Rounding up the week-end: Oracle Cerner layoffs hit 500+ in VA, DoD groups (updated); AWS cash cow stumbles; Transcarent-ViewFi team on virtual MSK; Veradigm delays annual, quarterly reports again; Olive AI sells BI to BurstIQ

June 16, 2023 | by

Oracle, which already laid off 3,000 since its Cerner acquisition and dumped its real estate, is proceeding with more layoffs in Cerner groups serving the Federal government, specifically DoD and VA. According to the Reddit group r/cernercorporation on this thread, the layoffs hit broadly within the Federal teams: VA and DoD professional services, Federal care delivery, Federal change management, support service owners, and consulting. The number is at least 500 but may be more. The severance package is four weeks plus an additional week for every year of service plus unused vacation with the layoff date 30 June. Offers made to start for new hires have been rescinded. This has fueled speculation that Oracle Cerner may start to wash its hands of the just-renewed VA EHR implementation by outsourcing most of it. There is precedent for this: Cerner partnered with Leidos for the DoD implementation from the start and Oracle Cerner brought in Accenture for training in February. Of course, the all-heart Mr. Market liked the layoff news coupled with Oracle’s Q4 ending 31 May results of net income of $3.32 billion, a rise of 7% versus last year. CNBC  Oracle is now at a $342 billion valuation, a new high. HIStalk 16 June    

Updated 16 June: details remain sketchy but confirmation that layoffs are in the ‘hundreds’ Reuters, Becker’s, KC Business Journal (paywalled); the last posits from CEO Katz’s statement that this is only the first of many to come.   Further details on the Reddit group is that consultants were onsite at clients working on projects and go-lives when they received their layoffs, that 80% of departments were affected, and that the layoff may go over 1,000. 

Amazon Web Services’ business continues to slow, with the AWS cash cow’s growth slowing to half versus last year’s, with further decline expected this quarter. This Editor noted that market analysts at Seeking Alpha called it back in February when we looked at Amazon’s ability to spend cash so freely in healthcare, for example on OneMedical. Google and Microsoft have been tough competitors and while their growth is off too, they are starting with smaller pie slices. Companies are using more than one cloud provider in a ‘belt and suspenders’ approach; Gartner predicts that by 2026, more than 90% of businesses will use multiple providers, from 76% in 2020. AWS’ plans continue to build outside of the US, with a $12 billion investment in cloud infrastructure in India by 2030 as well as five data centers in Oregon due to a controversial $1 billion tax break. Google and Microsoft have also led in generative AI, while AWS has not. AP

Enterprise health navigator Transcarent has made another bid in the virtual health area. It’s a partnership with ViewFi, which helps MSK providers to diagnose and treat MSK injuries in real time. ViewFi providers are affiliated with the NYC-based Hospital for Special Surgery. The idea for ViewFi came from retired tennis champion Andy Roddick who, with his orthopedist Josh Dines, MD turned their bad experiences during the pandemic using FaceTime for virtual consults into a new platform. ViewFi’s platform now takes patients through an intro screener that records physical and mental health, through diagnosis and a recovery care plan with personalized diagnostic tests and exercises with real-time support from their health guides. For Transcarent-contracted companies, a ViewFi initial appointment can be set in as little as two days as opposed to the usual average of 17 days. Transcarent bought the virtual care platform developed by 98point6 in March. FierceHealthcare

We noted back in March and last month that Veradigm (the former Allscripts) had serious problems with their Q4 and FY 2022 reporting due to a software flaw (!) that affected its revenue reporting going back to 2021. Nasdaq has extended for the second time–from 14 June to 18 September–their 2022 annual 10-K filing and their 10-Q for the quarter ending 31 March 2023. Not filing the reports will mean delisting. Seeking Alpha

