Nimbus, Seeded by Bill Gates Raises $24 Million From Gates and Lilly Ventures

Nimbus is a company that uses “computational drug” discovery methodologies in other words using technology to for research.  In short simulation is the key here with creating new drugs with a computer long before a wet lab is ever started.  Lilly Ventures and a couple other investors are in as well with the last $24 million raised.  Bill Gates also invested in the partner company Schrödinger, back in April of 2010.

Bill Gates Invests In Software Company That Predicts and Helps Generate Creating New Drugs

“In 2010, Nimbus established a strategic partnership with Schrödinger, the leader in chemical simulation and in silico drug discovery, that grants Nimbus privileged access to leading-edge technology and exclusive rights to key targets. Under the terms of the agreement established in 2010, Nimbus will receive unique access to capabilities and technologies including exclusive rights to exploit cutting-edge next-generation WaterMap™ and related technologies against specific Nimbus targets, exclusive use of customized software packages developed by Schrödinger for these targets, and access to a dedicated team of Schrödinger computational chemists. Schrödinger has a material equity stake in Nimbus and will receive a series of success-driven milestone payments.”

There are 2 targets for drug discovery here and one may be important with cancer research while the other project is working towards other diseases such as Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The research as mentioned below is conducted with a virtual screen of the discovery process.  Schrödinger is the software platform licensed by Nimbus for the research.  In modern day research with locating targets with computers it is also safer for researchers as again there’s no wet lab until final stages are reached.  BD 

Nimbus Discovery burst out of stealth mode in March with seed funding from none other than Microsoft chairman Bill Gates. Now Nimbus, a Cambridge, MA-based company that specializes in computer-aided drug discovery, is chalking up a second impressive milestone: It has raised a Series A funding round of $24 million, with money from Gates and from lead investors Atlas Venture, SR One, and Lilly Ventures.

Nimbus is rapidly advancing two drug-discovery programs. One target it is pursuing, an enzyme called ACC, may be important in cancer and metabolic diseases such as obesity.

The second target, called IRAK4, is a protein involved in Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and inflammation. Nimbus has already pinpointed promising drug-like compounds that target IRAK4 and shown proof-of-concept in early basic studies. “This occurred only 9 months after we initiated work on the target with a virtual screen,” says Jonathan Montagu, V.P. of business operations at Nimbus in an e-mail.

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Nimbus, Seeded by Bill Gates, Raises $24 Million For Computer-Aided Drug Discovery | Xconomy

Technorati Tags: Bill Gates,Microsoft,healthcare,software,algorithms,drug development,healthcare reform,Start up,Schrödinger,Nimbus

Robert Scoble At TEDx–Coders Rule (Video) This Applies to Healthcare With Medical Records, Medical Devices, Drug Development Genomics and Intelligent Interpretations

This is a nice talk about where we are going today with technology and he talks about the lack of coders with everything connected today.  We need more mastering he states, and he hits on something I’ve always said way back when I was in sales, that if I couldn’t tap into a person’s curiosity, then I would move on.   Sometimes in healthcare though we need better collaboration and get over taxed with applications that do one thing and we need algorithms packaged together to do many things quickly and easily and I am the first one to shout out about the glut of software that healthcare has that never gets used and then everyone blogs and complains about that fact all the time and again it comes back around to role models, curiosity and dumping the old paradigm of “its for those guys over there”.   

NFL players don’t even know how to do a direct deposit in their account and professional race team members have PHDs.  He went to one of my favorite places, Oakley here in southern California and references the guy who does “will it blend” and that was a great story on the blender.  One item to mention here too is that will these products be made here in the US or in other countries?  The future belongs to geeks as nobody else wants it so collaborate to innovate it is.   

Everything has code and it does and his own son who’s 17 years old he states doesn’t know how to code and we need engineers.  The President has stated and know that that too.

President Obama States “The US Doesn’t Have Enough Engineers (This Category Includes Company Developers)

Robert Scoble–The Future Belongs to the Geeks Because Nobody Else Wants It

The insurers are still ruling with all their code and algorithms in healthcare (who has all the control, the money and the engineers) and you can see we go through the efforts of certifying medical records coding but do nothing to make sure the insurance carrier code works fair (with accurate and not desired results). Do we have enough talent to put this into place? We have not so far and nobody has addressed this situation either as we need checks and balances, even in coder world..

With all of this, I’ll add a link to a prior post that I made about lawmaking, we need the knowledge here as well.  They need to make laws that apply and govern technology and healthcare and thus need to participate at even the most basic levels to understand all of this before it goes elsewhere to other countries.

Sure wish we had some engineers in Congress to build better laws…BD 

Digital Illiteracy Still Plaguing Lawmakers With Not Using High Powered Technology to Model and Simulate Healthcare Laws–Ryan Hasn’t Figured Out He’s No White Hope Yet (Video)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1vpjD6djwI&feature=share

Technorati Tags: Scoble,people,entepreneurs,generations,technology,social networks,TEDX,TED,applications,social graph,Coders Rule

Are Wall Street Food Models Good for Promoting Healthy Eating Habits? Is Friending a Pepsi Going To Drive Revenue and Sales?

This is a good article that delves into how the financial markets operate as it relates to food items and those companies sold on the exchanges.  According to this article investors are upset that Pepsi for one is not meeting their goals.  Unless you live under a rock there have been tons of articles about soda of late so the food manufacturers, along with just wanting good sales numbers have some added pressure.  Maybe this is why Pepsi is wanting you to “friend a Pepsi”? 

Well gee, Facebook schemes don’t appear to work for everything out there.  They did spend some money on some new “social vending machines” where you can send a free Pepsi, a kind of oddity but today we have marketing folks literally throwing anything against the wall to see if it sticks.  Maybe Pepsi can make it up in selling and mining data with this machine?  We have a ton of that out there today and is this what investors want? 

