The McKesson/Per-Sé merger, and the latest government freebie

In case you were wondering about last week’s announcement that McKesson would take over Per-Sé Technologies for $1.8 billion, the story broke last Monday. I put together a story for Digital HealthCare & Productivity (f.k.a. Health-IT World), but e-mail problems on both ends kept the story out of Tuesday’s newsletter. It has since been posted on the Web, so click here to read what I wrote.

In other news, late last month, the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality introduced an electronic reference tool for primary care—essentially, free clinical decision support. Called the Electronic Preventive Services Selector, it is available for Palm or Windows-based PDAs or for desktop/laptop/tablet computers.

I don’t know if it interfaces with any EMRs, but I will be talking to some AHRQ people this week for a publication outside the HIT universe. At first glance, however, it seems more reality than vaporware, unlike the allegedly “free” VistA Office EHR that we’re still waiting for.