October 15, 2007

1. Sunquest Name Lives Again for Lab, Rad, and Pharmacy Systems

Facts and Background

Vista Equity Partners, the private equity firm that purchased the Diagnostic Systems product line from Misys Healthcare Systems in late July, announced Thursday that the privately held corporation will be named Sunquest Information Systems. Richard Atkin, who ran the former Misys Hospital Systems Business Unit, was announced as the new company's president and CEO.

Opinion

With all the consolidation and conglomeratization of healthcare IT companies, it's nice to see an old and once-strong name come back from the dead. Hopefully the product line, also near death under unfocused Misys non-leadership, will be restored to prominence. That's a function of leadership, not nomenclature.

Musings

• Who doesn't relish hearing Sunquest again? Bravo.
• Surely Sunquest founder Sid Goldblatt didn't just give the name to VEP. Those terms were not announced.
• The name puts some wind in the sails, but now the products have to get better. Lab is a strong #2 of 7 in its KLAS category, but pharmacy and radiology need work. That was the wall the Sunquest hit before selling out to Misys for $400 million in 2001.
• Can Atkin succeed without the excuse of a Misys albatross around his neck?
   

2. Sage Fires Top US Executives

Facts and Background

British accounting software vendor Sage, which purchased Emdeon's practice services division for $565 million a year ago, announced Thursday that its top US executives had been fired after poor performance in its largest market. CEO Ron Verni and CFO Jim Eckstaedt were dismissed. Healthcare division CEO Andrew Corbin resigned in July.

Opinion

How many companies can the former Medical Manager physician systems product bring down? And how many more British financial software vendors (not counting Sage and Misys) will get burned by trying to run a healthcare software vendor from across the pond? The elegant British redcoats keep getting mowed down by sharpshooting backwoodsmen.

Musings

• Rumor has Sage up for sale, with healthcare being a possible spin-off.
• Other than a large, old installed base of practices, Sage is not nearly as relevant in the practice management market as it once was.
• The company's product line looks as confused as investors were by the decision to fire the executives running it: ACT! contact management, the old Medical Manager products, Peachtree accounting, payroll services, and a bunch more financial systems. The synergy is difficult to discern from over here in the Colonies.
   

3. Clooney's Medical Records Irresistible to Now-Suspended Hospital Employees

Facts and Background

Palisades Medical Center of North Bergen, NJ handed out month-long, no-pay suspensions to 27 employees, including seven nurses, for inappropriately accessing the medical records of actor George Clooney while he and a companion were being treated for injuries received in a motorcycle accident. The hospital announced the suspensions last Monday, citing HIPAA violations.

Opinion

Anyone who has ever worked in a hospital knows this happens routinely with VIP patients. The only positive news is that electronic medical records systems both help prevent unauthorized access and document it when it happens. The hospital didn't mention EMRs in its announcement, but given that it had good enough evidence to suspend unionized hospital workers, it's likely that electronic audit trails provided the proof.

Musings

• The healthcare union decried the suspensions as "an overreaction", claiming the nurses it represents didn't divulge the contents of the records and blaming the hospital for inadequate privacy protections.
• Clooney himself issued a statement in which he expressed hope that suspensions would not result.
• Probing a celebrity's medical records must be the next best thing to getting their autograph.
• At least no one was accused of selling the information to tabloids.
• Privacy zealots now have another example of why they shouldn't trust their medical information to PHRs, EMRs, or just about anyone else, for that matter.
   

4. Microsoft Executive Says Health Search Has $5 Billion Potential

Facts and Background

Microsoft VP Peter Neupert was quoted in a BusinessWeek article last week as stating that health search engines will generate $5 billion a year in advertising within 5-7 years. He also was on record as saying that Microsoft's HealthVault personal health platform and its Azyxxi business intelligence software will generate more than $1 billion in annual revenue for the company.

Opinion

This is about as un-innovative as the healthcare software companies that Microsoft ridicules. The company buys the Medstory search engine in February before it's even out of beta testing, wraps a content-less personal healthcare record connector platform around it, announces a few industy partners that supposedly will supposedly make it do something useful at some point, and prematurely trumpets its accomplishments as only Microsoft can do. This is old school adware. Microsoft's current search and advertising services are dwarfed by Google. Nothing suggests that HealthVault will change the equation.

Musings

• Search engines get paid for ad views. At what point do advertisers walk away due to lack of follow-up sales? Without the prospect of ad revenue, Microsoft and Google are as uninterested in PHRs as the consumers they expect to use it.
• The ads with the best hope of working appear to be those with the least medical credibility, i.e. quack remedies, questionable sites trying to do target marketing, and hard-selling drug companies trying to get patients to strong-arm their doctors to prescribe less than optimal meds that insurance has to pay for. Lofty pronouncements aside, none of that is good for either the healthcare industry or society.
   

5. GE Healthcare Acquires Dynamic Imaging

Facts and Background

GE Healthcare announced Thursday that it had acquired Dynamic Imaging, LLC of Allendale, NJ for an undisclosed sum. The company offers Web-based radiology and PACS systems.

Opinion

GE, whose Centricity PACS offering is #8 of 11 in KLAS, now owns #2.

Musings

• If the product tanks under GE's tutelage (as is often the case), they can always blame a changing market or unrealized synergies.
• GE's acquisition history in healthcare is unimpressive, with highly regarded, independently sold products generally (no pun intended) sink to mediocre level or below under its corporate weight.
• If you're a Dynamic Imaging customer, this is not news you'll relive happily years from now.
  
  

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