< + > Weekly Roundup – October 7, 2023

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.

How Technology can Address Clinician Shortage and Burnout. We are facing an estimated 900K deficit of registered nurses by the end of this decade. This problem is only made worse by the silver tsunami of 10K baby boomers aging into Medicare coverage every day. Technology can be a great solution to help ease that burden off of your staff so they aren’t likely to join the wave of burnout. Read more…

How Queuing Technology for Pharmacies Can Improve Safety & Efficiency. With the current staffing crisis, changing regulations, and pharmacists being given more tasks to do, getting a prescription can be a tricky and time-consuming task. But on an organizational level, there are ways for you to make it easier. Read more…

What Healthcare Interoperability Topic Are Not Enough People Talking About? Since interoperability is a way of combining workflows in the interest of simplicity, there are so many topics and angles to discuss. At the recent Civitas Conference, we stopped to talk to all of you to see what you thought wasn’t being talked about enough. Read more…

Key Cybersecurity Defenses for the Healthcare Sector. Cyberattacks are forever on the rise, making it crucial that we have good cybersecurity. Sam Manjarres, Sr. Product Marketing Manager, Identity Security at WatchGuard shares some ways to keep us safe. Read more…

AI Will Help Bridge Gaps in Canadian Healthcare. The OntarioMD Digital Health Conference returned to in-person for the first time since COVID-19. Catch up on what they said about AI at the conference. Read more…

Healthcare IT Today: Health IT Potpourri.  We take a look at big health IT news topics and look forward to upcoming health IT conferences. Read more…

The New Pandemic: Burnout Threatens to Wipe Out a Generation of Providers. Burnout is becoming a huge problem in healthcare. Forbes reported almost 3% of the healthcare workforce is resigning each month, accounting for 1.7 million people who quit last year, a quarter of that is due to burnout. Read more…

A Look at Nabla Copilot’s Automatic Clinical Documentation. Ambient clinical voice is a hot topic for John Lynn and one that he will defend against some of the cynics out there. To build up his defense he sat down for an interview with Alex Lebrun, Co-Founder and CEO at Nabla, who is working in this space. Read more…

How Will the Current Macroeconomic Environment Impact Digital Health and Healthcare IT Decision-Making? How will the current macroeconomic environment impact digital health and healthcare IT decision-making? How are AI and automation addressing healthcare labor shortage challenges? We interview Don Hooker, analyst at Capital One Healthcare to get those answers. Read more…

What are the Cost Implications of Implementing Cloud Technology in Healthcare? We’ve talked a lot about implementing the cloud in healthcare, but have we thought about the costs of doing so? Our incredible Healthcare IT Today Community shared their insights on this topic with us. Read more…

Featured Health IT Job: Chief Health Information Officer, a position located in Minneapolis, MN, posted by Hennepin Healthcare at Healthcare IT Central.

Bonus Features for October 1, 2023: 45 Percent of patients prefer telehealth for minor but urgent issues and much more. Read more…

Funding and M&A Activity:

• Leading Digital Front Door platform Amenities Health raised a total of $10 million.
• Avel eCare, a leading provider of clinician-to-clinician telemedicine services, acquired Fident Health, a Texas-based virtual hospitalist provider.
• Briya, an end-to-end healthcare data exchange platform, raised $11.5 million in their Series A round of financing, bringing the company’s total funding to $17 million.
• Atropos Health has completed a strategic financing from Presidio Ventures, the venture arm of Sumitomo Corporation Venture Group, Samsung Next, a venture arm of Samsung Electronics, Gaingels, Audere Capital, and others.

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

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< + > Patients benefit from AI-powered care navigator at Columbia Memorial Health

The system, built as part of the organization's digital front door, has achieved both clinical and financial ROI and helped earn a Net Promoter Score of 72.

< + > HIMSSCast: With new cybersecurity threats emerging, tips on building resilience

MorganFranklin Consulting’s Ferdinand Hamada and Matt DeFrain offer their perspectives on the current threat environment and how health systems can build better cybersecurity resilience and business continuity strategies.

< + > How Will the Current Macroeconomic Environment Impact Digital Health and Healthcare IT Decision-Making?