Olive AI’s reorganization continues [TTA 23 Feb], with data solutions company BurstIQ buying its business intelligence platform.  LifeGraph Intelligence uses AI tools such as natural language processing and machine learning to extract insights from clinical notes and EMR fields. The platform presents cost and clinical data in a meaningful way through cohort comparisons. According to an example on their website, it contributed to $90 million in savings for one health system. Acquisition cost and management transitions were not disclosed. BurstIQ release  Hat tip to HIStalk 16 June

Mid-week news roundup: Parsa admits Babylon SPAC was ‘big mistake’, FTC’s strategy on GoodRx action, Oracle signs Accenture for VA training, Constellation delays ’22 reports, Emirates Health launches Care.ai and Digital Twin

February 15, 2023 | by

Regrets? Babylon has a few. A short but surprising interview in Mobihealthnews by Ali Parsa will give Readers an idea of the bubbly mindset of 2020-21 and the crises that followed for some companies. Babylon had 400% growth, then felt it had to go public via a SPAC in October 2021. It cost them a lot, including losing US shareholders, yet being listed on the NYSE. Parsa admitted “But in hindsight, that was a very big mistake. There’s no question.” While their revenue has continued to climb, on target to hit over $1 billion this year as of January, the cracked SPAC (opening at $272, today at $11.50) has forced Babylon to reorganize, selling non-core businesses like the Meritage IPA, reorganizing as a foreign private issuer to a domestic, and planning a reverse share split. These were announced last fall to avoid an NYSE delisting when the shares fell below $1 [TTA 13 Oct 22].  It also is leading them to shed Medicaid business and target commercial payers, such as Centene’s Ambetter. There’s a hint at the end of the article of some tech changes to promote continuous vital signs monitoring. You have to give Mr. Parsa credit for not papering over his errors.

FTC’s moves against GoodRx a preview of coming courtroom attractions–and collections? The start of February marked the first time that the Federal Trade Commission used the never-used-before Health Breach Notification Rule (HBNR), enacted in 2009, to elicit a penalty. With GoodRx choosing to settle for $1.5 million rather than fight [TTA 3 Feb], the FTC has now demonstrated a willingness to use Federal action against other online health companies sharing user data with third parties and monetization of that data. An attorney quoted in the Healthcare Dive article analyzing the ramifications: “This is the FTC trying to signal all these apps and other startup companies that are collecting a lot of sensitive data that we have a mechanism for enforcing data privacy rules against you.” Seven charges against GoodRx were around deceptive representations and unfair practices, with the HNBR the eighth layer of cake icing. According to another attorney quoted, the FTC is expanding the definition of breach into data that is shared or distributed “without the consent or authorization of the person whose data it is.” It seems like HBNR are yet more initials to be dreaded by digital health businesses that aren’t covered entities and stay well outside HIPAA privacy laws. 

Oracle Cerner getting help in digging through the Mound of Misery around their VA EHR implementation. FedScoop reported today (14 Feb) on Oracle’s signing of Accenture to improve clinician training on the Cerner Millenium system. Oracle EVP Ken Glueck confirmed that “We signed a contract with Accenture probably a month ago. So they are part and parcel of the training procedure for the continued rollouts when they resume in June of 2023.” They also confirmed that it was within the current ‘budget envelope’. Not surprisingly, Accenture is part of the Leidos Partnership for Defense Health that is implementing the Department of Defense’s considerably further along and relatively less troubled version of the Cerner EHR, MHS Genesis.

EHR watchers last year also noted the $700 million sale of EHR pioneer Allscripts (now Veradigm) five hospital and large physician practice EHRs to Constellation Software, integrated into their N. Harris Group [TTA 6 May 22] and now called Altera. Constellation has delayed reporting its Q4 and FY2022 results, usually released about this time, to a date to be determined, because of the Altera acquisition. Release Constellation, a Canadian company, trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange at an eye-watering share price of C $2,405 and a capitalization of C$49 billion.

