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About Lisa Suennen
Yes, it’s me
Most Popular Posts
- Government as an Engine for Innovation
- The Machine That Goes Ping!
- Smoke on the Water: Fireworks in Cleveland
- Hey, Where Is Everybody Going?
- mHealth: Hallelujah or Bah Humbug?
- Age is a High Price to Pay for Maturity
- Where The Boys Are…And Not The Girls: Tales from the 2012 JP Morgan Healthcare Conference
- Safe Travels?
- Sugar, Sugar
- Disney’s Habit Heroes: Evil or Evil Genius?
- SXSW: Woodstock for Geeks
- TMI, Dude!
- 96 Ways To Say “Bite Me”
- Man! I Feel Like a Woman!
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Recent Posts
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- Friday Medical Comedy Relief: Crystal Clear
- Driving My Life Away, Looking for a Better Way…to Engage Consumers
- Choosing Elephantoplasty Wisely
- Give ‘Em That Old Razzle Dazzle
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Tag Archives: healthcare private equity
Come Forth into the Light of Things
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)
11:59 and Not a Second Later
Okay, I know it’s kind of cheating, but I am re-posting my column from New Year’s 2011 where I turned Auld Lang Syne into an ode to venture capital. Why? you ask. Because I haven’t been able to come up with another decent New Year’s song to parody and I have been drinking far too much this holiday season to come up with something entirely new. Let’s hope that some of that cell regeneration stuff that my colleagues are funding will help me out in the year to come.
As for potential alternative New Year’s songs to work with, there is an unfortunate dearth of options. Unlike Christmas, which is full of good music that everyone knows, New Year’s has been left in the dust. There is, of course, Barry Manilow’s Just Another New Year’s Eve, but I deemed that too depressing; plus it has become remarkably unhip to admit you know the words to Barry Manilow songs. There’s also Dan Fogelberg’s Just Another Auld Lang Syne; you remember–the one that starts, “I met my old lover in the grocery store…” Had to ding that one for being … (read the rest)
Posted in Healthcare, Healthcare Policy, Healthcare private equity, Healthcare Venture Capital, Private Equity, Random Thoughts of the Day, Uncategorized, Venture Capital
Tagged auld lang syne, healthcare private equity, healthcare venture capital, new year's songs, psilos, venture capital
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mHealth: Hallelujah or Bah Humbug?
3600 people and I went to the mHealth Summit earlier this week in Washington, DC and, having spent the better part of 48 hours listening, I am still not sure what to make of this emerging healthcare sector.
Given the incredible energy and high attendance at the conference, it would be easy to get caught up in the hype that surrounds mobile health and it’s many potential uses. There were an enormous number of companies present and news of many new financings (e.g. HealthTap receiving $11.5 million from Mayfield, Mohr Davidow and others).
For those of you not yet familiar with the buzz word, mHealth is basically what you get when you cross healthcare with mobile phones. It is essentially the love child of Ma Bell, Hippocrates, Dr. Oz and Steve Jobs. For the true believers, and there are a lot of them, mHealth is the answer to the healthcare systems prayers. By bringing texting and Wifi and reams of personalized data to the fingertips of the masses, healthcare will right itself, costs will decrease and angels will sing. Can I get a Hallelujah?
The entrepreneurs in the mHealth space … (read the rest)
Posted in Diagnostics and Screening, Health and Wellness, Healthcare Information Technology, Healthcare private equity, Healthcare Venture Capital, Innovation, Uncategorized
Tagged alivecor, asthmapois, cellscope, consumer engagement, eric topol, fooducate, healthcare IT, healthcare private equity, healthcare venture capital, mhealth, mHealth Summit, mobile health, patient safe solutions, psilos, weltel, west wireless institute
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More on “Hey, Where Is Everybody Going?”
Last week I published a post called “Hey, Where Is Everybody Going?” which was about the many venture capitalists who are leaving the practice of life sciences. It was, interestingly (to me anyway), my most popular post to date. I guess there are a lot of us healthcare VCs that are worried that the next time we open the door there will be a new guy in a black hood holding a scythe–and he’s not the same guy that usually comes to the partners’ meetings.
