Health it

Dive Brief: As health IT companies develop new technologies for the elderly, AARP is throwing its hat in the ring through collaborations with three healthcare startups. The powerful seniors lobbying group is collaborating with Pillo Health to study diabetes management using an AI-enabled countertop healthcare assistant. The study will launch this summer in Boston area homes. AARP is also teaming on a study with Orbita to assess AI-assisted voice applications in remote patient monitoring and to reduce social isolation. The third project, with Folia Health, involves use of digital tools to improve diabetes management in patients aged 50 and older. Dive Insight: The graying of the population is fueling big business opportunities in the healthcare and assisted living fields. More than 10,000 Americans age into Medicare each day, and increasingly those seniors are looking to remain in their homes. Technologies that promote wellness and independent living such as medical alert … [Read more...] about AARP partners with startups to advance health IT solutions

Dive Brief:​ Spending on vendor-provided federal health IT goods and services is estimated to increase from $6.1 billion this year to $8.1 billion in 2023, according to a Health IT News summary of a market outlook report. That increase will largely be driven by EHR projects at the Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs. Spending will top out at $8.5 billion by 2022 and dip down to $8.1 billion the following year as systems roll out.  The Coast Guard announced this week that it will be adopting DoD's $4.3 billion Cerner EHR project, and the State Department is expected to adopt an EHR soon.   Dive Insight: Federal health IT spending will be stimulated by agencies' focus on improving patient accessibility, paying for performance, modernizing health IT systems and implementing new technologies over the next five years, according to the report by Deltak, an IT company that works with federal contractors. Much of that spending will be led by the VA.  … [Read more...] about EHRs to drive federal health IT spending to $8.1B by 2023

Dive Brief: GE Healthcare has entered into a definitive agreement with Veritas Capital, a private equity investment firm, to sell a package of health IT tools for about $1 billion. The deal includes GE's revenue cycle, ambulatory care and workforce management assets, as well as its Centricity EMR business. Veritas' current healthcare portfolio includes government-focused technology company Peraton and healthcare technology company Verscend Technologies. Veritas has helped build and sell healthcare companies, including sales of Truven Health Analytics to IBM Watson Health and Vangent to General Dynamics. Dive Insight: GE CEO John Flannery took over last August to turn around a company which has seen its stock trend downward for the last year.  Monday, GE's price per common stock closed at $13.12, down from $29.88 a year ago.  The sale is the latest in a long line of cost-cutting steps by the conglomerate. GE last year said it would trim about 25% of its corporate staff, … [Read more...] about GE sells health IT unit for $1B

Dive Brief: The population health management industry will explode in the coming years thanks in large part to innovative technologies and health IT, according to a new report by the Transparency Market Research. The industry will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 16.1% between 2017 and 2025, expected to reach $69 billion by 2025, the report predicts. North America and Europe will dominate the global market. Two reasons include the Affordable Care Act implementation and increases in health IT spending. However, Asia Pacific is expected to grow the fastest because of medical tourism and population health management tools made in Japan and Australia. Dive Insight: A greater reliance on population health tools will drive the global population health management market over the next seven years, the report said. This is good news for companies in the population health management market, which includes the likes of Philips, Lumeris, Health Catalyst, McKesson, Cerner, … [Read more...] about Health IT will drive population health market growth, report predicts

Allscripts CEO Paul Black issued a prescient ultimatum in October on a stage at Health 2.0. "Either we need to disrupt ourselves or somebody in this room will come in and disrupt us because it's too easy now that everything is digital," he said. Allscripts revealed this week it had purchased its cloud-based competitor Practice Fusion for $100 million.  Practice Fusion once touted a $1 billion valuation and toyed with going public. In the end, the company was sold for less than the investment capital it raised. Venrock investor Bob Kocher called the news "disappointing." The story points to a larger consolidation trend sweeping across the industry. A confluence of factors is driving the pairings-up, including exhausted Meaningful Use funds, a tapped EHR market and shift toward consumer-centric models. That's driving larger players like Allscripts to hunt for new revenue streams with smaller targets to ​add code, staff or customer reach. But the larger companies … [Read more...] about Health IT eyes M&A as market grows up