News 10/05/04

Let's get some self-aggrandizement out of the way. September had lots of HIStalk readers. In fact, it was the second-busiest month in the nearly 1 1/2 years I've been writing it (and that bigger one is suspicious, so I'm thinking that was a stats mistake.) I'm seeing lots of hits this week because a kind soul posted a link on the very same Cerner stock message board that I so often quote. And, thank you eOptimize and Medicity for bravely sponsoring this rather cynical body of work, not a task for timid vendors. I appreciate their support and so should those reading.

For the newbies: put your e-mail in the Mailing List box to your right and you'll get a link in your e-mail when I write something new. And, search this veritable treasure trove of HIS flotsam and jetsam (notice those words are as inseparable as conjoined twins) by using (duh!) the Search box, also to your right.

Hopefully you believed me (when I told you that PeopleSoft was about to surrender its wily charms to Oracle) and not the rags (predicting a new Dave Duffield-led resistance.) PSFT says it's ready to do a quick deal.

Jeanne Patterson is miffed that her Congressional opponent is questioning her pledge to create US jobs while her husband is simultaneously moving Cerner positions to India. She says: "The attack ads are bent on destroying the reputation of a good company and specifically a company that I've spent a large part of my life to grow." He says: "[she] wrapped herself into the Cerner blanket when she started running for office." Unrelated: someone told me she got her secretary's job at Cerner as the result of a coin flip between her and another candidate, that coin leading of course to many more on her journey to the arms of Cerner CEO Neal Patterson.

Speaking of Cerner, former VP/COO Glenn Tobin lands at The Corporate Executive Board Company as executive director of their IT practice. I guessed wrong when I opined months ago that his move to Cerner UK wasn't his Siberia -- it obviously was, particularly since I've heard since that Neal P. couldn't stand him and that European exile is the common result of that dislike. Of course, Cerner could more easily dismiss Tobin, Joy Keeler, and others once the company  failed to earn any of the UK business that everyone expected them to dominate.

Ex-McKesson SVP and Abaton.com co-founder Nancy Brown takes an SVP position at athenahealth (no capitalization, no spaces, just an insufferably cute breaking of the polite laws of grammar.) Speaking of McKesson, the company is said to be quietly preparing to move its call center operations offshore.

Sam Bierstock, wacky ophthalmologist, leader of the Managed Care Blues Band, and former Eclipsys VP of Medical Affairs, jumps ship to Healthlink as VP and Chief Medical Officer.

eCleveland Clinic gets $400,000 from RWJ to study disease management across the Internet.

The local newspaper lists the salaries of Florida's Lakeland Medical Center every year, so if you want to see what they pay the CIO, feel free to have a look.

Misys unveils new versions of EMR and Tiger at MGMA.

Transcription company MedQuist is named in a class action suit for overbilling hospitals. The company already fired their CEO, CFO, and chief legal officer as part of their investigation.

It looks like all the dot-bomb washouts (and also ex-IBMer Scott Roeth) ended up at personal medical record ASP REDmedic, which I admit has a cool web site. The CEO "drove liquidity events" for three companies I've never heard of. It's puzzling that being able to borrow money is cause for bragging. "Hey, everyone, I just maxed out my sixth credit card!"

PCTS acquires patient tracking company Healthcare I.T.

This would make a good commercial extolling the virtues of electronic medical records. A Navy hospital found truth to a rumor known as "the hole in the wall incident," locating over 1,000 patient records apparently dumped by employees over a ceiling tile inside an interior wall.

Guess who's filling up Munich, Germany, on all-expense-paid luxury trips and collecting cash payments besides? Cardiologists, courtesy of your humble, community spirited drug companies. "There are rules on gifts to doctors - nothing much more than a pen or a coffee mug is allowed. So in the Munich exhibition halls, vast as aircraft hangars, the big companies run quizzes at their space-age stands. Doctors sit on stools at a table, fingers on buzzers, or crowd round the posters filling in questionnaires about the company drugs. It is every one a winner and they walk off with a digital camera, a calculator or silver computer mouse. Many doctors wander the stands with bags crammed with booty."

Comments, gossip, etc.: e-mail me.