Monthly Archives: February 2011

Start Every Day with a Smile and Get It Over With

Posted on February 26, 2011 by

Start Every Day with a Smile and Get It Over With–W.C. Fields

We have all heard the old adage that frowning takes more muscles than smiling.  Sometimes it’s 2 times as many muscles, sometimes it’s as many as 5 times, but either way, it’s the annoying thing people say when you look less than happy and they are trying to get you to perk up and smile at them.  This muscle logic is often used by well-meaning people who are saying, in effect, “Go take the easier road and smile…everyone will feel better, including you (despite the fact that you are not in a smiley mood).”  Often people react to that admonition by slapping a smile, albeit fake, on their face to appease the other person.  There, now, everyone feels better, right?

Smiles are one of the things that we as a society place great value upon.  When people we know and even people we don’t know won’t smile back at us, it makes us very insecure and uncomfortable.  Those damn smiley faces have even invaded the emails and texts we send and have become a synonym for “just … (read the rest)

Posted in Health and Wellness, Healthcare, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

What’s Yours Is Actually Mine

Posted on February 20, 2011 by
Photo of actual HeLa cells

Imagine someone you barely knew came to your neighborhood and took a picture of you playing with your kids at the park and then turned around and used it in an advertisement to promote a product they developed.  How would you feel?  Presumably you would be highly perturbed.  You might even want to sue them for invasion of privacy.  Most likely your case would turn on the violation of your right to publicity, which is, according to the Citizen Media Law Project (CMLP): the right of a person to control and make money from the commercial use of his or her identity.   It probably wasn’t illegal for that person to take your picture since you were in a public place, but their use of it in a money-making endeavor changes the rules.

CMLP goes on to say that if someone “sues you for interfering with that right [of publicity]” they “generally must show that you used his or her name or likeness for a commercial purpose. This ordinarily means using the plaintiff’s name or likeness in advertising or promoting your goods or services, or placing the plaintiff’s name or … (read the rest)

Posted in Diagnostics and Screening, Healthcare, Healthcare Policy, Random Thoughts of the Day, Real Science, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

VC or Valentine? How Venture Investing Is Like Romance

Posted on February 14, 2011 by
When It All Works Out It's Golden

As I have mentioned before, I co-teach a class at the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business on healthcare venture capital.  One of the lectures is used to discuss how venture investment relationships start, and especially how they mature and end.  As I reflected on the class after the first time I taught it, I had a sudden realization that a venture investment has many of the characteristics, both good and bad, of a romantic relationship. On this Valentine’s Day, I thought I’d share some of the highlights from this lecture (you can see all the slides from the lecture by clicking here).

My concept is encapsulated in this chart below:

Given the number of deals that the average venture capitalist sees, there is an aspect of speed dating to the whole deal selection process.  With the number of potential investment candidates we meet, it is easy to see how a typical venture relationship has it all:  the catching of the eye, the flirtation and, if you really like each other, the courting phase.  Some people call this “competing term sheets,” but if it’s meant to be, you ultimately … (read the rest)

Posted in Healthcare Venture Capital, Uncategorized, Venture Capital, Women in Venture Capital & Private Equity | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Health Reform in California-The Movie

Posted on February 12, 2011 by
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgUGQXet3q4″

For those of you interested in the program I moderated in Sacramento last week on Health Reform in California, here is the video for you to watch.  The overall program is about 90 minutes, but the actual panel starts at minute 17:35 (before that is some remarks from Sacramento Mayor (and former basketball star) Kevin Johnson and also Congresswoman Doris Matsui, who speaks about the ideas behind the drafting of the PPACA.

The panel had some pretty heavy hitters from the California healthcare marketplace, including:

  • Paul Markovich, Chief Operating Officer of Blue Shield
  • Diana Dooley, CA Secretary of Health and Human Services
  • Cindy Ehnes, Director, CA Department of Managed Care
  • Saum Sautaria, MD, Director, McKinsey & Co Healthcare Practice

It was a great program with some excellent repartee and real meat from the panelists.  I hope you enjoy the show!

