< + > Aranscia Acquires Spesana

Electronic Health Systems Pioneer Carla Balch Joins Aranscia’s Executive Leadership Team

Aranscia, a global provider of award-winning clinical workflow and diagnostic technology solutions, today announced that it has acquired Spesana and its best-in-class suite of patient navigation, clinical collaboration, and oncology clinical decision support utilities. Spesana’s Founder and CEO, Carla Balch, a leading pioneer in healthcare and oncology information systems, will serve as Executive Director across all Aranscia software solutions, including oversight of Spesana’s continued commercial and technical expansion.

Spesana, founded in 2019, has developed a healthcare platform that increases the velocity, efficiency, and utility of innovative precision medicine programs. The Company’s patient navigation, prior authorization, clinical trial collaboration, and diagnostic workflow solutions are in use across over 140 clinical sites, and its blue-chip customer base includes leading payers, multi-site provider and oncology organizations, and diagnostic laboratories. Spesana clients have reported a 60% improvement in the use of appropriate precision medicine diagnostics by eliminating clinical overhead and process ambiguity with Spesana’s intelligent platform utilities.

Spesana will join the Aranscia portfolio of companies, each of which shares a synergistic mission of solving the tactical gaps in clinical workflows and democratizing access to the promises of precision care. This portfolio includes 2bPrecise, the award-winning platform for lab-agnostic, EMR-integrated solutions that deliver unparalleled speed-to-value in precision care; YouScript, a widely recognized leader in actionable, real-time personalized medication risk management and pharmacogenomics (PGx) insights; and AccessDx Laboratory, a CLIA-certified, CAP-accredited, and NYCQ molecular diagnostic laboratory with specialist expertise in PGx and other personalized diagnostics.

“We warmly welcome the entire Spesana team and platform to the Aranscia family of companies,” said Joe Spinelli, Chief Strategy Officer at Aranscia. “Spesana and Aranscia have a clear and shared mission of developing and implementing best-in-class utilities that improve clinical, financial, and operational workflows for providers and the patients they serve. Carla’s experience as a proven operator, builder, and ally to clinical partners makes her a perfect fit to lead Aranscia’s software efforts as we assert our unified focus on positively impacting outcomes at the point of care.”

Ms. Balch was previously President and CEO at Altos Solutions, which developed the first web-based oncology medical records company (OncoEMR), and was subsequently acquired by Flatiron Health (now part of Roche). Prior to Spesana, Ms. Balch also served as President at Nantcare, an oncology technology and clinical trials company, and as CEO at Inteliquet (acquired by IQVIA), an innovative clinical trial matching solution. Ms. Balch serves on the Healthcare Counsel of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

“We built Spesana to unify fragmented healthcare workflows, and joining Aranscia allows us to realize that mission at scale,” said Carla Balch, CEO at Spesana. “Our teams share a commitment to modernizing the clinician experience by eliminating technology silos and delivering a seamless, integrated, HIPAA-compliant platform across all specialties and sites of care. Together, and in collaboration with the clinical partners we serve, we will continue to deliver solutions that improve both patient outcomes and provider experiences and help to enable more connected, efficient, and intelligent healthcare.”

About Aranscia

Aranscia delivers world-class diagnostic software, services, and testing innovations that help clinicians improve care outcomes. The Aranscia portfolio of companies, which includes 2bPrecise, AccessDx Laboratory, Spesana, and YouScript, have extensive practical expertise in molecular diagnostics, genomics, and digital-first clinical workflows. Aranscia enables clinical organizations to effectively utilize precision diagnostics for turnkey programs in fields such as pharmacogenomics, infectious disease management, precision oncology, and genetic screening. With a dual focus on simplicity and scalability, Aranscia’s portfolio companies are the ideal partner for long-term, value-based precision medicine initiatives. For more information, please visit aranscia.com.

About Spesana

Spesana has developed a universal healthcare platform to increase the velocity of patient access to the right care through improving clinical, financial, and operational workflows. Founded in 2019 by an experienced team of electronic medical record pioneers, Spesana’s framework for purpose-driven healthcare interoperability incorporates a provider-centric approach to building solutions for challenges such as patient navigation, referral management, prior authorization, lab routing, and multi-site clinical collaboration. For more information, please visit spesana.com.