Pepsi Vending Machine

Next thing you know we will be “friending a tampon or a condom”  with a coupon that collects the data so when know exactly when your purchased and how to hit you up with some more coupons to get some more data profile to sell.  <grin>  Just think a cell phone full of condom and Pepsi coupons that you paid for with giving away your data:)

The analysts to quote this article here say get those numbers up or else!  Maybe the beer folks have their blue tooth bottle opener working for them as it collects data too when talking to your cell phone. 

Heineken - The Invite from Max Gebhardt on Vimeo.

Sell, sell, sell…and get that data so if you can’t delivery dollars in product, start marketing that data, is this way it’s supposed to go.  Pepsi has been trying to promote their healthier drinks and they have a big spending budget for advertising but still not good enough for the analysts so what gives?  Do they have collect heart rates next and other human vitals to sell to healthcare concerns next?  The insurance companies have tons of dollars to pay out for this type of stuff and have plenty of cash in the till so is this the next throw against the wall marketing scheme?  When you go visit a healthcare professional though if you have been taken in with too much junk food and are over weight, the investors will be quick to identify you as one of those “evil” consumers, sad mixed up sadistic world we have here at times.  BD 

Why Is Almost Everyone In Healthcare Marketing Their “Ass” Off

As I keep saying, public concerns about obesity put food companies in an impossible dilemma. Even if companies want to produce healthier products and stop marketing to kids, they can't. If they do, they lose sales.

Case in point: PepsiCo. Its investors are unhappy that the company  is pushing its "healthier-for-you" foods instead of doing what it is supposed to: pushing the far more profitable "fun-for-you" products like Pepsi-Cola, Gatorade, and Cheetos.

According to The Wall Street Journal, investors are worried that Pepsi sales have fallen to number three in rank after Coke and Diet Coke. They blame the company's CEO, Indra Nooyi

Along the way, PepsiCo spent $1.01 billion to advertise its products, just in "direct media" (TV, radio, print, and Internet ads that go through advertising agencies). It probably spent just as much or more on indirect methods such as trade show, point-of-purchase campaigns, and other such things.

Advertising Age gives 2010 marketing figures for specific products (numbers rounded off to the nearest million):

• Pepsi: $154
• Gatorade: $113
• Quaker: $56
• Tostitos: $35
• Tropicana: $31
• Lay's: $25
• Cheetos: $11

Wall Street analysts say the company better do something to boost sales of its core products, or else. Expect to see a lot more advertising dollars spent on "fun-for-you." And maybe fewer on "good-for-you"?

Wall Street insists that companies not only make profits, but grow. Companies must hit their quarterly growth targets.

Wall St. and Food: An Unhealthy Business Model - Marion Nestle - Life - The Atlantic

Technorati Tags: Wall Street,investments,food,stocks,dividends,advertising,Pepsi,Fritos Lays,Cheetos,Gatorade

Only the Rich Will be Able to Afford Avastin for Treating Breast Cancer As FDA Advisors Reject the Drug as a Treatment

The drug is not going away as it is approved to treat other types of cancers but I question the information on not being effective.  This may or may not be related but companies like United Healthcare are grading oncologists and telling them if they are following the rules.  The link below has more on that topic and you can see the image below to see that breast cancer was included in their study information they provided but again I get a little uneasy on how all of this gets interpreted anymore too.  in one group for colon cancer, patients were prescribed Avastin, a Roche Holding AG biologic that is unproven in that patient group and now that is up for discussion in some areas. They also had stats on how many patients were non compliant with a hormone medication and how they figured that and what numbers were used, I don’t know, probably the patient credit score that FICO is selling as a predictor with very mis matched queries.  <grin>.

Roche (Genentech) Requests Hearing From the FDA Regarding Avastin for Breast Cancer-Did These Numbers Come From the United Health Care Oncology Study-Subsidiary Watch

Long and short of it is that without an FDA approval for use with breast cancer, only those who can pay cash will be able to have the drug as an off label treatment now.  I do hope there’s more follow up on the decision and perhaps Roche will give it another round as there are survivors out there from taking Avastin who testified but also we wouldn’t mind a price break either as a full treatment is around $100k.

You what is strange too though is that today Medicare approved the $90k Provenge treatment at $90k for the treatment where that drug is basically used to extend life which is a good thing but only calling attention to the cost here.  BD 

A panel of advisors to the Food and Drug Administration voted 6 to 0 to halt the use of the cancer drug Avastin for the treatment of breast cancer, saying studies have failed to show Avastin is effective for that purpose.
The recommendation Wednesday came after two days of testimony from patients, doctors and advocacy groups. The panel heard several tearful accounts, like that of Crystal Hanna, a mother of two who will celebrate her 36th birthday Friday.

The drug will remain on the market for other cancer treatments, but an FDA withdrawal would probably mean insurance companies wouldn't cover it for breast cancer patients. As a result, many women wouldn't be able to afford the treatments, which can cost up to $100,000 a year.
Though the FDA will make the final decision, it rarely ignores recommendations of its advisors. One of the rare instances was in 2008, when the agency approved Avastin for breast cancer treatment. The decision came under the agency's accelerated approval process, which fast-tracks potentially life-saving drugs on a conditional basis.

"We are very disappointed by the committee's recommendation," said Krysta Pellegrino, a spokeswoman for Genentech, which is based in South San Francisco. The company has successfully marketed Avastin as a blockbuster drug for treating colon, lung and brain cancers.