Anyway, the Burrill Report called me and asked me to elaborate on the topic in an interview for their weekly podcast so here is the outcome of that endeavor for those of you just dying to hear my voice (hi mom!). You can listen to the podcast by clicking HERE and following the link on the Burrill Report website.
Hey, Where Is Everybody Going?
If you are simply reading the paper or engaging in any random cocktail party conversation these days, it doesn’t take long before you are reading or talking about healthcare. Health and healthcare issues have been a dominant topic in the national media since the 2008 Presidential election and have been constantly in the news as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) has taken center stage. Even if PPACA weren’t always in the headlines, stories about employers who are grasping for solutions to their healthcare cost crises would still be.
Given the massive amount of change currently underway in the U.S. healthcare economy that has resulted from PPACA, the earlier healthcare IT stimulus legislation (ARRA) and the acts of employers saying that they’re mad as hell and not going to take it anymore, we have bona fide industry upheaval on our hands. And where there is upheaval, there is opportunity. Today more than ever there is a tremendous opportunity to find new ways of doing business in the world of healthcare through changing delivery systems, insurance models, technology solutions, drug discovery, device innovation and just about everything else that … (read the rest)
Posted in General Business Issues, Healthcare Reform, Healthcare Venture Capital, Innovation, Private Equity, Uncategorized, Venture Capital
Tagged advanced technology ventures, cmea, fda, healthcare private equity, healthcare venture capital, highland capital partners, medical device investing, morgenthaler, nvca, PPACA, prospect ventures, psilos, scale venture partners, versant ventures
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Smoke on the Water: Fireworks in Cleveland
I spent the early part of this week attending the Cleveland Clinic Medical Innovation Summit and, despite the fact that the Cleveland Clinic stubbornly insists on holding it’s conference in Cleveland (aka The Mistake on the Lake), it was well worth attending.
Cleveland is an interesting town. Once upon a time, when old white men roamed the earth in cars driven by chauffeurs, Cleveland was the nation’s fifth largest city and had the highest number of Fortune 500 headquarters of any US city. Today, the Cleveland Clinic is the largest employer in the city, which is known also for a river that used to spontaneously combust and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (the perfect song for this occasion is clearly Smoke on the Water). In a way Cleveland is the perfect place to honor aging rock stars, as they can pick up a statuette and an angioplasty on the same trip. By the way, the river doesn’t catch fire anymore I’m told. I was worried because the Clinic hosted a pretty impressive fireworks display over Lake Erie for their 1500 guests and no doubt most of us expected … (read the rest)
Posted in Healthcare, Healthcare Policy, Medical Devices, Uncategorized
Tagged Catheter-Based Renal Denervation, cleveland clinic, cleveland healthcare, consumer engagement, GE Healthcare, health insurance, healthcare IT, healthcare policy, healthcare private equity, healthcare reform, healthcare venture capital, medical innovation summit, medical technology, psilos, top 10 medical innovations
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I Know What You’re Thinking
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WofFb_eOxxA”>
No, seriously, I actually do know what you’re thinking. Or I would, anyway, if I subjected you to what has got to be the most alarming development in neuroscience that I have seen lately or ever.
According to a story I read in Gizmodo entitled Scientists Reconstruct Brains’ Visions Into Digital Video In Historic Experiment, “UC Berkeley scientists have developed a system to capture visual activity in human brains and reconstruct it as digital video clips. Eventually, this process will allow you to record and reconstruct your own dreams on a computer screen.”
Okay my fellow UC Berkeley colleagues, nice trick. But seriously, are you sure you want to continue with this research? I am guessing that most of us have had enough weird dreams–forget waking thoughts—to know that most should be permanently shielded from public scrutiny.
Yet according to Professor Jack Gallant, UC Berkeley neuroscientist and coauthor of the research published in the journal Current Biology, “This is a major leap toward reconstructing internal imagery. We are opening a window into the movies in our minds.“ Lead research author Shinji Nishimoto adds,”…this is the first step to … (read the rest)
The Machine That Goes Ping!