Swinging over to the UAE, Emirates Health Services at Arab Health 2023 launched both the Care.ai and Digital Twin services for its facilities across the region. Care.ai is an Orlando-based company. For EHS, this will create an AI-enabled automation system that will update and analyze patient data and and assist doctors in diagnosing patients using computer vision. Digital Twin is an energy management system developed in partnership with Schneider Electric and Microsoft using Azure. At Al Qassimi Hospital, it cut consumption by up to 30% and reduced breakdowns and maintenance work by up to 20% .EHS release  Hat tip to HISTalk 

News roundup: of logos and HIMSS roundups, Rock Health’s Digital Health Consumer Adoption survey, and the millennial/Gen Z walkaway from primary care

February 21, 2019 | by

HIMSS19 was last week. Onsite reports to this Editor declared it ‘overwhelming’, ‘the place to be’, ‘more of the same’, and ‘stale’. With a range of comments like these, everyone’s HIMSS is different, but HIMSS is well, a place that for most of us in digital health, have to be (or their companies have to be). It is still a major commitment, and if you are small, a place where you might be better off with no display and simply networking your way through. 

HIMSS must be conscious of a certain dowdiness, because HIMSS is ‘reforming’ with a preview of a new logo and graphics here that changes out their Big ’80s curvy lettering and muted colors to hard edges in typefaces and equally hard blues.

Mobihealthnews (a HIMSS company) delves into blockchain (Boehringer Ingelheim and IBM Canada) and Uber Health’s continuing foray into non-emergency medical transport. Dimensional Insight’s blog takes some of the sessions from the data governance and healthcare business intelligence perspective, including the opioid crisis, AI to detect cancer (the link between falling hemoglobin rates and a cancer diagnosis), and pediatric disease registries. And there is the always incisive HISTalk with last Monday Morning’s Update, their 2/14/19 roundup, and Dr Jayne’s Curbside Consult on John Halamka’s world travels, including nascent care coordination in China and interoperability in Australia.

Rock Health’s survey of consumer attitudes towards digital health adoption leads with these insights:

  • Wearable use is shifting away from fitness toward managing health conditions
    • There was a 10% increase in use of wearables to manage health, corresponding to a 10% decline in physical activity tracking
  • Telemedicine adoption is climbing, with urban consumers more than twice as likely to use live video telemedicine than rural consumers
    • Paradoxical but true, in terms of adoption of at least one form, it was 67 percent for rural residents and 80 percent for urban residents.
  • Highly trusted entities like physicians and health plans lost credibility in 2018—consumers were less willing to share data with them than they were in 2017. There’s an increasing distrust of ‘big tech’ and confidence in their ability to keep private data private–a wise takeaway given the Cambridge Analytica and Facebook scandals.

More acceptance of healthcare tools, less intermediation–and not trusting that data is secure spells trouble down the road unless these issues are addressed. Rock Health surveyed 4,000 respondents of US adults age 18 and over.

They’re not trad, dad. Accenture’s survey (released at HIMSS) also tracks the rejection of intermediation and gatekeepers when it comes to millennials and Gen Z in choosing non-traditional modes of healthcare, such as retail clinics, virtual and digital services. They are two to three times more likely than boomers to dislike in-person care; over half use mobile apps to manage health and use virtual nurses to monitor health and vital signs. Over 40 percent prefer providers with strong digital capabilities. Also Mobihealthnews 

16 or 27 million 2016 breaches, 1 in 4 Americans? Data, IoT insecurity runs wild (US/UK)

March 29, 2017 | by

What’s better than a chilly early spring dive into the North Sea of Health Data Insecurity?

