Welcome to our Healthcare IT Today Weekly Roundup. Each week, we’ll be providing a look back at the articles we posted and why they’re important to the healthcare IT community. We hope this gives you a chance to catch up on anything you may have missed during the week.
Catching Up With Veteran Health IT Leader Zane Burke. Formerly the President of Cerner and the CEO of Livongo Health, current Quantum Health CEO Zane Burke shared his thoughts on the future of care navigation and virtual care with John Lynn. Of course, John also asked him for some thoughts about what’s been happening at his older employers. Read more…
Understanding the The Biggest Barrier to Lowering Healthcare Costs. Healthcare is filled with “perverse incentives” to keep costs high, John noted, as one person’s problem is another person’s livelihood. At the same time, the industry knows it can’t stay on its current path. What can we do to make change happen? Read more…
Why Did TikTok Bought a Hospital Chain in China? ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, bought the private hospital chain Amcare Healthcare for $1.5 billion. It’s less about marketing, John said, and more about connecting brick-and-mortar healthcare services with virtual care apps – like Xiahoe, which ByteDance also owns. Read more…
Looking at Healthcare’s Complicated M&A Landscape. While some experts have said the investment market is in a “winter” period, M&A activity in healthcare IT hasn’t dropped off very much, as this week’s list of announcements clearly indicated. Plus, the mixed success of recent IPOs may lead more companies to explore M&A instead of going public. Read more…
What’s the Future of the Cloud for Healthcare? The latest Healthcare IT Today Podcast was all about the cloud. John and Colin discussed whether healthcare should be more cautious about migrating to the cloud, as well as whether it makes sense for organizations to handle cloud migrations in-house. Read more…
A Friendly Gathering of the Healthcare Interoperability Minds. John offered his thoughts on the upcoming Civitas Networks for Health Annual Conference and the DirectTrust Summit, which shows a rare case of organizations coming together for the common cause of improving interoperability. Picture Woodstock, but with nerdy conversations. Read more…
How to Mitigate Ethical Challenges of AI-Driven Healthcare. Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing healthcare, but organizations cannot ignore bias, informed consent, and other ethical challenges of using AI. Natalie C. Oehlers and Carly C. Koza of the law firm Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney provided recommendations for the appropriate use of AI. Read more…
Technology’s Role in Improving Women’s Health. Women spend more of their lives in poor health than men, in part because they often struggle to find the right clinician to work with. Livi’s Juliet Bauer described how digital health can provide women with greater access, education, and information, all of which can help improve their health. Read more…
Featured Health IT Job: Senior Solutions Architect – HIE at the TransForm Shared Service Organization, posted on Healthcare IT Central. The position is remote, but applicants must reside in Ontario.
Funding and M&A Activity:
- Medical technology company BD acquired MedKeeper, which offers cloud-based pharmacy management applications,
- Heart health diagnosis and treatment company Cleerly announced a $223 million Series C round.
- Primary care technology platform Elation Health announced $50 million in Series D funding.
- Payment platform CloudLogiq acquired SyTrue, a natural language processing provider specific to healthcare.
- Caraway emerged from stealth with $10.5 million in seed funding; the company provides digital women’s health products for college students.
- Pre-visit clinical intake automation company Health Note secured $17M in Series A funding.
Thanks for reading and be sure to check out our latest Healthcare IT Today Weekly Roundups.