Welcome to the weekly edition of Healthcare IT Today Bonus Features. This article will be a weekly roundup of interesting stories, product announcements, new hires, partnerships, research studies, awards, sales, and more. Because there’s so much happening out there in healthcare IT we aren’t able to cover in our full articles, we still want to make sure you’re informed of all the latest news, announcements, and stories happening to help you better do your job.
News
The 10th Annual Health IT Industry Outlook Survey from Stoltenberg Consulting found that the greatest IT challenge for CIOs is budgeting for and retaining qualified IT talent, with 65% of organizations saying this is their top operational burden. Nearly the same number, or 64%, said their primary financial burden was trying to get the most out of existing IT resources. Finally, 54% of CIOs said they would benefit from more flexible staffing models that let them ramp up or down due to IT project demands.
The Sequoia Project expects to begin the QHIN application process on Monday, October 3 and has released several documents to walk potential Qualified Heath Information Networks through the application and onboarding process. ONC referred to this document release as “moving into the operational phase” of implementing TEFCA. The initial set of inaugural QHINs will be announced all at once, with additional QHINs named on a rolling basis after that.
In addition, The Sequoia Project released v0.1 of the Data Usability Workgroup Implementation Guide, which is meant to cover high-priority information exchange use cases that can be readily adopted within HIE vendors, governance frameworks, testing programs, and more. The Sequoia Project is accepting public feedback on the implementation guide through Friday, October 14.
A study of Medicare beneficiaries published in JAMA Psychiatry and co-authored by CDC, CMS, and the National Institute on Drug Abuse found that emergency-authorized telehealth services for treating opioid use disorder during the pandemic was associated with improved medication retention and lower odds of medically treated overdose. The study’s authors concluded that permanent adoption of these telehealth services is worth consideration.
Partnerships
- Carium teamed with Smartlink Health Solutions to integrate its virtual care platform with the EHR system at the Detroit-based Institute for Population Health.
- Medtronic has partnered with BioIntelliSense, a remote monitoring technology provider, for exclusive U.S. distribution of the BioButton medical grade wearable.
- Patient engagement platform Luma Health has partnered with Salucro, a payment technology company, to enable mobile patient payment options.
- Conversational AI firm Hyro is collaborating with Infermedica, a decision support platform, to support analysis of pre-visit patient communications and navigation.
Sales
- RWJBarnabas Health and University of Michigan Health-West have chosen Nuance Communications for patient engagement.
- Southern Hills Hospital in Las Vegas recently completed its 25th successful spinal surgery using robot and augmented reality system technology supplied by Meta.
Products
- The Surescripts Record Locator & Exchange saw a 76% year-over-year increase in clinical documents exchanged, along with a 37% increase in the number of clinical messages sent and a 26% increase in medication histories delivered.
- Ordr released Ordr Clinical Defender 8.1, a security vulnerability management platform for connected medical devices.
- Workforce management firm QGenda released a provider credentialing, privileging, and payer enrollment automation tool.
- Physical therapy platform Luna launched a value-based savings program for orthopedics.
- Withings announced an October 4 launch date for Body Comp, a consumer scale capable of measuring clinical biomarkers, as well as the Health+ analysis app.
- Digital therapeutics maker Hello Heart released a cholesterol management feature to complement existing tools for managing blood pressure and diabetes.
- Workforce development and training firm HealthStream has reached 1 million life support certifications through its American Red Cross certified Resuscitation Suite of products.
Accelerators
- Los Angeles-based Cedars-Sinai Accelerator announced 10 members for its eighth accelerator class: Acolyte Health, Aevice Health, Aidin, Candlelit Therapy, GattaCo, HealthLeap, Luminare, Shift, Siimee, and Syntho.
- Member engagement platform SameSky Health was selected for the AWS Healthcare Accelerator for Health Equity.
People
- Cybersecurity firm Claroty appointed Joshua Corman as Vice President of Cyber Safety Strategy. He previously served as chief strategist of the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)’s COVID Task Force.
- Brain health firm Linus Health named John Showalter, MD as Chief Product Officer. He has held previous leadership positions with clinical AI vendor Jvion and the University of Mississippi Medical Center.
If you have news that you’d like us to consider for a future edition of Healthcare IT Today Bonus Features, please submit them on this page. Please include any relevant links and let us know if news is under embargo.
