Mike Miliard

Cerner President Zane Burke, who first joined the company in 1996 and held several executive roles there before being named president, will step down on Nov. 2. John Peterzalek, Cerner's executive vice president of worldwide client relationships, will take on Burke’s responsibilities, with the title of Chief Client Officer, the company said. Over his two-decades at Cerner, Burke had a range of executive positions, ranging from sales and finance to technology implementation and support. He was named president five years ago, reporting to Cerner founder and CEO Neal Patterson, who died in 2017. Brent Shafer, former CEO of Philips North America, was named CEO of Cerner early this year. In recent years at Cerner, Burke was instrumental in helping the company win two massive electronic health record modernization contracts, from the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs. In addition to helping grow the company's client base, he's also helped innovate its technology, whether it's by partnering with Apple to help move the needle on patient engagement and interoperability or touting the value of open APIs, a focus on consumerism or more innovative strategies for revenue cycle management. "We thank Zane for his contributions to Cerner across more than two decades," said Shafer in a statement. "Zane leaves the company with a strong client focus and commitment to continued innovation, partnership and sustainable growth deeply ingrained in our culture and leadership philosophy." Burke added that is he pleased with the disruptive accomplishments and positive change Cerner and its clients have achieved. "Complex and evolving challenges remain, and Cerner is positioned to continue innovating for the good of consumers and health care providers," Burke said.   This past week, the Kansas City Business Journal reported that Burke had exercised options to sell almost $10 million in company stock. Twitter: @MikeMiliardHITN Email the writer: mike.miliard@himssmedia.com

Hospital chief medical information officers are almost unanimous in recognizing the patient safety improvements that have been brought about by better medication management processes, according to a new poll from their U.S. trade group, the Association of Medical Directors of Information Systems. The results come amid the ongoing opioid epidemic in America. Technology vendors are trying to help in the battle. IT-savvy hospitals such as Intermountain, which has tweaked its Cerner EHR to reduce such prescriptions in the first place, and Ochsner, which has integrated an opioid monitoring tool into its Epic system, are taking matters into their own hands. More and more states, meanwhile, are passing e-prescribing laws and standing up prescription drug monitoring programs. Even with all that going on, there is a lot that can be done to further boost hospital safety initiatives, said AMDIS members, and that depends largely on bigger and better investments in health IT systems for inpatient settings. Nearly all of the physician informaticists surveyed, in a poll sponsored by e-prescribing and med management developer DrFirst, agreed that patient safety issues are less likely to occur today, as compared to five years ago. In large part, that's due to better medication administration processes enabled by technology. Some 82 percent of the CMIOs polled say such initiatives have led to fewer adverse drug events, for instance. That said, many still thought there was big room for improvement in medication management processes, and saw broader tech deployments to be a way to further safeguard their patents. Only half of the AMDIS members polled said they were satisfied their hospitals' processes, and 12 percent said they were dissatisfied. The CMIOs pointed to gaps such as incomplete patient medication histories (80 percent) and misaligned medication reconciliation and care transition cycles that lead to misinformed decisions by care teams (75 percent), according to DrFirst. The AMDIS survey also noted several other areas where bolstered technology infrastructure could improve medication safety surveillance. For instance, 91 percent of CMIOs said one of their biggest challenges was a lack of visibility into their patients' medication adherence: Pharmacies know when a prescription has been filled, but hospitals are often left in the dark. And 85 percent of the clinical informaticists polled pointed to the fact that patients aren't often active participants in the med rec process as a big culprit when when it comes to spotty medication history at their hospitals, suggesting a bigger role for more integrated patient engagement technologies. Meanwhile, large majorities of CMIOs pointed to challenges with interdepartmental workflow variations, and challenges with process buy-in, compliance and ownership as issues that could adversely impact safety. Nearly all of the AMDIS members surveyed said a holistic focus on the entire medication management process was key to building on safety improvements. At the same time, they said reducing order entry and data validation burdens for pharmacy and clinical staff will enhance patient safety and process efficiencies, according to DrFirst. "While the industry has clearly made significant strides to improve medication management processes, CMIOs remain troubled by a number of gaps that compromise patient safety and quality outcomes," said the company's president, G. Cameron Deemer, in a statement. Opioid risks top concern The survey also found a lot of concern among informaticists specifically related to opioid related monitoring gaps. Nearly two-thirds (65 percent) of CMIOs called for more tightly integrated clinician workflows to enable better coordinating the entire medication management process – including electronic prescribing of controlled substances and access to state prescription drug monitoring programs. While PDMPs have their limitations, being able to better discern patients opioid histories and EPCS data could help stem the spread of addiction and avoid harmful drug combinations. And almost half (41 percent) of AMDIS members said they had concerns about hospitals' opioid readiness, given the difficulty to get discern so-called drug shoppers from patients with genuine pain management needs. As we noted earlier this week, several technology vendors are exploring, from different angles, the potential of blockchain to help solve that challenge. Twitter: @MikeMiliardHITN Email the writer: mike.miliard@himssmedia.com

