Health IT Business News – December 21, 2015

HITbizNews-200HIMSS (@HIMSS) has announced the launch of the HIMSS Value Score, healthcare’s first international quality measurement for the value of health IT. The Value Score builds off of HIMSS’ Value Suite and HIMSS Analytics’ Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM℠) and will help healthcare providers optimize and use IT to improve clinical and financial outcomes, and drive efficiencies in care. The Value Score is the next generation of several HIMSS-developed standards and resources that have served as the leading health IT adoption models for providers over the last decade.

A recent IDC Health Insights (@IDCInsights) study sponsored by Ricoh (@RichohTweets) has shown that information mobility – the ability to seamlessly capture, manage and transform information regardless its format, where it comes from or where it needs to go – may be the ticket for long-term success. After talking to 100 IT and business executives at hospitals with 500 or more employees, the research uncovered key findings that very well may transform the way healthcare leaders approach Meaningful Use and Accountable Care goals.

The host of our monthly webinar series, The ABCs of MIPS, was recently featured in Modern Healthcare (@ModrnHealthcr). In the article, Tom Lee, CEO of SA Ignite (@SAIgnite), share his company history and how they are helping providers attest to Meaningful Use. It also explains how the company is evolving its purpose to help providers meet expanding pay-for-performance programs like MIPS.

Kareo (@GoKareo), provider of cloud-based solutions for independent medical practices, announced it ranked 201 overall on Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500™, a ranking of the 500 fastest growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences and clean technology companies in North America. Kareo grew 368 percent in the three-year ranking period, placing in the top ten in healthcare IT and third in Southern California among those included in the top 500.

Health Catalyst (@HealthCatalyst) announced that Dan Orenstein is joining the company as Senior Vice President, General Counsel, and Secretary, effective January 4, 2016. Orenstein comes to Health Catalyst after 10 years at athenahealth, a NASDAQ listed healthcare IT company, where he most recently served as General Counsel, Senior Vice President and Board Secretary. Athenahealth, valued at more than $6 billion, grew revenue at an average annual rate exceeding 30 percent during the period that Orenstein was with the company, from 2005 to 2015.

Vidyo, Inc.(@Vidyo) a visual communications company, announced a $10M strategic investment from Kaiser Permanente Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of Kaiser Permanente, and $5M from existing investors, for a $15M follow-on round of funding. “Kaiser Permanente Ventures is committed to partnering with innovative organizations that support our work to improve the health of patients and the communities we serve,” said Jordan Kramer, Director Kaiser Permanente Ventures. “We view our partnership with Vidyo, with its telehealth offerings that increase patient convenience and the overall quality of care, as advancing this strategy.”

Modern Healthcare is reporting Iasis Healthcare plans to switch its hospitals and health facilities to the Cerner Corp. Millennium electronic health-record platform. The project, which will cost a total of $50 million, will be completed by March 2018, Iasis CEO Carl Whitmer said Tuesday during the company’s fiscal year-end earnings call. Spending on the project in fiscal 2016 could top $35 million as the 17-hospital system updates from a McKesson Corp. records system, Whitmer said.

Finally, read up on Digital Health Funding: 2015 Year in Review, posted by Rock Health (@Rock_Health). According to the company, 2015 was another year of big numbers for digital health—the year closed out with over $4.3B in funding flooding into the space, a sizable increase in the number of later stage rounds, and 180 M&A deals. Check out the infographic:

rock health infographics