Bernie Monegain

Centra Health announced on Thursday that it will deploy Cerner Millennium on both the clinical and business sides, including revenue cycle and patient health management. Centra will also implement HealtheIntent, Cerner’s population health management platform. In addition, Cerner will support Centra’s growing health plan, which covers more than 45,000 individuals. With five hospitals and 50 ambulatory and long-term facilities, the Centra is one of the largest healthcare systems in central Virginia.   [Also: How satisfied are you with your EHR? Satisfaction Survey results] “As one of the leading care providers in our area of the country, it is essential that Centra continues to influence the health of not only our patients, but also our community as a whole,” CEO E.W. Tibbs Jr., said in a statement. Financial terms of the deal were not revealed. Twitter: @Bernie_HITN Email the writer: bernie.monegain@himssmedia.com Like Healthcare IT News on Facebook and LinkedIn

U.S. Senators and Representatives introduced a bill on Wednesday that would reduce the meaningful use reporting period from a full year to 90 days – and do so in 2016, a move pressed by healthcare organizations across the country. Sens. Rob Portman and Michael Bennet and Reps. Renee Ellmers, Tom Price, Bobby Rush and Ron Kind introduced bipartisan legislation. CHIME, the Medical Group Management Association, the National Rural Health Association, the Federation of American Hospitals and physician groups, not only support the bill, but have also pressed lawmakers for it. Many of the organizations wrote CMS on March 15, asking for a 90-day reporting period for 2016. [Also: Healthcare providers press CMS for 90-day meaningful use reporting] “A preliminary yet critical step to facilitate increased provider success, we respectfully request CMS adopt for the 2016 reporting year the same 90-day reporting period policy for participants in the Meaningful Use program that was offered in 2015,” they wrote to CMS Acting Administrator Andy Slavitt. CMS required a full year reporting period last year, but later reduced the requirement to 90 days in a rule that also reduced the number of meaningful use, Stage 2 requirements. Twitter: @Bernie_HITN Email the writer: bernie.monegain@himssmedia.com Like Healthcare IT News on Facebook and LinkedIn

The Act to Prevent Opiate Abuse by Strengthening the Controlled Substance Prescription Monitoring Program also sets a cap on number of days for opioid prescriptions and requires doctors to undergo addiction treatment every two years.

New York's Mount Sinai Health System is joining other high-profile health systems across the nation in embracing OpenNotes, an initiative that gives patients access to their care provider's notes in their medical records. The notes are available for the first time in the health system's online electronic health record portal, called MyMountSinaiChart. Users can now read details of their office visit from the convenience of their personal computer, tablet or smartphone. MyMountSinaiChart, launched in 2012, also enables patients to communicate with their doctor, access test results, request prescription refills and manage appointments. The goal of OpenNotes is to improve transparency, communication and trust between patients and physicians – and it's working, Mount Sinai officials say. [Also: OpenNotes: 'This is not a software package, this is a movement'] "When patients can access their physicians' notes, they can better understand their medical issues and treatment plan as active partners in their care," said Sandra Myerson, chief patient experience officer at the Joseph F. Cullman, Jr. Institute for Patient Experience at Mount Sinai. "This can ultimately lead to improved patient engagement, patient empowerment, and communication between patient and physician." "Patients expect and deserve to have full access to their medical records and the Mount Sinai Health System is committed to meeting this expectation," Jeremy Boal, MD, chief medical officer at Mount Sinai Health Systems, said in a statement. Four Mount Sinai physicians in various clinical practices conducted the initial OpenNotes pilot beginning in December 2015. Twitter: @Bernie_HITN Email the writer: bernie.monegain@himssmedia.com Like Healthcare IT News on Facebook and LinkedIn