[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Accenture-Health-2017-Consumer-Survey.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]Accenture’s report released in February calculated that 26 percent of Americans had experienced a health care-related data breach. 50 percent of those were victims of medical identity theft and had to pay out an average of $2,500 in additional cost. One-third (36 percent) believed the breach took place in hospitals, followed by urgent care and pharmacies (both 22 percent). How did they find out? Credit card and insurer statements were usual, with only one-third being notified by their provider. Interestingly, a scant 12 percent of data breach victims reported the breach to the organization holding their data. (You’d think they’d be screaming?) The samples were taken between November 2016 and January 2017. Accenture has similar surveys for UK, Australia, Singapore, Brazil, Norway, and Saudi Arabia. Release  PDF of the US Digital Trust Report

So what’s 16 million breaches between friends? Or 4 million? Or 27 million?

  • That is the number (well, 15.9 million and change) of healthcare/medical records breached in 2016 in 376 breaches reported by the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC), a Federally/privately supported non-profit. Healthcare, no surprise, is far in the lead with 34 percent and 44 percent respectively. The 272 pages of the 2016 End of Year Report will take more than a casual read, but much of its data is outside of healthcare.
  • For a cross-reference, we look to the non-profit Privacy Rights Clearinghouse which for many years has been a go-to resource for researchers. PRC’s 2016 numbers are lower, substantially so in the number of records: 301 breaches and 4 million records.
  • HIMSS and Healthcare IT News insist that ransomware is under-reported, (more…)

Cerner’s takeoff delayed on DOD’s new EHR, MHS Genesis

October 20, 2016 | by

The new $4.3 billion US Department of Defense EHR, jointly developed by Cerner and Leidos, has taken another delay from the aggressive rollout schedule set in April.  The original test start date was 6 December at the Fairchild Air Force Base hospital in Spokane, Washington (state) and the Oak Harbor Naval Hospital on Washington’s Whidbey Island. Back in early September, it was reported that it would be delayed by at least a few months for technical reasons (Federal News Radio and Healthcare IT News). The rara avis in the latter is a mention of major dental supplier Henry Schein–along with Accenture, they were part of the award, but very much a junior partner in providing the dental EHR. (Leidos release)

The latest update on the start of MHS Genesis is February 2017 for Fairchild AFB and June for Oak Harbor. Healthcare IT News

Why hackers feel the $$ love for healthcare: Brookings study

July 13, 2016 | by

[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Hackermania.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]It’s the information, silly! A recent study by the Center for Technology Innovation at the Brookings Institution tells us what we already know: healthcare organizations hold high-value information electronically, and because they haven’t invested equally in cybersecurity, it’s all vulnerable. When those nifty EHRs hold names, dates of birth, addresses, Social Security numbers and health histories, they are eminently salable. What’s new here is that the vulnerability increases due to factors not based on security, but on legal and data exchange requirements:

  • Data sharing and accessing
  • Length of storage to comply with regulations
  • The size of the records–the more information they hold, the more vulnerable

Lay on top of this ransomware.

The worst threat is not the hacker in a Bulgarian basement, but what is termed ‘state actors’ who want health information for a variety of reasons. They may be compiling a big database:”…a dossier of individuals that they could use for social engineering for future attacks”–such as sending phishing emails to government employees with specific, accurate information that when opened, infect their computers with malware for another purpose. Some solutions presented are using an outside cloud storage provider; using blockchain, which requires both public and private encryption keys; intrusion-detection systems (IDS) and security information and event management (SIEM) software. CSO, Brookings report (28 pages)

Hyperbole, pets & apps: a brief romp around the digital health scene

March 10, 2016 | by | 1 Comment

In technology, over-use of the term “groundbreaking” is common. However it takes some nerve to use the term to describe “Home Assist”, a push-button pendant-based telecare service now being sold by Boots (provided by Tunstall). Whilst TTA can only applaud the arrival of another high street offering, we would counsel a more realistic service description for a telecare service already offered by many.

Research via Boots’ own website reveals that in addition to the advertised push-button pendant, a falls detector is available as well. This site gives price details too, which look quite competitive at the basic level with non-subsidised local authority telecare schemes, though of course without the linkages to local services, including response services in the event eg of a fall, that some of these schemes also offer. Downloading the in store leaflet gives yet further information, for example that the pricier ‘advanced’ package includes a smoke detector (surely for older people almost as important as a basic pendant, and ideally one/floor of your house?) and bogus call detector, as well as falls detector etc.