Add this to blockchain’s growing list of innovative use cases: tracking prescription and population health data.

The tariffs being proposed by the administration of President Donald Trump, particularly those on certain Chinese imports, could harm the booming cloud computing industry in the United States, undermine U.S. leadership in the sector, and harm innovation – not least in healthcare. That's according to a new report from the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, the influential nonprofit tech policy think tank, based in Washington, D.C. By stifling the development of fast-evolving cloud technology, the tariffs could put the U.S. at a competitive disadvantage and adversely impact consumers – and, potentially patients, according to the study, which spotlights some specific initiatives that could be affected by import taxes. "For businesses large and small alike, in industries ranging from agriculture and manufacturing to healthcare and transportation, cloud computing has become an indispensable platform technology critical to their success," ITIF researchers wrote in the report. The U.S. economy has become utterly dependent on cloud computing, with 93 percent of businesses nationwide – including most hospitals and health systems – relying on some 3 million data centers, the study showed. And, of course, innovation in the cloud space is enabling huge advances in technology offerings and healthcare outcomes. But Trump's desired tariffs on Chinese imports would put a crimp in the pipeline of key components that fuel that innovation, and could have four specific negative consequences for the industry, the study argues: Higher prices for business and consumers using cloud technology; Fewer new hires, less R&D for product innovation and slowing business expansion as cloud providers seek to cut costs; Higher costs to provide cloud services from the U.S. could leader to other international locations more price-competitive; Disruption of global supply chains for the manufacture of IT – something that "wouldn’t be easily reinvented in the short-term without significant detriment and dislocation to U.S industry." As the report's lead author, Stephen Ezell, ITIF's vice president for global innovation policy, explained: "While the tariffs were proposed to counteract unfair Chinese trade practices and improve U.S. competitiveness, they in fact hurt U.S. cloud computing competitiveness. It’s critically important to contest Chinese innovation mercantilism, but the administration’s proposed tariffs on key capital goods imports are the wrong way to go about it. They threaten U.S. leadership in cloud computing and stunt U.S. economic growth." To help make its point, the ITIF study pointed as an example to San Francisco-based Numerate, which has a healthcare focus, and is using cloud-powered analytics to help improve the drug-design and innovate precision medicine approaches for cardiology. "Numerate’s algorithms provide predictive models for molecular properties with accuracies comparable to laboratory testing, enabling scientists to search through billions of compounds to rapidly and efficiently identify those with the highest probability of activity against a specific  disease target," according to the report. The company's uses cloud computing to help it harness "exploding amounts of empirical data to clear the way for scientists to design new therapies in the cloud," leading to new approaches that could "dramatically reduce the cost of pharmaceutical development and expand the number of therapies that can be created and tested by moving medical research away  from a 'hit-and-hope' world of trial-and-error guesswork." But new tariffs could slow that work, ITIF maintained – and work similar to it at life sciences companies, health IT vendors, hospitals and health systems. "Many Americans will feel the impacts of the proposed tariffs on cloud computing through increased prices, lost jobs, and decreased economic opportunity," said the report's co-author Caleb Foote, ITIF research assistant. "The administration should pursue alternative policy measures that don’t raise the cost of key productivity- and innovation-enhancing capital goods and services." .jumbotron{ background-image: url("http://www.himss.org/sites/himssorg/files/u351641/BigData-Forum2-June2018-712.jpg"); background-size: cover; color: white; } .jumbotron h2{ color: white; } Big Data & Healthcare Analytics Forum The Boston forum to focus on effective pop health management, AI and precision medicine Oct. 22-23. Twitter: @MikeMiliardHITN Email the writer: mike.miliard@himssmedia.com

