News Archive

This graph is a good visual depiction of how aging baby boomers, advances in technology and shifts in the way healthcare is delivered under reform may influence jobs in the healthcare sector.

In a Labor Day article, PBS directed us to interesting data published last year by U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in its Occupational Outlook Handbook (h/t @VentureValkyrie). Seventeen of the 30 occupations expected to grow the quickest between 2010 and 2020 are healthcare and medicine-related.

With all the concern (and liability) hospitals and their partners face to keep patient medical data secure and private, one new biometric security innovation could offer an interesting alternative to the typical password. This wristband grants users access to their devices by identifying the wearer by their heartbeat.

Image Courtesy of dream designs / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Johns Hopkins University’s Whiting School of Engineering said Tuesday it will partner with Campbell & Co., a Baltimore-based investment firm, in a teaching and internship program.

Staff from Campbell will teach an investment science course at Hopkins during the fall semester and offer paid internships to as many as three Hopkins students during the year.

BD Diagnostics, a part of Becton Dickinson and Company, announced on Tuesday that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has cleared the launch of its BD ProbeTec Trichomonas vaginalis Qx Amplified DNA Assay.

The BD ProbeTec Trichomonas vaginalis Qx Amplified DNA Assay will be used in BD Diagnostic’s BD Viper System with XTR Technology to detect T. vaginalis DNA in endocervical, vaginal and urine samples. The BD Viper System is used by laboratories to test samples for T. vaginalis, C. trachomatis and N. gonorrhea and can also be used in batch mode to test for chlamydia and gonorrhea, trichomonas and herpes.

Health care organizations in North America are projected to spend more than $34.5 billion on health IT in 2014 to comply with health care regulations, according to a new report from Technology Business Research, Clinical Innovation & Technology reports. 

For the report — titled “SourceIT Healthcare Report” — researchers interviewed 225 health IT executives and line-of-business managers and conducted 25 in-depth interviews to learn about spending intentions, priorities and perceptions (Pedulli, Clinical Innovation & Technology, 8/29). 

WellDoc® announces the appointments of Dr. David Levy, Terry Lierman, Donald Almeida and Michael Greenebaum to its Board of Directors. In addition, the company has formed a new strategic advisory board that includes Dr. Michael Stocker, Rt Hon Alan Milburn, H. Tom Watkins, and Christopher T. Rogers. These global healthcare and technology executives add experience and guidance to the company during the launch and commercialization of BlueStar™, the first FDA cleared, reimbursable, mobile prescription therapy for type 2 diabetes.

“I’m humbled to serve the company alongside individuals who literally crafted today’s ground breaking healthcare policies both in the U.S. and in Europe and who have built multi-billion dollar successful businesses” “We are proud to welcome David, Terry, Don and Michael to our Board of Directors and Mike, Alan, Tom, and Chris as advisors,” stated Ryan Sysko, Founder and CEO of WellDoc. “Each addition brings unique local and global experiences from private industry, healthcare, technology, and policymaking backgrounds. Their collective knowledge will be invaluable to the growth of our company.”

MEXICO-U.S. INNOVATIVE BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES

Tuesday, September 17, 2013; 7:30 AM – 10:30 AM

Mexico is currently the 3rd largest goods trading partner to the U.S. with $494 billion in total trade (2012) and is the 2nd largest economy in Latin America. This Global Trade Forum will provide access to experts and information about the ways innovative businesses connect across borders. A distinguished presentation will be made by the Mexican Ambassador to the United States, His Excellency Eduardo Medina-Mora. Public and private sector representatives will focus on bio-tech and other industry sectors as panelists and conduct one-on-one sessions with attendees.

In a financially stretched healthcare market, medical technology is sometimes seen as an expensive luxury. But use of the RIGHT technology can actually cut the overall cost of medical treatment and improve patient outcomes. You might be wondering how…

We live longer now, and we are more sedentary, so chronic diseases such as diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and Alzheimer’s are on the rise. These long-term degenerative diseases place a high cost burden on our healthcare systems. The sooner doctors can detect, treat, and/or prevent these conditions in patients, the more they can reduce this burden. This presents exciting opportunities for medtech companies to demonstrate R&D ingenuity.

Moore’s Law predicts that every two years the cost of computing will fall by half. That is why we can be sure that tomorrow’s gadgets will be better, and cheaper, too. But in American hospitals and doctors’ offices, a very different law seems to hold sway: every 13 years, spending on U.S. health care doubles.

Health care accounts for one in five dollars spent in the United States. It’s 17.9 percent of the gross domestic product, up from 4 percent in 1950. And technology has been the main driver of this spending: new drugs that cost more, new tests that find more diseases to treat, new surgical implants and techniques. “Computers make things better and cheaper. In health care, new technology makes things better, but more expensive,” says Jonathan Gruber, an economist at MIT who leads a heath-care group at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Sign up for the live Q&A Webcast >

Date & time: October 1, 2013 at 16:00 Central European Time (US: 10:00 EST, 7:00 PST)

In this live IM Channel One Ask the Expert Q&A hosted by NineSigma we will share hands-on experiences on how open Innovation can be applied to mitigate operator bias. By formulating business cases that address global healthcare needs, the pharmaceutical industry can open new avenues of innovation that are built on existing solid assets, developing accessory devices and services, creating user communities (medical and/or patient) and strategies to defend against the generic erosion of revenue.