software and some medical records in mid December to a data breach at Global Network Systems, which manages the practice’s IT applications and infrastructure, including hosting its EHR. Some EHR data, including physician notes and encounter and scheduling data, was not retrievable due to corruption and back-up issues.


Webinars

February 28 (Tuesday) 1 ET. “Words Matter: Simplifying Clinical Terms for Patients.” Sponsor: Intelligent Medical Objects. Presenters: Whitney Mannion, RN, MSN, senior terminologist, IMO; David Bocanegra, RN, nurse informaticist, IMO. The language of medicine can be confusing and contradictory to patients, challenging their ability to prepare for a procedure or pay their bills. This webinar will explore how the words that are used to communicate – online, in print, and in person – must be chosen carefully to allow patients to comprehend their diagnoses, treatments, and care plans. The presenters will also describe how the ONC Final Rule for the 21st Century Cures Act will make clinical and technical language more directly accessible through patient portals.

March 7 (Tuesday) noon ET.  “Prescribe RPA 2.0 to Treat Healthcare Worker Burnout.” Sponsor: Keysight Technologies. Presenters: Anne Foster, MS, technical consultant manager, Eggplant; Emily Yan, MPA, product marketing manager, Keysight Technologies. Half of US health systems plan to invest in robotic process automation by the end of this year, per Gartner. The concept is evolving to help with staff burnout and physician productivity. The presenters will introduce RPA 2.0, explain how to maximize its value, demonstrate how to quickly start on RPA 2.0 and test automation in one platform, and answer questions about healthcare automation.

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


Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Women’s virtual healthcare provider Twentyeight Health raises $8.3 million.


People

image

Infina Connect promotes Joe Francis to CEO. Company founder and acting CEO Sin Tong will remain chairman.


Announcements and Implementations

image

Doximity develops DocsGPT, a ChatGPT-inspired workflow automation tool that offers users a selection of medical prompts, such as “Certificate of Medical Necessity,” they can then flesh out with pertinent details. The tool, currently in beta, works with the company’s free digital fax service.


Research and Innovation

image

Black Book Research surveys of a combined 10,000-plus end users rate Surgical Information Systems the top ambulatory surgical center technology vendor and ModMed the top comprehensive health IT vendor for integrated practice management, RCM, and EHR solutions.


Sponsor Updates

  • Nordic releases a new Designing for Health Podcast featuring UCHealth CMIO Dr. CT Lin.
  • PerfectServe publishes a new case study, “How Savannah Neurology Specialists Reinvented Their Medical Answering Service Workflows.”

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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

Jenn_125

News 2/8/23

February 8, 2023 News No Comments

Top News

image

image

CVS Health will acquire Oak Street Health, a Medicare-focused primary care provider based in Chicago, for $39 per share in a deal valued at $10.6 billion.

Oak Street will become part of CVS Health’s Health Care Delivery unit, and will remain under the leadership of CEO Mike Pykosz. It employs 600 physicians across 170 clinics in 21 states, and anticipates opening an additional 130 by 2026. The company leverages its homegrown Canopy platform to power its clinical and operational workflows.

Oak Street patients account for about two-thirds of Aetna’s Medicare Advantage membership, according to Reuters. CVS Health acquired Aetna in 2017 for $68 billion.


Webinars

March 7 (Tuesday) noon ET.  “Prescribe RPA 2.0 to Treat Healthcare Worker Burnout.” Sponsor: Keysight Technologies. Presenters: Anne Foster, MS, technical consultant manager, Eggplant; Emily Yan, MPA, product marketing manager, Keysight Technologies. Half of US health systems plan to invest in robotic process automation by the end of this year, per Gartner. The concept is evolving to help with staff burnout and physician productivity. The presenters will introduce RPA 2.0, explain how to maximize its value, demonstrate how to quickly start on RPA 2.0 and test automation in one platform, and answer questions about healthcare automation.

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


Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

CVS Health beats analyst expectations for Q4 revenue and earnings, posting $83.85 billion in revenue and earnings of $1.99 per share.


Announcements and Implementations

CareCloud integrates the Quippe Clinical Data Engine from Medicomp Systems with its EHR to ensure providers have the most relevant, usable data at the point of care.

image

Complete Care implements EHR software from EClinicalWorks across their 31 facilities in Central Florida.


Research and Innovation

Researchers at the University of Missouri School of Medicine determine that site-specific EHR usability testing can help improve user efficiency, effectiveness, and satisfaction before software goes live for patient care. During their EHR user testing event, more than 70% of the 33 usability concerns identified were found to be correctable.

A medication adherence survey of 1,023 patients finds that 49% say they’ve had conversations with their doctors about saving money on their prescriptions; 83% of those say that led to more affordable options being made available.


Other

image

Regal Medical Group (CA) notifies patients of a December ransomware attack that enabled hackers to access some patient data.

image

Russell Johnson, MD bemoans the frenzied pace of EHR inbox alerts he must cope with on a daily basis, and shares the ways in which he has begun to manage patient messaging:

“To preserve my sanity, I have stopped responding to messages from patients that require more than a one-line response from me, and instead ask my assistant to schedule them for visits. I take the same approach for abnormal laboratory and imaging results. That way, the time I spend seeing patients is just that, and I’m not trying to juggle my time between my inbox and my patients, even if that means I’m overbooked.”


Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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

Jenn_125

News 2/6/23

February 6, 2023 News No Comments

Top News

image

Athenahealth will lay off 178 employees, re-deploy 100 to more high-priority areas, and consider making changes to its office space in Watertown, MA, according to paywalled reporting by The Boston Globe. The company’s last round of layoffs, in 2019, impacted nearly 4% of its workforce.


