Mergers & Acquisitions

The research initiatives will be coupled with programs to support deployment of technology in India and Australia, and the MOU also provide avenues for additional collaboration in research, teaching and manufacturing between the university and AMTZ.

The investment will help cloud-based electronic health record and practice management tool for physical therapists expand and innovate its product offerings, as rehab expands its place in the wider continuum of care.

Also: HCL Technologies and Oracle Health Sciences announce new collaboration; the Patient Access website is now running on Microsoft's Azure cloud platform.

Population health management vendor SPH Analytics is merging with SA Ignite, which develops tools to help providers optimize their performance scores for the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System. Financial terms of the merger were not disclosed. WHY IT MATTERS Together, the two companies will be able to offer more expansive technology for pop health and quality measurement, officials said, giving clients new tools to help them manage the transition to value-based reimbursement. The post-merger company will focus on helping provider customers meet quality measure requirements, educating them on the details of MIPS and other advanced value-based payment frameworks and offering consultative support to help clients to maximize the financial ROI of  new reimbursement models. The newly combined business serves more than 21,000 providers, including hospitals, physician practices and provider networks. THE LARGER TREND Healthcare providers have no shortage of quality measures, across a variety of federal programs, with which they're expected to comply for value-based reimbursement. This past week, for the first time, HHS announced that it will hold a Quality Summit to take a fresh look at the tangle of regulations and streamline them where necessary. Beyond these prescribed quality measures, however, more and more health systems are taking a more expansive view of population health, applying advanced analytics to stratify risk and, sometimes, using technology to help them intervene and improve the social determinants of health for those patients most at need. ON THE RECORD "This strategic alignment creates a meaningfully expanded client base and enables us to build on our impressive track record of helping clients achieve substantive and sustained results in their shift to value-based care," said Amy Amick, president and CEO of SPH Analytics, in a statement. "The SA Ignite solution set blends with our Population Care and Population Value solution lines in a highly complementary manner that will help us better serve our combined client base." “Working alongside electronic health records, our cloud-based IgniteMIPS software delivers powerful analytics that surface truly actionable improvement opportunities," added Tom S. Lee, CEO and founder of SA Ignite. "Now merged with SPH, we are able to offer our customers a broader suite of quality measures such as MIPS CQMs, HEDIS, and ACO measures, as well as cost and utilization analytics and patient level drill-down capabilities." Twitter: @MikeMiliardHITN Email the writer: mike.miliard@himssmedia.com Healthcare IT News is a publication of HIMSS Media.

Digitize.AI's Lia technology uses real-time analytics and machine learning to automatically check for new cases and securely submit them directly to payers.

WhiteHat's application security and DevSecOps expertise will help NTT widen the protections it can offer healthcare and other clients working on enterprise-wide digital transformation initiatives, the company says.

Optima's cloud-based EHR helps outpatient therapists build patient care plans, track treatment goals and document care, with features including a clinical content library and customizable templates.

The combined company, Datica, will offer a platform to help solve the integration and security compliance challenges that can slow development of innovative cloud-based apps, officials say.

At the Queensland eHealth Expo, the Customer Experience Centre demonstrated what is possible when vendors work with each other to integrate their respective products.