HealthContentAdvisors

Netsmart, an enterprise software vendor to behavioral & public health providers, acquires Crown Software. Crown provides pharmacy management s/w that integrates with EHRs.

A short, concise piece that provides some good examples of how newspaper/news publishers could create new revenue streams. Good examples, including some I’ve used in the past (post original documents & databases, better repurposing of archives, special editions, and more).

University presses looking at forming consortium program to promote ebook sales.

Good examples of how healthIT can add efficiency, but physician author cautions that entering data takes time. This doc is part of Kaiser Permanente, which is frequently held up as an example of effective use of electronic health records. Problem is, KP is an integrated system, which makes it much easier to enforce interoperability and usage.

Good roundup of providers and related info about trend toward elderly staying in their homes and retrofitting with safety gear. Role of occupational therapist growing for this purpose, too.

Example of industry information company adding value through data-analytics.

Article provides breakdown of downloaded apps by category & within category, by free & paid.

Lewin Group, a health care policy research firm, launches new center for comparative effectiveness research (CER). note, Lewin won an HHS bid recently to construct CER framework. Lewin will incorporate longitudinal patient data (de-identified)from Ingenix, it’s parent company.

Josh Seidman’s very clear exposition of why needs of clinicians and patients have to be central to efforts to define meaningful use of electronic health records. Sadly, these voices are mostly absent from the discussions (apart from clinicians with IT roles in large provider organizations).

Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJ) loses motion to dismiss copyright & trademark infringement suit from HealthGrades for misuse of its ratings info, although RWF is mostly successful in motion to dismiss breach of contract claims. RWJ used copyrighted HealthGrades ratings in press releases & articles.

Post provides some historical context on how medical research in academic settings has changed in age of Google. But, the adage “plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose” almost always applies, esp. when it comes to business models/pricing models. Note, I worked at Dialog from ‘85-’95 during the time when CDRom was introduced.

Wow, when I have referred to “intermediaries” as a key category in the health content supply chain, entertainment companies weren’t top of mind. But, after reading the description of this program at the USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center, it makes sense. TV programs and movies have a lot of influence on the health literacy of our population. It’s important that the writers, editors & all parties in media understand where to find authoritative info & learn how to interpret it.

Jim Spanfeller resigns from Forbes, where he has led digital efforts for past 9 years, to start his own media management firm. Forbes had fared better than other business publications in part due to its more aggressive online strategies, but in my opinion, their online presense lacked cohesion and proper design. In print, Forbes remains a notch above most business pubs and can still leverage its readership.

3 PE groups resubmitted bids for Springer at request of Candover & Cinven. New bids slightly higher (>400 M Euros vs. 350-380M Euros of 1st round), but still short of the hoped for 500 M Euro bid for up to 40% of Springer. PEHub rightly points out that Candover & Cinven recapitalized Springer 3 times and paid themselves healthy dividends each time.