HIStalk Practice Musings

image image

My reading so far this year has tended toward the Dark Ages, as I’ve become engrossed in Bernard Cornwell’s “The Last Kingdom” series. I’ve yet to see the Netflix show, which I can only imagine is just as bloody, if not bloodier, than the warfare between Saxons, Britons, and a host of other post-Roman tribes depicted in the novel. I’ve also strayed into Cornwell’s Arthur series, which offers an interesting, brutal take on the more typical depictions of the Arthurian saga. Cornwell is my kind of author, spinning tales into a dozen books.

image

Readers may remember my mention last year of the book “Russian Winter” by Daphne Kalotay. She was kind enough to let me know that her new book, The Archivists, will be released in April.

Finally, I can’t help but mention that I thoroughly enjoyed comedian Nate Bargatze’s new Amazon Prime comedy special, Hello World. I bring it up here because he did at least 30 seconds on his frustration with filling out the same paper medical forms at every doctor’s appointment he’s ever been to.


Webinars

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


Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

image

Simple HealthKit raises $8 million in a Series A funding round led by Initialized Capital. The company offers a digital health platform encompassing diagnostics and follow-up care to groups including providers, retail clinics, employers, and universities. Founder Sheena Menezes was a former director at Scanadu, a Tricorder-like medical device manufacturer that aimed to put a smartphone-powered diagnostic tool in everyone’s pocket before rebranding and being acquired by Health.io in 2020.


Announcements and Implementations

image

Houston-based Legacy Community Health Clinic will use $1 million in federal funding to upgrade its 10 year-old EHR. The clinic will go live on the new, unspecified system across its 55 facilities in October.


Research and Innovation

Physician practices are focused on the following healthcare trends, according to anonymous user data from AdvancedMD customers: patient-centric payment capabilities, integrating behavioral and mental health offerings, automation technologies that can improve workflows, remote patient monitoring, and digital patient self-service tools.


Other

image

Cardiovascular Associates (AL) notifies patients of a data breach late last year in which an unauthorized third party gained access to certain CVS systems that contained patient information. Some of that data was copied and removed from the network.

image

Fast Company profiles Fresh Connect, a Boston-based nonprofit that has created a credit card physicians can “prescribe” to their patients to help them pay for fruits and vegetables. The Fresh Connect card is scanned at check out, and the cost of fruits and vegetables is deducted from the bill’s balance. Cards are typically funded with $100, with overall funding coming from programs like Medicaid and other nonprofits. Shopping data can be tied to a patient’s EHR for analysis of patient experience and food access, outcomes, and costs. Massachusetts-based ACO Community Care Cooperative has used the card as part of a larger pilot project focused on patients with complex health needs.


Sponsor Updates

  • Nordic releases a new podcast, “Making Rounds: The up and downside of disintermediation.”
  • Nordic publishes DocTalk Ep. 202, “The Marvel of In-House Business Intelligence.”

Blog Posts


Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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

Jenn_125

News 2/1/23

February 1, 2023 News No Comments

Top News

image

White label telehealth company OpenLoop Health expands its headquarters in Des Moines, IA to accommodate growth from 25 to 175 employees in the last year. CEO Jon Lensing, MD says the company hopes to hire an additional 400 staffers and close another funding round by the end of 2023. It acquired Reliant.MD’s practice group last month.


Webinars

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


Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

image

Aluna raises $15 million in a Series B funding round. The company has developed a smart inhaler and companion app to help asthmatic patients and their providers track lung function, triggers, and response to medication. The company, which hopes to raise a Series C round of funding next year, plans to expand into COPD and cystic fibrosis.


People

image

Hinge Health names Deborah Conrad chief marketing officer.

image

Mark Goodwin (American Family Care) joins Greenway Health as SVP of revenue services.


Government and Politics

image

Prescription savings company GoodRx will pay $1.5 million to settle FTC allegations that it shared the sensitive, personal health information of its users with third-party sites like Google and Facebook, which then used that information to serve up targeted ads to those individuals. The FTC also alleges that GoodRx misrepresented its HIPAA compliance and failed to implement data-protection policies.


Research and Innovation

Physicians in Canada spend 18.5 million hours annually on unnecessary administrative tasks, according to a new report from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. The report points out that reducing paperwork by 10% would equate to time that could be spent on 5.5 million patient visits. For context, physicians in the US spend nearly two hours each day on EHR documentation outside of regular working hours, according to research published last year in JAMA Internal Medicine.


Other

image

Chico Immediate Care Medical Center (CA) notifies 3,780 patients of a data breach last fall caused by an unauthorized employee accessing its EHR. The employee was purportedly gathering information for a nearby competing clinic.


Sponsor Updates

  • Compass Medical, a 95-provider organization with six locations in Massachusetts, uses EClinicalWorks to excel at value-based care and combat physician burnout.

Blog Posts


Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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

Jenn_125

Platinum Sponsors


  

  

  

Gold Sponsors


 

Subscribe to Updates




Search All HIStalk Sites



Recent Comments

  1. Re: Walmart Health: Just had a great dental visit this morning, which was preceded by helpful reminders from Epic, and…

  2. NextGen announcement on Rusty makes me wonder why he was asked to leave abruptly. Knowing him, I can think of…

  3. "New Haven, CT-based medical billing and patient communications startup Inbox Health..." What you're literally saying here is that the firm…

  4. RE: Josephine County Public Health department in Oregon administer COVID-19 vaccines to fellow stranded motorists. "Hey, you guys over there…

  5. United is regularly referred to as "The Evil Empire" in the independent pediatric space (where I live). They are the…