Here are 12 recent news updates on health IT companies.
1. Apple launched a study with American Well and Stanford (Calif.) University that uses the Apple Watch's heart rate sensor to collect data on irregular heart rhythms, the company announced Nov. 30.
2. November came to a close without a publicized EHR contract between Cerner and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, meaning the agency missed its self-imposed deadline to strike a deal.
3. Former General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt said during a Nov. 30 Q&A discussion the shortest meeting of his career was with Judy Faulkner, founder and CEO of Epic, during the mid-1990s.
4. Google released an artificial intelligence tool Dec. 4 that analyzes high-throughput sequencing data.
5. Health Wizz plans to launch a blockchain-based mobile platform for medical data in March 2018, the company announced Nov. 30.
6. MDLive, a Sunrise, Fla.-based telemedicine provider, launched Sophie, an artificial intelligence-powered health assistant chatbot, the company announced Nov. 29.
7. Modernizing Medicine, a Boca Raton, Fla.-based health IT company, joined a collaborative effort focused on the quality of mobile health apps, the company announced Nov. 29.
8. Nokia and OP Financial Group, both based in Finland, launched a blockchain-based pilot project related to health data in October.
9. Nuance attributed $53 million in losses during the fourth quarter of 2017 to the NotPetya malware attacks that occured in June, according to its earning results released Nov. 28.
10. Teladoc dismissed a longstanding lawsuit involving telemedicine rights and services in Texas Dec. 1.
11. Amsterdam-based Royal Philips acquired Forcare, an interoperability software provider located in Zeist, the Netherlands, the company announced Dec. 5.
12. Verily Life Sciences, a Google spinoff focused on healthcare data, recently hired its first lobbyists.