Monthly Archives: December 2012

From Russia with Love, Part Dvah (aka II)

Posted on December 31, 2012 by
thumb_design_product-3133-1225-843

This post also ran January 2, 2013 in Healthcare IT News.

Hello and Happy New Year everyone!  I am finally putting pen to paper (finger pads to computer keys? whatever) to write about the previously promised second half of my Russian visit.

As luck would have it, I happened to see my freshman year college roommate yesterday (Josie Everett), with whom I took one semester of Russian language classes when she and I were at Berkeley.  For me one semester was hard enough; I decided to stick with English, as it was a much faster track to getting your order delivered correctly at Starbucks. Josie ended up getting a Masters in Russian and now is Executive Director of an extremely cool foundation, the Heart to Heart International Children’s Medical Alliance, which helps bring modern pediatric cardiac surgery programs to Russia. It was fun to share stories (and vodka shots) and talk about the trip with Josie yesterday as she spends a great deal of time in and around the Russian healthcare system about which I am just learning.  Plus, now that there are Starbucks in Moscow … (read the rest)

Posted in Diagnostics and Screening, Digital Health, Healthcare, Healthcare Information Technology, Innovation, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

An Entrepreneur’s 12 Days of Start-Up Christmas

Posted on December 26, 2012 by
12-days1

Note: This post also ran December 26, 2012 in PE Hub.

Well, Christmas has drawn to a close and we will no longer be hearing Christmas music 24-7 in our cars, the mall, the workplace rest rooms.  Do you miss them yet?  Just in case, as a parting shot for the year I thought I’d add one last carol to the holiday ether for those of us connected with the wacky and wonderful world of start-ups.

We all know the 12 Days of Christmas Song, although most of us can never remember all the stupid categories.  For me I can never get those Lords a Leaping, forget the Pipers Piping.  Supposedly either the English or French wrote the song in the late 1700s, leading to more than 300 years of repetitive December radio play and mandatory grade school Christmas pageant inclusion.

According to the most widely accepted version, the gifts on the 12 days of Christmas are as follows:… (read the rest)

12 Drummers Drumming
11 Pipers Piping
10 Lords-a-Leaping
9 Ladies Dancing
8 Maids-a-Milking
7 Swans-a-Swimming
6 Geese-a-Laying
5 Gold Rings
4 Colly Birds
3 French Hens
2 Turtle Doves

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From Russia With Love

Posted on December 18, 2012 by
James+bond+2-+From+Russia+With+Love+(1965)_2

(reposted due to technical glitch….)

It is not everyday that a person gets to see something entirely foreign and new and have their eyes opened to things that delight and surprise them, but I have just returned from a week of that feeling and it was downright revelatory.

It started in November with an invitation I received from the Skolkovo Foundation, an Innovation-focused foundation established by the Russian government (yes, that Russia) to foster innovation across a variety of Russian industries.  The invitation was to participate as a speaker and moderator at a conference on digital health which would occur the week of December 9th in Moscow and, while there, to help judge a business plan competition in the same area, all expenses paid.  My first thought was that it was one of those scams where you end up having to buy a time share at the end, except that the invitation was co-signed by people who I know to be entirely legit and super smart: Dr. Milena Adamian, who runs the Life Science Angels Network Fund in New York, and well-known tech and health angel investor Esther Dyson… (read the rest)

Posted in Digital Health, Health and Wellness, Healthcare Information Technology, Healthcare Venture Capital, Innovation | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

From Russia with Love

Posted on December 17, 2012 by
James+bond+2-+From+Russia+With+Love+(1965)_2

It is not everyday that a person gets to see something entirely foreign and new and have their eyes opened to things that delight and surprise them, but I have just returned from a week of that feeling and it was downright revelatory.

It started in November with an invitation I received from the Skolkovo Foundation, an Innovation-focused foundation established by the Russian government (yes, that Russia) to foster innovation across a variety of Russian industries.  The invitation was to participate as a speaker and moderator at a conference on digital health which would occur the week of December 9th in Moscow and, while there, to help judge a business plan competition in the same area, all expenses paid.  My first thought was that it was one of those scams where you end up having to buy a time share at the end, except that the invitation was co-signed by people who I know to be entirely legit and super smart: Dr. Milena Adamian, who runs the Life Science Angels Network Fund in New York, and well-known tech and health angel investor Esther Dyson.  Ok, I figured, I’ll … (read the rest)

Posted in Consumer Engagement, Diagnostics and Screening, Healthcare Information Technology, Healthcare Reform, Healthcare Venture Capital, Innovation, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

In-Car Health Monitoring: Lemon or Lifesaver?

Posted on December 10, 2012 by
kitt_rider

This article was featured in Xconomy on December 10, 2012

Patient monitoring outside the hospital has been a hot topic (and also a not so hot topic) for the past 15 years.  Starting back in the late 1990s with companies like Health Hero Network, a company whose products for patient home monitoring are still in use today, company after company has sought to bring a successful product to market. The holy grail: finding an easy, non-intrusive, and continuously reliable way to predict patients’ potentially serious medical problems when it is early enough to do something about them and prevent an acute and expensive episode of illness.  Some of the newer companies are focused more on the wellness and tracking side of the equation, such as helping individuals see progress from an exercise or other preventive/health-inducing regimen.

So far this whole area has been a very tough nut for businesses to crack in the US in particular.  While some studies have shown great positive effect, others have not.  Insurance payment for these programs has been spotty at best and non-existent at worst; most of the current vendors are stuck in pilot hell … (read the rest)

Posted in Consumer Engagement, Diagnostics and Screening, Health and Wellness, Healthcare Information Technology, Preventive Health, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

The Big Data Song

Posted on December 3, 2012 by
hanukkah_dreidel_17

For the last two years I have done a healthcare-related parody song for the Christmas season (see here and here). But hey, I’m Jewish and the guilt finally got to me.  I decided to go with a parody to represent the tribe in honor of Hanukkah, which begins this Friday, December 8th.

Unlike Christmas, not a lot to choose from in the Hanukkah repertoire.  The Jews have really missed out on the holiday marketing front–no cute little elves, no Santa-equivalent, no Charlie Brown TV special and a dearth of musical choices.  Thus, I bring to you a parody of the only Hanukkah song I know (and the only one the vast majority of my Jewish American brethren know):  The Dreidel Song.

The premise for this came easily, as 2012 seemed to be the year of “Big Data,” or as my pal David Shaywitz says we used to call it, “Data.”  So, sung (or hummed to yourself) to the tune of Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel by Samuel S. Grossman and Mikhl Gelbart, I bring to you……

I Have a Lot of Data (aka The Big Data Song)… (read the rest)

I have a lot

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