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48 CIO / HEALTH IT 20 things to know about Allscripts, Cerner, Epic and Meditech By Jackie Drees A llscripts, Cerner, Epic and Meditech are four of the biggest EHR vendors for hospitals and health systems across the U.S. Below are five things to know about each company's strategy and operations: Allscripts 1. Allscripts closed a $1.35 billion sale of its care coordination com- pany CarePort Health to WellSky Dec. 31. e Chicago-based EHR company inked the agreement in October 2020 and plans to use the net aer-tax proceeds of the sale to invest in its health IT solutions and support share repurchases. 2. Allscripts built on its partnership with Microso in 2020, and in July announced a five-year extension of its alliance with the tech giant. Allscripts later launched an updated EHR platform Sunrise 20.0 run- ning on Microso Azure in December. 3. In August 2020, Allscripts secured five new patents focused on im- proving healthcare delivery and innovation. One of the patents is for an app connecting EHRs to other wellness apps and supporting patient engagement through goal tracking, while another new patent supports application programming interface calls from EHRs for genetic testing data searchers. 4. Allscripts forged new relationships and expanded existing partner- ships throughout 2020. In January 2020, New Hyde Park, N.Y.-based Northwell Health extended its partnership with Allscripts Managed Services through 2026. e company also contracted with numerous new physician practices, including Family Medical Associates of Ra- leigh (N.C.); Urology Centers of Alabama in Birmingham; and All- Care Health in Grants Pass, Ore. 5. In July, Allscripts announced that Strata Decision Technology would acquire its healthcare decision analytics and budgeting business Epsi for $365 million. e companies finalized the deal in October. Cerner 1. Cerner shook up its C-suite in 2020 with a handful of new executive appointments as well as leaders who departed from EHR company. New additions included Don Trigg as president, John Peterzalek as chief client and services officer, William Mintz as chief strategy offi- cer and Peter Liebert as Cerner Government Services' new vice pres- ident and chief information security officer. In October, Senior Vice President and CFO Marc Naughton announced he would leave the company in 2021. 2. e Kansas City, Mo.-based EHR vendor forged several new tech partnerships in 2020, including with Amazon for its health tracking device Halo. By integrating into Cerner's EHR solutions, the device lets users to opt in to share their health data directly into their EHR and with care teams that use Cerner. San Diego-based Sharp Health- care was the first Cerner client to participate in the collaboration. 3. Cerner was also involved with several acquisitions last year; in Au- gust, revenue cycle management services provider R1 RCM finalized its acquisition of Cerner's RevWorks services business, and in Decem- ber, the EHR giant formed an agreement to acquire clinical research company Kantar Health for $375 million. 4. Following schedule delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the De- partment of Veterans Affairs deployed the first capabilities of its $16 billion Cerner EHR system in October at the Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center in Spokane, Wash. Cerner also made strides with the Department of Defense's EHR deployment and powered several hos- pital and health systems' go-lives. 5. In July, Cerner launched a new cloud-based EHR offering, dubbed CommunityWorks Foundations, to help rural and critical access hospitals speed up the implementation process and reduce costs. e company also focused on soware developments and initiatives in 2020 targeting data quality, interoperability and social determi- nants of health, CEO Brent Shafer said during Cerner's virtual health conference in October. Epic 1. In January 2020, Epic CEO Judy Faulkner made headlines aer voic- ing opposition to HHS' proposed interoperability rules. Citing privacy concerns related to third-party use of patient data, Ms. Faulkner sent emails to some of Epic's largest U.S. hospital clients urging them to speak out against the proposed regulations. Sixty U.S. health systems signed Epic's letter opposing the rules. 2. roughout 2020, Epic inked partnerships with several tech compa- nies. In September, Microso announced the EHR giant became the first medical record system to integrate the Microso Teams, which allows clinicians and patients to launch telehealth visits through the platform. In October, Ly announced it is integrating with Epic to let healthcare workers coordinate patient transportation directly from the EHR. 640,436 patients' info exposed in Texas health system IT security breach By Laura Dyrda A n IT security incident at Abilene, Texas-based Hendrick Health System exposed hundreds of thousands of patients' information, the health system revealed in January. The breach occurred Nov. 20, 2020, disrupting IT opera- tions. An investigation found the incident exposed the information of 640,436 patients. The information was ex- posed from Oct. 10 to Nov. 9, although the incident did not affect Hendrick's EHR. The information breached included patient names, So- cial Security numbers and demographics. The three-hospital health system had shut down its IT network on Nov. 9 after a security threat to the main campus was identified. n