Here are nine recent news updates on major health IT and technology companies:
1. Allscripts clients using the company's Professional EHR experienced unscheduled downtime Dec. 17, but the EHR vendor said the issue has since been resolved.
2. Amazon was in talks to purchase diagnostics startup Confer Health, which develops hardware for at-home medical tests.
3. Seven more hospitals and clinics joined Apple's health records project, including Cogdell Memorial Hospital in Snyder, Texas, and PeaceHealth in Vancouver, Wash.
4. Apple has quietly hired dozens of physicians in recent years, an indicator that it's serious about its move into the health technology space.
5. Change Healthcare acquired PokitDok, a platform-as-a-service company for healthcare that uses advanced blockchain and application programming interface technologies.
6. General Electric confidentially filed to take its healthcare unit public, advancing plans to spin the company out into a separate entity.
7. Livongo Health, a wearables company aimed at chronic disease management, tapped former Cerner President Zane Burke as its CEO.
8. It's been nearly 50 years since Meditech opened for business in 1969.
9. Mark Hirschhorn, executive vice president, COO and CFO of Teladoc Health, is resigning. The decision to resign comes on the heels of a class-action lawsuit shareholders recently filed against the company.