As health systems grapple with market uncertainty, how will the current macroeconomic environment impact digital health and healthcare IT decision-making? How are AI and automation addressing healthcare labor shortage challenges? Capital One Healthcare analyst Don Hooker shared his perspective with Healthcare IT Today in the following interview.

From your work with stakeholders, are you seeing any concerns regarding digital health point solutions?

To set the stage, overall “healthcare IT” budgets appear to be stable at many healthcare provider organizations, but there are still a lot of concerns about how an uncertain macroeconomic environment might impact digital health and healthcare IT procurement decision-making. Specifically, healthcare providers continue to highlight challenges with labor and supply costs (shortages) as a source of operating margin pressure. In some cases, this is forcing them to be more selective with their software and services vendors.

In this environment, digital health point solution vendors face increased pressure to show their provider customers a hard-dollar and near-term ROI. Also, digital health point solution vendors may face pressure from provider organizations looking for ways to streamline their vendor relationships in order to gain better volume-based pricing. We have definitely seen a greater mix of revenue growth from cross-selling in recent quarters. Existing clients who have already realized success with a given vendor seem much more receptive in the current environment to choose to purchase add-on products from that same vendor. In addition to pricing, a lot of this has to do with trust.

Do you foresee these types of companies being successful in the current economic environment?

Demand for digital health and healthcare IT has shifted significantly over the past year towards near-term, hard-dollar value propositions. This includes tech-enabled optimization and revenue cycle management where vendors can directly write cost savings into their contracts and give customers explicit visibility to a near-term, hard-dollar ROI. As a simple example, revenue cycle management companies can take over the revenue cycle operation of a hospital and transition labor to offsite locations, creating immediate cost savings.

What can digital health point solutions do to improve their chances of success (e.g., pursuing M&A?)?

Consolidation strategies seem to make a lot of sense in the current marketplace given elevated customer focus on near-term ROI and streamlining vendors. Healthcare providers are having a hard time maintaining as many vendor relationships as they are, and, from what we’ve seen, they are looking for opportunities to rationalize vendors.

Also, organic cross-selling strategies seem to be working as well. We have seen a number of success stories of digital health/HCIT vendors being able to leverage their incumbencies to generate new streams of revenue and cash flow.

How are AI and automation addressing healthcare labor shortage challenges?                                                  

Health systems are using AI and automation to enhance patient outcomes, develop individualized treatments, increase efficiency and transparency, reduce costs and maximize reimbursement. For example, on the AI side, providers are combining data from a range of clinical, social and environmental sources to better understand the forces driving patient health and identify high-risk patients in need of additional support. When it comes to automation, we’re seeing  patients entering their contact information on a health system’s online portal which allow providers to create automated appointment reminders and eliminate no-shows.

These advances are pointing us toward a new era of value based care. For example, the FDA has approved more than 350 medical devices enabled by artificial intelligence and machine learning – most of which are being used for medical image analysis. Physicians are increasingly turning to AI to pull interventional insights from diverse datasets to help them develop individualized treatment. These technologies are critical in realizing the promise of precision medicine. At the same time, one of the biggest focus areas of healthcare systems and providers is interoperability.  Normalizing data and getting different systems to talk to each other is a critical first step before integrating AI and automation technology.

< + > Atropos Health Announces Strategic Financing to Fund International Expansion and Support Key Channel Partnerships

Leader in Unlocking Real-World Data for Healthcare Moves to Address the Global Evidence Gap in Markets Plagued by Tight Data Restrictions and a Lack of Clinical Trial Diversity

Atropos Health, a pioneer in evidence-based healthcare known for its Green Button Clinical Informatics Consult Service, today announced that it has completed a strategic financing from Presidio Ventures, the venture arm of Sumitomo Corporation Venture Group, Samsung Next, a venture arm of Samsung Electronics, Gaingels, Audere Capital, and others. The funding enables Atropos Health to accelerate commercial and development opportunities outside the U.S., using its proprietary technology and approach. The initial focus centers on key customers in Japan and Brazil.