Meanwhile in a far off land (Los Angeles to be precise) Active4Pets are busy recruiting to accelerate the US rollout of their “innovative” telehealth communication platform for pets. The (admittedly far-fetched) thought of pets regularly reporting vital signs electronically conjures up all sorts of bad, (though unavoidable) puns such as: (more…)

Primary care ‘virtual health’ could save $10 billion annually: Accenture study

October 20, 2015 | by

A newly-released Accenture study on US primary care estimates that savings of about $10 billion per year in US primary care could be achieved through use of ‘virtual health’, defined as “digital tools such as biometric devices, analytic diagnostic engine and a virtual medical assistant” that would allow much of the work of a typical office visit to be done prior to or separately from the visit, and follow up/check in tools such as video visits/telemedicine which would further offset costs. The cost savings were calculated by Accenture Insight Driven Health as a total of time-per-visit savings of five minutes–when aggregated, $7 billion, $300 million in telemedicine visits, telehealth self-management in diabetes alone $2 billion, health system savings $63 million. This could potentially solve the shortage of US PCPs now projected at 31,000 in the next ten years. Nary a mention of patient care savings, chronic care management or telecare for proactive behavioral home monitoring, however. Accenture release (BusinessWire), Accenture page and paper.

Accenture projects that 50 percent of digital health startups fail after two years

August 18, 2015 | by
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Accenture-zombie_webready.jpg” thumb_width=”175″ /]Based on historical funding data and analyzing 900 healthcare IT start-ups, Accenture predicts that within two years of life, 50 percent will fail. These ‘zombie startups’, in Accenture’s charming term, burned through $4 bn in funding between 2008 and 2013. An additional $2.5 bn will go to fund digital health in 2015-16.

Does this mean that for the angels to the VCs, a visit to Las Vegas may be more fun? What remains can be mined for gold. There’s a wealth of IP–1,700 patents between the 900 startups analyzed–and experienced people who can be “aqui-hired”. Their solutions, despite failure, can be sound. Kaveh Safavi, managing director of Accenture’s global health care business, said, “Many digital startups that are dying or in danger of failure have developed solutions that can help traditional and non-traditional health care companies achieve their goals.” Mobihealthnews, iHealthBeat, FierceHealthIT. Accenture announcement.

Cerner win at Defense a crossroads for interoperability (US)

August 4, 2015 | by

Modern Healthcare’s analysis of the Cerner/Leidos/Accenture win of the Department of Defense (DoD) EHR contract focuses on its effect on interoperability. In their view, it’s positive in three points for active military, retirees and their dependents.

* EHR interoperability with the civilian sector is needed because 60-70 percent of the 9.6 million Military Health System beneficiaries—active duty military personnel, retirees and their families—is delivered by providers in the US private sector through Tricare, the military health insurance program.

* A major criticism by Congress and veterans’ groups of both DoD and VA is the lack of interoperability between these systems as well as civilian. Many military members change their status several times during service, and can cycle within a few years as active, Reserve, National Guard and inactive reserve. Records famously get lost, sometimes disastrously.

* It’s a boost to state health information exchanges (HIE) in states with large military bases and also for the CommonWell Health Alliance, an industry group which is establishing EHR interoperability standards.

Less optimistic are some industry observers who see the DoD contract as sidelining resources demanded by Cerner’s civilian hospital clients, and whether realistically they can develop a system to exchange data with every EHR, including dental, and e-prescribing system in the US (and probably foreign as well). Modern Healthcare

US Department of Defense picks Cerner/Leidos/Accenture for $4.3 bn EHR

July 29, 2015 | by

Breaking News Updated  The winner of the massive, potentially ten year contract for the Defense Healthcare Management System Modernization program is defense computer contractor Leidos, which brought in Cerner and Accenture Federal Systems.The DOD announcement mentions only lead contractor Leidos, interestingly under the US Navy Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, San Diego, California. The announcement was released just after 5pm EDT today.

