< + > How Health Catalyst Turns Analytics Into Action Clinicians Actually Use

Healthcare analytics has never been more sophisticated, yet many improvement efforts still stall. Reports arrive too late. Dashboards lack context. Frontline teams struggle to connect yesterday’s work to tomorrow’s outcomes. The gap is not insight. It is timing, trust, and follow-through. Health Catalyst has a solution.

How Near-Real-Time Data and AI Are Changing Clinical Improvement Work

In a sit down interview with Healthcare IT Today, Holly Rimmasch, Chief Clinical Officer and SVP of Improvement Services at Health Catalyst, and Kathleen Merkley, SVP of Clinical Improvement, unpacked why analytics alone rarely change behavior and how faster feedback, AI-guided prioritization, and clinician ownership are driving healthcare improvement today.

Key Takeaway

1. Near-real-time data changes behavior in ways retrospective reporting never can. When clinicians see yesterday’s sepsis case instead of last quarter’s averages, feedback becomes persona and far more likely to drive sustained improvement.
2. AI creates value when it removes guesswork, not when it adds complexity. Health Catalyst uses AI to identify which interventions are most likely to move outcomes like length of stay, readmissions, and mortality before teams invest time and effort.
3. Sustainable improvement depends on clinician ownership, not top-down mandates. Some of the biggest gains come from frontline clinicians designing solutions they believe in and then seeing the data confirm their impact.

Why Near-Real-Time Analytics Drive Clinical Behavior Change

One of the clearest shifts Health Catalyst has observed is what happens when teams stop waiting weeks or months for reports and instead see performance within a day. Near-real-time data turns improvement from a retrospective exercise into something clinicians can recognize, remember, and act on while cases are still fresh.

As Merkley explained through the lens of sepsis care, speed changes everything.

“If I’m a sepsis coordinator and in a health system, I can look within 24 hours at someone who was in the ED yesterday with sepsis. I can see when their antibiotic was started, when their fluids were started, how much fluid they got, what was their lactate, what was their length of stay.”

She contrasted that with traditional reporting cycles.

“Someone two months later is not going to remember that case like they did the day before.”

Health Catalyst supports this shift by refreshing key clinical data on a 24-hour cadence and structuring dashboards around real clinical workflows. That timing allows multidisciplinary teams to meet regularly, review recent cases together, and keep improvement grounded in lived experience rather than faded memory.

Using AI To Prioritize the Improvements That Actually Move Outcomes

Rather than positioning AI as a replacement for clinical judgment, Health Catalyst uses it to narrow the field. The goal is to identify which actions are most likely to change outcomes before teams invest time and energy.

Merkley shared a concrete example from heart failure care.

“We’re taking all of those identified opportunities and they’re running algorithms on them and saying, if you do this, you will see this rate reduction in length of stay and this improvement in mortality.”

That approach replaces intuition and pet projects with evidence.

“We can go in and say with authority that yes, if you do daily weights every day on your heart failure patients, you’re going to improve their length of stay and their readmission rate. So simple. But AI was able to tell us how important that was.”

Rimmasch added that this kind of prioritization used to require extensive human analysis.

“In past, we’ve always done this improvement work… that was a human intervention that happened. We can now integrate that into AI to say, here’s your opportunity, here are some projections, and here are some things you might want to consider doing.”

The result is less debate over what to tackle first and more confidence that effort is being spent where it matters.

Why Frontline-Led Improvement Outlasts Top-Down Programs

The most consistent theme across the conversation was where durable improvement actually comes from. Not predefined playbooks. Not executive directives. But clinicians who see the data, trust it, and help shape the solution.

Merkley described how her own approach evolved: “I always come in with a list of interventions. Well, you could do this, this, or this. And I used to be hurt because the interventions were never what I suggested.” She quickly put aside that frustration when she realized something important about the frontline teams she was working with: “These clinicians are so thoughtful and so passionate about caring, and they come up with really great ways to improve care. And we institute those and we see big results.”

Rimmasch noted that this ownership appears, even after there is early resistance: “Sometimes we start with people who aren’t really excited to do this. But they see the opportunities.” The key, according to Rimmasch is to show improvement over time: “We understand the importance of sustainability. We can follow a process, an improvement, for years if we need to.”

