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Justice Department had alleged that the major oncology firm billed for medically unnecessary radiation treatments.

The International Olympic Committee is tapping GE Healthcare’s Centricity Practice Solution as the official electronic health record for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. GE executives announced the win on March 2 at HIMSS16 in Las Vegas. The IOC has used GE’s EMR platform for the last two Olympic Games in London and Sochi. [Also: See our big gallery of HIMSS16 photos] However, Rio 2016 marks the first time all athletes and spectators at the Olympic Games will have their health interactions managed by an EMR, IOC officials said. “The gold medal of medical services is something integrated and comprehensive – a total package,” Richard Budgett, MD, IOC medical and scientific director said in a press statement. “Adding access to an electronic medical record is key to our drive towards the prevention of injury.” Also, EMR data will be analyzed to spot patterns and provide insights for future Games planning. Twitter: @HealthITNews This story is part of our ongoing coverage of the HIMSS16 conference. Follow our live blog for real-time updates, and visit Destination HIMSS16 for a full rundown of our reporting from the show. For a selection of some of the best social media posts of the show, visit our Trending at #HIMSS16 hub.

e-MDs, an Austin, Texas-based developer of ambulatory electronic health records and practice management tools, will acquire several technology assets from McKesson Business Performance Services. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The technologies include McKesson Practice Choice, Medisoft, Medisoft Clinical, Lytec, Lytec MD and Practice Partner. e-MDs officials say the tools will be used by some 55,000 of its provider customers nationwide. The company hopes the acquisition will benefit small- to medium-sized practices and broaden e-MDs' presence in the ambulatory IT market. [Like Healthcare IT News on Facebook] "The McKesson team supporting these products is passionate about the same thing we are- helping doctors maintain focus on the patient,” said e-MDs CEO Derek Pickell in a statement. "All of us at e-MDs look forward to aligning this team with ours to bring e-MDs’ full suite of solutions to thousands of new providers across the country." "e-MDs is the perfect fit for these assets because it has award-winning technology ideally suited to this customer base,” said Scott Sanner, general manager of McKesson Business Performance Services, in a statement. Twitter: @JessiefDavis

Experts say healthcare providers need to turn up the pressure on tech vendors to create more intuitive products.

