News From Around the Web
> Salt Lake City-based data warehousing and analytics company Health Catalyst announced this week that it has raised $41 million to enable $50 million product development investment from existing investors Sequoia Capital, Norwest Venture Partners, Kaiser Permanente Ventures, Sorenson Capital, CHV Capital (an Indiana University Health Company) and Partners HealthCare. The investment will allow Health Catalyst to, among other things, expand its healthcare analytics platform. Announcement
> The Austin (Texas) City Council is raising concern over a pending athenahealth economic incentive deal. According to Community Impact newspaper, because the city's economic climate is so positive, councilwoman Laura Morrison said she was not sure if the city needed to incentivize businesses to come to Austin. "I've supported almost all of the economic incentive deals that we've looked at," Morrison told the newspaper. "This may well be the time for me to draw the line in the sand." Article
> In the wake of the Federal Trade Commission's unanimous ruling against LabMD that entities covered under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act also may be subject to security enforcement by the FTC, the Atlanta-based medical testing laboratory is winding down operations, it has announced. LabMD blamed the actions on an abuse of power by the FTC. Announcement
Medical Imaging News
> The United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) has updated its 2005 recommendation for ultrasound screening for abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA), slightly changing its recommendations for both men and women. With the new draft recommendation, USPSTF keeps its B-grade recommendation for screening of men between the ages of 65 and 75 who smoke or had smoked. And it now recommends selective screening for men of this age who never smoked, a change from its 2005 statement in which it made no recommendation for or against screening. Article
Provider News
> Physicians don't always follow their own lifestyle advice, according to this year's Physician Lifestyle Report from Medscape. In particular, the survey of 31,399 physicians from 24 specialties showed a significant minority of doctors struggle to maintain a healthy weight. Article
> Healthcare jobs will account for one in six new jobs in the next decade, according to the most recent 10-year projections from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The BLS expects that registered nurses, nursing assistants, personal care aides and home health aides will have the largest employment increases, adding 1.6 million jobs now through 2022. Article
And Finally... Expressing oneself is so hard these days. Article