Originally announced May 12th, 2025

< + > Hospice provider scores hat trick with meds management tool

Heart to Heart Hospice has achieved three of its top priorities, including reducing documentation time by almost 30 minutes and improving care planning – which speaks to the operational and compliance impact the technology has delivered.

< + > Balancing AI Innovation with Rising Cyber Threats in Healthcare

The following is a guest article by Shane Cox, Director, Cyber Fusion Center at MorganFranklin Cyber

Artificial intelligence is reshaping healthcare at an astonishing pace. From predictive diagnostics to robotic-assisted surgeries, AI’s potential to improve patient outcomes and streamline operations is undeniable. Yet, as hospitals, insurers, and providers embrace AI-driven automation, they also open the door to an entirely new wave of cyber risks. AI is no longer just an asset; it is also a liability if not properly secured.

The same advancements that allow AI to analyze vast amounts of medical data and detect diseases faster than any human doctor can also be manipulated to launch sophisticated cyberattacks. Threat actors are already using AI to craft highly convincing phishing campaigns, generate deepfake voices to trick hospital administrators into fraudulent payments, and automate denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks that can cripple critical healthcare systems. In an industry where downtime can be the difference between life and death, the stakes have never been higher.

AI-Powered Threats Are Reshaping the Cybersecurity Landscape

The shift toward AI-driven cyberattacks is forcing healthcare security teams to play a game of cat and mouse at unprecedented speed. Traditional phishing scams were once easy to spot, riddled with typos and awkward phrasing. Now, AI can generate flawless, hyper-personalized phishing emails, mimicking the language, tone, and urgency of legitimate communications. Even security-aware employees struggle to tell the difference.

Deepfake technology has added another layer of deception. Imagine a hospital finance director receiving a call that sounds exactly like the CFO, authorizing an urgent wire transfer for a medical supply purchase. The voice is eerily familiar, the details check out, and the pressure to act quickly is high. But it’s not the CFO. It’s an AI-generated deepfake, convincing enough to bypass even the most skeptical professionals. These scenarios are no longer hypothetical. They are happening now.

At the same time, attackers are also deploying AI-driven botnets to launch highly adaptive DDoS attacks. These campaigns flood hospital servers with traffic from distributed sources, overwhelming systems and rendering them unusable. Modern botnets can learn and shift tactics in real time, evading traditional defenses. Hospitals running outdated security systems are especially vulnerable to these disruptions, which can delay life-saving procedures and compromise patient care.

The Inherent Risks in AI Itself

AI risks aren’t just limited to external attackers. When deployed hastily or without strong oversight, AI systems themselves can introduce new and overlooked vulnerabilities. Many healthcare organizations are embracing AI to enhance diagnostics, streamline workflows, and personalize treatment plans. But these models are only as good as the data they’re trained on. If a malicious actor gains access to the training dataset, they can manipulate outcomes through data poisoning, injecting corrupted or biased data that skews predictions and decision-making.

The consequences of such an attack can be severe. A tampered AI model might misdiagnose a patient, alter dosage recommendations, or prioritize treatments based on false variables. The potential for silent, systemic errors is a growing concern as AI becomes more deeply embedded in clinical decision-making.

AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants have also become commonplace for patient engagement, from scheduling appointments to offering symptom triage. These systems depend on APIs to communicate across platforms, and any misconfiguration can expose sensitive data. A single unsecured API can be an open door to attackers, compromising patient records, insurance information, and even clinical trial data.

The problem is compounded by the fact that many healthcare organizations lack visibility into the security posture of their AI vendors, and many providers integrate external AI tools without fully vetting their security protocols. This creates a fragmented and largely invisible ecosystem where AI applications operate beyond the reach of the hospital’s internal security team. When vendors lack strong security practices or when oversight is insufficient, this risk expands exponentially.

