Recent editions.
Sources are selected for open access; no paywalled links.
Epic put numbers on configuration depth, and about a quarter of its customers are below the line
Measurement was the theme: a vendor tying configuration depth to margin, an AI feature judged by the messages it removed rather than the seconds it saved, breaches that arrived through credentials nobody was watching, rural dollars with hospital names and reporting clocks attached, and a federal program that will decide how an autonomous clinical agent gets approved.
- Autonomous clinical AI got a federal lane, and ambient recordings got their first court ruling
- The breaches came through vendor credentials, and the patch list reached the interface engine
- Rural technology money now carries hospital names, and two award drops are weeks away
- Health systems are redrawing the IT operating model, and data migration is the critical path
Three AI tools now want to read the same chart, and the newest one did not come through the front door
Stewardship was the theme: a chart that three AI tools now want to read, an EHR program whose oversight gaps read like a checklist for every conversion, a hospital that kept caring on paper while its systems were dark, rural dollars that now carry hospital names and reporting clocks, and a prior-authorization workflow that simplified on one end and got more technical on the other. None of it is beyond preparation, and preparation is a choice available today.
- The largest EHR program in the country drew a subpoena, and the conversion pipeline kept moving
- A health system spent the holiday week on paper
- Rural funding now names hospitals, and the clocks are running
- Prior authorization got simpler and harder in the same week
Patient portals became a phishing target at national scale
- Two major incidents made the case for identity-first security and resilient infrastructure
- Rural health funding now has project names attached
- Prior authorization is consolidating ahead of the January 2027 deadline
- AI agents are learning to act, and the winners will be the organizations ready to run them
Bring any topic from this week's Bearings.
The practice lead who follows that beat will come prepared.