This combination beat the Epic/IBM and the Allscripts/Computer Sciences/HP bids. According to the DOD announcement, “This contract has a two-year initial ordering period, with two 3-year option periods, and a potential two-year award term, which, if awarded, would bring the total ordering period to 10 years. Work will be performed at locations throughout the United States and overseas. If all options are exercised, work is expected to be completed by September 2025. Fiscal 2015 Defense Health Program Research, Development, Test and Evaluation funds in the amount of $35,000,000 will be obligated at the time of award.” Modern Healthcare attended the embargoed press conference this morning and adds in its article that only one-third is fixed cost, with the remainder as ‘cost plus’, which could conceivably run the contract to the $4.33 bn ceiling over the 10 years. The system will be used in 55 military hospitals and 600 clinics, with an initial operational test as early as 2016 (Washington Post) and full rollout by 2023.  Interoperability with private EHR systems was a key requirement (Healthcare IT News).Over the 18 year life cycle, the contract value could be up to $9 bn, according to the WaPo.

The race to replace DOD’s AHLTA accelerated with the final failure to launch a plan to create a joint DOD-VA EHR in March 2013 [TTA 27 July 13], though hopes revived in Congress occasionally during the past two years [TTA 31 Mar].

It is also widely interpreted as a blow to Epic, which has been defensive of late about its willingness to play in the HIT Interoperability sandbox with other EHRs; certainly it cannot make Big Blue, which would undoubtedly have found some way to sell Watson into this, happy.

POLITICO’s Morning eHealth had many tart observations today, mostly pertaining to the belief of some observers that Cerner will be strapped in meeting this Federal commitment and would find it increasingly difficult to innovate in the private sector.

Example–From Micky Tripathi, CEO of the Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative: “My biggest worry isn’t that Cerner won’t deliver, it’s that DOD will suck the lifeblood out of the company by running its management ragged with endless overhead and dulling the innovative edge of its development teams. There is a tremendous amount of innovation going on in health IT right now. We need a well-performing Cerner in the private sector to keep pushing the innovation frontier. It’s not a coincidence that defense contractors don’t compete well in the private sector, and companies who do both shield their commercial business from their defense business to protect the former from the latter.”

HIMSS Monday highlights

April 13, 2015 | by

HIMSS is the largest US healthcare conference in the world, and Neil Versel, who has just joined the staff of MedCityNews, reported that registrations in this year’s event in Chicago were in excess of 40,000. He has a 37 minute interview with HIMSS Executive Vice President Carla Smith where they touch on CMS, Meaningful Use, EHR interoperability, data security, patient engagement and the empowered patient such as E-Patient Dave deBronkart (who will also be at The King’s Fund Digital Health conference in June). HIMSS is also showcasing on the show floor mobile health, interoperability, cybersecurity, disaster preparedness, intelligent health and the connected patient….Another sign that the Wild West days of digital health are over is the increasing oversight of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on non-HIPAA regulated health data collected by fitness and wellness devices. This is in addition to health apps making unsupported claims (see today’s and previous articles on melanoma detection apps) and the PaymentsMD patient billing software that was collecting a little extra patient data. This is both extra- and in addition to FDA. Mobihealthnews….. The Venture+Forum on Sunday discussed doctor burnout particularly in acute care and to ease this, focusing on the Holy Grail of proactive rather than reactive care and results rather than ‘shiny new objects’ (what this Editor has called Whiz-Bang Tech) “Doctors want clinical decision execution. Don’t give me any more tools.” Healthcare IT News….A survey by Accenture released today on doctors and EHR usage headlines good news–79 percent US doctors feel more proficient in their EHR usage than in their 2012 survey. The bad news is that other numbers are plummeting: fewer believe that EMR has improved treatment decisions (46 percent in 2015 vs. 62 percent in 2012), reduced medical errors (64 vs. 72 percent) and improved health outcomes for patients (46 vs. 58 percent). Familiarity breeds contempt? Buried way down in the release is that US physicians offering telehealth monitoring to patients has tripled since the last survey, from just 8 percent in 2012 to 24 percent now. Accenture surveyed over 2,600 physicians in six countries….HIMSS goes to Thursday, so more to come!

