Monthly Archives: October 2012

Pumpkin Carving at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine

Posted on October 29, 2012 by
halloween-pumpkin-icon

One of my favorite things to do is see the companies in which Psilos invests “in action” and actually interacting with their customers. This is particularly engaging when it comes to medical devices, since the patient and provider experience are so tangible and visible. Last week I had the chance to attend the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) Annual Meeting (glad I did not attend on Menopause Day–yikes!). As I walked to my destination, I passed so many transvaginal ultrasound set-ups that I thought for a minute I was at the Republican Convention. But ASRM it was and I was there to visit with Psilos portfolio company OmniGuide, a medical device company based in Cambridge, MA, that was exhibiting its new gynecological laparoscopic and robotic products.

OmniGuide has for several years sold a set of unique CO2 laser surgical tools that have been used in more than 50,000 surgeries in the fields of otolaryngology, neurology and head and neck surgery. The company has recently added the gynecological field to its focus, as it’s products are uniquely able to remove tissue safely while surgeons work near fine structures within … (read the rest)

Posted in Healthcare, Healthcare Venture Capital, Innovation, Medical Devices, Patient Safety, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Medical Comedy Relief: Surviving an Imperfect iPhone 5

Posted on October 26, 2012 by
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For those of us in the mobile health world, it would be hard not to laugh at this Saturday Night Live skit skewering the iPhone 5 launch and those who have criticized it.

My favorite moment, which takes place as a conversation between a bunch of techno-geek journalists and the Chinese factory workers who made the new phone, occurs when the factory workers try to think of something Americans made so they have a chance to criticize in return; all they can think of that Americans manufacture is….diabetes.  It would be hilarious if it weren’t so close to the truth.

… (read the rest)

Posted in Medical Comedy Relief, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

They’re Real–Keep Them Spectacular

Posted on October 22, 2012 by
Just add analytics

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month in the U.S. and if you are a human being with breasts or a fan of same, be aware.  About 226,000 new cases are diagnosed each year and nearly 40,000 women die of breast cancer annually. Just as a point of reference, about 32,000 Americans die in car accidents every year.

And by the way, while men generally think of breast cancer as something their wives and mothers get, that is not always the case—men can get breast cancer too.  The number of new cases is small (1% of breast cancers occur in men), but male breast cancer gets diagnosed about 2000 times per year and 400 men die each year from breast cancer.  A close friend of my family, young and healthy (albeit with an unhealthy fascination with Bucky Badger), found out he had breast cancer earlier this year and had to go through the same miserable experience that so many women endure—surgery, chemo, the whole nine yards.  Since he was one of the few men over 50 who hadn’t already lost his hair, he got stuck with that too.   … (read the rest)

Posted in Consumer Engagement, Diagnostics and Screening, Health and Wellness, Medical Devices, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

It’s the Binders Full of Women, Stupid*

Posted on October 17, 2012 by
1950s-woman-cooking

Caution: Rant Ahead.

So Mitt Romney has “binders full of women” to choose from for executive positions, or at least he did, but apparently he and everyone else with such an arsenal never gets around to opening those binders.  I know it’s no fun to do homework, but if anyone bothered to look into those binders to find anything other than recipes for tuna casserole prepared June Cleaver style, they might find all those jobs they have been looking for.

Note to self:  if you go to Office Depot to buy binders full of women, will they cost 77% less than binders full of men?

Back to my point, in Dow Jones’ recent study called “Women at the Wheel,”  (the full study can be found here) researchers found:

  • The overall median proportion of female executives is 7.1% at successful companies and 3.1% at unsuccessful companies, demonstrating the value that having more females can potentially bring to a management team.
  • A company’s odds for success (versus non-success) increase with more female executives at the VP and director levels.
  • For start-ups with five or more females, 61% were successful

    • … (read the rest)

Posted in General Business Issues, Girls Rule!, Healthcare Policy, Uncategorized, Women in Venture Capital & Private Equity | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Employers and Health Innovation: Will They Go Long or Advance One Yard at a Time?

Posted on October 14, 2012 by
Innovators: Come into the light

Last week I had the honor of being asked to moderate a panel on cardiology innovations at the first Innovation Day meeting of the Pacific Business Group on Health (PBGH).  For those of you who don’t know PBGH, they are a San Francisco-based organization founded in 1989 that has 60 member companies comprised of large employers providing health care coverage to over 10 million Americans.  This is not your mom and pop crowd; companies involved in PBGH are those like Bechtel, Safeway, CalPERS, PG&E, WalMart, Exxon, Cisco, Twitter, Facebook, Intel, GE, McKesson…the everyday names everyone knows.  PBGH helps them think about healthcare policy and how to implement logical health benefit strategies that meet their corporate objectives.

The idea for the meeting, designed by Amanda Goltz, Senior Manager Director of New Initiatives for PBGH, and Aaron Apodaca, a San Francisco-based consultant who works with investors, foundations, and health and technology companies, was to engage large employers and the payers with whom they work to engage directly with entrepreneurs/innovators and venture capitalists in a discussion about new approaches to tackling employee benefit issues such as diabetes, cardiology, and other health problems … (read the rest)

Posted in Consumer Engagement, Healthcare, Healthcare Policy, Healthcare Reform, Innovation, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Woe Is Me

Posted on October 7, 2012 by
0206dayquil[1]

What is worse than an unhealthy healthcare person?  I am sure if you asked my current family, friends and acquaintances, the answer is a resounding “nothing!”

And thus, here I sit, some alleged “expert” on various healthcare topics, and all I can think is that no one ever felt so yucky as I currently do and that there is likely no positive intervention, not even time, that will address this, the illness di tutti illnesses: the common cold.  Woe is me.

Ironic, isn’t it, that I and my colleagues spend 82.7% of our waking hours telling people how to fix the healthcare system and how important patient engagement is and what they should be doing to prevent illness and all that jazz, but when it comes to ourselves, or at least myself, not so much. My current level of patient engagement is sitting on the couch looking engagingly pathetic so someone will bring me more Kleenex and maybe some tea–is that too much to ask?  Snort.  Prevent illness?  I am now in such a pathetic self-pitying state that I am hoping against hope to ward off the certain death that … (read the rest)

Posted in Consumer Engagement, Health and Wellness, Healthcare Policy, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

MuppetCare and the Election

Posted on October 3, 2012 by
Miss-Piggy-and-Kermit-miss-piggy-and-kermit-26998112-500-359

In the first Presidential debate held October 3, 2012, Mitt Romney raised to the public consciousness the idea that, while he likes Sesame Street, it might be worth cutting the show (via cutting overall PBS funding) to balance the federal budget.  More than any other issue on the table, this particular one begs the question: in a presidential debate where the candidates seemed to agree on more than they disagree, What Would the Muppets Do (WWMD?) and how does this critical swing vote impact the outcome of the election?

In exclusive coverage of the Muppet debrief of the debate, moderated by balcony-dwelling Jim Lehrer-look-alike commentators Statler and Waldorf, it became clear that the key issue for this voting segment is MuppetCare and how this program will impact the significant population of middle class puppets who we have come to know and love.  A brief summary of the concerns overheard in this discussion:

  • Would the IPAB (Independent Puppet Advisory Board) dictate Big Bird’s options if he contracted bird flu?
  • Will attempts to address the national obesity crisis lead to a limit on cookie size, a la New York City’s soda size

    • … (read the rest)

Posted in Healthcare Policy, Medical Comedy Relief, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 8 Comments

I’m On A Boat! The Rising Fleet of Incubators

Posted on October 1, 2012 by
Avast ye matey!

This post also ran in Health Care IT News on October 1, 2012

I was hanging out with Tom Rodgers of Cambia Health the other day and we were discussing the seemingly unrelenting trend of the formation of new technology incubators and accelerators, designed to help catapult the weird and wonderful ideas of entrepreneurs into actionable companies. The idea is to take these entrepreneurs and  the light bulbs that have formed over their heads, put them together with each other (often in a physical location with loft-like qualities), wrap them in a burrito of high quality resources and experienced mentors and cook for about three months until what comes out is one big yummy pile of companies ripe for gobbling up by venture capitalists.

This trend has been longer lived in pure technology and medical technology fields (YCombinator, Tech Stars, The Foundry) and more recently has come to the world of healthcare IT in a pretty big way with the formation of Rock Health, Blueprint Health, HealthBox, Janssen Labs, Start-Up Health and several others founded and in process. One can only imagine … (read the rest)

Posted in General Business Issues, Healthcare Information Technology, Healthcare private equity, Healthcare Venture Capital, Innovation, Uncategorized, Venture Capital | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 18 Comments