Health Catalyst’s role is to create the conditions where that ownership can take hold. Standardized metrics, trusted data definitions, and sustained visibility allow teams to track progress and maintain momentum beyond an initial push.

From Analytics to Improvement That Lasts

Throughout this conversation, Rimmasch and Merkley repeated the same themes:

• Timely data that reflects real work
• AI that clarifies priorities instead of complicating them
• Improvement efforts shaped by the people closest to patient care

When those elements come together, analytics stop being a reporting function and start reinforcing a cycle clinicians want to sustain.

As Rimmasch put it, improvement builds on itself.

“You start doing it, you learn about it, and it just starts to swirl and it gets better for patients, for clinicians, for administrators. It gets better for everybody.”

Learn more about Health Catalyst at https://www.healthcatalyst.com/

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< + > No Hospital is an Island (Anymore): Removing Friction in Healthcare IT Systems Starts with Identity and Access

The following is a guest article by Paul Dant, Senior Solution Consultant at Radiant Logic

Hospitals and healthcare systems are reaching a breaking point. The Covid-19 pandemic didn’t create the industry’s challenges, but it exposed and accelerated them. Years of mergers and acquisitions, siloed data, and persistent staff turnover have left healthcare IT teams managing environments that are more complex, fragmented, and mission-critical than ever. Because of healthcare’s unique challenges and compliance requirements, this can create friction and, in the worst cases, impact patient care. Planning ahead and implementing a strong identity and access foundation improves security and compliance while reducing bottlenecks, creating a better patient and employee experience.

Complications in Healthcare IT

How do IT teams balance security and compliance requirements while giving healthcare providers the access they need to do their jobs? To effectively manage healthcare identity and access, we have to start by understanding the unique needs and challenges of the healthcare system and its workers.

Hospitals largely remain brick and mortar facilities, with physical systems that need to be connected across kiosks, medical devices, and other access points that must all be secure but accessible. Meanwhile, each healthcare facility, from Level 1 trauma centers to university hospitals to regional clinics, tends to be an “island” with its own IT system and tech platform. This creates friction after major events like mergers and acquisitions, when disparate systems have to be integrated, and staff may have to be onboarded or offboarded (or both).

It also creates friction in day-to-day operations, since healthcare providers often operate across multiple facilities with different roles and levels of access required. A surgeon affiliated with a teaching hospital might go from working in the hospital OR to evaluating pre-op patients at the clinic to teaching a course. In the course of a week, that doctor might have three different levels of access, and as they move from setting to setting, they need their identity and access to adjust to the corresponding role.

Patients also move between healthcare systems, with electronic healthcare records (EHRs) that their care teams need to be able to access. In a life-threatening situation, doctors need to be able to retrieve and review patient information quickly, regardless of where the information lives.

On top of the existing complexities of securing human access, non-human identities pose a growing challenge, especially with the increasing use of AI.

About 50% of non-human identities within a healthcare environment are devices, such as iPads, insulin pumps, and dialysis machines. Left unmanaged, these can pose a major threat: IoT vulnerabilities can reveal a patient’s personally identifiable information (PII) or even interfere with their care. Traffic between these devices and the healthcare system must be secured, and patient anonymity must be protected.

You Can’t Take It With You – Or Can You? When Patients and Doctors Move

When dealing with multiple “islands,” adding a layer of abstraction above the individual facility level allows hospitals and clinics to retain their unique systems while enacting identity and access measures across these systems. This enables hospitals and clinics to securely communicate essential data as doctors and patients move between facilities.

Additionally, creating identity “personas” within your IT system ensures that healthcare workers serving in multiple roles or locations can transition from one setting to the next without delay. With one set of credentials, the surgeon at the teaching hospital can access student information when they’re teaching at the university, or they can review patient information at the clinic or hospital. Their access and privileges will adjust depending on where they are and what role they are filling at the time.

Similarly, in a “break glass” scenario where time is of the essence, the care team needs to access patient information, but it is crucial to control that information with a defined model. Outlining parameters in advance for time-limited emergency access based on location and need – along with automatically creating an auditable record of every time these superseding permissions are granted – removes hurdles in an emergency situation, but preserves security and maintains compliance.