66% of ‘tech-savvy seniors’ dissatisfied with current health tech

March 5, 2015 | by

Yes, those same people who–gee whiz–designed computers, did their own programs in MS-DOS and went from Palm Pilots to BlackBerries to iPhones, are already over or hitting 65 (3.9 million in US in 2015)–and they aren’t happy with what’s being served up to them in healthcare tech. The Accenture study across 10 countries and over 10,000 adults points out the demand–67 percent–and the dissatisfaction–66 percent. They want independent self-care tools, wearables to monitor themselves, online communities like PatientsLikeMe, patient navigators and health record tools. Moreover, the more comfortable they are with and value technology, the more likely they are already using technology for tracking weight and cholesterol levels. Couple this with the ‘Drawn and Quartered’ Parks Associates research [TTA 11 Aug 14] and moving past the mHealth hype earlier this week, the study points out a strong market for apps, online tools and other digital health–but designed not for a peer group of most designers, nor to be ‘cool’. Helloooo designers! Wake up! Laurie Orlov does point out on AgeInPlaceTech that there’s not much new here, but that we shouldn’t move on. Accenture release, Modern Healthcare, Fred Pennic in HIT Consultant, Stephanie Baum in MedCityNews

Cerner acquires Siemens HIT business

August 6, 2014 | by

The big news in HIT circles today was Cerner’s purchase of Siemens’ health IT business for $1.3 billion. Forbes has the most detailed analysis by far, which appears prepared in advance based on the 22 July rumor published by HISTalk at that time. HISTalk’s and their readers’ comments on the announcement conference call today are moderately scathing and worth reading if of interest to you. The takeaway for this Editor is that it was a defensive move for Cerner versus Epic Systems, Athenahealth and Allscripts; they bought out a competitor, bought market share with the acquisition (although how much of it would have fallen to them anyway is a question), gained more of an international foothold plus an inside track to customers eager to move to newer technology. For Siemens, it appears  (more…)

NHS futures: Personalised and Preventative Care presentation

March 26, 2014 | by

Courtesy of Accenture, we now have (perhaps exclusively?) Aimie Chapple’s full presentation delivered at the NHS Futures Summit in November. The link is contained at the end of Editor Charles’ article on ‘NHS futures – more encouraging signs of change‘ which puts it into context and is definitely worth your reading time. Hat tip to Mark Radvanyi of Accenture for providing Personalised and Preventative Care: Technology Trends and Disruptors that will Shape the Healthcare Transformation.

NHS futures – more encouraging signs of change (UK)

March 23, 2014 | by | 4 Comments

Monitor has now released the output from the NHS Futures summit held on 21 November 2013, hosted by NHS England, Monitor and the NHS Trust Development Authority. The summit was designed to spark debate about how the landscape of health and care providers could evolve over the next decade to better meet the challenges outlined in the Call to Action. Over 100 senior health leaders took part including commissioners, providers (including GPs), health policy experts, and patient and charity representatives.

The summary Call to Action document makes encouraging reading for those who believe technology can help the NHS to improve patient outcomes at lower cost.  Contrary to the consultation exercise held by NHS England last August when we pointed out that remote consultation was not even mentioned, this features prominently in the Monitor summary (see especially Appendix 3, on pages 19-21), together with many other uses of technology such as smart homes, encouraging self-care, telemedicine, single patient record, interoperability, etc.

There are also some great videos – in particular (more…)