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The eponymous sign outside Epic headquarters in Verona, Wisconsin.

Source: Yiem via Wikipedia CC

Epic Systems, the health-care software giant whose technology is used in thousands of hospitals and clinics across the country, said on Friday that it’s planning on moving all of its customers to a new government-backed medical records exchange by the end of next year.

Epic is one of the groups that’s been helping the federal government establish the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement, or TEFCA, to provide a legal and technical framework for securely sharing patient data.

TEFCA launched in December, and Epic said the company’s goal is now to have the “full Epic community” live on the network by the end of 2025. All customers should be committed to the transition a year earlier, Epic said.   

Sending medical records between different hospitals, clinics and health-care organizations is notoriously complicated. Information is stored in a variety of formats across dozens of different vendors, making it difficult for doctors and other providers to access all the relevant data on their patients. Epic houses records for more than 280 million individuals in the U.S., though patients often have records across multiple vendors.  

There are also significant hurdles to accessing sensitive information due to the privacy protections surrounding patient data. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, is a federal law that requires a patient’s consent or knowledge for third-party access.

Several companies and organizations have formed to try and streamline health-care information exchange, but TEFCA was designed to help bring all the various players together. Because of Epic’s dramatic reach and its 45-year history on the market, the company’s commitment to TEFCA will likely bolster the exchange’s credibility.

In addition to Epic’s announcement, an interoperability network called Carequality, also said on Friday that it’s working to align with TEFCA. Carequality includes Epic as a member. 

To join Carequality, organizations are vetted and have to agree to abide by clear “permitted purposes” for the exchange of patient records. For instance, the “treatment” permitted purpose means the doctor or hospital requesting the data is providing care to the patient in question.

Carequality found itself embroiled in controversy earlier this year after Epic said some network participants were requesting records for reasons that didn’t fall under the treatment purpose. Carequality said Friday that it’s revising its policy to align with TEFCA’s definition of treatment, which could help prevent such clashes in the future. 

“Carequality supports and encourages all appropriate and secure health information exchange, and to that end has engaged in the development of TEFCA, and is actively supporting those participating in TEFCA or seeking to migrate to TEFCA,” Carequality said in a blog post Friday.

Epic said it commends Carequality’s decision to align with TEFCA and use the same definition of treatment. The company will continue to help customers facilitate exchanges through Carequality as they transition to TEFCA, the statement said. 

Epic said that Carequality currently connects more than 70% of hospitals, along with over 50,000 clinics and more than 600,000 care providers.

“TEFCA is the nation’s best opportunity to get the remaining 30% of U.S. hospitals off the sidelines and reinforce trust between data exchange networks and care organizations,” Epic said.

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Microsoft enters portable gaming with new ROG Xbox Ally devices

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Microsoft enters portable gaming with new ROG Xbox Ally devices

Microsoft ROG Xbox Ally and Ally X Handheld devices

Source: Xbox

Microsoft Xbox players will soon be able to take their favorite games anywhere with the launch of the new ROG Xbox Ally handhelds.

This is a first for Xbox, which has never released a handheld before.

The devices, developed in collaboration with ASUS, offer a full-screen Xbox experience meant for portable play.

Players will be able to access Xbox games, stream content, and play on the go with built-in support for cloud gaming.

“Players can look forward to an approachable gaming experience that travels with you wherever you go, featuring several new and first-of-their kind features on both devices,” Microsoft said in a press release.

The announcement follows last week’s debut of Nintendo‘s flagship Switch 2 and sets the stage for a new chapter in portable gaming.

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Vantage raises $820 million in a first-of-its-kind cloud and AI data center deal in Europe

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Vantage raises 0 million in a first-of-its-kind cloud and AI data center deal in Europe

U.S. data center operator Vantage has raised 720 million euros ($821.4 million) — the first of its kind deal in Europe.

The asset-backed securitization (ABS) deal, the first ever euro-denominated with data center assets on the continent, involves four data centers in Germany.

The company said it will be paying on average a 4.3% coupon on the bonds issued through the process.

In an ABS, Vantage raises money by using its data center infrastructure and future revenues from the facilities as collateral.

Vantage said it will use the funds primarily to pay off existing construction loans previously secured for the facilities.

“We believe the ABS market in particular is kind of best suited for our type of asset, which is real estate centric, high credit quality tenants, long term leases, something that is almost perfect for the ABS investor,” Sharif Metwalli, chief financial officer of Vantage Data Centers, told CNBC.

Vantage added that despite the large sum borrowed, the demand from investors exceeded the amount raised.

“So this transaction was actually pretty highly levered, frankly,” Rich Cosgray, senior vice president of global capital markets at Vantage Data Centers told CNBC. “It was higher leverage than our prior transaction and we had some investors that just weren’t comfortable at that leverage level.”

“Yet, despite that, we were basically two and four times oversubscribed on the respective financings, and we were able to tighten pricing pretty meaningfully through the marketing process,” Cosgray added.

The four facilities — two in Berlin and two in Frankfurt — have access to around 55 megawatts of power and “are fully leased to hyperscale customers,” the company said in a statement. The four facilities were valued at more than $1 billion earlier this year.

Last year, Vantage also raised £600 million through the first-ever securitization of a data center in Europe, the Middle East and Asia (EMEA). The deal involved two units from the company’s Cardiff campus with 148 megawatts of electricity power. Across the region, the company has 2,500 megawatts of data center capacity either operational or under development.

The transaction was led by Barclays Bank and Deutsche Bank as joint lead managers and Vantage was represented by the British law firm Clifford Chance.

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IonQ buys UK quantum startup Oxford Ionics for more than $1 billion

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IonQ buys UK quantum startup Oxford Ionics for more than  billion

Cheng Xin | Getty Images

IonQ is buying United Kingdom-based quantum computing startup Oxford Ionics in a deal valued at nearly $1.1 billion.

Shares gained about 4%.

The companies said in a release that the deal will combine IonQ’s quantum computing hardware and software knowledge with Oxford Ionics’ semiconductor chip technologies. The company aims to deliver breakthroughs in the field and capitalize on growing revenue opportunities.

“We believe the advantages of our combined technologies will set a new standard within quantum computing and deliver superior value for our customers through market-leading enterprise applications,” said IonQ CEO Niccolo De Masi in a release.

The deal, which is expected to close this year, includes $1.065 billion worth of IonQ shares and about $10 million in cash. The merged company expects to build systems with 256 qubits by 2026, over 10,000 by 2027 and 2 million by 2030.

Interest in quantum computing has skyrocketed in recent months after technology giants Microsoft and Alphabet announced new chip breakthroughs. Experts tout the technology’s ability to solve intricate computing tasks unachievable by other computers.

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IonQ’s CEO previously told CNBC that he wants the company to become the “800-pound gorilla” in the quantum world.

Shares of Maryland-based company, which went public through a special purpose acquisition company in late 2021, are down about 6% year to date. The stock has soared more than 400% from a year ago.

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