Here's the latest roundup of stories about health IT companies, including Apple, Epic and Google.
1. Lab testing company Clinical Pathology Laboratories began notifying 2.2 million patients July 5 that their personal health information may have been exposed in a vendor data breach.
2. IBM's revenue declined for the fourth consecutive quarter, even as earnings increased, in the second quarter of 2019, the company announced July 17.
3. Philips purchased Medumo, a Boston-based startup providing hospitals and health systems with digital tools to stay connected with patients beyond the clinical setting.
4. As a leader in blockchain, IBM has tripled the number of blockchain patents in the U.S. since last year, holding more than 100 active patents.
5. AT&T and IBM have signed a multiyear partnership, in which IBM will serve as the main developer and cloud provider for AT&T Business' operations and AT&T will contribute its 5G capabilities to IBM's edge computing platforms.
6. Amazon Alexa users in the U.K. can now ask the digital assistant medical questions and receive answers from the National Health Service, leaving many to question how privacy will be affected.
7. Livongo Health on July 15 announced more details regarding its upcoming initial public offering.
8. Meditech is developing a new feature for its home care software in response to CMS' new Patient-Driven Groupings Model, which supports value-based reimbursement for home health agencies.
9. Tewksbury, Mass.-based Covenant Health reported $60.9 million in operating losses after implementing its new $83 million Epic EHR last year.
10. The University of Missouri System and MU Health Care, both based in Columbia, have partnered with Siemens Healthineers to establish the Alliance for Precision Health.
11. Amazon and other major blockchain developers have teamed up to build on an existing distributed web incubator that will allow blockchain entrepreneurs more tools to adopt the technology.
12. Apple has disabled the Walkie-Talkie app on Apple Watches after finding a security glitch that allowed a person to eavesdrop on other iPhone conversations without consent.
13. While under investigation for its billing practices, lab-testing startup uBiome laid off half of its global workforce July 10.