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January 28, 2008

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1. Wal-Mart Starts PHR Rollout Quickly After Omnimedix Rollback Special

Facts and Background

Information Week reported Tuesday that a group of 20 Wal-Mart employees has begun beta testing the Dossia personal health record system. Wal-Mart is a member of the employer coalition that also has Intel, Cardinal Health, and AT&T as members. Dossia dismissed original technology developer Omnimedix Institute in July, replacing it in mid-September with an open source system developed by Children's Hospital Boston for its own use.

Opinion

Forget all the other PHR hot air. If anybody can make them do something useful, it's Wal-Mart and the one million people it covers with medical insurance.

Musings

In-store clinics, $4 generic prescriptions, and now PHRs. Maybe Wal-Mart should run hospitals.
Omnimedix was getting $15 million for its work.
Judging from the lack of news on Omnimedix's site, not much is happening there now that Dossia is out of the picture. In fact, it still prominently boasts of the company's Dossia involvement.
Dossia will be an interesting platform from which Wal-Mart can help employees manage their health and health costs, especially since the company has more skin in the game than the insurance companies that usually tout PHRs.

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2. Dumped in Dubuque: McKesson Horizons 79

Facts and Background

McKesson Corporation announced Thursday that it will cut 79 jobs in Dubuque, IA over the next nine to 18 months, about 20% of its workforce there. The company will also sell its building and lease office space instead. The positions will be moved to Atlanta and Rancho Cordova, CA.

Opinion

Everybody else is doing it, so why can't we?

Musings

McKesson reportedly turned down a $12 million incentive package to leave Dubuque unscathed.
Other than cheap housing, there's not much to attract tech workers to Dubuque.
This is less a reflection on the company's prospects than a desire to consolidate operations.

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3. Misys Bleeding Stopped, At Least Temporarily

Facts and Background

Misys PLC, the British parent company of Misys Healthcare, reported a 3% revenue increase and a sharp rise in profit for the half-year Thursday.

Opinion

This is barely healthcare news any more since Misys is out of the hospital systems business. It's known for two things in healthcare: having a lot of old physician systems out there and being reduced to reselling iMedica's product under its name when it botched its own attempts at small-practice relevance.

Musings

Companies can't cost-cut their way to market share. The numbers look OK, but that's after selling off assets and cutting back expenses. The top line grew only 3%, which is not very sexy for a software company.
The company denies speculation that the credit crisis will slash the IT budgets of its banking customers, but that's a little hard to swallow.
It's early in the announce three- to five-year turnaround, but this is a good start.
What is it about US practice systems that attracts UK financial software companies like Misys and Sage?
Misys hinted at some small acquisitions in the future. That's about the only action that would put the company back on the healthcare radar.
Misys Healthcare isn't selling much, at least based on the company's overall licensing numbers. Maybe it will move some of the iMedica product it's calling MyWay, but surely profit margins are skimpy on a small practice system developed and still sold by another vendor.

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