Healthcare analytics company Decision Resources Group is growing its healthcare data trove in a big way, adding claims and electronic health record data for its new Real World Evidence repository, or RWE. DRG touts the fact that RWE, meant to offering its clients better patient insights and help them do longitudinal analytics, covers 90 percent of the U.S. healthcare system The company did not release the cost of the data acquired. Brigham Hyde, senior vice president of analytics and chief data officer at DRG, said the amount of data it now has available for licensing to its clients – all of it de-identified – far surpasses that offered by Truven and other data companies. "We have four times as many patients as Truven has and six times as many claims, and we have EHR detail," Hyde said. IBM announced February 18 it would purchase analytics company Truven, adding a massive repository of data to its Watson Health Cloud. [Also: IBM Watson buying Truven Health Analytics for $2.6 billion] DRG is expanding its expertise to offer its clients more complete and dynamic analyses in the following areas: health economics and outcomes research, epidemiology validation, patient-level forecasting and market sizing, patient-level compliance and real-time network influence. The RWE data asset comes from multiple data providers in the U.S. and includes patient, healthcare professional and payer-level analysis. "As healthcare continues its shift from volume to value, DRG's RWE repository enables academic grade analysis of the cost centers of healthcare in the U.S., as well as the behaviors and outcomes of treatment and coverage decisions," Hyde said. The repository covers 240 million unique U.S. patients with more than five years of historical data, and has 3.2 billion medical and pharmacy claims, enabling closer analysis of cost and outcomes data, according to DRG. Hyde said DRG would leverage its nearly 400 analysts worldwide to provide customers with disease specific insights. For example, the repository has strong coverage of Type 2 diabetes, along with payment details, lab values and clinical progress of patients. DRG also is using the RWE repository to make available custom and interactive analytic dashboards and analytics to enable clients to answer important business questions quickly. In a separate announcement today, DRG said the board of directors appointed Jonathan Sandler CEO. Sandler also serves as DRG chairman of the board.

Big screens in every hospital unit show quality and safety indicators for doctors, nurses, patients and family members. Children’s has reduced urinary tract infections while improving medication safety and time to treatment.

A general partner at GV will join the board of Quartet, also backed by Patrick Kennedy, and CEO Arun Gupta said the startup aims to hire 100 people to advance its platform.

The long-time Intel fellow will be responsible for creating a longitudinal study to more effectively treat disease and ultimately improve health. Dishman also brings personal experience in using precision medicine tactics to beat the cancer he battled for 23 years.

The aim is to save $25 million annually and Health Catalyst’s profits are directly tied to MultiCare meeting that goal.

IBM and the American Cancer Society are putting IBM Watson’s cognitive computing skills to work to advise people with cancer, as well as to counsel caregivers and survivors, officials said on Tuesday. Watson will filter countless health websites to draw insights from relevant, accurate and trustworthy information to enhance ACS resources and guidance targeted for each individual. In what the organizations are calling an advisory role, the supercomputer will use cancer.org’s 14,000 pages of information on more than 70 cancer topics. Watson will also take part in the ACS National Cancer Information Center’s de-identified and aggregated data about self-management, support groups, health and wellness activities, and cancer education. Eventually, ACS and IBM plan to integrate the advisor with IBM’s existing Watson for Oncology offering for doctors, a clinical decision support tool. Sixteen cancer institutes are working with Watson today to help doctors translate DNA insights into personalized treatment options for patients. Researchers from Baylor College of Medicine are using Watson to develop solutions for automated hypothesis generation. At Mayo Clinic, Watson is helping doctors match patients to relevant clinical trials. Once developed, the advisor will anticipate the needs of people with different types of cancers, at different stages of disease and at various points in treatment. It will become increasingly personalized as individuals engage with it, getting “smarter” each time, say IBM executives. ACS and IBM also envision incorporating Watson’s voice recognition and natural language processing technology to enable users to ask questions and receive audible responses. More than 1.6 million Americans are diagnosed with cancer each year, according to ACS. Memorial Sloan Kettering and MD Anderson are also conducting pilot programs to harness Watson’s supercomputing for evidence based treatment options and individualized care for patients with cancer.  Twitter: @Bernie_HITN Email the writer: bernie.monegain@himssmedia.com Like Healthcare IT News on Facebook and LinkedIn