FDA and Avastin: Advisors reject drug as breast cancer treatment - Health Key

Technorati Tags: health insurance,claims,Roche,Avastic,Oncology,cancer,Susan G. Komen,breast cancer,healthcare reform,FDA. Genentech

Over 7000 Humana Medicare HMO Patients Are Losing Their Doctors Due to Contract Changes Generated by Cost Algorithms

We have another business decision quoted here, it’s the algorithms that create the profitable business models and it’s happening all over the US.  Outside of health insurance too this is happening with new contracts as costs are zeroed down and one place of work closes and another one opens.  Perhaps with this severance here the HMO can get themselves situated to be purchased by a rival insurance company?  Who knows but that stuff goes on.  The contract affects approximately about 20 practices and the current contract ends August 31st. 

IPAs Helping Doctors Transition With Health IT Technologies - Prepares IPAs for Potential Future Health Insurer Acquisitions-Subsidiary Watch

Moves like this continue to erode the patient/doctor relationship for profit and if it is not a contract like this one, then we have something else happening to where doctors are turning away patients due to contracted rates.  When part A above occurs with the insurer buying IPAs and HMOs it usually calls for a new contract and you can ask almost any physician and see that their compensation does not go up when this occurs and some get a P4P carrot which may or may not be attainable and those contracts vary from one to another.  At any rate with seniors having to switch physicians it’s causing a lot of stress and additional phone calls and other interruptions at the practices, not to mention a whole new line of data coding for billing.  BD 

Doctors in U.S. Turning Away Insured Patients–It All Has To Do With Contracts Negotiated, Renewals and Changes In the Payment and Other Related Algorithms

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Nearly 7,200 Humana Medicare  Advantage HMO customers are getting a surprise letter in the mail.

Starting today, June 29, Humana is telling its members that it has terminated services with the UF primary care physician group.

The Humana/UF agreement ends Aug. 31 and they want to give members sufficient notice, said Mitch Lubitz, a spokesperson for Humana. "The patients are not losing coverage or benefits." said Lubitz.

Humana Medicare HMO Patients Losing UF Doctors | firstcoastnews.com

Technorati Tags: Humana,Medicare,contracts,insurance,algorithms,costs,letters,doctors,patients

Healthcare's ICD-10 Project Deadlines Could be a Jackpot for India’s IT Companies

The outsourcers will be a combination of pharmacies, medical device companies, hospitals, insurance carriers and maybe a few providers.  This is being compared in India to the Y2K preparedness that I think we can all remember.  India right now is very hungry for some additional business as well.  You can watch the video from the Wall Street Journal that was recently posted and view what they have to share.  Corporate slowdown has hit and thus so the pricing and bidding for the IT support might become very intense with US businesses.  Just a couple weeks ago Dr. Halamka at Harvard asked the question too if ICD-10 should be delayed, in other words is there enough time to meet all the government deadlines, those that are decided by mostly “non participants” when it comes to Health IT. 

They never get it and shoot they probably use less consumer health software than we do as they appear to be very busy telling use what the deadlines are,  It’s kind of embarrassing and beginning to show a lot more when figure heads without some Health IT experience set these deadlines as they have to ask someone else and have no clue on how toe even start with an educated guess themselves, a very vulnerable position these days as they have to kind of believe what they are told without some learned experience to point them in the direction to ask questions.  BD

Should ICD-10 Implementation Be Delayed With A SnoMed Adoption Focus Come First?

In the meantime though, with slow corporate growth presently affecting India they are ready for any and all outsourced work I would imagine that becomes available with this current deadline to once more having non Health IT executives in charge in this case with their decision making processes could actually be pushing more Health IT business overseas, as this has been happening all along but perhaps at a more accelerated rate to come.  BD 

BANGALORE: Indian IT companies are gearing up to meet what analysts call the Year 2000 or Y2K problem of the US healthcare industry.

The US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has mandated that the coding system for billing medical procedures move from the WHO international classification of diseases (ICD)-9 to ICD-10 by October 1, 2013. There are more than 155,000 ICD-10 codes, compared to just 17,000 in ICD-9 .

Healthcare stakeholders will outsource IT services to revisit systems and reconsider underlying business logic and processes that rely on ICD-9 codes. This could entail work around consulting , IT application and system development and other coding related services work.

Healthcare's Y2K jackpot for IT cos - Times Of India

Technorati Tags: ICD-10,coding,medical billing,ICD-9,healthcare,Health IT,codes,outsourcing,doctors,hospitals,insurers

At Any Cost? A New Play About Prolonging Life Support

Starting next week, and coinciding with a major medical futility conference in Australia, is At Any Cost at the Ensemble Theatre.  A 2-minute video about the play is embedded below.  Here is the synposis:  "Des loves his wife Faith dearly, but she is gravely ill. The family must decide whether her intensive care treatment should be prolonged.  Des can’t bear to have any part in ending her life, but her three children vary sharply in their attitudes.  The power of modern medicine can prolong life but is there any point if the life prolonged is poor? The family conflict becomes intense, generating both dark humour and shock as devastating family secrets are inevitably revealed."





A press write-up about the play quotes the surgeon co-writer:  "three-quarters of the available health budget in Australia is spent on patients in the last six months of life and almost half is spent on the last month of life."  "Doctors can prolong life almost indefinitely for hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars, but should we?"

IPAs Helping Doctors Transition With Health IT Technologies - Prepares IPAs for Potential Future Health Insurer Acquisitions-Subsidiary Watch

Now why did I choose this title, because it’s true, and I’ll cite a couple recent posts on what is happening in southern California as IPAs are being acquired by health insurance companies.  We had Wellpoint buy out Caremore which is an HMO that was set up to handle managed care for seniors and granted they are a HMO but within the HMO structures, they work with IPAs. 

WellPoint Buys CareMore–Senior HMO Based in California–Presently Owned By Private Equity Firms

One other recent big IPA acquisition was Memorial IPA in Long Beach which was purchased by United Healthcare and this may be related to financial reasons, but what is not in healthcare companies any more.