The HIMSS16 show floor was a busy place last week as thousands packed booths from technology and services vendors to get caught up on the newest systems for managing healthcare providers. But the big show also played host to big announcements from exhibitioners choosing to use the attention that comes with HIMSS16 to debut new products. The list below includes dozens of product announcements that we covered at the show: IBM Watson adds Tiatros patient-centered social network to system The University of California San Francisco was the first to leverage the physician-driven network is using Tiatros to address the behavioral health needs of young veterans. Epic and Tableau deal links analytics to electronic health records The EHR vendor and analytics company sign an agreement to facilitate greater clinical insights for caregivers within the records system. HealthPort, IOD, Care Communications, ECS merge into new company CIOX Health The four vendors, who announced the news at HIMSS16, seek to create a single access point for patient information. Oracle debuts the next generation healthcare analytics suite at HIMSS16 Oracle Healthcare Foundation provides organizations with a consistent and complete view of their clinical, financial and genomics data across an enterprise. Inova Health creates new health plan, population health strategy Partnership with Aetna and purchase of Medicaid group gets new plan closer to million-member goal. Accenture study: Patients more engaged, willing to share data with doctors Report also shows 85 percent of doctors said that using wearables can help patients become more involved. Xerox launches population health platform The new software combines analytics, patient outreach, telehealth and administrative tools to help providers adjust to new reimbursement reality with a 'lifecycle' approach to value-based care. Transcend Insights unveils population health, patient engagement, mHealth apps Humana subsidiary says the three apps use the HealthLogix technology platform to tackle population health, patient engagement and mobile health. IBM Watson launches SleepHealth app to explore connection between health and sleep It will be the first ResearchKit study to run on Watson Health Cloud Surescripts activates National Record Locator Service, includes data on 140 million patients Platform is designed to give providers a way to see a more complete view of a patient’s health history. West Healthcare launches communication system to aid patient engagement, pop health West TEC Pathways delivers the so-called "last mile" of patient communication, aligning that communication with clinical guidelines and care plans. Medisafe launches provider link to mobile health app for consumers Medisafe Providers enables physicians, care teams and pharmacists to track their patients’ medication adherence between visits. MDLIVE to integrate with Office 365 and Skype for Business The telemedicine tech vendor is betting the ubiquitous Microsoft systems will enable a more robust, secure and scalable collaboration platform. MITRE shares an open source FHIR testing tool At the Federal Health IT Solutions Pavilion, a solution to FHIR "ambiguities." WellDoc collaborates with Johnson & Johnson's LifeScan on mobile tech for diabetes In addition to the collaboration, Johnson & Johnson Innovation has participated in WellDoc’s Series B financing round that has raised $29.5 million. Modernizing Medicine highlights new surgery center suite, imminent practice management tools  The company is also showing enhancements it made to its ASC suite since acquiring gMed in late 2015, CEO Dan Cane said. Intermountain to deploy clinical variation management software from Ayasdi The prominent Utah health system believes the software can quickly boost the insights it can gain from its mountain of health data, helping with value-based care. TigerText partners with Salesforce, Box, adds program for startups The secure healthcare communications tech vendor says the partnerships will enable streamlined communication across the continuum of care. Signet Accel debuts Avec database-agnostic data integration platform The healthcare software company is targeting interoperability, unveiling the commercial federated data integration platform at HIMSS16. Translational Software launches genetic-oriented medication alerting system The vendor of clinical decision support and precision medicine technology is working with First Databank on the new gene-based drug-drug interaction capability. Citra Health acquires care management services vendor SironaHealth The purchase is the next step in Citra’s ongoing plan to extend its population health systems in the value-based healthcare market, the company said. ExtraHop announces new healthcare analytics product The technology delivers stream analytics designed to unlock insights into the relationship between IT performance and clinical workflows, the vendor said. ClearDATA releases cloud-based HIPAA compliance dashboard The ClearDATA Active Compliance and Security Monitoring Dashboard is designed to safeguard electronic health data and provider reputations. Talix partners with NextGen, Allscripts and Capstone on coding The three vendors will offer Talix’s Coding InSight as part of their suites to help providers better manage patient risk and optimize risk-based reimbursements. Doc Halo debuts Pronto, mobile enterprise-wide scheduling and messaging system Caregivers using Pronto can access up-to-the-minute schedules, find and message on-call providers, activate critical-care teams, and enable care coordination. American HealthTech and Medtelligent partner for senior care technology The Assisted Living Solution is designed to help providers navigate the tech challenges of caring for seniors who move across the spectrum of care. par8o expands relationship with WellHealth Quality Care accountable care network The referral management tech vendor will use its platform to enable a patient-centered medical home model for 17,000 members of the Nevada Teachers Health Trust. Experian merges healthcare brands under Experian Health name Experian Health is the new brand for what were 11 businesses that serve the healthcare field. DataMotion and etherFAX partner for new fax-to-direct system The combined technology enables healthcare professionals to send and receive fax documents and other protected health information securely using the Direct Messaging standard. TCI, ONYX Healthcare and CliniLinc launch 8-inch medical tablet TCI’s Rounds software is pre-loaded onto the new, lightweight medical tablet from ONYX Healthcare, enabling hospitals to upload patient discharge data in real time. DataMotion debuts enhanced patient collaboration platform New to the platform are major enhancements in patient consent, identity validation and authentication, workflow integration, and mobile case management. Seal Shield debuts UVC LED-based mobile device sanitizer at HIMSS16 ElectroClave is an enterprise mobile device management system that uses low-power UVC LED to disinfect tablets and smartphones while charging, syncing and managing them. ELLKAY bulks up its interoperability offerings, rolls out new tech Direct Project enhancement and new analytics technology highlight four product announcements. Aventura partners with HealthCast for single sign-on technology The partnership will help providers using Aventura’s Sympatica clinical desktop platform to more quickly access electronic health records systems. Commvault unveils new clinical data sharing technology Through integration with vendor Laitek, the Commvault Clinical Archive can address data management on both the clinical and business sides of healthcare in a single platform. CPSI debuts new EHR financing program for hospitals, skilled nursing facilities Through financial management services, the nTrust program eliminates upfront EHR costs. UnitedHealthcare, Qualcomm collaborate on wellness mobile app powered by wearables The goal is to help UnitedHealthcare plan participants enrolled in high-deductible health plans improve their health and save money by encouraging daily walking. ZeOmega launches value-based care performance management system The new offering can help healthcare organizations measure clinical and financial performance across multiple value-based care contracts. Microsoft eyes patient engagement, emerging care scenarios for HIMSS16 Software giant is working to tie together Skype, Windows, Office, Surface Hub and Band to better connect doctors with patients.  American Well unveils software development kit, Uber-like switchboard  Telehealth specialist showed off its SDK for portals and apps as well as multi-way videoconferencing.  SAP gets in the patient engagement game The vendor unwrapped Patient Engage to enable technology vendors and independent software vendors to build apps for specific use cases.  Twitter: @HenryPowderly This story is part of our ongoing coverage of the HIMSS16 conference. Follow our live blog for real-time updates, and visit Destination HIMSS16 for a full rundown of our reporting from the show. For a selection of some of the best social media posts of the show, visit our Trending at #HIMSS16 hub.

Week-long event launched Tuesday, designed to improve defense strategies for all industries.

Three years after first announcing it had chosen Epic for its new electronic health record system, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center went live on schedule on March 4, according to the Houston Business Journal. MD Anderson went to market for a new EHR in late 2012 and announced Epic as its vendor partner in the spring of 2013. Financial terms of the project have not been disclosed. [Also: Judy Faulkner: 'Good software is art'] In a 2014 Fiscal Year in Review, Richard Champlin, MD, chair of the health system's Department of Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapy, said the project would wrap up around this time. "We are involved in the planning for the March 2016 go-live with our new electronic health record system, Epic," he wrote. One reason the rollout may have gone smoothly so far could be the experience of MD Anderson's Chief Information Officer Chris Belmont; before joining the cancer center in 2013, he served as CIO of New Orleans-based Ochsner Health System, where he implemented Epic across its 10 hospitals and more than three-dozen clinics. Twitter: @MikeMiliardHITN

Premier Healthcare, a physician-led multispecialty provider group based in Bloomington, Indiana, has reported a possible breach that could affect 205,748 patients after a laptop with patient data was stolen, the company announced on Tuesday. For 1,769 of these people, social security numbers and or financial information could also be accessed from the stolen laptop. Premier employees discovered that the laptop was missing from the locked and alarmed administrative office of the billing department on January 4. [Also: 7 largest data breaches of 2015] Although password-protected, the laptop wasn't encrypted. It contained PDF documents, spreadsheets and screenshots of patient billing issues and contained demographic information like clinical data, date of birth and names. According to Premier, there's no evidence the information on the laptop was the actual target of the theft or that the data has been used or accessed for fraudulent purposes. Premier said it took immediate steps to investigate and recover the laptop, including notifying patients and filing a police report. Law enforcement has so far been unable to locate the laptop or identify the perpetrator. [Like Healthcare IT News on Facebook] "Premier has taken a number of steps to help keep this from happening in the future," Premier officials said in a statement, noting that the provider group has begun to encrypt all of Premier's computers and are reviewing the institution's protocols to protect against a repeat theft. "Premier deeply regrets this occurred and is committed to excellent care and protecting the privacy of personal information," officials said, adding that anyone with questions about the breach can call 877-509-8356 or email HIPAA@premierhealthcare.org. Twitter: @JessiefDavis

Christopher Harle will work with University of Florida researchers to develop software to help patients better understand what they are granting access to when they approve use of their electronic health records for research purposes.

LAS VEGAS - While healthcare industry veterans were speaking on lessons learned at HIMSS16, health IT's up-and-comers were participating in a meeting of the minds at the first HIMSS-hosted event dedicated to Millennials. Overheard at the Future Leaders of Health IT Reception, held March 2 at the Venetian's Label Lounge, was a range of conversations touching on everything from favorite new technologies to strategies for business initiatives. [Also: See photos from Day 3 of HIMSS16] But the overall theme was a changing landscape for healthcare and and technology alike. Millennials see great potential in the latest tech, but say the key to incorporating new IT is culture change. "My hope is that healthcare should become like the hospitality industry, like a spa or airline," said Neel Mehta, co-founder of EpiFinder, a tool that helps providers effectively diagnose epilepsy syndromes at point-of-care. For instance, he said, airlines have a black box that records all activity on flight; healthcare lacks a similar device. There's value in transactional data, following the patient from the time they check in until they leave, Mehta said. Right now, "healthcare is reactive, rather than proactive." The HX360 Executive Leadership Forum was another point of interest for attendees, who appreciated the smaller scale and more "digestible" format. For these emerging healthcare leaders, the new innovations and crucial care delivery models were "inspiring." One attendee noted the health IT landscape was much different than it was 30 years ago: It's much more diverse. But despite these changes, some Millennials are still waiting for the industry to catch up. Kunjan Divatia, director of revenue cycle and access at Yale New Haven Health System, said his organization is making great strides in terms of innovation, but still sees room for progress on a nationwide scale. He said some states – California, for instance –  are doing better than others in setting the stage for getting newer ideas into the mix. But he said he looks forward to the day when government and private-sector health organizations are able to include more healthcare leaders from his generation into regulation and leadership committees. Twitter: @JessiefDavis This story is part of our ongoing coverage of the HIMSS16 conference. Follow our live blog for real-time updates, and visit Destination HIMSS16 for a full rundown of our reporting from the show. For a selection of some of the best social media posts of the show, visit our Trending at #HIMSS16 hub.