… (read the rest)

Posted in Healthcare, Healthcare Policy, Healthcare Reform, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Of SportsCenter and Ovaries

Posted on February 9, 2011 by
Please Tell Me It Was Just a Big Meal

On February 9, 2011 in Fortune’s online newsletter called The Term Sheet (required reading for us venture/private equity folk) there was a story written by Dan Primack entitled, “Private equity is a man’s world… seriously.”

In the article, Dan chides: “Are you a woman who wants to succeed in private equity? Here’s some free advice: Learn about sports. And don’t get pregnant. In fact, it might be best to project an active antagonism toward motherhood.”  I have met Dan and I am quite confident he doesn’t actually believe this sentiment himself, but it does have a remarkable ring of truth to it.

Dan came to his advice by way of a study by Catherine Turco, a Harvard scholar who published a new study called Cultural Foundations of Tokenism: Evidence from the Leveraged Buyout Industry. In her study, Turco reminds us that fewer than 10% of private equity professionals are women and identifies two primary reasons for the somewhat overt discrimination against women:  a lack of sports intelligence and the presence of functioning ovaries.

According to Turco, the first reason men exclude women is because they can’t quote the point … (read the rest)

Posted in Girls Rule!, Healthcare Venture Capital, Venture Capital, Women in Venture Capital & Private Equity | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Healthcare Reform in California: Which Side of the SeeSaw Are We On?

Posted on February 5, 2011 by
seesaw

I mentioned in my last post that I was headed off to host UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies program on Health Reform in California. Yesterday I had the honor of moderating a star-powered panel of health reform experts comprised of leading doers and thinkers in our California healthcare ecosystem.  Speaking in front of a room of about 200, we had a lengthy discussion about how healthcare reform will proceed in California, including how the details of reform may affect our State. There were some great discussions and the panelists, who included Diana Dooley, newly appointed CA Secretary of Health and Human Services, Cindy Ehnes, Director of the CA Department of Managed Care, Paul Markovich, Chief Operating Officer, Blue Shield of CA and Saum Sutaria, MD, Director of McKinsey & Co., were highly engaged in the debate.

Some of the discussion was to be expected and would be familiar to those who frequently think and read about healthcare reform. However, a few items really stood out to me and I thought I would highlight those today.

The very first question I asked the panel was, “What should the top 1-2 … (read the rest)

Posted in Healthcare, Healthcare Information Technology, Healthcare Policy, Healthcare Reform, Healthcare Venture Capital, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Transmogrifying California Healthcare

Posted on February 2, 2011 by
Provider goes in, ACO comes out...theoretically

I’m really looking forward to this coming Friday, February 4th, as I get to moderate a panel on “The Impact of Health Reform on California.”  The panel, which was organized by UC Berkeley’s Institute for Governmental Studies is being held in Sacramento and will take place before a sold-out crowd of nearly 200, in large part because it has a meaty topic and some really top-notch participants, including:

  • Diana Dooley
    Secretary, Health and Human Services Agency
  • Cindy Ehnes
    Director, California Department of Managed Healthcare
  • Paul Markovich
    Chief Operating Officer, Blue Shield of California
  • Saumya Sutaria
    Director, McKinsey & Co.

Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson (who I went to college with) and Congresswoman Doris Matsui will also make some remarks.

This should be a great event because each of the panelists has a pretty significant role to play in how the State of CA adopts and adapts to health reform, and there is a remarkable amount at stake.

Saul Bellow once said, “California is like an artificial limb the rest of the country doesn’t really need.”  That may be true, but in our healthcare economy we can’t afford to amputate.… (read the rest)

Posted in Healthcare, Healthcare Information Technology, Healthcare Policy, Healthcare Reform | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments