Philly Healthcare Tech 12/28/2018

Tom Paine


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"Detecting BS in Healthcare", is a tongue in cheek paper authored by two Wharton professors, Lawton R. Burns, PhD and Mark V. Pauly, PhD. of Wharton's Department of Health Care Management. Beneath the humor, the authors make some serious points:

It begins,"In the past several months, we have observed several notable signs of deceptive, misleading, unsubstantiated, and foolish statements—what we will call “BS” — in the health care industry. These new signs include fraudulently marketed products from Theranos1 and IBM Watson,2 and a recent statement by the CEO of One Medical that his firm aims to take out 10 percent of U.S.health care spending — something no one has ever done (not even the Federal Government)." H/T HisTalk.


Hospitals nationwide will have to begin posting online their costs for individual services , beginning January 1, due to a new Federal law. I'm a bit confused whether it means costs or prices. Nonetheless, it should be an interesting exercise. Perhaps it will reveal some of the wizardry of cost accountants in justifying their prices. But it will present an opportunity to do cross comparisons between hospitals A, B and C in a given area.

Cerner (with offices in Malvern) has a $10bn contract to replace the VA's EHR system. But the Medical Appointment Scheduling System, based on Epic's Cadence software, has already gone live, reportedly under budget, at a VA facility in Ohio. But the VA still wants to switch to Cerner for scheduling as well , it appears, with a decision expected shortly.

CNBC's Christina Farr summarizes the steps Amazon has already taken in healthcare , and gives us an idea of how its strategy might progress in the future. Becker's Hospital Review's Alia Paavola provides a detailed 2018 timeline of Amazon's healthcare initiatives .

Though I missed it earlier in the year (July), Stephanie Baum's survey of Philly Health Tech for Med City News ( "Philadelphia’s digital health ecosystem takes shape" ) is definitely worthy of your time.

Also helpful are Healthcare Growth Partners' infographics profiling the most active investors in healthcare VC .

GlaxoSmithKline is combining its consumer health business with that of US rival Pfizer, paving the way for a separation of its core consumer and pharmaceuticals businesses within three years, says the FT. Its a big bet by GSK CEO Emma Walmsle.

One of the constant needs of life sciences companies is finding ways to design and launch clinical trials more quickly and economically. A Princeton firm, Certara, uses simulation to speed up trial design .