OptumHealth (Subsidiary of United Healthcare) Takes Over Memorial IPA in California-Subsidiary Watch

When you look at the world of Health IT today as I keep saying, the decision making processes and business models all revolve around those algorithms and I’ll just keep updating items as such as I see them.  I’m not saying this is a bad thing from the technology side but hospitals and healthcare organizations are facing the squeeze of buying more software algorithms to keep up.  This is costly but with rules and regulations being passed by the federal government who may be a few steps ahead of what can be attained in certain time limits, the insurers are the ones with the big IT infrastructures and they have subsidiaries too that will sell it to healthcare organizations.  Here’s one example where a technology arm of United Healthcare even got a patent for their particular software here.  With record making profits it does not take a brain surgeon to figure out who’s got the money here to create and sell all the technologies. 

QualityMetric/Ingenix (United HealthCare) Receives Patent for Patient Health Survey Algorithms-Subsidiary Watch

When it comes to watching how some big corporations grow it’s easy to get lost in the shuffle when trying to figure out some of their business models too and picture in our minds as to how they operate.  United also has this venture in China which works to promote and sell both Chinese medical devices and drugs on a global basis.

UnitedHealth subsidiary (Ingenix Subsidiary I3) Acquires ChinaGate – Working to Sell Chinese Products Globally

I just spoke about 2 southern California examples and this is not the only place in the US where this is happening, but they were big enough stories to gather some press.  In addition the deposits from HAS accounts allow United to keep their bank rolling with over $1 Billion on deposit and this of course competes with other commercial banks for these types of deposits.

UnitedHealth Group Owns a Bank With Deposits Surpassing a Billion – OptumHealth Bank FDIC Insured

So again just being as observer of what’s taking place with mergers and acquisitions today there is a big push to adapt new Health IT processes as it could in fact make the purchase of an IPA much more attractive for an insurer.  Now we do hope that patient care gets in here somewhere too, but that’s a topic we shall leave for another time with those algorithms as we all can read in the news today that money is driving everything and the consumers are left with the short end of the stick as company conveniences and profits seem to always be first. On a related topic you might want to read up on how new contracts are also affecting what doctors will or will not see you and why.  New contracts are negotiated all the time and especially when a merger or acquisition takes place and some of these literally rip the carpet out from under your feet as far as what doctor you can see and what benefits you will have.  It is what it is.  BD

Doctors in U.S. Turning Away Insured Patients–It All Has To Do With Contracts Negotiated, Renewals and Changes In the Payment and Other Related Algorithms

WASHINGTON – As policy makers try to jumpstart health information technology in small physician practices, lessons from independent practice associations—networks of small medical practices—can offer guidance in overcoming barriers to HIT adoption and use, according to a new study by the Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC).

Independent practice associations, or IPAs, which first formed in the 1970s to allow independent medical practices to accept risk-based managed care contracts, can serve as model in how to provide coordinated assistance with HIT activities to otherwise independent and relatively small physician practices, according to the study.

Often because of inadequate technical and financial resources, small practices’ adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) and other HIT lags larger physician practices. And, despite broader trends of physicians moving to larger practice settings, a sizeable share of physicians is likely to practice in small groups for the foreseeable future.

IPAs can help docs with HIT adoption, study says | Healthcare IT News

Technorati Tags: health insurance,healthcare,HealthIT,study,doctors,EHR,EMR,medical records,mergers and acqusitions,compensation,physicans

Microsoft To Offer Direct Protocol To Help Google Health Members Transfer Data to HealthVault-Still Big News for a Product Being Discontinued to Lack of Interest?

If you read here often enough then you know I have been a big advocate of personal health records, but I just wanted to add a short little commentary here on the huge amount of press the discontinuation of Google Health has received. If this was a product that is being shuttered due to lack of interest, why all the big press?  I guess I am adding to it, but again trying to keep all updated but in the last week this is totally ironic that so much time and effort has been directed in bringing the news around.  It just seems like a bit of an oxymoron if you will, right?  I added a tweet on Twitter to this effect and had several agreeing with me as to the substantial press given for something being discontinued for lack of interest, oh well.  I’m just trying to make sense of of press again which maybe I should leave that alone. 

Google Health Personal Health Records Will Call It Quits Effective January 1, 2012

Ok back on track here for those who were using Google Health, watch for an announcement to come forth within a few days to make it easier to transfer your health records, and this is good news so if you hold off for a few days, as Google Health records are not going anywhere for a while and you have time, this may make the process a little easier.  I do wonder at some point in time if we will ever hear about how many files were actually transferred? 

Right now though if you look at where software overall is going in healthcare it’s a mess and we have way too many technologies out there and frankly I’m a bit worn out here at the Medical Quack on updating some of this too, and I’m not speaking of the PHRs here, but all the other garbage that looms out there.  With everyone “marketing their ass off” and all the privacy issues in the news and with some good reasons for concerns, where does one put their priorities today? 

For a couple of years now I have written frequently about the folks who write these blazing reviews on PHRs and then find the authors themselves have never touched one or created an account at all, but merely somewhat are posing as “healthcare magpies” out there and for some reason or another find this driving force to be an “expert” and tell others what they should do when they don’t buy in themselves, just a odd observation that’s been somewhat going on since PHRs began.  It would certainly be nice to have a few less “healthcare consumer magpies” out there and would reduce the size of my inbox on some of the software being created for consumers today. 

When it comes to lack of role models there’s no bigger black eye here on this topic than HHS, NIH and CMS themselves and that’s the danger of having a department staffed with too many of what I call “non participants” themselves but somehow take the stand of being experts at telling everyone else what they should do, a sad state of affairs for the consumers by all means and here’s a link to a prior post, one of several where some of my own feelings are spoken.

