WebMD news from FierceHealthcare

> The CDC has awarded $38 million in contracts to help health information exchanges and regional health information organizations to create data sharing plans used to deliver information to public Read more...

> The Los Angeles Times reports that yet another transplant program--this time at USC University Hospital--is in trouble. Analysis of hospital statistics reveals that the USC liver transplant program's mortality rates are twice the national average. As FierceHealthcare readers already know, USC is just one of a growing number of hospitals facing transplant program problems. …

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Steve Case appears to be gambling that "green" healthcare is the wave of the future. More news from the Revolution Health Group this week, as we learn a bit more about Case's ambitious plans to create an online consumer healthcare powerhouse. It's becoming clear that the idea is less to create a WebMD clone or a next generation Healtheon, but to aim for a more lucrative and easily attainable target: the wellness market. The Post reports that Case's goal is to create a "meta-brand," a sort …

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Intuit has been making waves since it announced an agreement with Ingenix, Hewitt Associates and several others about getting into the personal health record space. FierceHealthcare editor Matthew Holt recently met with Mike Battaglia, the new SVP of Health Care at Intuit. Battaglia has come from Humana, where he led the insurer's consumer research and marketing efforts. That he's moved to Intuit, a company known for fixing information and transactional problems for consumers and …

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More details are filtering to the surface after yesterday's "sort-of" launch of Google Health. The health.google domain may not be active yet but the consensus is that the prototype of the new service is alive and kicking on Google's new Co-Op service. The initial response appears to be positive but there are a few dissenters. LeeAnn Prescott of Hitwise wonders if Google is overextending itself, noting that many of the search giant's recent offering have yet to catch on with surfers. Its …

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The markets took note as AllScripts released first quarter numbers that show improvement in the company's software business. Revenue from software and related services nearly doubled to $28.3 million. Allscript's shares were up ten percent today, rising to $19.85 before showing signs of cooling. Despite some versions that suggest that earnings were below expectation, investors appear to be cheered by increased future earnings forecasts. AllScripts acquired A4Health Systems in January. The …

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> The New York Times Magazine looks at the thorny legal questions involving donated tissue and organ samples that are beginning to emerge. Article

> WebMD Health said it will pay $30 million to acquire Summex, a provider of health and wellness programs. Article

> HCA said it expects first quarter …

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This week Dell will become the largest U.S. employer to mandate electronic medical records (EMRs) for employees, BusinessWeek reports. CEO Kevin Rollins is expected to announce an initiative at a healthcare forum in Tennessee today that will make 26,000 of the company's employees EMRs. The records will allow employees to track insurance and prescription data as well as medical information. Unlike earlier programs which have relied on employees to enter data, the new system will …

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Shares of WebMD Health are up this week after an analyst upgrade focused Wall Street's attention on the company. JMP Securities analyst William Morrison said he believes the company will generate more traffic than expected for its consumer healthcare Web sites in the second half of the year, as consumers looking for health-related information turn to the company for answers. WebMD Health shares were up 4.4 percent yesterday to $37.60. The company's stock is up nearly 30 percent so far …

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Google is weighing a new service that will allow Web surfers to search for specific healthcare information, according to The Wall Street Journal. Although no official announcement has yet been made, the company has assigned a senior engineer to work on the project. The newspaper looks at health-focused "vertical search" engines developed by a number of companies including WebMD, Healthline, Mamahealth and Kosmix.com. Bay area-based MedStory, which currently offers a service for …

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