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About Lisa Suennen
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Monthly Archives: August 2011
It’s Different for Girls
I had one of those moments today that make you realize how complicated the challenge of achieving equality of the sexes in the workplace (or anywhere) really is. I was sitting in the lounge at the gym watching the communal TV. On the screen: Piers Morgan and another guy talking about Hurricane Irene and specifically about the flooding at the Jersey Shore (now that is a Situation). A basic run-of-the-mill middle-aged white guy who looked to be about 50 years old sat down next to me on the couch to watch the TV, which had no audio since the sound was turned off.
For no obvious reason, Michelle Bachman came on the TV screen in the middle of the hurricane story. I said, “I hope that the audio is saying that she got washed out to sea in the storm.” My new seatmate says to me, “It must be really hard being a woman and watching her in a leadership role.”
Because I just can’t help myself, I said back to him, “I really don’t think of it that way. I just think she’s her own isolated idiot. I mean, … (read the rest)
Psst…Can You Sell Me a Dime Bag of Metformin? (plus a dose of Medical Comedy)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBb5v1sJhuU”>httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBb5v1sJhuU
If you opened the newspaper and saw an article that said drugs were in short supply and thus their street cost is skyrocketing, causing buyers to go deep into the black market and overseas to replenish their stores, what would immediately come to mind? Pablo Escobar? Willie Nelson needs to re-route his bus? Plot of Cheech and Chong’s comeback vehicle?
But the fact of the matter is that this is the very true story of the U.S. pharmaceutical market right now, where critical shortages of legal prescription drugs are leading physicians and hospitals to turn away patients and/or delay the administration of life-saving medicines. According to a recent NY Times article, “So far this year, at least 180 drugs that are crucial for treating childhood leukemia, breast and colon cancer, infections and other diseases have been declared in short supply — a record number.”
By the way, by “other diseases” they don’t mean weird stuff like cat scratch fever, they mean everyday problems such as diabetes, heart disease, and even drugs for surgery and anesthesia. In other words, we are talking shortages of drugs that could send everyone’s grandma … (read the rest)
FemBots, Rise Up!
If you are a regular follower of my blog, you know I like to write about the plight of women in business and the challenges we sometimes face in being treated equally to our male colleagues. As a regular reader you would also know that I am fascinated by how technology is being adapted and adopted to improve the human condition and that I sometimes like to make fun of some of the more over-the-top applications (see FitBit article HERE). And yet, when I read a story in the International Business Times entitled IBM Develops Brain-like Chip, I immediately recognized that my two of my pet issues were on a collision course.
According to the IB Times article, “IBM is deploying its [research] expertise in the attempt to accomplish the unthinkable: developing a chip to mimic the human brain. IBM says its new chip, called SyNAPSE, comes closer than anything done before at replicating the human brain, a breakthrough considering the system is capable of “rewiring” its connections as it encounters new information the same way the biological synapses of a human brain would.”
According to IBM Research … (read the rest)
Posted in Girls Rule!, Healthcare Information Technology, Random Thoughts of the Day, Uncategorized, Women in Venture Capital & Private Equity
Tagged brain chip, cognitive computing, Dharmendra Modha, healthcare IT, IBM, psilos, SyNAPSE, women in private equity, women venture capital
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Innovating for More Affordable Healthcare
Yesterday the Stanford Social Innovation Review published a 24-page supplemental section in its journal that was sponsored by the California HealthCare Foundation (CHCF) and entitled Innovating for More Affordable Healthcare. As a fervent UC Berkeley supporter it pains me to promote anything out of Stanford, but I admit this is some very interesting reading (it helps that a few of us Cal Bears snuck some editorial influence into the supplement, right Will?).
The supplement says it’s about “new ways for social investors to spur innovations that create better, stronger, faster, and less expensive healthcare in the US.” But if you read the piece as a whole, the 24-page supplement is really about how challenging it can be to bring about impactful innovation in the delivery of healthcare services and how very similar the issues are whether you are looking through a social or financial investor lens.
