President Donald Trump's nominee for the Department of Veterans Affairs CIO, James Paul Gfrerer, testified before the Senate VA committee Sept. 5.  By Julie Spitzer - 9/7/18

Two children's cancer centers in the U.S. plan to use robotic ducks designed by Aflac to comfort kids while they receive treatment, Engadget reports.  By Julie Spitzer - 9/7/18

At Epic's 2018 annual meeting in August, Nuance and Epic demonstrated how  conversational artificial intelligence-powered virtual assistant capabilities can support ambient clinical documentation within Epic apps.  By Julie Spitzer - 9/7/18

Four more hospitals have recently signed on to Apple's health records project.  By Julie Spitzer - 9/7/18

Bain Capital and Elliott Management have teamed up as the frontrunner in the race to acquire athenahealth,  the New York Post reports.  By Julie Spitzer - 9/7/18

Hiawatha (Kan.) Community Hospital is slated to transition to an athenahealth EHR Sept. 11, replacing the McKesson EHR the hospital has used for nearly six years, Hiawatha World Online reports.  By Jessica Kim Cohen - 9/7/18

Open Source EHR Association launched an initiative to create an international version of VistA, the Department of Veterans Affairs' homegrown EHR.  By Jessica Kim Cohen - 9/7/18

Here are eight recent news updates from technology and health IT companies:  By Jessica Kim Cohen - 9/7/18

The New Jersey Hospital Association launched a new data and informatics center, which will focus on leveraging data to gain a better understanding of New Jersey's health challenges.  By Anuja Vaidya - 9/6/18

Communication issues in the healthcare industry can be detrimental to patient care, waste time and negatively affect a provider's bottom line.  By Alia Paavola - 9/6/18

Vineti, a cell and gene therapy platform, and Deloitte, an audit and consulting firm, are collaborating to bring personalized medicine solutions to life sciences companies, healthcare providers and patients.  By Jessica Kim Cohen - 9/6/18

23andMe is reportedly looking to offer a new, more expensive premium service for users who want more information about their health, CNBC reports.  By Julie Spitzer - 9/6/18

Zane Burke, the president of Cerner, sold 151,818 shares of the company on Aug. 28, according to Fairfield Current.  By Julie Spitzer - 9/6/18

The following article comes from Jerry Shultz, President of Lightbeam Health: To succeed under value-based reimbursement, accountable care organizations (ACOs) and clinically integrated networks (CINs) must be able to manage population health. One key to effective population health management is a holistic view of patient data.  By Jerry Shultz, President of Lightbeam Health - 9/6/18

Data scientists from Nashville, Tenn.-based Vanderbilt University Medical Center created a machine-learning algorithm to identify which patients may be at risk of suicide, according to Quartz.  By Morgan Haefner - 9/5/18

There were 383 venture capital deals in the digital health space during the first half of 2018, totaling $4.9 billion, according to a report by market research firm Mercom Capital Group.  By Jessica Kim Cohen - 9/5/18

Sheryl Rose, chief information security officer and senior vice president at Englewood, Colo.-based Catholic Health Initiatives, discusses the evolution of the CISO role and how hospital systems can implement the best practices for data protection.  By Jackie Drees - 9/5/18

John D. Halamka, MD, CIO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and dean of technology for Harvard Medical School, both based in Boston, discussed innovative IT solutions he's worked on abroad during a recent interview with athenaInsight.  By Jessica Kim Cohen - 9/5/18

Although consumer app stores — such as Google Play or Apple's App Store — are widely known among the general public, the healthcare industry has been slow to adopt its own app stores, according to a report by market research firm Chilmark Research.  By Jessica Kim Cohen - 9/5/18

Four of the top vendors hospitals use to participate in the Medicare EHR Incentive Program are Allscripts, Cerner, Epic and Meditech, according to June 2018 ONC data.  By Jessica Kim Cohen - 9/5/18