Here are eight recent news updates on key health IT companies.
1. IBM opened its new headquarters for its Watson Internet of Things unit in Munich, Germany.
2. Dan Orenstein, former general counsel for EHR vendor athenahealth, was appointed general counsel for Health Catalyst.
3. A new tool from Chicago-based Allscripts assists patients through the self-pay process by offering an online payment option in the patient portal.
4. Verily Life Sciences, formerly known as Google Life Sciences, and Johnson & Johnson jointly launched a new robotic surgery company called Verb Surgical.
5. IBM Watson continues to add new collaborators in the healthcare sector. Nutrino, the developer of an app for expectant mothers, and diabetes care-focused company Novo Nordisk are two of the newest partners.
6. The week before Thanksgiving, Kansas City, Mo.-based Cerner gave its employees a choice: They could give up their right to sue the company over labor matters or give up their right for merit-based pay raises.
7. A gift from Verona, Wis.-based Epic Systems and Epic's founder and CEO Judy Faulkner will endow three faculty associate positions in the computer sciences department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
8. Last year, IBM and Apple partnered up and pledged to introduce 100 new mobile apps to the corporate world by the end of this year, according to a CIO report. The tech companies have now delivered on that promise.
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