Laying the Foundations of Healthcare Identity Brick by Brick (and Cloud by Cloud)

Healthcare IT teams generally do an excellent job of implementing multifactor authentication and ensuring that the person accessing the system is who they say they are. As new software and system requirements come through, IT teams also must foresee potential issues and points of conflict, both in day-to-day healthcare operations and among networks and devices. Increasingly, tech is becoming part of the doctor and patient experience, from AI tools to telehealth platforms, adding an additional layer of risk to address.

Adding third-party vendors and their tech can alleviate heavy provider workloads and improve business operations, but it also increases the potential attack surface. (Estimates vary, but a significant number of attacks originate from third-party partners, including the 2024 Change Healthcare breach.) What are vendors’ security measures? Do they manage risk and cybersecurity on the backend? Are they open to working within your system? Asking questions and testing implementations before rolling out new tech can avert disaster.

If you are integrating AI software into your healthcare process, setting permissions early on for both human and non-human identities will reduce vulnerabilities and improve patient care. For example, an AI notetaker that will provide a summary to the healthcare provider to upload to the patient’s EHR does not need access to diagnostic imaging, let alone full admin access. And human access to the data from that AI notetaker should be limited to ensure HIPAA compliance – just as a doctor’s after-appointment notes would be.

Performing regular audits of both human and non-human identities to ensure that accounts reflect appropriate roles and permissions will help eliminate security vulnerabilities, such as orphan accounts. If staff have left or if the hospital no longer uses a third-party vendor, removing that account from the system removes a potential breach point. Conversely, giving new practitioners prompt access to the files they need will enable them to provide the best care possible to patients.

By planning these scenarios before the doctor arrives at the clinic (or the patient gets to the operating table), you can keep processes running smoothly while protecting sensitive patient data and securing digital and medical devices. With proactive identity management, you can deliver a safe, seamless transition across identity and access points throughout your medical system, no matter how complex.

A​bout Paul Dant

Paul Dant serves as Senior Solution Consultant at Radiant Logic. He is a lifelong ethical hacker and sought-after advisor with nearly four decades of experience helping organizations anticipate, understand, and outmaneuver real-world adversaries. He’s spent his career demystifying cybersecurity for technical and non-technical audiences alike, presenting at dozens of conferences and consulting for hundreds of organizations.

As an award-winning cybersecurity product innovator, a top-rated RSA Conference speaker, and co-founder of the DEF CON IoT Hacking Village, Paul is known for bridging deep security insight with captivating storytelling and is passionate about making security a driver of innovation, growth, and trust.

< + > Serve Robotics to Acquire Diligent Robotics | Harmony Healthcare IT Acquires Blue Elm

Check out today’s featured companies who have recently completed an M&A deal, and be sure to check out the full list of past healthcare IT M&A.

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Serve Robotics to Acquire Diligent Robotics, Expanding Physical AI Platform Beyond the Sidewalk

• Acquisition Broadens Serve’s Autonomous Robotics Platform, Expanding Market Opportunity Beyond Last-Mile Delivery, and Delivering Non-Organic Revenue
• Diligent’s Moxi Robot Among the Largest Autonomous Robot Deployments in Hospitals Nationwide: Over 1.25 Million Deliveries Completed by Nearly 100 Robots in Over 25 Hospital Facilities, with Annual Sales at Each Hospital Expected to Range Between $200k to $400k
• Leverages a Common Autonomy and AI Stack, Accelerating Learning, Deployment, and Scalability

Serve Robotics Inc., a leading autonomous robotics company, today announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Diligent Robotics, Inc., a pioneering provider of AI-powered robot assistants for the healthcare industry. The transaction marks the first expansion of Serve’s autonomy platform into indoor environments, with hospitals as one of the most high-impact settings for robotics.

Diligent was founded in 2017 by Andrea Thomaz and Vivian Chu, world-renowned social roboticists, with the vision of creating socially intelligent robot assistants that improve human labor productivity. Since its inception, Diligent has raised over $100 million in financing from investors including Tiger Global, Canaan, and True Ventures.

Diligent has developed Moxi, an autonomous hospital delivery robot that supports nurses and hospital staff, allowing them to focus on time with patients and therefore improve the quality of care. Moxi is deployed in over 25 hospital facilities across the U.S., representing one of the largest commercial deployments of mobile manipulation robots working alongside people. Moxi robots have successfully completed over 1.25 million autonomous deliveries. Moxi is powered by NVIDIA’s embedded hardware and software ecosystem (Jetson & Omniverse) and uses advanced sensing and AI to navigate among people in complex hospital spaces. Moxi incorporates insight from years of real-world data in commercial deployments. Customers include leading hospitals and healthcare systems such as Northwestern Medicine, ChristianaCare, and Rochester General Hospital.