Again, this is not to discount PHRs and the services that Google Health and HealthVault are providing as I have and use my HealthVault account and try to share what I learn with others, but just one more time to point out a huge weakness in how some areas of the government fail with providing motivation and incentives for consumers, a sad state of affairs indeed and they just don’t get it.  BD 

HHS National Plan to Improve Health Literacy – Not Going To Happen Until We Focus on Using Technology (The Tool for Literacy) Which Includes Role Models at HHS And Other Places in Government

NIH Announces Plan to Develop Medical Image Sharing for PHRs-Role Models Would Help Stamp Out “Magpie Healthcare”

On July 5th, the companies plan to announce that Google Health users will be able to transfer their health records to new or existing Microsoft HealthVault accounts using the emerging, Direct Protocol open standard for secure health data exchange, said Nate McLemore, Microsoft general manager of business development and policy, Health Solutions Group.

Using the Direct Protocol to transfer Google Health records into HealthVault means Google Health users will be able to "email" their health data to themselves, and then upload the information into their HealthVault accounts, said McLemore.

"Direct Protocol will make it easier," he said. Currently, Google Health users essentially need to "cut and paste" records from GoogleHealth to HealthVault, he said.

While the two companies work on a streamlined process for transferring files using the Direct Protocol, Google Health has posted instructions on how to "manually" move health data to HealthVault.

McLemore would not estimate the number of Google Health users that Microsoft expects to transfer their data to HealthVault, although "we can scale" to support any number of users, he said.

Microsoft Reaps Spoils Of Google Health's Demise -- InformationWeek

Technorati Tags: Google Health,HealthVault,PHR,personal health records,Google,medical records,API,Health IT,Direct protocol,Microsoft

Society of Physician Entrepreneurs (SoPE) Partners With e-Zassi Which Matches Software With Device Manufacturers and More for Collaboration and Solutions

Back in 2009 I had chance to talk with the CEO and founder of e-Zassi and you can read a bit more at the link below.  This is actually a pretty neat system for searching to find software solutions for drugs/devices and vice versa.  When I mention drugs it would be devices that administer drugs. 

e-Zassi Marries Innovation and Collaboration in the Medical Device Industry – Interview with Peter Von Dyck

This was the first time I had heard about the Society of Physician Entrepreneurs and it is an interesting site and are basically offering Angel funding for doctors who have ideas, inventions, etc.  You can see the link on the website the link to e-Zassi so there’s an option for members to research and find potential partner solutions. 

"Just The Beginning"...Welcome to SoPE's newly launched web site. This new version of the web site is built for growth and expansion.
We have automated key functions such as membership sign-up, Foundation contributions, career ads, and advertising. In addition, we have built the infrastructure for SoPE products and services, SoPE Networking and community content for stakeholders in physician entrepreneurship and healthcare innovation commercialization.”

If you are a physician and have some innovative solutions or idea in the works, perhaps a good site to bookmark.  BD 

Press Release:

FERNANDINA BEACH, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--e-Zassi.com, a proprietary software platform that is revolutionizing the process of technology transfer, has announced a new strategic partnership with the Society of Physician Entrepreneurs (SoPE) that will offer its members access to the e-Zassi suite of software tools. The partnership is the latest example of how the $250B medical device industry is embracing the proprietary e-Zassi platform which allows all subscribers to securely and safely collaborate early in the development process without jeopardizing intellectual property rights of the innovator or limiting the buyer’s freedom to operate.

SoPE's vision is to accelerate physician originated biomedical innovation and with this partnership all SoPE members will receive a subscription to the e-Zassi.com medical device online network. In this unique vertical network built exclusively for medical device participants they will have access to the e-Zassi DNA profiling software that powers the suite of search/match and collaboration features. Members also receive a discount on the InnoVision^TM software to assess and market their medical technology.

Peter von Dyck, CEO of e-Zassi, said, “Physician innovators are a major force behind the creation, development, commercialization and clinical adoption of important new medical technologies around the world and as the avenues to finance and commercialize new medical technologies are becoming more challenging due to regulatory, reimbursement and patent reform, we are honored to empower and protect them with our platform.”

“The mission of the SoPE organization is to accelerate physician originated biomedical innovation, and to provide physician entrepreneurs with the opportunity to network with their peers and others involved in the innovation commercialization process. By partnering with e-Zassi, we are able to help realize our mission and deliver value to our membership,” Arlen Meyers, MD, MBA, SoPE Chairman and President.

About e-Zassi.com

e-Zassi is the first web-based life science business intelligence & collaboration platform that provides bilateral IP security for research and industry. This secure, digital approach is simple to use, more cost effective than traditional methods and protects all parties from confidentiality risks delivering immediate competitive advantages. For additional information call 866.474.6328 or visit www.e-zassi.com.

About SoPE

Society of Physician Entrepreneurs (SoPE) is a physician led non-profit member organization. SoPE's core mission is to help doctors who have ideas for products or services that will improve healthcare. SoPE provides education programs; a networking venue and services, including access to sources of financing that can assist them in bringing their idea to life. On a bigger stage, SoPE is spearheading an effort to promote a better understanding of the processes involved in the introduction of new healthcare related products and services and working with all stakeholders in healthcare to identify ways to improve and accelerate the process. For additional information call 703.879.7710 or visit www.SoPEnet.org.

Society of Physician Entrepreneurs (SoPE) Partners with e-Zassi to Drive Innovation | Business Wire

Technorati Tags: medical devices,collaboration,research and development,healthcare,science,technology,e-Zassi,intellectual property,patents,Web 2.0,SoPE,Society of Physican Entreprneurs

Alarm Fatigue and Health IT interoperability Are Top 10 Challenges Today With Medical Engineering And Pushing Some to Technology and Occupational Burn Out

If you are not familiar with alarm fatigue, it’s when too many alarms are going off at one time and clinical workers will tune some of them out, as there are false positives today that occur or the alarm would be minimal compared to other device alarms.   This is one of the reasons why I rant about software that does more than “one” thing and in the hospitals I’m sure some folks would be very appreciative of this.  I’ll repeat embedding this video once again that was from a couple months ago to give a better picture. 

