Three years after first announcing it had chosen Epic for its new electronic health record system, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center went live on schedule on March 4, according to the Houston Business Journal.

MD Anderson went to market for a new EHR in late 2012 and announced Epic as its vendor partner in the spring of 2013. Financial terms of the project have not been disclosed. In a 2014 Fiscal Year in Review, Richard Champlin, MD, chair of the health system's Department of Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapy, said the project would wrap up around this time: "We are involved in the planning for the March 2016 go-live with our new electronic health record system, Epic," he wrote.

Full story.

Steward Health Care Network, the second largest physician network in Massachusetts, will offer Quartet Health's platform as a service to its providers and their patients. Quartet identifies individuals in need of behavioral health resources and enables primary care providers to set those individuals on effective treatment paths in tight collaboration with behavioral health professionals.

Former Rhode Island Congressman Patrick Kennedy, who has been open about his addictions to alcohol and prescription drugs, joined the board of the New York-based startup last October.

"Access to behavioral health resources is one of the most pressing challenges in primary care today," Steve Stein, MD, said in a statement. Stein is part of Family Medical Associates, a practice within the Steward Health Care Network.

Full story.

Marin General Hospital has entered a 15-year, $90 million agreement with Philips to roll out an array of technologies including clinical informatics, patient monitoring, telehealth and imaging.

"As an independent community hospital, we have made a conscious decision to partner with Philips in taking a long-term view and adopting the latest digital health technologies, while creating an exceptional experience for our patients," said Marin General’s chief information and technology integration officer Mark Zielazinski, in a statement.

Full story.

Aiming to improve sepsis outcomes, Halifax Health has implemented Wolters Kluwer POC Advisor clinical decision support platform in its emergency department. POC Advisor integrates with the electronic health record to detect and alert providers to patients presenting with symptoms of potential sepsis.

"Partnering with Wolters Kluwer provides our staff with the best opportunity to improve sepsis care and save patients’ lives,” Zabrina Evens, MD, medical director at Halifax Health, said in a press statement.

Full story.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center, one of the pioneers in building its own software systems, announced it would switch to an Epic electronic health record in November 2017, having weighed the merits of both Epic and Cerner.

"We've had multiple different systems that require a lot of connections, which at times for certain workflows have been very clunky," Neal Patel, MD, chief medical informatics officer at VUMC, said in press statement. "This is our opportunity to begin to reduce variability that's unnecessary and was a distraction to how we deliver care."

Full story.

Massachusetts General Hospital has implemented Vocera technology throughout its perioperative services departments with the goal of quieter, more efficient and effective staff communications.

"Voice-controlled technology has become critical for improving communication and navigating within our large and growing environment, while reducing noise levels," said Wilton Levine, MD, associate medical director, perioperative services at MGH, in a Dec. 9 press statement. Full story.

Mountain View, Calif.-based El Camino Hospital, an electronic health records pioneer for nearly five decades, completed its customized $150 million Epic implementation, known as iCare, in November.

El Camino CIO Greg Walton promised at the beginning of the rollout, in June 2014, that the integration will allow us to securely share patient information with other healthcare organizations. This will give us enormous opportunities to know our patients' medical history and better inform their care while they are under our care." Full story.

IASIS Healthcare announced in November it would roll out a Cerner integrated system for its clinical and financial records. The Tennessee health system will implement an electronic health record and revenue cycle system across all its hospitals, clinics and other provider facilities that together serve more than 1.1 million patients annually.

"We chose Cerner because we believe they provide a system that will enhance our efforts to provide high quality, cost-effective healthcare for our patients and health plan members," W. Carl Whitmer, president and CEO of IASIS, said in a statement. Full story.

The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia announced in September it will begin using software from PeraHealth to improve clinician awareness of children who may be at risk for clinical deterioration while in the hospital. CHOP will use PeraHealth's full suite of real-time clinical surveillance software – including the pediatric Rothman Index, or pRI, at CHOP's main campus inpatient location where the software will be integrated into its EHR.

"CHOP is committed to providing children and their families with safe, effective, family-centered, timely and efficient care," said Evan Fieldston, MD, attending physician of general pediatrics and medical director of clinical operations at CHOP, in a statement. Full story.