The acquisition extends Serve’s commercial operations and autonomy platform into indoor and healthcare applications that demand reliability, safety, and an unobtrusive presence. The combined effort brings together two mission-driven teams with a shared vision for creating and deploying human-centric, autonomous robots in real-world settings. Both Serve and Diligent have successfully designed and commercialized Physical AI systems that operate safely alongside people, perform with high reliability in complex, dynamic environments, and integrate seamlessly into everyday situations.

Indoor environments, such as hospitals, add a powerful new dimension to Serve’s Physical AI flywheel. Dense, human-centric, multi-level spaces with constant edge cases are the conditions that sharpen autonomy fastest…

Full release here, originally announced January 20th, 2026.

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Harmony Healthcare IT Expands MEDITECH EHR Data Solutions Through Acquisition of Blue Elm

MEDITECH Hospitals will Benefit from a Single Partner for Complete Data Lifecycle Management

Harmony Healthcare IT, the leading health data management and archiving solutions company for hospitals and health systems, today announced the acquisition of Blue Elm, the premier MEDITECH data solutions provider. The acquisition solidifies Harmony Healthcare IT as the industry’s most comprehensive MEDITECH data partner, combining the company’s deep expertise in healthcare data migration and archiving with Blue Elm’s MEDITECH data optimization, access, and extraction capabilities.

This acquisition addresses critical industry trends MEDITECH hospitals are navigating, including:

• Rising demand for MEDITECH data extraction, conversion, and migration services as hospitals undergo system upgrades and transitions
• Growing focus on legacy data archiving as hospitals seek to decommission costly, vulnerable systems
• Increasing need for enhanced data access and optimization as hospitals face ongoing pressure to improve quality and reduce costs

“MEDITECH hospitals and health systems now have access to unparalleled expertise across the complete data lifecycle,” said Brian Liddell, President and CFO at Harmony Healthcare IT. “From maintaining data integrity and enhancing real-time access to executing complex migration and archiving projects, no other provider can match our combined company’s breadth of MEDITECH expertise.”

Blue Elm, which has served more than 500 hospitals and vendors since its founding in 2001, brings deep MEDITECH-specific capabilities across all versions (Magic, Client/Server, 6.x, and Expanse).

“Joining Harmony Healthcare IT allows us to streamline and accelerate the complex data projects MEDITECH hospitals are undertaking — potentially cutting months from overall project timelines,” said John Mackey, Founder and President at Blue Elm…

Full release here, originally announced January 21, 2026.

< + > The End of Manual Enrollment? Intelligent Automation Takes On First-Mile Insurance Data

The following is a guest article by Deepak Singh, Chief Innovation Officer at Adeptia

In the insurance ecosystem, data is the lifeblood of coverage, yet it is rarely clean. In fact, approximately 80% to 85% of insurance data is unstructured, and for items such as claim files, the number can be as high as 97%, according to Accenture. Unlike banking or retail, where transactions follow more rigid standards, group health insurance data is uniquely chaotic. It involves a constant flux of stakeholders, such as employers, brokers, carriers, and third-party administrators, each speaking a different digital language.

For insurance professionals, the status quo is a daily battle against disorder. Employees join and leave, life events trigger plan changes, and regulatory variations across states shift eligibility rules overnight. However, the true friction lies not in the volume of data, but in its format. When a broker spends 60% of their time on data cleanup rather than strategic consulting, the industry doesn’t just have a workflow problem; it has a viability problem.

The “Creative” Excel Nightmare

The frontline of this battle is enrollment. Despite the availability of sophisticated HRIS platforms, the industry still mostly runs on spreadsheets and PDFs. The most problematic culprits are often Excel files containing “creative” formatting – merged cells, custom macros, and multiple tabs – or PDFs with handwritten notes that defy optical character recognition.

These formatting inconsistencies lead to the industry’s notorious “dirty data” crisis. Mismatched employee information between HR systems and carrier requirements, missing effective dates, and invalid dependent eligibility (such as ex-spouses still listed on plans) are rampant. Recent insights from benefits brokerage firm Nava Benefits backs this up – it found that 90% of employers have open enrollment errors; collectively, employers may be losing billions of dollars due to carriers’ open enrollment mistakes.