Sometimes when I write this blog I have the funny punch line in mind before I find the story to highlight it; other times the healthcare story finds me and then I look for the humor in it. This is an example of the former. I have been saving what is one of my all time favorite medical comedy videos from my comedy idols, the Monty Python guys, for when I saw the perfect story. Today is that day. You’re welcome.
I came across an article from yesterday’s Los Angeles Times entitled, “Doctors should learn how to help manage healthcare costs.” in which to Dr. Steven E. Weinberger, chief executive of the American College of Physicians, talks about how physicians, during their residency, should be specifically trained in how to help reduce costs of unnecessary procedures, particularly extra diagnostic tests and other hospital-based interventions. According to Dr. Weinberger, it is not enough to teach physicians medical knowledge and patient care skills; they must learn “how to provide high-quality medical care without breaking the bank.” This assertion would have been considered heresy not long ago, and probably still is in … (read the rest)
Posted in Diagnostics and Screening, Healthcare, Healthcare Information Technology, Medical Devices, Uncategorized
Tagged dr. steven weinberger, health care costs, healthcare, healthcare private equity, healthcare venture capital, machine that goes ping, medical technology, psilos, unnecessary medical spending
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96 Ways To Say “Bite Me”
Once upon a time we marveled at the fact that Baskin Robbins had come up with 31 flavors—what a smorgasbord of opportunity. Then they branched out into seasonal flavors, regional flavors, even frozen yogurt, which vaulted them upwards into having more than 50 flavors. What a joy to behold: more is definitely better when it comes to ice cream.
Same story for television. Some of you, those that are resting comfortably next to me in a nursing home, will remember the old days when we had ABC, CBS, NBC and Channel 13 as the primary TV channel choices. Then there were 13 channels, then around 20, and now my mercenary cable providers shows me more than 700. This example is a little sketchier. More than 4 channels is definitely better. As many as 700? Well, I guess it works if you figure that they are trying to capture everyone in the world’s tastes, even those that want to watch Jersey Shore and Deadliest Catch.
So what do we make, then, of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid’s (CMS) recent announcement of the updating of the diagnosis codes that … (read the rest)
Posted in Diagnostics and Screening, Healthcare, Healthcare Information Technology, Healthcare Policy, Healthcare Reform, Random Thoughts of the Day
Tagged cms, diagnostic codes, healthcare, healthcare IT, healthcare private equity, healthcare reform, healthcare venture capital, icd-10, icd-9, psilos
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Forget the Tea Party; To Prevent Diabetes We Need a Broccoli Party
In June 2011, a major international study was released which took on the task of collating and analyzing worldwide data on diabetes gathered since 1980. The key finding of the study was that the number of adults worldwide with diabetes reached 347 million in 2008, more than double the number in 1980. The study found that is now present in 9.8 per cent of men and 9.2 per cent of women. The study was published in Lancet and was carried out by an international collaboration of researchers, led by Professor Majid Ezzati from Imperial College London and co-led by Dr. Goodarz Danaei from the Harvard School of Public Health, in collaboration with The World Health Organization and a number of other institutions. Note that the most common type of diabetes, Type 2, is strongly associated with obesity and a sedentary lifestyle and is entirely avoidable.
It is worth noting that, of the 347 million people with diabetes, 138 million live in China and India. These two countries may be the next economic superpowers on the rise, but if they continue at that rate it won’t last long. Diabetes is one … (read the rest)
Posted in Diagnostics and Screening, Health and Wellness, Healthcare, Healthcare Information Technology, Medical Devices, Preventive Health, Uncategorized
Tagged diabetes, diabetes prevention, diabetes prevention and control alliance, diabetes screening, diagnostics, glucose test, healthcare private equity, healthcare venture capital, mass diabetes screening, medical technology, pre-diabetes, psilos, SCOUT DS, united health and diabetes, veralight
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