“While the lack of representation in clinical trials creates an evidence gap for up to 70 percent of U.S patients, this effect is even more pronounced internationally. Lack of representation and relevant evidence on local populations leads to poorly informed treatment decisions and worse outcomes for patients around the world,” said Dr. Brigham Hyde, Co-Founder and CEO at Atropos Health. “The support from our new strategic investors, Presidio and Samsung Next, and international healthcare partners underscores the value we deliver on a global scale– to unlock real-world data for evidence-based medicine.”

Atropos Health offers the world’s first award-winning platform for faster data evaluation, evidence generation, and Generative AI innovation of research and care. This platform is designed to meet the demands of health systems and life science companies working to solve increasingly global, diverse, and data-intensive healthcare problems. Atropos Evidence Platform is federated, allowing for compliance with sovereign policies on data retention, security, and privacy – such as the General Data Protection Regulation, the standard of EU privacy law. This critical infrastructure opens up global research opportunities to accelerate evidence generation and representation.

Atropos Health’s cloud-based platform is uniquely able to navigate the data restrictions faced in international markets, providing vital data and insights to frontline physicians and researchers abroad. This is happening at a time when life-saving medical research is increasingly multinational, with more than half of all clinical trials taking place outside the US. Diversity in clinical trials is essential to advancing innovation of the best treatments for the right patients. Atropos’ unique global offerings help life science leaders overcome this challenge.

“Our investment in Atropos Health is a testament to our belief that this trailblazing team has the potential to revolutionize how health decisions are made while saving both time and costs,” said Rameen Rana from Samsung Next. “Atropos Health is on track to make a profound impact on the healthcare industry, and we’re excited to be a part of their journey and look forward to the positive changes they will bring to healthcare worldwide.”

“The massive proliferation of patient data, coupled with advances in analytical methods, can enable providers and pharmaceutical companies to transform clinical decision-making, optimize drug development, and ultimately improve patient outcomes,” said Tyler Schinto from Presidio Ventures. “We look forward to our strategic collaboration with Atropos Health to support the international expansion of its technology, which we believe will be at the forefront of the healthcare industry’s adoption of evidence-based informatics to enhance therapeutic results and lower the total cost of care.”

With the additional capital and in-market support provided by Presidio and Samsung Next, Atropos Health is commencing engagements with several, international customers who will both add global RWD to their Atropos Evidence Platform and drive new RWD in the Atropos Evidence Library. Providers and researchers outside the U.S. can begin to generate evidence-based insights through Atropos Green Button service. In addition to the strategic investment, Atropos Health has added partnerships with Analitica, Syndesis Health, DVX, and Project 360 LTD, to provide a critical footprint of in-market data integration support and channel distribution across Asia, South America, and the Middle East.

About Atropos Health

Atropos Health is the developer of the Atropos Evidence™ Platform, a catalyst for evidence generation from a network of real-world data. Healthcare organizations, life science companies, and other clinicians and researchers leverage our platform to close evidence gaps from bench to bedside, elevate clinical outcomes with data-driven care, expedite research, and more. Atropos Health’s offerings are based upon dozens of peer-reviewed publications, thousands of clinician users, a decade of clinical use, and clinical expertise. We aim to transform healthcare with timely, relevant real-world evidence.

To learn more about Atropos Health, visit atroposhealth.com or connect through LinkedIn or follow on Twitter.

About Presidio Ventures & Sumitomo Corporation

Presidio Ventures is the VC arm of Sumitomo Corporation, a leading Fortune 500 global diversified trading and business investment company with 129 locations (Japan: 20, Overseas: 109) in 66 countries and regions. As an investor and a partner, Presidio Ventures assists early-stage technology, internet, mobile, media, and cleantech companies looking towards global markets, like Japan and Asia, to grow their business and maintain their competitive edge. Presidio leverages its technological expertise, international business development experience, and cross-industry network to identify overseas partners for its portfolio companies and provides the financial resources necessary to take advantage of growth opportunities. Presidio Ventures is a subsidiary of Sumitomo Corporation and has offices in Silicon Valley, Boston, and Los Angeles.

Originally announced September 21st, 2023

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