The operational toll is also staggering. An average employer data file currently requires 15 to 20 hours of manual cleanup. When 30% of enrollment files contain errors that require rework, costs balloon. Industry data suggests that manual rework costs average $50 to $100 per error. Furthermore, during enrollment season, member calls to HR and brokers increase by 300%, primarily driven by confusion stemming from these data mismatches.

The Evidence of Insurability (EOI) Black Hole

No area illustrates this friction better than arguably the most fragile link in the chain – EOI. Health questionnaires arrive in various formats, necessitating manual review against complex underwriting rules that vary by carrier and coverage amount.

Because this process is time-sensitive, delays can leave employees in “coverage limbo,” unable to secure health insurance when they need it most. The consequences of EOI errors are severe: from compliance risks to incorrect decisions and financial exposure if coverage activates retroactively after a claim has occurred.

The Friction of Carrier Switching

The friction intensifies when an employer switches carriers. A full transition typically takes 60 to 90 days, with the bulk of that time consumed by data mapping and testing. The primary point of failure is field mapping incompatibility, where one carrier’s “EE_DOB” is another’s “BirthDate.”

When historical claims data doesn’t align with a new carrier’s format, or eligibility rules differ, the result is a frantic manual reconciliation of member lists. This is often the longest phase of a carrier switchover and the one most prone to error.

The Real-World Stakes Are High

The consequences of bad data extend beyond operational headaches; they carry significant legal and financial weight. The industry has seen major retailers fined millions for ERISA violations due to enrollment errors, and healthcare systems facing class-action suits over errors in dependent eligibility. In one audit of a Fortune 500 company, it was revealed that 18% of listed dependents were actually ineligible, a massive financial loss.

For brokers, the impact is also reputational. Lost employer trust and confidence often leads to the termination of broker or carrier relationships. For members, it can result in coverage denials at the point of care due to administrative mismatches.

The Turning Point: Empowering the Business User

Fortunately, the industry is at a turning point. We are moving away from the era where IT departments were the sole gatekeepers of data logic. The future of insurance data lies in empowering business users, the people who actually understand the nuances of benefits data, to own the rule definitions and validation logic.

Emerging technologies, specifically AI capable of processing unstructured data, are changing the game. Intelligent document processing can now extract data from “creative” PDFs, validate it against underwriting rules, and track status in real time.

The results of automation are tangible. Some organizations have reduced enrollment processing times from 5 weeks to just 3 hours. By adopting industry-standard formats (such as LDEx) and using automated mapping templates, the industry can finally move past the “data janitor” phase.

When AI handles the “digital plumbing,” mapping fields, validating eligibility, and structuring data, brokers and HR teams are freed from the data janitor role. They can finally focus on what they do best: advising clients on strategy, plan design, and risk management.

As benefits costs rise and a younger workforce expects a smooth enrollment experience, sticking to manual reconciliation is no longer an option. The tools exist to fix the messiness of group health insurance; it is time for the industry to pick them up.

< + > Net Health Acquired Keet Health from WebPT | Worldwide Clinical Trials Enters Definitive Agreement to Acquire Catalyst Clinical Research

Check out today’s featured companies who have recently completed an M&A deal, and be sure to check out the full list of past healthcare IT M&A.

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Net Health Advances Rehab Therapy Care with Acquisition of Keet Health from WebPT

Acquisition Expands Market Access to Industry-Leading Outcomes and RTM Capabilities, Advancing Hybrid Care Across the Rehab Therapy Continuum

Net Health, a trusted provider of specialized software for rehab therapy and post-acute care, today announced the acquisition of Keet Health, a WebPT company, as part of a strategic collaboration with WebPT focused on advancing outcomes measurement and remote therapeutic monitoring (RTM) for rehabilitation therapy providers.

Net Health’s acquisition of Keet Health expands access to Net Health’s Limber platform — the industry’s leading solution for outcomes measurement, RTM, and digital home exercise programs. In connection with the transaction, Limber will become the preferred outcomes and RTM solution for WebPT and Clinicient customers, with an integrated experience targeted for early 2026.