“Alarm Fatigue”–Monitors at the Hospital That Sometimes Are Not Heard

When you look at the list, what is at the top, interfacing between devices and information system, what I said was overlooked a couple of years ago with meaningful use.  If you look at the entire list, these are all very common concerns as more technology enters the hospital and other health care facilities.  Number 2 is also big as “budgets and money” are a big concern here and with hospitals scraping for money and insurers getting richer, I think we are off balance here. 

We are starting to burn out the CIOs and maybe we burnt out the biggest one of all with Mr. Kundra leaving soon.  I could see it clear as day when I attended this conference in Los Angeles back in December of 2010.  I get frustrated just doing this blog and trying to offer straight talk that is not found elsewhere on some of this. 

CIO Confidence In Meaningful Use Drops-The New Left Curve of Technology That Arrives Daily Contributes-Don’t Burn These Folks Out

I guess I pay attention here being that I used to code and my head goes into auto pilot thinking about the work and planning with system that I see and I know it’s a lot of time and work and is taxing.  For those outside of the Health IT business, you may not have one clue as these folks get a new left curve with technology every day.  I’m working on a project right now that yesterday gave me a new left curve ad a partnership that used to exist ended so now I’m restructuring and re-designing my original plan, nothing I did, but a fast adjustment and change to make.  This is like a roller coaster out there today and I think almost any healthcare CIO will vouch for that. 

More technology without proper planning and enough training time for us humans to absorb is starting to have a negative effect as every system needs training and we have to learn how to work with it, and then add on some social network issues and the day is full.  Anymore I really don’t see how that many in Health IT have much time and just this week a favorite CIO of a hospital system told us all on Twitter that he missed us, he doesn't have time to even think about it any more.  I guess if you are not on some inside circles working with some of this, it might not be apparent as an outsider but it’s there and the list from the survey taken is real.  BD

SAN ANTONIO—In an Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) survey, clinical engineers and biomedical engineering technicians named interfacing devices and information systems the top challenge at their hospitals. Also ranked highly as challenging were maintaining computerized IT systems and managing alarm systems.
The information stemmed from a research survey commissioned in November 2010 conducted by Stratton Research via email, with questions sent to more than 2,500 hospital biomedical technicians and clinical engineers. There were 418 responses, and the results were published in the March/April issue of the Biomedical Instrumentation & Technology. Clinical engineers and hospital professionals met Monday at AAMI conference to discuss the findings.

The top ten challenges were:
1. Interfacing between devices and information systems
2. Maintaining computerized IT systems
3. Managing alarms
4. Maintaining and processing endoscopes
5. Broken connectors
6. Wireless management
7. Battery management
8. Problems with patient monitors
9. Problems with dialysis equipment
10. Managing the radiation dose from CT

Clark said that alarms, averaging between 200 and 600 per day at some hospitals, need applied management techniques. New systems should not necessarily be set with the default alarm settings that come with new equipment. He recommended getting below 100 patient alarms per day, or even as low as four per patient, he said. It’s been reported that the default alarm settings on monitors are not appropriate, and perhaps, overkill.
“Because it’s a complex problem, you need a complex solution,” Clark said. “We need a multi-disciplinary approach to resolve this problem. False alarms and nuisance alarms were by far the biggest problems that lead to alarm fatigue.”

AAMI: Alarm fatigue, IT, interoperability among top 10 biomed challenges

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New Century Brewing Closing Doors This Month as FDA Banned Moonshot Beer 5% Killer Caffeine? What’s Up with This?

You almost have to read the entire article at the link at the end of the post here to really appreciate the entire story.  When you look at the comparison of caffeine in other products and the fact that the beer was 5% versus other brands out there that were double, you kind of wonder what sense this makes.  Coffee, tea and other items were not touched, so what is with the FDA on this ruling, is it because it is beer? 

When you also look at Boston Beer’s Twisted Tea was not touched, this is kind of silly and I think they got a raw deal from the FDA.  The article states marketing was directed at adults and not like the Four Loko which contained 12% caffeine, and there are other products out there with caffeine.  Here’s a couple other strange FDA interpretations, just for the record, what do you think? Is it time for another Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert rally to restore some sanity with all these weird interpretations we see today? 

Cheerios Classified as a “Drug” by the FDA

Antiperspirants are Considered a Drug by the FDA – Recent Study looks at a connection possible between breast and prostate cancer

And if one missed their caffeine and you can’t ingest it, you can shower in it too or get some of these interesting lolly pops <grin>.  BD

Caffeine: Shower Shock Caffeinated Body Wash, Javapops

Rhonda Kallman was there back in 1984, helping Jim Koch get Boston Beer off the ground. She was there when it became publicly-traded, and when the Samuel Adams brand became a national powerhouse among craft brewers.

After tasting Boston Beer's success, Kallman was familiar with the potential rewards when she set out to start her own beer company in 2001. Kallman also knew all the hurdles - or at least she thought she did. Landing shelf space at distributors and retailers, here and in other major metro markets. Maintaining quality when the beer is made at an out-of-state brewery, by a separate company. Finding the financial backing to get the products in front of a wide audience.

But Kallman didn't count on what would be her biggest obstacle: The Food and Drug Administration.

Kallman is shutting down New Century Brewing for good this month, and preparing for the next challenge. The decision follows a move last fall by the FDA that essentially banned New Century's Moonshot beer because it contained caffeine.

