Newsbytes

ONC extends relationship with Sequoia Project

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology has announced that the nonprofit Sequoia Project, a public-private collaborative that advocates for health care information technology interoperability and health information exchange, will continue as the recognized coordinating entity for the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement, or TEFCA.

The Sequoia Project has been awarded a five-year contract to continue public-private engagement in support of a nationwide framework for secure electronic health data sharing. It was selected as the recognized coordinating entity for TEFCA in 2019.

The organization hosts a recognized coordinating entity public information call on the third Tuesday of each month and posts recordings of calls and materials from stakeholder events on its website, rce.sequoiaproject.org.

The Sequoia Project will hold its 2023 annual meeting from Nov. 15 to 17, in San Diego.

LigoLab introduces tiered pricing model for LIS

LigoLab Information Systems is now offering its laboratory information system, LigoLab Informatics Platform, via a tiered pricing structure to cater to various laboratory disciplines, sizes, and complexities.

Independent pathology groups and molecular and reference laboratories will be able to select the LIS platform tier that best aligns with their operations. The four pricing-based tiers address varying levels of need, said LigoLab CEO Suren Avunjian, in a company press release. “This means our lab partners not only have the features and capabilities to match their current needs but are also provided with a clear roadmap for future growth and development.”

The tiers include:

• essential, which provides an easy-to-use and straightforward LIS designed to meet the basic needs of small pathology, molecular, and reference laboratories.
• professional, which offers all the modules and features included in the essential tier plus more advanced reporting and analytics, enhanced workflow management, capabilities for integrating with other health care systems, and more complex order management.
• advanced, which is designed to meet the needs of large, high-volume laboratories and labs with multiple locations. It incorporates all of the features of the essential and professional tiers and offers such tools as customer service modules, complex automation workflows, detailed analytics, business intelligence, advanced interoperability, inventory and supply management, and priority support.
• enterprise, which offers regional and national laboratories total integration across multiple departments and sites and broad scalability and highly customizable workflows. It includes all the features of the other tiers, as well as comprehensive enterprisewide capabilities, such as premium customer support services and advanced data governance.

LigoLab, 800-544-6522

Data Innovations offers upgrade to cloud-hosted SaaS product

Data Innovations has released Lab GPS, version 2.0, which addresses unplanned laboratory downtime due to connectivity, power, and hardware issues, for the company’s Instrument Manager connectivity and automation platform clients in the United States.

This latest version, a major upgrade to Data Innovations’ first software-as-a-service product, allows laboratories to monitor lab information system and instrument connections across multiple locations from a single dashboard. It also provides automated email notifications of downed Instrument Manager, LIS, and instrument connections; remote connection restart capability; and troubleshooting tools for information technology administrators.

“Lab GPS v2.0 offers a robust alert and notification system that allows users to choose when they would like specific connections to be monitored and who should receive email notifications,” according to a company press release.

Medical facility staff with the appropriate security clearance can stop and start connections using any device that has Web access.

Data Innovations, 866-271-9094

Tribun Health secures Series B funding

The Paris-based digital pathology company Tribun Health has completed its Series B financing round, securing the equivalent of approximately $16 million (U.S. dollars) from several investors.

The Series B funding further strengthens the company’s financial position and opens new opportunities for growth in Europe and North America.

Tribun Health will use the infusion of capital, in part, to accelerate the development and commercialization of its artificial intelligence-powered digital pathology platform for analyzing and interpreting histological and cytological samples and expanding its sales and marketing activities in Europe and North America.

Talkdesk joins Epic Pals program

Talkdesk, a global provider of artificial intelligence-powered cloud-based contact centers for enterprises of all sizes, has joined Epic’s Pals program, under which it will integrate its Talkdesk Healthcare Experience Cloud platform with Epic’s EHR software.

Talkdesk is the first contact-center-as-a-service vendor to become a member of the new Pals program, which is intended to help Epic’s clients select vendors that have “validated integrations” with Epic’s software, according to a press release from Talkdesk.

The companies plan to co-innovate to offer their mutual customers new solutions, including advanced voice and digital contact center capabilities from Talkdesk integrated with current and future features of Epic’s Cheers customer-relationship–management product suite.

In August, the company Abridge, a developer of generative AI tools for clinical documentation, became the first vendor to join Epic’s Pals program.

Dr. Aller practices clinical informatics in Southern California. He can be reached at raller@usc.edu. Dennis Winsten is founder of Dennis Winsten & Associates, Healthcare Systems Consultants. He can be reached at dennis.winsten@gmail.com.