Salesforce goes deeper on health IT

With help from Arthur Allen (@arthurallen202) and Darius Tahir (@dariustahir)

PROGRAMMING NOTE: Morning eHealth will not publish from Aug. 27-Sept. 3. Our next Morning eHealth newsletter will publish on Sept. 4.

SALESFORCE GOES DEEPER ON HEALTH IT: The company that got its start in customer relationship management isn’t generally considered a major player in health IT, but it’s expanding its reach, chief medical officer Joshua Newman tells Morning eHealth. Salesforce surprised some observers last week by signing a pledge, along with Amazon, Google, IBM, Microsoft and Oracle, to reduce barriers to interoperability.

Newman tells Morning eHealth that Salesforce has long been selling its customer relationship management software—which lets organizations track and contact individual customers -- to various health-related businesses. But now it’s marketing its software not only as a way to manage patient relationships, but also to improve their health outcomes, Newman said.

For instance, a provider might use Salesforce products to let specific patients know about a new health expert that joined a particular network, or alert them to programs targeting their unique conditions.

Some providers and payers use Salesforce’s cloud-based software to dig into the social and economic characteristics of their patient population, such as zip-code or primary language. “Frankly those are things every one of our customers [across industry] are doing every single day,” Newman said. “[It’s] the same as knowing what people’s shopping experience is.”

Asked about Salesforce’s participation in the interoperability pledge and plans to collaborate more with other health technology groups, Newman noted that the agreement was simply an “acknowledgement that our health care challenges as a society can’t be solved by a single organization, can’t be solved by a single technology.” In other words, he added, “non-traditional vendors realizing what a huge role they play in health care.”

...Speaking of the interoperability pact, more health IT players are weighing in on its significance. Christine Lemke, co-founder and president of Evidation Health—which aims to connect patients’ behavior data, including from consumer wearable devices, to clinical research studies—says she’d be more impressed if providers were participating in the pledge. Apple, notably not a participant in the pact, debuted its own EHR system in January and has communicated with individual provider networks about allowing their patients to download their own health records.

Forcing providers to adopt common standards makes it easier for Evidation to transfer patient records. Getting tech companies to agree on such standards is important, but doesn’t solve her hardest problem, Lemke says: encouraging providers to adopt common standards so her company can port the data to research studies.

HHS CIO OUT: HHS Chief Information Officer Beth Killoran will no longer serve in that role, Federal News Radio was first to report. An HHS spokesperson confirmed to Morning eHealth that Killoran has joined HHS’s Office of the Surgeon General to draw up a “comprehensive information systems strategic plan” for the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. Ed Simcox, currently HHS’s chief technology officer, will serve as acting CIO until a permanent one is chosen.

SENATE TWEAKS DEFENSE AND LABOR-HHS-EDUCATION MINIBUS: The Senate convened Monday evening to approve two of the roughly 40 amendments to the Defense and Labor-HHS-Education spending bill.

One amendment from Sens. Deb Fischer and Elizabeth Warren would provide $10 million for Prisoner of War and Missing in Action identification. The other from Sen. Bob Menendez puts $1 million toward a cancer registry for firefighters.

One amendment still on the table would set aside $1 million for grants for the “purchase and implementation” of telemedicine. That measure, submitted by Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, would also support pilots for EHRs and technology that could help coordinate obstetric care for women living in rural areas.

One other, submitted by Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse and Bill Cassidy, would require HHS to provide Congress with an update on its rulemaking about health IT certifications and information blocking.

eHealth Tweet of the day: Lisa Bari @lisabari Health care - two words or one? The battle of our time. I am firmly on the side of two words and I’ll fight anyone who says otherwise.#petty#healthpolicytwitter

It’s TUESDAY at Morning eHealth. Your author is casting about for suggestions on a gift for a fiery and curious little four-year-old. What children’s books are equal parts adventure and girl-power? News tips and titles go to [email protected]. Reach the rest of the team at @arthurallen202, @dariustahir, @ravindranize, @POLITICOPro and @Morning_eHealth.

MICHIGAN OFFICIAL FACES MANSLAUGHTER CHARGE: A Michigan District Court judge says the state’s health director should stand trial on charges including involuntary manslaughter stemming from his role related to the Flint water crisis, our colleague Dan Goldberg reports.

Nick Lyon, who will be the highest ranking official to stand trial as a result of the water disaster, is accused of failing to alert the public to the crisis in a timely manner, a delay that ultimately cost lives, according to the prosecution.

Reports suggest that Epic’s EHR system helped identify the scale of water contamination. The Wisconsin State Journal reported in 2016 that a Hurley Medical Center doctor used the technology to chart a sharp increase in children with unsafe lead levels after the city switched its water supply.

Lyon’s case is part of a broader investigation into how Flint’s water was poisoned when the city switched to water from the Flint River in 2014.

The unprecedented decision to criminally prosecute a public health official could have a chilling effect across the country, said Michael Fraser, CEO of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, who worried that public health officials would be looking to “cover their ass” as opposed to doing what’s in the best interest of their constituents.

FTC VET SAYS US NEEDS PRIVACY RULES TO KEEP TRUST: Julie Brill, a former FTC commissioner who now serves as Microsoft’s deputy general counsel, is advocating for privacy guidelines to earn trust on the global stage and stave off over-regulation by other countries, POLITICO’s Steven Overly reports.

“We do need to adopt more robust privacy protections here in the United States to convince the rest of the world we are responsible and that they don’t need to ... more aggressively regulate than is actually warranted,” she said at the Technology Policy Institute’s Aspen Forum.

The General Data Protection Regulation that went into effect in May has allowed Europe to export its data privacy values around the globe, Brill said, prompting regulatory changes in Brazil, China and California. And despite industry concerns, stricter data regulations won’t necessarily stifle innovation, Brill said.

Not everyone thinks adopting GDPR-style regulations are a good idea. Google chief economist Hal Varian cautioned against moving too quickly toward a global standard for regulating privacy, contending a range of national standards could strengthen a uniform approach down the road.

“There are huge benefits from standardization, but it’s nice to have some heterogeneity for a period of time so you can find the best of each of the systems to create this global standard in the future,” Varian said.

PEOPLE IN THE NEWS: Keith Anderson will be American Well’s chief financial officer after serving as a managing director at Piper Jaffray...Ron Ribitzky and Michael Roux join telehealth company BitMed’s advisory board and will focus on expansion in Rwanda and other African countries….CNBC reports that Amazon has hired cardiologist Maulik Majmudar...

CORRECTION: The Aug. 20 edition of Morning eHealth misstated which companies are associated with Atul Gawande’s project. They are Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan.

WHAT WE’RE CLICKING ON:

—ICYMI: A New York Times investigation pitting Alexa against Siri

—The New Yorker’s profile of Elliott Management’s Paul Singer, and his interest in athenahealth and Jonathan Bush

—Becker’s Hospital Review’s Q&A with University Medical Group’s Shon Brink

—CNBC reports that One Medical is in talks to raise more than $200 million