Samwise Healthcare IT Newsletter
Tuesday, May 5, 2026
AHA and West Health Launch $12M Accelerator to Scale Hospital Digital Transformation
The American Hospital Association and West Health Institute have launched a $12 million, three-year accelerator to help hospitals operationalize and scale proven health IT. The initiative focuses on three priority areas: electronic health record optimization, virtual care, and AI integration. Participating health systems gain access to a curated digital hub with implementation support and peer benchmarking tools. A national network of provider organizations will serve as model sites, sharing lessons from their own transformation journeys. “This is not about inventing the future — it’s about deploying it,” said West Health CEO Shelley Lyford. The program targets measurable improvements in care delivery, with a particular emphasis on outcomes for older patients.
Sources: Healthcare IT News
CMMI’s ACCESS Model Launches with 150 Digital Health Participants — and a Payment Debate
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation has selected 150 digital health companies for the first cohort of the ACCESS Model, a 10-year outcomes-aligned payment program launching July 5 targeting six chronic conditions: diabetes, hypertension, chronic kidney disease, obesity, depression, and anxiety. Payment rates of $90 to $420 per beneficiary annually are intentionally low to incentivize AI-enabled efficiency over fee-for-service headcount. Scaled players including Omada Health and Hinge Health declined to participate, citing margin concerns. Commercial payers covering 165 million members have pledged to align with the model. Experts say successful participants will need robust AI to make care management scalable across large populations of Medicare beneficiaries.
Sources: Fierce Healthcare
How My Dr Now Blends In-Clinic, Virtual, and In-Home Care Into One Seamless Platform
Phoenix-based My Dr Now has built a fully integrated hybrid care model spanning clinic visits, telehealth, and in-home services across more than 75 Arizona and Texas locations — all coordinated by a single care team using Epic’s integrated telehealth tools. Clinics operate 76 hours a week at retail-convenient locations, and patients move between modalities without losing continuity or repeating steps. The approach has produced 500,000 annual patient visits, 15 percent year-over-year growth, and a 92 percent adherence rate. “This is not about technology for its own sake — it’s about designing care delivery around real life,” said founder and CEO Dr. Payam Zamani.
Sources: Healthcare IT News
OhioHealth Pilots AI Alert System to Speed Diagnosis and Treatment of Heart Valve Disease
Columbus-based OhioHealth is piloting an AI-driven alert system designed to improve detection and treatment timelines for heart valve conditions including severe aortic stenosis and mitral regurgitation. Evaluated in the multicenter ALERT trial spanning five academic and community health systems, the tool sends real-time notifications to physicians based on echocardiogram results, flagging patients who may need specialist referral. Patients in the study were significantly more likely to be referred sooner and to undergo procedures within 90 days. The system supports physician decision-making rather than directing care — a distinction OhioHealth emphasizes as central to responsible AI deployment in clinical cardiology workflows.
Sources: Becker’s Hospital Review
VA Secretary Calls Oracle Health EHR Relaunch ‘Phenomenal’ as Michigan Sites Go Live
After a three-year pause triggered by technical failures and patient-safety concerns, the Department of Veterans Affairs has relaunched its Oracle Health electronic health record implementation at four Michigan medical centers, with VA Secretary Doug Collins describing the rollout as “phenomenal” by any industry standard during an April 30 Senate Appropriations Committee hearing. The Michigan go-lives represent a significant milestone in an implementation widely considered one of the most troubled in federal health IT history. The VA is already planning its next wave of deployments at medical centers in Chillicothe, Cincinnati, and Dayton, Ohio, and Fort Thomas, Kentucky, as confidence in the vendor partnership appears to be rebuilding.
Sources: Becker’s Hospital Review
Two Men Sentenced to Four Years Each for ALPHV BlackCat Ransomware Attacks on Healthcare Firms
Two men who launched ransomware attacks while working at cybersecurity firms have each been sentenced to four years in federal prison. Ryan Goldberg of Georgia and Kevin Martin of Texas worked with the ALPHV BlackCat ransomware group from 2023 to 2025, targeting a California physician’s office, a Maryland pharmaceutical company, and a Florida medical device firm. They extorted $1.27 million in cryptocurrency and leaked patient data from a physician’s practice. Each received a 20 percent share of ransom in exchange for access to the malware and extortion infrastructure. Prosecutors said the sentences reflect real harm inflicted on medical and engineering firms across the country.
Sources: Becker’s Hospital Review
EHR Transitions and Outsourcing Drive a Wave of Healthcare IT and Coding Layoffs in 2026
At least four health systems have cut IT and coding staff this year as Epic EHR implementations retire legacy systems and organizations outsource functions. Central Maine Healthcare is laying off 38 IT workers tied to Epic go-live redundancies. UnityPoint Health is eliminating 207 IT and revenue cycle roles shifting to third-party vendors. Northwell Health has reduced its IT workforce by under four percent. Rochester Regional Health is cutting coding positions, triggering a union petition with more than 1,000 signatures. The trend reflects a broad reassessment of which technology functions belong in-house as AI increasingly automates clinical coding and administrative work.
Sources: Becker’s Hospital Review
AI Can Detect Cancer Years Earlier — But Health Systems Aren’t Ready to Act on the Signal
A Mayo Clinic study published April 28 showed an AI model can detect pancreatic cancer up to three years before clinical diagnosis — a disease projected to be the second-leading cause of cancer death by 2030. Bristol Myers Squibb and Microsoft have separately partnered to deploy FDA-cleared lung cancer detection algorithms across more than 80 percent of U.S. hospitals. Yet Mayo Clinic radiologist Dr. Ajit Goenka warns that health systems remain operationally unequipped: existing workflows respond to declared cancer, not to pre-lesion AI signals. Unresolved questions include escalation pathways, patient communication, and payer coverage for workups triggered by an algorithm rather than symptoms.
Sources: Becker’s Hospital Review
Curated by JD · samwise.agency
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.