A New Approach to AI Governance and Defense

To mitigate these risks, healthcare security leaders must implement stricter AI governance policies and enforce rigorous third-party risk assessments before integrating AI-powered tools into their environments. AI solutions should undergo regular security audits, penetration testing, and API monitoring to ensure vulnerabilities are identified and patched before they can be exploited. Additionally, adopting zero-trust architectures can help ensure that third-party tools only access what they absolutely need, minimizing potential exposure.

For healthcare organizations, conventional security strategies are no longer enough. Defending against AI-powered attacks requires more than just upgrading traditional security tools. The entire security strategy must evolve. Managed Detection and Response (MDR) systems need to incorporate AI-driven anomaly detection that can distinguish between normal hospital automation and malicious AI behavior. Security platforms should become predictive, not just reactive, analyzing patterns and dynamically adjusting defenses in real time.

At the same time, Digital Forensics and Incident Response (DFIR) teams must rethink their investigative methods. The traditional approach of tracking digital footprints and identifying malware signatures is ineffective against self-learning, AI-generated threats. Security teams must develop advanced forensic capabilities to deconstruct AI-generated malware, trace deepfake fraud attempts, and counter AI-powered attack chains.

Putting Security in Lockstep with Innovation

AI security can no longer be an afterthought. It must be embedded into every phase of development and deployment, from initial design to daily operations. Security leaders and AI developers need to collaborate from the start, building systems with robust controls that prioritize patient safety and data integrity.

The future of healthcare depends on AI’s success, but its success depends on security. The industry must act now to build AI-powered defenses strong enough to withstand AI-powered attacks.

About Shane Cox

Shane Cox is the Director of Cyber Fusion Center and Incident Response at MorganFranklin Cyber. With over 20 years of experience in cybersecurity operations, Shane specializes in building and optimizing security teams and programs for detection and response, security platform management, EDR/MDR, threat intelligence, automation, incident response, and vulnerability management. At MorganFranklin, he is responsible for the strategic leadership, growth, optimization, and client satisfaction of Cyber Fusion Center services, and collaborates closely with cybersecurity leaders across various industry verticals.

< + > This Week’s Health IT Jobs – June 4, 2025

It can be very overwhelming scrolling though job board after job board in search of a position that fits your wants and needs. Let us take that stress away by finding a mix of great health IT jobs for you! We hope you enjoy this look at some of the health IT jobs we saw healthcare organizations trying to fill this week.

Here’s a quick look at some of the health IT jobs we found:

• Applications Configuration Specialist – Alliance Health
• Medical Biller – Premier Health Group
• Clinical Access Case Manager – San Juan Regional Medical Center
• Director of Health Information & Privacy – WellPower
• Community Health Worker – Honor Community Health
• Patient Access Assistant Manager – Bryan Health
• Healthcare Operations Manager – R1 RCM
• Telehealth Patient Management Specialist – St. Luke’s Health System
• Executive Director Privacy Officer-Ethics & Compliance – The MetroHealth System
• Health Unit Coord I – Cincinnati Children’s
• Medicare Clinical Quality Consultant – Cambia Health Solutions
• Deputy Public Health Administrator – Georgia Department of Public Health
• Patient Navigator – Intermountain Health
• Behavioral Health Associate – Comprehensive Healthcare
• Policy and Claims Research Specialist – Neighborhood Health Plan of Rhode Island
• Privacy Consultant – Sutter Health
• Director of Healthcare Services – Interim HealthCare Inc.
• Sr Administrative Assistant/PRN – CHRISTUS Health
• Medical Office Coordinator – HCA Healthcare
• Clinical Marketing Liaison – Encompass Health

If none of these jobs fit your needs, be sure to check out our previous health IT job listings.

Do you have an open health IT position that you are looking to fill? Contact us here with a link to the open position and we’ll be happy to feature it in next week’s article at no charge!

*Note: These jobs are listed by Healthcare IT Today as a free service to the community. Healthcare IT Today does not endorse or vouch for the company or the job posting. We encourage anyone applying to these jobs to do their own due diligence.

< + > HHS appoints Dr. Thomas Keane to lead health IT efforts at ASTP

The physician and software engineer will hold dual titles as Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy and National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.

