News 6/7/23

Top News

A science advisory group of the American Heart Association says that digital technology can address many of the challenges that are faced by center-based cardiac rehabilitation and care programs.

The authors list available technologies for patient assessment, nutritional counseling, risk factor management, exercise training, and digital  monitoring tools.

They predict that data from digital technology systems will be merged with clinical data to support integrate biomarker-directed risk identification, medication adherence, risk factor modification, and fully virtual cardiac rehab programs and AI-powered training plans.

Reader Comments

From Pilsner: “Re: HIStalk’s 20th birthday. How about the tenure of the rest of the crew?” I’m winging it from memory, but I think Dr. Jayne started 12 years ago, Lorre 10, and Jenn nine.

Webinars

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Fuse Oncology, a Cone Health spin-off specializing in radiation oncology software, closes a $9 million Series A funding round.

RxLightning, which specializes in digital specialty medication enrollment solutions, raises $17.5 million in a Series A funding round.

UnitedHealth Group makes an unsolicited cash offer of $3.3 billion to acquire home care provider Amedisys, which has already agreed to be acquired by Option Care Health for a slightly lower sum, for its Optum business.  UnitedHealth acquired home health and hospice provider LHC Group for $5.4 billion in February 2023, which is also operating under Optum.

Cardinal Health sells its Outcomes business to pharmacy software vendor Transaction Data Systems. Cardinal launched the business in April 2021 by combining its medication therapy management, patient engagement, telepharmacy, and vaccine administration scheduling products.

Sales

• Renovis Health (MI) selects Innovaccer’s ACO REACH Solution Suite.

People

LSU Health Shreveport (LA) names Viola Sprague, MBA (Kettering University) CIO.

Reperio Health hires Nicole Brooks (Innsena Communications) as VP of marketing and communications.

Tom Gregorio (Tufts Medicine) joins Care New England as SVP/CIO.

University of South Alabama Health names Tyler Whetstine (Adventist Health) CIO.

Newfire Global Partners hires Sonali Damle, MS, MBA (Innovaccer) as chief people and transformation officer.

Sam Zebarjadi (Amazon) joins Moderna as VP of strategy and go-to-market innovation.

Announcements and Implementations

Startup Remission Medical will work with the Mayo Clinic (MN) to further develop its virtual rheumatology clinic software, incorporating AI and machine learning to reduce time between diagnosis and treatment, and to predict flare-ups.

Emerus Holdings implements Orchard Software’s Point-of-Care LIS software at its eight hospitals in the Dallas-Forth Worth area.

In California, Seneca Healthcare District, Plumas District Hospital, and Eastern Plumas Health Care go live on Oracle Cerner through its CommunityWorks model.

Bellevue Hospital in Ohio implements Meditech Expanse.

CloudWave rolls out a fully managed patching service.

Government and Politics

Politico reports that HHS is accepting proposals from organizations that are interested in managing its TEFCA data-sharing initiative. The non-profit Sequoia Project has managed the framework since 2019 through a four-year contract and has applied to continue that work. Proposals are due June 27 and ONC expects to name the coordinating entity by September.

KFF Health News questions whether a federally created, independent National Patient Safety Board, similar to the National Transportation Safety Board, can succeed in helping hospitals learn from medical errors. The hospital industry’s influence will be hard to overcome given the $220 million it spent lobbying Congress last year and its role as the leading employer in 47 states. Proposed bills would allow the proposed group to investigate only when invited by the organization involved and would prohibit it from naming organizations or individuals, making it likely that it will be able to use only de-identified, voluntarily submitted data that is protected from public view.

Other

Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (NH) uses $2 million in initial funding to launch the Center for Precision Health and Artificial Intelligence, which will offer researchers and developers the means to evaluate new AI-powered digital tools in clinical settings.

Australia’s general practitioner professional group wants doctors to be paid for the time they spend referring patients to hospitals, a process that it calls “exporting hospital bureaucracy into general practice.” RACGP urges adoption of standardized digital referral forms, observing that while general practices have progressed past PDF forms and faxes, “hospitals are using not just unique forms, but archaic systems.”

Sponsor Updates

• Horizon Health Care (SD) expands its use of EClinicalWorks to include the company’s behavioral health module.
• Biofourmis, Current Health, and Volpara Health join The White House’s CancerX national accelerator.
• Nordic publishes an episode of its Designing for Health podcast that features an interview with Allison McCoy, PhD.
• Bamboo Health completes its SOC 2 examination, validating its commitment to critical security standards.
• Remedi Health Solutions sponsors the CHIME Innovation in Clinical Informatics Summit in San Diego.
• CloudWave will exhibit at the New England Spring HIMSS Annual Conference June 8 in Norwood, MA.
• CTG publishes a new case study, “CTG Improves Healthcare System’s Patient Portal Support with Amazon Connect.”
• Netsmart will integrate NVoq’s speech recognition software with its MyUnity EHR for post-acute care.

Blog Posts

• Good, Better, Best: 8 Questions to Challenge Your Network Management Strategy (CereCore)
• Google’s Material Design Explained the Impact on Digital Design and Why You Should Care (Access)
• Why and How to Build a Successful Clinical Documentation Improvement (CDI) Program (AGS Health)
• History of Healthcare Technology Regulations: What You Need to Know (Consensus Cloud Solutions)
• What are the new RADV guidelines, and how will they impact healthcare? (Arcadia)
• 5 Key Facts About Workplace Injury Prevention (Bardavon)
• Healthcare Provider’s Guide to Value-Based Care (ChartSpan)

Contacts

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