“Better outcomes are driven by better insights and stronger connections across the continuum of care,” said Ron Books, CEO at Net Health. “Through our collaboration with WebPT, we’re advancing outcomes measurement and remote monitoring in ways that help rehab providers extend care beyond the clinic, reduce fragmentation, and keep the focus where it belongs — on patients.”

Limber, which Net Health acquired in 2025, is a leading platform for outcomes measurement, RTM enablement, and home exercise delivery for rehab therapy providers. The solution delivers outcomes-informed insights that help clinicians monitor progress, personalize care, and support patients beyond traditional clinic visits. Net Health continues to invest in Limber’s analytics and integration capabilities as part of its broader platform strategy to support value-based care. Net Health and WebPT also plan to invest in deeper integration between Limber and the WebPT and Clinicient platforms. The integration is intended to streamline workflows, strengthen data continuity, and support more connected digital health experiences as patients transition between care settings.

“Our work with Net Health gives our members access to a powerful digital health solution while preserving the flexibility and choice they expect,” said Andrea Facini, CEO at WebPT…

Full release here, originally announced January 15th, 2026.

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Worldwide Clinical Trials Enters Definitive Agreement to Acquire Catalyst Clinical Research

Combination to Add Key Functional Service Provider Capabilities, Deliver Immediate Uplift in Oncology, Strengthen Global Site Reach, and Accelerate Technology Integration – Enhancing Speed, Transparency, and Value for Customers

Worldwide Clinical Trials, a global contract research organization (CRO), has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Catalyst Clinical Research, LLC, a specialized oncology CRO, known for its expertise in early phase oncology trials and a strong biometrics and Functional Service Provider (FSP) model. Following the close of the transaction, Nick Dyer, Chairman of the Board at Catalyst, will join Worldwide’s Board of Directors, and Nik Morton, President and CEO at Catalyst, will join Worldwide’s executive leadership team.

This strategic combination creates immediate value for customers by establishing Worldwide as a leading oncology-focused CRO, while maintaining depth across multiple therapeutic areas and strengthening its footprint and scale to deliver larger global trials. The integration of Catalyst’s two established solutions – Catalyst Oncology and Catalyst Flex – will strengthen Worldwide’s portfolio, offering customers proven expertise and new services for full-service, FSP resourcing, and hybrid solutions. Additionally, the integration of complementary technology platforms and best-in-class operational practices will enable enhanced data visibility and improved efficiency throughout the development lifecycle – helping customers bring life-changing therapies to patients more quickly.

“Bringing Worldwide and Catalyst together elevates our capabilities in oncology and provides a new solution for our collective customers,” said Alistair Macdonald, Chief Executive Officer at Worldwide. “We are excited to add Catalyst’s deep operational expertise and oncology credibility to our own well-known CNS specialist CRO capabilities to create a differentiated biotech-oriented oncology solution. Our combined customers seek focused senior executive connection and attention, predictability, speed, flexibility, and scientific rigor. They will benefit from the addition of a scalable FSP model with integrated onshore/offshore service lines, while we leverage advanced business management tools and AI to drive operational excellence. Beyond the science, this is about people – bringing together talented teams, expanding opportunities, and working together to deliver more agile trials for our customers.”

Matt Jennings, Executive Chairman at Worldwide and Senior Operating Partner at Kohlberg, the majority owner of the Company, commented, “Integrating Catalyst will accelerate Worldwide’s growth in oncology and expand both its customer base and global reach simultaneously. Their specialized expertise, innovative platforms, and strong relationships with emerging biotech sponsors align perfectly with our vision for building a differentiated, technology-enabled CRO. This is a strategic step toward creating a more agile and competitive organization that can meet the evolving needs of clinical research globally.”

“This marks an exciting new chapter for both Catalyst and Worldwide. By joining forces, Catalyst brings our specialized early phase oncology expertise together with Worldwide’s strength in late phase development, expanding our global footprint and delivering differentiated oncology solutions globally,” said Nik Morton, President and Chief Executive Officer at Catalyst…

Full release here, originally announced January 20th, 2026.

< + > Bonus Features – February 1, 2026 – 64% of nurses wouldn’t feel legally protected if an AI tool caused patient harm, 59% of patients use at least one app to manage medications, plus 28 more stories

Welcome to the weekly edition of Healthcare IT Today Bonus Features. This article will be a weekly roundup of interesting stories, product announcements, new hires, partnerships, research studies, awards, sales, and more. Because there’s so much happening out there in healthcare IT we aren’t able to cover in our full articles, we still want to make sure you’re informed of all the latest news, announcements, and stories happening to help you better do your job.