There are many articles in this document but a few items really stood out to me. Authors Stefanos Zenios and Lynn Denend underscore Mark Smith’s (CHCF) and Barbara Lubash’s (Versant Ventures) opening comments about how hard it is to get from a successful … (read the rest)
Posted in Health and Wellness, Healthcare, Healthcare Policy, Healthcare private equity, Healthcare Venture Capital, Uncategorized
Tagged arnold milstein, chaim indig, chcf, cms telemonitoring, health care investing, health care private equity, health care services, health care social investing, health hero network, healthcare innovation, healthcare services, healthcare venture capital, margaret laws, phreesia, psilos, stanford social innovation review, todd park
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World’s Healthiest Guinea Pig
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nltj2tJ26fg”>httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nltj2tJ26fg
The video at the bottom of this post is a 16 minute piece featuring author and Esquire columnist AJ Jacobs speaking at the TEDMed conference (the healthcare spin-off of the TED conference) about his journalistic quest to be the “healthiest man alive”. I got this video link from a friend, John Spongberg, who is a professional personal trainer whom I have known and worked with for years. He has a particular interest in the combination of exercise and nutrition and humor, so I can see why this video appealed. I know what you’re thinking: I do not have 16 minutes to watch some video. That may be the case, but it is pretty darn entertaining so read on, then watch. I recommend giving up 16 minutes of Jersey Shore to give it a view. Come on, you already know how it ends (Snookie’s drunk and arrested, blah blah).
If the video’s star, AJ Jacobs, sounds familiar, it is because he has become famous for some pretty hilarious extreme journalism antics. As he says in this video, he has been on a self-proclaimed 3-part quest to better himself: first brain, … (read the rest)
Peer Pressure Cooker
There was an article in the August 8th issue of Venture Beat entitled, “Do teens make good founders? 6 teenage teams make their debut to find out.” As the parent of a teenager, my immediate thought was, “yeah, sure, right after they clean up their rooms and set the table, they can be totally awesome founders, as long as they can tear themselves away from the latest installment of the Twilight series.” What do I know? As it turns out, some kids actually do get off the couch and take action to be the next Steve Jobs.
The VentureBeat article I mentioned above is about an entrepreneurial incubator put together by Teens in Tech. The Teens in Tech Incubator is an 8-week summer program which helped six teams of young entrepreneurs launch six products over the course of a summer. Teams come with ideas, get paired up with mentors and resources, and are guided through the process of bringing their ideas to life. At the end of the 8 weeks, the teams present their startups to a group of venture capitalists, tech influencers, members of … (read the rest)
Living on the (Health) Edge
Can you imagine if every day you went to work and 20% of the time you screwed up? I realize that this is how baseball players live their lives, with a batting average around .300 or less, but I’m talking about other people. Say you’re Beyonce and 20% of the time, when you step up to the microphone, your voice cracks uncontrollably. Or you’re a race car driver and 20% of the time you finish your day upside down with the wheels spinning. Maybe you’re a lion tamer and in 1 out of every 5 circus performances you end up inside the lion. I’m guessing you would not be in business for long. Or maybe you’re just a regular person, say a mailman, and you deliver 20% of the mail to the wrong address, or a Starbucks Barista and 20% of the time you make a latte when the customer asked for a Frappuccino, which is really bad when said customer needs their coffee STAT.
Now imagine you’re in a job that fundamentally affects other people’s lives, like say healthcare. What if people in the healthcare field made … (read the rest)
Posted in Healthcare, Healthcare Information Technology, Healthcare Venture Capital, Uncategorized
Tagged AMA claims payment, claims payment, claims system, healthcare claims, healthcare IT, healthcare private equity, healthcare venture capital, healthedge, HealthRules, PPACA, psilos, seechange health
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