Tom Sullivan

Greenway Health CEO Tee Green revealed on Wednesday that he is handing the chief executive role at the EHR company he co-founded over to Scott Zimmerman. Green will continue full-time as executive chairman, according to the company, including a focus on innovation as the company is working to transform itself from an electronic health record and practice management vendor into a population health and revenue cycle specialist. Before taking the helm of Greenway, Zimmerman was president of Televox, which provides patient engagement communications tools. Zimmerman also has worked at Boston Scientific, GE Healthcare and Merck during his career. “It’s a privilege to be working alongside the Greenway Health team to support caregivers in this time of change,” Zimmerman said in a statement. “It’s exciting to be a part of an organization working to deliver the technology, people and processes that can impact the clinical excellence and financial success of our customers. I am looking forward to doing everything I can to help further that mission.” Zimmerman’s appointment marks the second C-level announcement in recent months. In December 2015, Greenway named Robert Ellis as its new chief financial officer. Ellis came from Vista Equity Partners, where he was a managing director. Twitter: @SullyHIT Email the writer: tom.sullivan@himssmedia.com Like Healthcare IT News on Facebook and LinkedIn

National Coordinator Karen DeSalvo, MD, is stepping away from the co-chair role on the ONC Health IT Policy Committee. Kathleen Blake, MD, vice president of performance improvement at the American Medical Association, will replace DeSalvo, according to Politico, which reported the announcement was made Tuesday at the joint meeting of the Health IT Policy and Standards Committees. Blake will serve alongside DeSalvo's current co-chair, Paul Tang, MD, chief innovation and technology officer at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation. Tang is also the head of ONC's meaningful use workgroup.  [Also: How satisfied are you with your EHR? Satisfaction Survey results]  DeSalvo currently serves as both National Coordinator for Health IT and Acting Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services. She's been with ONC since January 2014. Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell brought DeSalvo to HHS in October 2014 to help coordinate the federal government respond to the Ebola outbreak – touting her public health qualifications after having served as New Orleans Health Commissioner in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. In May 2015, President Barack Obama appointed DeSalvo HHS Acting Assistant Secretary for Health. If she gets a Senate confirmation hearing and is approved, she would step down from the National Coordinator post at ONC.   Twitter: SullyHIT Email the writer: tom.sullivan@himssmedia.com Like Healthcare IT News on Facebook and LinkedIn

Sanders is calling for a single payer system, while Clinton said she would support expanding the Affordable Care Act to insure every American.

The potential next EHR would more closely resemble modern interfaces such as Google and Facebook and leverage FHIR, if the VA indeed opts to move away from VistA. Undersecretary David Shulkin said the department is evaluating the best way forward. 

The first quarter of this year saw a 27 percent spike in health IT venture capital and the most M&A activity in a single quarter, according to a report from Mercom Capital Group.

New research by Healthcare IT News and HIMSS Analytics found considerable uncertainty, questionable business continuity plans, and the need for more effective end-user education rampant in the industry. 

A new Black Book report also suggests that new payment models, private health information exchanges, patient locator systems and healthcare analytics will wield more influence driving interoperability forward than government or EHR makers. 

Healthcare leaders say deploying tools for analytics, self-service, order fulfillment and more, while offering individualized experiences such as precision medicine, could promise a big payoff.

The software giant debuted cognitive computing and machine learning tools on Wednesday with an eye toward "reinventing" healthcare.

Now the question is whether cyber criminals could someday emulate that approach to access encrypted patient data.