Deloitte and Vineti announced that they are now working together to integrate and scale their technology platforms – for supply chain and patient engagement, respectively – to give various precision medicine stakeholders easier access to emerging cellular therapies. Vineti, launched as a commercial venture by the Mayo Clinic in partnership with GE, develops  a configurable cloud-based platform designed to improve patient access to cell therapies and genomic medicine. Deloitte's ConvergeHEALTH Patient Connect analytics technology helps connect health systems, pharmaceutical companies, medical device vendors and other groups working to innovate precision medicine. By integrating the Vineti and ConvergeHEALTH technologies, the two companies aim to offer life science researchers, healthcare providers, IT vendors and patients with a more unified platform for personalized medicine. Vineti's software, which is currently deployed at more than 65 leading medical centers, helps users align, manage and integrate major steps in the complex cell and gene therapy process. ConvergeHEALTH Patient Connect, used by 300,000 patients worldwide, is a suite of software tools to help enable actionable insights derived real-world information, evidence and experience. Using both, healthcare and life sciences professionals will be able to innovate and scale up personalized therapies, connect with other health providers and enable broader patient access to precision therapies. "Personalized medicine is changing all aspects of the industry including the way patients, providers and life sciences innovators interact and we believe that a solution that contains both Vineti and PatientConnect will bring an unprecedented level of real-time support and fidelity to control supply chain and care pathway management," said Chris Zant, ConvergeHEALTH chief digital officer, in a statement. .jumbotron{ background-image: url("http://mobihealthnews.com/sites/default/files/u751/Innovation-month-jumbotron-1.jpg"); background-size: cover; color: white; } .jumbotron h2{ color: white; } Focus on Innovation In September, we take a deep dive into the cutting-edge development and disruption of healthcare innovation. Twitter: @MikeMiliardHITN Email the writer: mike.miliard@himssmedia.com

Absent more rigorous federal regs, Pew Charitable Trusts, MedStar Health and AMA offer model test cases to help vendors and providers detect potentially dangerous usability risks.

Epic is working to take interoperability global, CEO Judy Faulkner told more than 10,000 attendees at the company's annual Users Group Meeting. "You've eliminated the silos from within your organization," said Faulkner, speaking at Epic's headquarters in Verona, Wisconsin, according to the Madison Capital Times. "Now it's time to eliminate the silos from outside." Faulkner was referring to Epic's One Virtual System Worldwide initiative, which it launched early this year. The initiative enables "clinicians across all organizations using Epic" to more easily gather, share and interact with health data no matter the location and presents it in a unified view. "We’re taking interoperability from being able to 'view more' to being able to 'do more,'” said Dave Fuhrmann, Epic's vice president of interoperability, when the project was first announced. This spring, for example, UNC Health announced it was using the "Happy Together" component of One Virtual System Worldwide to pull in EHR data from other health systems to create a more comprehensive narrative view of its patients – improving care for diabetes patients. As is often the knock against the company, the focus on exchange across Epic customers is not quite the same as true interoperability. But Epic said the initiative does include "organizations that use other EHRs." It certainly represents an Epic-esque approach to the idea of more widespread data sharing. Given the scope of Epic's customer footprint, with nearly two-thirds of U.S. patients and increasingly more in Europe, it's on a scale that could credibly live-up to the project's bold name. In some ways, the One Virtual System Worldwide concept is similar to Epic's ideas for "comprehensive health records" – CHRs, not EHRs – that incorporate more and bigger data. It's a branding of sorts, that reflects the new scope of tech-enabled 21st Century healthcare but also highlights Epic's own outsized ability to shape the conversation – even if some healthcare professionals take issue with that branding. In Verona, Faulkner told the customers assembled in Epic's 11,000-seat Deep Space Auditorium that the possibilities enabled by the shared network of One Virtual System Worldwide were huge. By connecting its customers across the globe and making data more seamlessly available and actionable within their and others' clinical workflows, Faulkner said Epic could help a wide range of organizations improve care for their patients and collaborate on medical advances that could have a global impact. "Together, we can find answers to many puzzling questions, and prevent many diseases," said Faulkner, according to the Cap Times. Twitter: @MikeMiliardHITN Email the writer: mike.miliard@himssmedia.com

Although the health system has been repeatedly dinged for lax security practices, most NHS hospitals aren't discouraging use of consumer messaging tools.

The company will continue to develop integration technology help hospitals with EHR optimization, medical device integration, interoperability and other functions.

KLAS assesses regional preferences across one of the most dynamic and competitive health IT markets in the world.