From new partnerships to asset sales to novel cybersecurity initiatives, here's the latest roundup of stories about health IT companies, including Epic, Allscripts and Amazon.
- A report from Mercom Capital Group revealed that global venture capital funding for digital health companies hit a record high in the first three months of 2020, increasing 43 percent year over year to $10.3 billion.
- Allscripts formed an agreement to sell its care coordination company CarePort Health to WellSky for $1.35 billion.
- Amazon partnered with Carrier Global Corp., a refrigeration and cold chain company, to improve how medicine, vaccines and other goods are moved and monitored globally.
- Lyft announced it is integrating with Epic to allow healthcare workers to coordinate patient transportation directly from the EHR.
- Microsoft took action to block Trickbot, a ransomware distributor with ties to Ryuk, by cutting off key infrastructure to operations that will prevent new infections or ransomware activation already existing in computer systems.
- Several states recently launched COVID-19 contact tracing efforts that use Google and Apple's jointly developed COVID-19 exposure notification system, including New York, Pennsylvania and Oregon.
- Epic announced it will use InterSystems' data platform — starting with the August 2020 release of its EHR — to increase clinicians' access to larger datasets and information for patient care.
- Cerner expanded its focus on data analytics by launching new software tools targeting data quality, interoperability and social determinants of health.
- Apple teamed up with five health systems in the U.K. and Canada to make its Health Records app available to patients.
- The Department of Veterans Affairs said it plans to roll out a new patient portal alongside its current solution MyHealtheVet once it deploys its new Cerner EHR at the end of October.
- University of California San Francisco teamed up with Microsoft Azure, Intel and Fortanix to establish a confidential computing platform that will accelerate the development and validation of clinical algorithms.
- The National Security Agency granted the University of Louisville (Ky.) $6 million to develop a healthcare cybersecurity online certificate program, which will incorporate tech industry badging from Microsoft, IBM and Google as well as hands-on applied learning components.