Jan 24 2014

A perspective in the New England Journal of Medicine critiques the application of Medicare value-based purchasing to physicians, pointing out that doctors have not accepted the system or the specific quality measures and participation is likely to be very limited until a better and less expensive system is implemented.

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1312287
Jan 24 2014

DocsInk, a startup providing mobile administrative services to medical practices, has raised about $1 million.

http://www.prweb.com/releases/docsink/chargecapture/prweb11485038.htm
Jan 24 2014

Startup First Opinion has raised $1.2 million for its app that allows patients to find and communicate with physicians.

http://techcrunch.com/2014/01/14/with-1-2m-from-greylock-yuri-milner-and-500-startups-first-opinion-lets-you-text-a-doctor-anytime/
Jan 24 2014

A JAMA Viewpoint discusses use of guidelines by physicians,  opining that guideline adherence is still spotty, costing the system billions and lowering quality, and recommending methods to improve both guidelines and use of them.

http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1787420
Jan 23 2014

Surgical Information Systems, which does what its name suggests, has acquired AmKai Solutions, which also offers software and data analytics to surgery providers.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/surgical-information-systems-acquires-healthcare-software-leader-amkaisolutions-2014-01-14
Jan 23 2014

Streamline Health, which provides knowledge management systems to health care industry participants, has agreed to acquire Unibase Systems, which offers patient access software.

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/streamline-health-signs-definitive-agreement-to-acquire-unibased-systems-architecture-inc-240614191.html
Jan 23 2014

Veria Living, which provides  a multiplatform approach to health and wellness information, has acquired dLife, which provides information and a social community for patients with diabetes.

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/veria-living-expands-role-in-health-wellness-space-with-dlife-acquisition-240487401.html
Jan 23 2014

MDLive has received an additional $23.6 million in funding for its tele health platform.

http://www.pehub.com/2014/01/mdlive-grabs-23-6-mln/
Jan 23 2014

Cloud-based EHR provider Kareo has raised about $30 million to bring its free core application to more physicians.  Kareo makes money by selling add-on capabilities.

http://venturebeat.com/2014/01/21/kareo-nabs-30m-to-bring-cloud-tools-to-medical-practices-starting-with-a-free-ehr/
Jan 23 2014

A perspective in the New England Journal of Medicine points out that although the Medicare physician value-based purchasing program starts this year, doctors generally are unprepared and unengaged and there are more issues with this program than the comparable one for hospitals, including a lack of predecessor programs, sample size and measure issues and reward/penalty design.

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1311957
Jan 23 2014

Research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association finds that severely obese patients who underwent bariatric surgery generally had significant weight loss in the three years following surgery, but other outcomes related to diabetes, blood pressure and lipids were more variable.

http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1765797
Jan 22 2014

According to a study in the New England Journal of Medicine, eating more nuts is correlated with a lower risk of total and cause-specific mortality, so go nuts on nuts!!

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1307352
Jan 22 2014

Proteus Digital Health, which makes ingestible devices to track patient medication adherence, has received a $31 million debt financing commitment.

http://www.pehub.com/2014/01/oxford-finance-and-svb-back-proteus-digital-health/
Jan 22 2014

A study in the journal Stress and Health finds that people with private or no insurance had lower levels of psychological stress than those with public coverage like Medicare or Medicaid and people with a change in insurance coverage status in the last year also had higher levels of stress, but the relationship is modest, and other factors likely play a larger role in an individual's stress level.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/smi.2559/abstract;jsessionid=8AE44052E68FAF08869C1777A92E4EFD.f02t02
Jan 22 2014

General Electric's health care division is acquiring API Healthcare, a vendor of human resources management software for hospitals and health systems.

http://www.healthdatamanagement.com/news/ge-healthcare-to-acquire-api-healthcare-47120-1.html?utm_campaign=daily-jan%2022%202014&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter