Category Archives: Uncategorized

Sugar, Sugar

Posted on February 20, 2012 by
sugar

Last week there was a report about a patron of the Las Vegas-based Heart Attack Grill suffering a massive heart attack while consuming the restaurant’s famed “Triple-bypass Burger.”    It would be funny if it weren’t so awful, but it is clearly the height of irony.  I have written a few articles about the Heart Attack Grill (see here and here) mainly tongue-in-cheek but with a serious bent; but when you see an article like this, it is hard to say anything other than,  “coulda seen that coming.”    That issue of personal responsibility is a huge theme when it comes to poor eating behavior.  Typically, others look at the offender and say, “well, they shoulda known….they shoulda controlled their eating habits, serves them right…now pass the French fries.”

From an academic standpoint, however, that issue of diet-related personal responsibility is in question. Well-known physician and researcher, Robert Lustig, a leader in the UCSF Department of Pediatrics and the Director of the UCSF Center for Obesity Assessment, Study and Treatment believes there is more to the story.  This is a guy who has made a career of studying and treating … (read the rest)

Posted in Consumer Engagement, Health and Wellness, Healthy Eating, Preventive Health, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Enter the Consumer

Posted on February 14, 2012 by
maru-youtube-cat-4_1

I was in Newport Beach last week to chair IBF’s Consumer Health and Wellness Innovation Summit.  It was a very interesting event with about 100 people from many different segments of the health and wellness industry—a very eclectic crowd.  There were people there from healthy food purveyors (Nestle, Kelloggs), provider organizations (MDVIP), health insurance firms (United Health Group, SeeChange Health) and even the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  There were also a plethora of entrepreneurs representing a variety of emerging wellness and preventive health companies and, of course, the venture firms that they love and hate.  10 years ago you could not fill a room with people to talk about consumer health; now it is becoming a mainstream topic.

The consumer, aka the patient, has been largely absent from the healthcare discussion for far too long.  Yet recently, a harmonic convergence of events has put the consumer center stage in the healthcare discussion.  Those events include:

  • The devastating human and financial toll of chronic illness. CDC estimates that 50% of Americans over 18 have one or more chronic illness.  At the event I had the wonderful

    • … (read the rest)

Posted in Consumer Engagement, Health and Wellness, Healthcare, Healthy Eating, Preventive Health, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Safe Travels?

Posted on February 8, 2012 by
Public enemy #1

I am writing this from seat 13F on Southwest’s flight to Orange County, CA, headed to my role as chairman of this year’s IBF Conference on Consumer Health and Wellness Innovation.  Ironic, I think, as I have become increasingly confident that air flight is the antithesis of health and wellness. Some people believe that the most dangerous place on earth is Somalia or Syria or the inside of Newt Gingrich’s brain, but in terms of places I am likely to go, I think that the inside of one of these flying tubes ranks right up there.

As I read my notes for the conference while standing in the line to board the plane, I noticed that the sign at the plane’s door informs you that the jet fuel fumes that permeate the jetway are known to cause cancer and birth defects. That was, of course, the first note of irony in my day, as I was reading about the kinds of activities individuals can and should do to minimize the risk of such afflictions as diabetes and cancer. The lists always includes eating broccoli and getting proper sleep, but no … (read the rest)

Posted in Health and Wellness, Healthcare, Preventive Health, Random Thoughts of the Day, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Are You Still Working On That?

Posted on February 3, 2012 by
A color and taste not found in nature

This week humorist Andy Borowitz sent out a Tweet on Twitter (I still feel like an idiot when I say Tweet with a straight face) which said, “Waiters say “Are you still working on that?” because Americans treat eating like a career.”  As with all things Andy Borowitz, it was meant to be be funny but with the hard ring of truth. By the way, if you want to laugh until you snort your Starbucks order out through your nose, follow Borowitz’ coverage of the US Presidential campaign, which you can get HERE. You’re welcome.

But back to the point at hand.  Americans spend more time thinking and talking about their next meal than do the Ethiopians, and that’s saying something. God knows what percent of TV commercials are for junk food, but it’s a healthy number (or unhealthy one as the case may be).  I haven’t seen the 2012 Super Bowl yet, but I’m going to wager that at least 1/3 of the high priced ads are going to be for things that you really want to eat or drink but really but shouldn’t. The other 2/3 of … (read the rest)

Posted in Consumer Engagement, Health and Wellness, Healthcare Policy, Healthy Eating, Preventive Health, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Vision Without Execution is Hallucination

Posted on January 29, 2012 by
Thomas Edison: Turn on your heartlight

Recently Steve Case wrote an Op-Ed in the Washington Post called Give Entrepreneurs Room and They Will Grow the Economy. For those not familiar with him, Case was the original founding CEO of AOL and he has been an active healthcare investor, among other things, for the past 7 years. My firm, Psilos Group, has previously co-invested with Case’s Revolution Health Fund.

Anyway, it was a very good editorial and one of the statistics within it particularly stood out to me in light of my venture capital role: firms less than five years old have produced 40 million American jobs over the past three decades — accounting for basically all of the net new jobs created in that period. That is a pretty stunning fact and also one that really makes a person scratch their head about current U.S. policy towards start-ups. It is worth watching this Kauffman Foundation 3 minute video that is very instructive about start-ups and job creation.

No where is this issue more relevant than in the healthcare industry, which conveniently happens to be the only thing I know anything about. In a world where … (read the rest)

Posted in General Business Issues, Healthcare Information Technology, Healthcare Policy, Healthcare private equity, Healthcare Reform, Healthcare Venture Capital, Innovation, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Not Quite a No-Brainer

Posted on January 22, 2012 by
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I just read an article entitled 25 Things You Didn’t Know About the Human Brain.  As a lay-person who works in the medical field, I love these stories that attempt to turn the true mysteries of science and medicine into pop culture style information digestible by the masses.  While some of the facts in the brain article were more to the structural (the brain has 100,000 miles of blood vessels in it), others were more intriguing and got my imagination wandering.

My favorite factoid in the article was this:  your brain generates between 10 and 23 watts of power at rest, enough to power a light bulb.  I wonder if this is what led to the convention of showing a light bulb above the head to connote the formation of an idea. Perhaps this is a revelation that might lead to a solution to our nation’s demand for clean energy (excepting those with dirty minds, I suppose). Is there any way to harness the wattage of sleeping people to power their iPads and iPhones for tomorrow’s business day?  Just think: no more slumming at Starbucks to use the free … (read the rest)

Posted in Health and Wellness, Random Thoughts of the Day, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Study the Boomers! An Xconomy Report on Education

Posted on January 17, 2012 by
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Xconomy, an extremely informative and smart web publication, today released a special Report on the Future of Education  They compiled the content of the report by canvassing their Xconomists—whom they refer to as some of the world’s leading innovators, entrepreneurs, and investors—for their thoughts on what students should study to be prepared for the future.  The specific question they posed was this:  What should students be studying now to prepare for 10 years from now?

Twenty-two of Xconomy’s advisors, these so-called Xconomists, gave a variety of interesting responses.  Fortunate to be among the esteemed list of people whose opinions were included, my answer was this:  Study the Boomers!  The article below was the substance of my specific response, which can also be found on the Xconomy website by clicking HERE.

Study the Boomers!

The Who once sang, “I hope I die before I get old.” Despite their best efforts to exit the planet early, most of them didn’t. They and their fellow Baby Boomers represent the greatest technology and business opportunity of the 21st Century.

It is typical for each of us to be drawn to areas for … (read the rest)

Posted in Consumer Engagement, General Business Issues, Health and Wellness, Innovation, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Where The Boys Are…And Not The Girls: Tales from the 2012 JP Morgan Healthcare Conference

Posted on January 14, 2012 by

I set off for five straight days at the annual JP Morgan healthcare conference last Monday, but on the way drove the carpool to my daughter’s high school that morning in a last ditch attempt to act like a responsible and caring parent. My poor daughter gets completely abandoned during JP Morgan week every year and, as she so aptly put it, it is a mixed blessing. When I arrived home finally yesterday afternoon she said to me that she likes that I am not there to tell her what to do, but not that I am not there to act as her personal assistant and laugh at her jokes. I must admit, she is pretty funny. Especially that part about the personal assistant.

Anyway, during my last parental act of last week, my daughter’s friend, who also happens to be a JP Morgan orphan (her dad is also a healthcare venture capitalist), asked me from the back seat, “So, are there many women at this conference?”

It was interesting to get that question from a 15 year old, as it certainly wasn’t the kind of thing I worried about … (read the rest)

Posted in Girls Rule!, Healthcare, Healthcare private equity, Healthcare Venture Capital, Uncategorized, Women in Venture Capital & Private Equity | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Where in the World is Lisa Suennen?

Posted on January 11, 2012 by
whereintheworld

Warning: shameless self-promotion today—will be back to more thematic ideas next week if my feet and I survive the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference and Circus, which is occurring this entire week in San Francisco.  Pretty much the entire healthcare world shows up for this, which means you see old friends and new, as well as people you hoped you might not have to see again.  If you wanted to “Occupy Healthcare,” this is the place to do it.  In any event, It always an interesting experience full of insight, deal-making, cocktail therapy and blister treatments. So for now, with time somewhat limited for committing deep-ish thoughts to paper, I thought I’d put a plug out there for a few conferences at which I have been fortunate to be invited to speak.

The first is The Personalized Medicine World Conference (PMWC), which bills itself as the only fully integrated conference to examine the advances and challenges of Personalized Medicine through a practical lens. PMWC brings together the thought-leaders of business, government, healthcare-delivery, research and technology into one information-rich, two-day conference and offers a really interesting agenda looking at the ideas of personalized medicine … (read the rest)

Posted in Girls Rule!, Health and Wellness, Uncategorized, Women in Venture Capital & Private Equity | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Come Forth into the Light of Things

Posted on January 2, 2012 by
SonyHoliday_14_0814

Come forth into the light of things, let nature be your teacher–William Wordsworth

So here it is, the last day of my winter vacation, and I am sitting inside watching people play ball outside at the Rose Bowl.  It might not seem so crazy to those of you who either love football or live in a cold climate that one would spend January 2nd indoors; but where I live it is about 60 degrees and sunny.  While I do love watching football, there is no legitimate weather-related excuse for being indoors, particularly since I have TIVO.

In addition to watching large men smash into each other on TV, I also used today to catch up on old magazines that are currently forming a looming architectural structure in my home that is getting large enough to require a light to alert approaching airplanes.  The fact that I am staring into a screen (while my daughter is next to me playing Temple Run on her iPhone) and not frolicking out in nature became particularly poignant as I finally got to a November 7th Newsweek article entitled “Don’t Let the … (read the rest)

Posted in Health and Wellness, Preventive Health, Random Thoughts of the Day, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments