Shulkin survival odds decline

With help from Victoria Colliver, Darius Tahir and Mohana Ravindranath

SHULKIN’S SURVIVAL ODDS DECLINE: Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy, who speaks regularly to President Donald Trump, told ABC’s This Week on Sunday that Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin is likely to depart the Cabinet very soon. We’ve been hearing that for so many weeks that we don’t know how much stock to put in it, but the failure of the Choice 2.0 bill — the bipartisan legislation to expand private health care for veterans that didn’t make it into the Omnibus — seems to have made Shulkin more disposable. Of course, most of the VA community think he’s done a good job trying to reform the agency. But, does that even matter?

… Shulkin’s departure would leave the Cerner contract up in the air, but presumably the White House would not hesitate to order any new or acting secretary to sign it right away. Axios reported late yesterday that Trump hasn’t made up his mind about firing Shulkin but is consulting with his business buddies about possible replacements. The Associated Press, meanwhile, reports that fomer Cleveland Clinic Toby Cosgrove might be a candidate to succeed Shulkin, along with Trump favorite Pete Hegseth, former Army Gen. Keith Kellog, Lockheed Martin exec Leo Mackay Jr. and former House Vets Chairman Jeff Miller.

Tweet of the Day: Scott Gottlieb @SGottliebFDA Adam that app already exists, it’s called Twitter [responding to Adam Feuerstein @adamfeuerstein.. more interested in the @SGottliebFDA food safety app. You take a picture of your leftovers, and a virtual Scott appears on your screen, tells you not to eat unless the temperature is just right.

Welcome to Monday Morning eHealth, congressional dead zone edition. Send tips and stories ideas to [email protected], or tweet something we don’t know @ravindranize, @athurallen202, @DariusTahir, @POLITICOPro, @Morning_eHealth.

NEW CISO AT HHS: CMS deputy CIO Janet Vogel will be detailed during the month of April to replace departing HHS Chief Information Security Officer Chris Wlaschin, who says he is leaving for personal reasons. Wlaschin had been in the middle of a dispute over Healthcare Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center. More for pros from Morning eHealth’s Darius Tahir LINK

PRICING TRANSPARENCY KICKS IN IN CALIFORNIA: California’s first-in-the-nation drug pricing transparency law is beginning to kick in — and to spur copycats, with Oregon’s governor last week signing a law that requires drug companies to disclose cost components they have long considered proprietary. Whether they’ll actually reduce prices is a crapshoot. Victoria Colliver has more for here.

… Critics, meanwhile, say CMS has not updated the federal databases that show how much money the government is paying for drugs, hospitals and physicians. Under the Obama administration, the CMS dashboard was typically updated in November for the previous calendar year, but no new information has posted since Trump took office.

DIGITAL HEALTH TRANSFORMATION IN EUROPE: The European Commission’s Expert Panel on Effective Ways of Investing in Health has been asked to weigh in on machine learning and artificial intelligence. As EU health budgets rise to meet digital costs, “there is a growing need for robust evidence to support arguments” that digital health actually brings better health outcomes, according to a document published this week. The Commission wants its advisory group to set out methods by which EU countries can assess impacts and decide what to invest in, by the end of the year.

ISRAEL GETTING IN ON THE IT ACT: The Jewish state intends to make digital health the “third major growth driver for the Israeli economy” alongside cybersecurity and autonomous vehicles, Eli Groner, general director of the office of Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu. The global health care industry “dwarfs” the other two globally, he told The Times Of Israel. Groner says Israel has a global competitive advantage because it started digitalizing its patients years ago, its health system is small and efficient, and Israel has a strong research and development infrastructure in place. Netanyahu first announced the plan at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos earlier this year.

PCORI WILL TOTAL $4 BILLION IN FUNDING: A GAO report says the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, set up under the Affordable Care Act, made about $2 billion awards for comparative effectiveness research in fiscal years 2010 through 2017, and expects to commit an additional $721 million through fy 2021. PCORI also will spend about half a billion dollars on overhead through 2024. Most PCORI-funded research hasn’t been finished yet.

HIMSS LIKES VA’S OPT-IN RULE: In a letter last week to VA Secretary David Shulkin, HIMSS offered support for the VA’s proposed rule to make it easier to veterans to share their medical data with community providers and researchers. Under current law, the VA has to have physical possession of a written consent form from the veteran; the new rule will allow community partners to attest that the patient has provided consent.

SPACE IS THE PLACE FOR HEALTH IT: The NASA-funded Translational Research Institute for Space Health has released a call for proposals for health technologies relevant to astronaut health during deep space exploration missions. The institute wants “emerging scientific and biomedical advances, radically disruptive technologies, and new engineering capabilities,” including predictive algorithms of health, behavior, and medical events; improving resilience through nucleotide-based therapy; non-pharmacological improvement of human performance; and multi-purpose edible plants for space flight. Awards are for up to $400,000 per year for two years.

DEPARTMENT OF, IS IT TOO EARLY FOR APRIL’S FOOLS JOKES?: We got thisPR message Friday announcing the launch of an artificially intelligent toothbrush that will offer emotional support based on its analysis of your saliva. The sender did not respond to a question asking whether this was a joke.

WHAT WE‘RE CLICKING:

Harvard Business Review: How Mayo Clinic combats information overload in its ICUs

Go Erie: Pennsylvania has new tools in the fight against

LinkedIn: Jonathan Bush on HIMSS and the health IT revolution that never comes

BMJ Quality and Safety: Incorporating smart “nudge” factors in the design of EHRs

Pulitzer Center: Should you have to be told when your genes predict deadly illness?