News

• The law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan will defend Health Gorilla in its lawsuit against Epic. If the name sounds familiar, it’s because the same firm is representing CureIS and Particle Health in their lawsuits against Epic.
• ASTP/ONC released an RFI on access, exchange, and use of diagnostic images, with comments for March 16.

Studies

• Research from Arkansas State University found that 25% of nurses rely on AI tools in clinical care every day – but 64% wouldn’t feel legally protected if an AI tool caused patient harm.
• Only 17% of patients rely on manual methods of managing medications, according to a Surescripts survey, with 59% saying they use one or more apps.
• Only 15% of health systems have fully deployed fully deployed AI or ML use cases for pharmacy demand forecasting, inventory
  optimization, drug shortage prediction, or risk modeling, according to a Tecsys report.
• More than 35% of adults who use AI chatbots for mental health support do it because of fear of judgment or social stigma, according to a Cognitive FX survey.

Partnerships

• Altera Digital Health partnered with TRUE-See to develop Sunrise Medical Photography, a suite of documentation tools that produces color-calibrated medical photos and videos.
• athenahealth selected Suki as its preferred partner for ambient AI. In addition, Humana senior-focused primary care subsidiary CenterWell implemented athenaOne.
• Autism and IDD care company CentralReach named Rain a preferred partner for employee payroll and financial wellness.
• Innovaccer partnered with Coforge to launch G-Forge, a joint initiative designed to help healthcare organizations integrate data and scale AI initiatives.
• Iterate.ai and TD SYNNEX launched Generate for Healthcare to help hospital systems to identify and recover unpaid and underpaid insurance claims; it’s hosted on HPE infrastructure.

Products

• Included Health introduced a health plan design that supports care coordination with AI-powered engagement, transparent pricing, and clinical support.
• Intelliworx added generative AI to Healthcare Workforce Management, its healthcare recruiting platform, to help recruiters draft job descriptions.
• Oracle announced the Oracle Life Sciences AI Data Platform to help medical device and life sciences organizations speed up research.
• Silna launched Predictive Document Intelligence, which aims to prevent denials and care delays before prior authorizations are filed.

Implementations

• Louisiana-based Beauregard Health System selected Artera (communication) and DrFirst (medication management) patient engagement technology to integrate with MEDITECH Expanse. In other news, DrFirst remembered Dr. Thomas E. Sullivan, who served as Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Privacy Officer from 2004 to 2022, and later as a Senior Advisor, until his passing on January 19.
• UCI Health implemented Get Well, the patient engagement platform from GW RhythmX, at its newly opened hospital campus in Irvine, California.
• NYU Langone Health selected Isaac Health as its telehealth provider for brain health and dementia care within its neurology program.

Company News

• Research from Eko Health demonstrated increased detection of heart failure, atrial fibrillation, and valvular heart disease using AI stethoscope examination versus standard practices over 12 months.
• Prenatal ultrasound software maker Sonio received HITRUST e1 Certification for its platform residing at Amazon Web Services (AWS); the company also successfully completed its SOC Type 2 Audit.

People

• RCM consultancy and technology company HURC appointed Kevin Coloton as CEO.
• Value-based kidney care company Interwell Health named Dr. Carney Taylor as Chief Medical Officer.
• Lab testing and data integration app Hundred Health named Dr. Eve Henry as Chief Medical Officer.
• Australia-based clinical AI vendor Heidi appointed Dr. Nancy Cibotti as U.S. Chief Medical Information Officer.
• Healthcare analytics vendor Sentact appointed Dr. Nicholas Testa as Chief Clinical Officer.
• Senior living technology company Inspiren welcomed Stephanie Sudbury as Chief Commercial Officer.
• Healthcare cybersecurity and compliance firm Clearwater appointed Davis Chaffin as Chief Financial Officer.
• Quality and care management technology vendor Acentra Health appointed Balajee Sethuraman as Executive Vice President and Chief Business Services Officer.
• Healthcare operations automation company Luma Health welcomed Michael Chou as Senior Vice President of Product.
• Wearable biosensor maker Epicore Biosystems appointed Dr. Douglas Casa and Dr. Elaine Choung-Hee Lee as Scientific Advisors.