< + > Using LLMs with decision support could improve diagnoses, MGB shows

While a diagnostic decision support engine outperformed ChatGPT and Gemini at ascertaining disease in a new Mass General Brigham study, generative artificial intelligence models also performed well, suggesting potential synergistic benefits.

< + > Simplifying the First Step into SDOH with AI

The following is a guest article by Brian Norris, Vice President & Managing Director of Strategic Consulting at MedeAnalytics

We’ve all heard the motivational proverb about the journey of one thousand miles beginning with a single step. The same goes for the first step in addressing a patient population’s social determinants of health (SDOH). Many factors comprise a patient’s SDOH profile, from transportation to air quality to the distance from their healthcare provider. The first step in the journey towards equalizing everyone’s SDOH can seem endless. There is no map, and forget about GPS. So which direction do you go? Which way do you turn for the best care? Does left or right make the most financial sense? Provider and payer organizations that embark on this journey will require assistance. Thankfully, with data, artificial intelligence, and the will to create a meaningful impact on people’s lives, the tools exist to guide these organizations towards the SDOH destination and create a roadmap for others to follow.

Knowing where to make that first step is challenging because SDOH factors go beyond the four walls of a doctor’s office and beyond a health system’s typical realm of control. Yet we know various SDOH factors determine between 30% and 55% of a patient’s health outcomes, so understanding these non-medical contributors — the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age — can significantly influence their wellbeing. Before taking that first step, it’s only natural to ask the following questions:

• Where can my healthcare organization impact our patient population with SDOH efforts? 
• What aspect of SDOH makes the most financial sense to address first? 
• What’s the return on investment? 

The answers to these questions are becoming more attainable, thanks mainly to the massive amounts of data already available within the healthcare industry and advancements in artificial intelligence.

Data

Claims data is one of the most useful datasets to assess the overall health of a patient population, and there’s a lot of it. Previous estimates suggest it’s somewhere in the petabytes. By combining claims trends with granular SDOH data and clinical insights, payers and providers can actuarially model and reveal the areas of most significant risk and the interventions with the greatest return on investment. Unfortunately, many healthcare organizations don’t know the value hidden within this data, especially when paired with predictive analytics and artificial intelligence. Taking this data and incorporating AI can help forecast real-world cost savings and better health outcomes.

AI

With the right analytics and AI tools, organizations can move from simply acknowledging SDOH to predicting which social risk markers will most affect utilization, cost, and outcomes.

For example, if data shows that some patients frequently use the emergency room due to transportation challenges or lack of accessible follow-up care, targeted interventions like admission, discharge transfer alerts, and proactive care navigation can reduce these unnecessary admissions. When integrated at the point of care, this insight allows clinicians to make more informed decisions and organizations to streamline operations. It also enables care teams to follow up more effectively after emergency room visits. Pairing with AI, payers and providers can begin to predict which patients are more likely to fall through the cracks and offer suggestions for organizations to make impactful changes.

The Path Forward

More payers and providers are becoming legally obligated to address the SDOH of their members, especially among organizations embracing value-based care models. As more of these health systems, employers, Medicare Advantage plans, and self-insured groups continue to grow, so will the need for these organizations to focus on SDOH.

The SDOH journey is long. But the first step doesn’t have to be difficult. Like any long-distance traveler, you need a plan. And that’s true for healthcare organizations. While it may not be a typical map, data and AI can provide clear direction for the path ahead.

About Brian Norris

Brian Norris, MBA, RN, FHIMSS, has more than 25 years of experience in healthcare, 20 of those years as an RN and 15+ years in analytics, value-based care, and product development. As Vice President & Managing Director of Strategic Consulting, Brian leads the MedeAnalytics consulting practice focused on helping clients advance their value-based care strategies, deliver phenomenal outcomes to their populations, and assist organizations across the healthcare vertical with their most pressing clinical, operational, and outcomes challenges.

MedeAnalytics recently partnered with Socially Determined and Mathematica to modernize the measurement, validation, and financial impact of SDOH interventions. By directly incorporating this information into an EHR, providers can make better SDOH-focused care decisions at the point of care.