Both drinks had caffeine. But they were quite different, in meaningful ways. Moonshot, like many pilsner beers, had a 5 percent alcohol content by volume. Four Loko's was closer to 12 percent. Moonshot came in standard 12-ounce bottles, Four Loko in those jumbo 23.5-ounce cans. As far as Kallman sees it, she made every effort to market her beer to adults, while Four Loko was aimed at a younger crowd.

None of that seemed to matter to the FDA when the agency lumped together Four Loko, Moonshot and two other caffeinated drinks in November. All four were determined to be unsafe because straight caffeine was added to them during the manufacturing process (alcoholic beverages containing tea or coffee, including Boston Beer's Twisted Tea, were left untouched).

Some entrepreneurs' dreams die from inadequate financing, commitment or energy. Others are pushed to the side to make room for a new priority. And some dreams, like Rhonda Kallman's, just get ground down by the merciless wheels of a government bureaucracy.

Chesto: FDA sounds last call for beer company - Dedham, Massachusetts - The Dedham Transcript

Technorati Tags: New Century Brewing,FDA,digital literacy,healthcare,beer,caffeine,laws,tea,alcohol

Mesoblast Gets FDA Approval to Begin Advanced Clinical Trials Using Stem Cells to Treat Chronic Lower Back Pain

Just from the title of this one I would think this trial could possibly fill up pretty quickly.  I just about can’t think of anyone who would want to pass up trying a stem cell treatment before an extensive surgical procedure on your back. 

Mesoblast's Heart Stem Cell Treatment to Rebuild Blood Vessels and Heart Muscles Has Positive Results–Regenerative Medicine

The company also has some good results showing that the Revascor treatment reduced the number of patients who developed any major heart failures from 40% to 6.7%, and those are substantial numbers.  Mesoblast is located in Australia.  The company also has other areas of regenerative medicine with bone regrowth and they are working on developing a product for direct injection into a diseased artery at the time of the angioplasty to increase the likelihood of long term survival of the limb.

From the website:

“For patients whose discs have degenerated too extensively for repair, bony fusion is the only viable option to eliminate pain. Mesoblast is in clinical trials with its bone fusion product NeoFuse™, in minimally invasive surgery for fusion of the spine.

Positive and well tolerated outcomes are expected to enable the company to compete effectively in the United States market where over 500,000 fusion procedures are performed annually. Currently BMP-2 marketed by Medtronic is a biologic that has approximately $1B/year in sales, however its market share is primarily attributed to off-label usage and has more recently been associated with a number of FDA safety warnings suggesting an opportunity for Mesoblast’s MPCs to quickly gain market share if superior and safer outcomes result from the clinical studies.”

MELBOURNE (Dow Jones)--Australian regenerative medicine company Mesoblast Ltd. (MSB.AU) said Wednesday it has been cleared by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration to begin an advanced clinical trial of its stem cell product to treat chronic low back pain.

The company said in a statement the Phase 2 trial would build on pre-clinical results that showed that degeneration of damaged intervertebral discs reversed, disc cartilage regrew and function was normalized six months after a low-dose injection of its regeneration product.

"There is a clear need for a product to reverse the degenerative process and regenerate the disc back to a healthy state," chief executive Silviu Itescu said.

"We believe our allogeneic adult stem cell product may represent a major breakthrough into this unmet market segment."

Mesoblast Cleared By FDA For Advanced Trials Of Back Pain Treatment - WSJ.com

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Insurance Mandate Tested Once More for Legality-Problem With This Part of Healthcare Reform is the Missing Public Option

I just somewhat wonder how many more opinions will be generated.  This is a touch option here to generate a good ruling.  As I said in the title, public option is missing and in some areas people are left without a non profit plan and are pretty much stuck with having to purchase a plan sold on the stock market which bothers many, as it bothers me with their continued profits while care lags.  In essence it just seems like who one asks that day as to what opinion you get. 

It only serves to get even more interesting when rulings are made by judges who can’t even keep up with their own investments and we have conflicts of interest going on, like this:

3 Judges in Health-Care Lawsuits Caught Up In Potential Conflict of Interest-It’s Called Subsidiary Watch-Be Aware of Your Investments With Mergers and Acquisitions

Myself, I don’t see where some of these interpretations are really based as the plan was perhaps OK when a public option was included, but once that was removed, the whole concept and game changed, so this is just a big mess and no matter who rules, consumers are NOT going to be happy with being forced to buy health insurance from publicly traded companies and especially in view of the somewhat less than ethical algorithms run for profit.  Again, a little high powered tech data sorting would do wonders to bring all the the consequences into a manageable viewing situation with some high powered queries.  This is not getting done manually or with a personal PC by any means today, but in the meantime look what benefits are at the end of the table.  BD 

Senate Staffers Get Free Participation in a Health Fair To Include Massages, Food Tastings, Use of MP3 on the Taxpayer’s Tab

President Obama's healthcare overhaul survived its first test before a federal appellate court, as the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati concluded that the law's insurance requirement is constitutional.
"We find that the minimum coverage provision is a valid exercise of legislative power by Congress under the Commerce Clause," a 2-1 majority of the panel concluded, rejecting a challenge by the conservative Thomas More Law Center.

Obama healthcare: Insurance mandate survives federal appeals court - Health Key

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Doctors in U.S. Turning Away Insured Patients–It All Has To Do With Contracts Negotiated, Renewals and Changes In the Payment and Other Related Algorithms

This was not supposed to be a key element in healthcare reform, but it is now.  I have covered a lot of this in the last 2 years here at the Medical Quack.  Not too long ago I posted about a hospital in Orange County who no longer took “employer” provided insurance from United.  It even confused a PR person at United who called me and said they have a contract there, and yes I agreed they do, but it was the “employer” provided element that excluded those patients, so private and other plans are ok.  Anyway I thought that was interesting to see even internally how the folks that work for some insures get confused too.  It’s a very complex world out there and most of the employers were being migrated from the old “Pacificare” contracts over to a “United” contract.  The link below was from April of 2010 and the big discussion here were the “capitation” rates. 