If you have news that you’d like us to consider for a future edition of Healthcare IT Today Bonus Features, please submit them on this page. Please include any relevant links and let us know if news is under embargo. Note that submissions received after the close of business on Thursday may not be included in Bonus Features until the following week.

< + > Weekly Roundup – January 31, 2026

Welcome to our Healthcare IT Today Weekly Roundup. Each week, we’ll be providing a look back at the articles we posted and why they’re important to the healthcare IT community. We hope this gives you a chance to catch up on anything you may have missed during the week.

A Behavioral Health Clinician’s Perspective on AI Notetaking. John Lynn interviewed Dr. Aaron Weiner at Prevention Research Institute about what makes clinical documentation different in behavioral health, where visits are longer and side conversations are important, and how AI scribes have been able to improve the process. Read more…

The ROI for Interoperability Is Hiding in Plain Sight. Colin Hung caught up with Muhammad Chebli at NextGen Healthcare, who said interop proves its worth when organizations are clear on the problem they’re trying to solve. Read more…

AI Is No Longer Optional in Radiology Operations. GE HealthCare CEO Roland Rott chatted with Colin about tapping into the 97% of healthcare data that goes unused in order to improve the AI algorithms that improve capacity and efficiency. Read more…

Digital Health Solutions at CES 2026. CES has come a long way in 20 years, from a meager digital health presence to an entire track of content. John talked to companies innovating in remote monitoring, mental health, rehab, and predictive analytics. Read more…

Does Your EMPI Lead to Data Chaos – or Clean Identity? Today’s Enterprise Master Patient Index solutions have become very sophisticated matching patient identities, but EMPI can struggle when support calls spike, and that can erode an organization’s confidence. John highlighted a Rhapsody eBook that helps cut through the chaos. Read more…

Medication Management Traps for EHR Vendors. There are 832 different variations of “take one tablet daily,” which explains why medication management is so complex. Regulatory changes aren’t quite as convoluted, but they’re enough for vendors to prioritize compliance over innovation. John summarized a DrFirst resource that should help EHR vendors cope. Read more…

Life Sciences Today Podcast: Beyond the Science. Dr. Gary Zammit at Clinilabs talked to Danny Lieberman about the role of resilience, discipline, and culture in building a strong life sciences organization. Read more…

CIO Podcast: Sutter Sync. Dr. Richard Milani at Sutter Health joined John to discuss Sutter Sync, a medical device that syncs directly with Epic and will initially be used for high blood pressure and pregnancy. Read more…

3 Ways to Take Your Practice to the Next Level in 2026. Paul Vigario, Founder and CEO at SurfCT explained the importance of brand-building, patient compliance, and forward-thinking leadership for private medical and dental practices. Read more…

Best Software Platforms for Med Spa Management. This post from Meevo evaluated appointment scheduling, client management, inventory control, and other important features to support managing a modern medical spa. Read more…

What Does It Take to Obtain Health Equity Accreditation? This post from URAC outlined 7 steps for moving from intention to implementation for identifying and reducing disparities across populations. Read more…

This Week’s Health IT Jobs for January 28, 2026: Multiple IT supervisor roles, along with positions with health plans. Read more…

Bonus Features for January 25, 2026: 35% of patients would switch doctors if their digital tools were frustrating, while 20% of healthcare workers use unauthorized AI tools. Read more…

Funding and M&A Activity:

• OpenAI acquired Torch, which is building an AI app to bring disparate sources of patient data together.
• DirectMed Imaging acquired Tri-Imaging Solutions; the two companies will be combined into a single, integrated provider.
• Utilization management software maker Firstsource acquired TeleMedik, a Puerto Rico-based software company.
• Real-world data company Verana Health merged with COTA, an oncology real-world data company.
• Healthcare staffing platform IntelyCare acquired CareRev, an on-demand workforce platform for acute care.
• Oncology care software maker VieCure raised $43 million in funding.
• Behavioral health EHR and practice management platform ICANotes received an investment from Sheridan Capital Partners.
• Diagnostic insights company Avalon Healthcare Solutions announced a new majority investment.

Thanks for reading and be sure to check out our latest Healthcare IT Today Weekly Roundups.