October 29, 2007

1. Misys Connect To Become Open Source

Facts and Background

Misys announced Wednesday that its Connect solution for physician offices and hospitals will be made available to the open source development community.

Opinion

An open source announcement was rumored in July for EMR-related products of Misys. That rumor came out just as the company announced the sale of its hospital systems division, so it received little attention outside of HIStalk. The Connect product was highly strategic to Misys until a few months ago, so this is somewhat of a surprise. Whether Connect has any real value outside of Misys has yet to be determined, however. Free isn't good enough if it doesn't work well.

Musings

• "Connect" was the cornerstone of Misys Healthcare's strategy (connecting its odd lot of physician and hospital systems together) until the company announced the sale of all products that Misys hoped customers would connect to. So, it wasn't really doing them much good anyway.
• Making it open source doesn't necessarily mean that Misys doesn't intend to make money from it. Strings may be attached for required services (see: Medsphere).
• Misys solicited quotes from Newt Gingrich and others on the wonderfulness of its gesture in giving something away that had few takers anyway. Connect may prove to be highly useful and cost-effective, but proprietary products released by for-profit companies to open source often aren't. The press release wasn't very specific on details.
• Maybe some of the other products that Misys can't sell will be open sourced. The hints from July seemed broader than just Connect.

2. $750 Million of EMR Contracts Under Fire in British Columbia

Facts and Background

Government critics are calling for an independent audit of the contracting practices of British Columbia's Health Ministry after it was discovered that the wife of a project steering committee member received a check for $10,000 from a physician whose company, WebMed Technology Inc., develops healthcare software. Both the steering committee member and his wife were placed on leave and have resigned. One company that won part of the estimated $750 million worth of contracts was listed as a business partner on the physician's website, although the company says no financial relationship existed. The project was created to convince physicians to implement EMR systems.

Opinion

While audit demands are mostly coming from the opposition party and competitors who failed to get the bid, this sounds fishy, although the people named claimed they had minimal input into the product selection.

Musings

• The complaining competitor says he'll compete with the named products with his own that's soon to be launched, even though the six products for which bids were awarded get a 70% subsidy through the project.

3. HIMSS to Take Microsoft User Group Global

Facts and Background

HIMSS announced on Tuesday that it will expand its 4,200-member Microsoft healthcare user group to Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

Opinion

This seems mostly symbolic. The only actual change HIMSS has announced is that it will add content to the existing MS-HUG website. Sure to follow are add-on meetings for the World of Health IT Conference and Exhibition.

Musings

• The exit strategy for every healthcare IT member organization is apparently to get HIMSS to take it over. While there's a certain amount of efficiency and synergy in having HIMSS run all these groups, the likely result is a homogenization of ideas. HIMSS will control most platforms in which dissenting opinions might otherwise find an audience. If you're a dues-paying, Microsoft-hating hospital member, will HIMSS give you an agenda slot?
• Should a non-profit like HIMSS be running vendor-specific user groups in the first place?
• HIMSS keeps getting chummier with its big-paying corporate members. It also keeps pushing the envelope on trying to influence the government to spend taxpayer money on technologies sold by those corporate members. The MS part of HIMSS (Management Systems) is already a footnote to its activities. Could provider-side IT people be the next to lose their identity among all the vendor-friendly HIMSS priorities?

4. Misys Announces the Successful Renaming of iMedica's Physician System

Facts and Background

Misys Healthcare Systems announced on Thursday that it will revolutionize the EMR industry for small medical practices with its MyWay hosted product.

Opinion

Misys announced on August 28 that it was throwing in the towel in marketing its old, poorly selling EMR products to small practices and instead would license iMedica's product and put its own name on it. At only eight weeks from handshake to proud press release, Misys now rivals McKesson in the speedy renaming of a more innovative company's IT product in the hopes of seeming nimble and innovative.

Musings

• More Misys announcements (and potentially more acquisitions) will follow, based on hints from the original announcements.
• Misys tried to salvage its Amicore investment with a similar announcement awhile back, calling it ClearPractice. They killed the product before it ever saw official daylight.
• The iMedica deal wasn't announced as exclusive. To a prospect, does Misys add value or subtract from it as opposed to just buying from iMedica in the first place?
• Misys was desperate for relevancy. iMedica was rumored to be in need of cash. Is that a match made in heaven?
• The Misys salespeople finally get something to sell, but their fingers must be crossed hoping that prospects will forget that what was once a scorned competitor is now the solution that Misys recommends instead of the ones it developed.

5. Medsphere's CEO Predicts Company Will Dwarf All Others

Facts and Background

ZDNet says Medsphere CEO Michael Doyle is on record that his company will be the largest healthcare IT vendor. He was also quoted as saying that Medsphere is the only open source provider in healthcare IT.

Opinion

CEO Job 1: get the company's name in the papers. That's particularly true if most of the recent news has involved stupid company lawsuits, departed executives, and open source claims that are widely criticized by vocal elements of the open source community. If Doyle really said that, he must just be yanking some reporter's chain.

Musings

• Given Medsphere's handful of customers and infrequent announcements of new sales, something had better change quickly to rocket Medsphere above Epic Systems, Cerner, Meditech, and other billion-dollar companies.
• Maybe Doyle didn't actually say what ZDNet said he did. He was not attributed directly and the quotes included did not seem to be in that context. He is quoted only as saying that Medsphere's business model is different than that of Cerner and Eclipsys.
• Open source systems are a harder sell than it seems since the customer still has to buy services and support. Hospitals are also generally indecisive, avoid risk, and often require extensive (and expensive) vendor hand-holding to finally buy something after a long, hand-wringing sales cycle. Open source or not, Medsphere had better be good at selling, which means getting first-rate salespeople, which means giving them something to push that carries high commissions.

Subscriber Name: %%Name%%
Subscriber E-Mail: %%emailaddress%%
Subscribe Date: %%subscribedate%%
Unsubscribe

© 2007 HIStalk. All rights reserved.