Employers in Orange County Looking for New HMO Contracts as St. Josephs and Some Others Begin Cancelling Agreements with Pacificare (UnitedHeatlhCare) – Employer Capitation Contracts

Not a believer in the impact of algorithms yet?  This post should somewhat perk some curiosity at minimum.  The point being made here is that physicians and their groups are looking at what they can afford to take and not to take and there are a few other elements that leave a bad taste for doctors too with reimbursement.  One such item was a practice from United to where they automatically deducted dollar amounts not connected to specific claims.  Now in addition to low compensation rates deducting an amount they felt was over paid earlier without a specific claim reference adds some accounting nightmares, enough to provoke a lawsuit. I have personally heard this complaint voiced. 

UnitedHealthcare ERISA Class Action Lawsuit Expanded to Include DME and Ambulatory Surgical Center Providers

“So the payment made on Jane Doe’s claim 3 months ago is being rescinded and deducted on an current EOB for other patients where Jane Doe is not even on the patient list  I can see where this affects the practice management software for the ambulatory doctors in the fact that the EOB is now short paid, and the short pay is not for a patient listed on this EOB for compensation, and thus the adjustments to keep current with all claims could stand to be an accounting nightmare.”

Now let’s come full circle with some recent news with credit agencies and their mergers and acquisitions and take a look at what they are doing.  The folks over at Harvard better get that study in high gear that is supposed to give us the impact of mergers and acquisitions in healthcare.  In the meantime you can find plenty here by searching that Google box above and used the words “subsidiary watch”.   These companies offer services to help the doctors determine who is not going to potentially pay and offer some software with predictive behavior and credit information, which the doctor can pay for.  They get it both ways it seems at times! The software will help them identify the patients who are a risk and I wonder if this focus is being marketed to somewhat put the fact that low compensation contracts are eating away at the root of all of this. 

Experian to Buy Medical Present Value For $185 Million–More “Algos” On The Way To Market Behavioral Analytical Software Processes? –Subsidiary Watch

This company says their credit algorithms can also help predict what patients will and will not take their medications which I see as a total mis match of analytical data for real decision making, and they intend to market insurers and pharmaceutical companies, again are we trying to focus outside the areas of low compensation once more and make the patient the bad guy?  What do you think?  I like data intelligence and how much smarter it makes us, but also realize that analytics can get out of hand with promising less than desired results but raise profits so don’t believe that every algorithm is the gospel, especially with sales and marketing on steroids today with selling our data.  Somebody has to talk about this fact and I guess it’s me today. 

FICO Credit Score Company Develops New Medication Adherence Scoring Program–Risk Management Assessment Algorithms Created to Derive Profits For Corporations–Fail!

In addition, some IPAs who maybe used to pay doctors what could be considered fair are now being bought out by insurers and we know pretty much when that occurs it may just be time for new contracts and I don’t those negotiated rates going up very much if at all.  Caremore, a big senior HMO in southern California was bought by Wellpoint and also Memorial Healthcare, was bought by United Healthcare, so as this occurs things change.  Don’t over look the availability of data that the corporate owners get too, as they will use it one way or another. 

There's lot of lawsuits ongoing too relative to compensation with physicians, hospitals and surgical centers and last year United settled the 15 year old under payment suit with the AMA.  Algorithms that low balled out of network charges for that long, think about the power of those algorithms and the formulas and all the big insurers jumped in and licensed their formulas too, so more lawsuits where other insurers on the hook too. 

Little me years ago used to help doctors with some small programs I wrote to where they could reconcile their EOB statements and mistakes and errors were found, so that’s why maybe I focus on this as I have seen it and helped fix some of this.  It’s not as bad as it used to be now that more healthcare companies and doctors are using technology but back 10 years ago it was a big issue of using analytics against those who did not have it nor had the time to manually reconcile. 

Outpatient Surgery Centers File Class Action Lawsuit Against UnitedHealth and Ingenix for Underpayments

So there’s part of the story from this point of view and remember those algorithms and formulas generate the parameters for new contracts. 

One more time for good measure, read Charlie Siefe’s book on “Proofiness” to kind of get a good start on how all of this works today.  He’s a professor at NYU and said he was going to like the math at the Quack <grin>.  I am keeping up my efforts here to help make sense out of a somewhat senseless world at times and again, it’s the math for profits driving the contracts.  BD 

“Proofiness–The Dark Side of Mathematical Deception”–Created by Those Algorithms

U.S. doctors are turning away an increasing number of patients, including those with private insurance, according to a study in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Physicians were willing to accept about 88 percent of patients who had private insurance in 2008, down from 93 percent in 2005, the study released today found. Patients in Medicare, the U.S. health insurance program for the elderly and disabled, also had a harder time finding a doctor. About 93 percent were accepted by physicians in 2008, down from 96 percent in 2005.

The drop in doctors willing to take private insurance was caused by low payments for services as well as administrative difficulties, said Dr. Tara Bishop, an assistant professor of public health at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York.

A reason that doctors may be accepting fewer patients is that some insurers have shrunk the network of doctors and hospitals they contract with to improve quality and value, said Robert Zirkelbach, a spokesman for America’s Health Insurance Plans. The group is the Washington trade association for health insurers led by Indianapolis-based WellPoint Inc. (WLP) and Philadelphia-based Cigna Corp. (CI)

Doctors in U.S. Turning Away Insured Patients on Low Payments, Study Finds - Bloomberg

Technorati Tags: PacifiCare,United Healthcare,health insurance,branding,HMO,Orange County,rebranding,St. Josephs Hospitals,capitation,contracts,IPA,algorithms