MedStars - Blog

EMPOWER! FROM PIXEL OPTICS IS NAMED A 2012 GOLD EDISON AWARD WINNER

Thu, 03 May 2012 17:07:00 -0600

EmPower! From Pixel Optics is named
a 2012 GOLD EDISON Award Winner...
World’s First Electronic Focusing Eyewear Wins!

Roanoke, Virginia, May 3, 2012 – The Edison Awards, celebrating 25 years of honoring the best in innovation and excellence in the development of new products and services, announced today that emPower! eyewear from PixelOptics won a Gold Edison Award for Quality of Life in the competition’s Lifestyle and Social Impact category.

Global Advances in the Technology of Health

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 18:18:00 -0600

Forget The Robots: Venture Capitalists Change Their Health Care Investments

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 12:54:00 -0700

Sarah varney from NPR published this article today:

It wasn't that long ago that money flowed steadily to entrepreneurs who dreamt up whiz-bang medical devices.

Hospitals souped up their surgical suites with robots or high-tech radiation machines for cancer treatment. Cost wasn't an issue: They just got passed along to insurance companies, who passed them on to employers and patients. But after the Great Recession hit and the 2010 health law passed, the financiers behind the medical arms race started to rethink their investment calculus. "If you come in with [a device] that's 10 percent better and twice as expensive, it's hard to get anyone to care," said Bryan Roberts, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based venture capitalist at Venrock, a Silicon Valley company that invests in firms working on health services, medical devices and drugs.

"The changes in the health system are rocket fuel for entrepreneurs," says Roberts' partner Bob Kocher. He is a former Obama health policy adviser who was hired by Venrock in part to capitalize on the expertise he cultivated working on the law in the White House. The share of venture dollars flowing to seed and early-stage investments in biotechnology and medical devices has plummeted since 2007, when investors pumped $3.6 billion into 332 deals in which a price was disclosed, according to data compiled for Kaiser Health News by FactSet Research Systems. Overall venture investing declined by nearly one-third as the economic recession set in. Kocher is eyeing businesses that do things like help hospitals keep patients from returning to the hospital with complications soon after treatment — a big-ticket cost that the health law will now tie to new penalties. Like other investors, he also anticipates that many people who gain coverage under the law will face high insurance deductibles.

FutureMed panel on funding innovation in healthcare.

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 17:15:00 -0700

Health Innovation Summit

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 13:26:00 -0700

On January 20, 2012, I was a speaker on the panel "Funding Mechanisms" at the Healthcare Innovation Summit in San Francisco.

The key takeaway are:

Sculley: Domain expertise just as critical as technology in healthcare

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 10:48:00 -0700

Venture Capital Flows to Cost-Effective Health Care Companies

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 10:31:00 -0700

The Dartmouth Staff inteview about HealthTech Capital investment in Pharmasecure

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 15:04:00 -0600

PharmaSecure - an international company founded by two Dartmouth alumni in 2007 that prints unique barcodes on consumer drugs to verify their authenticity - received additional funding this week, bringing its total awarded amount to $3.9 million over the past two months, co-founder and CEO Nathan Sigworth '07 said in an interview with The Dartmouth. PharmaSecure, which is based in Lebanon, N.H., and operates exclusively in India, received the funding through a joint investment from HealthTech Capital, Gray Ghost Ventures, TEEC Angel Fund and Innovation Endeavors, which is run by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, according to a PharmaSecure press release.

The company installs specialized printers that print unique barcodes and serial numbers on drug labels in pharmaceutical factories, Sigworth said. When a consumer purchases a drug, he or she can text the code on the label to PharmaSecure, which then sends a response message notifying the consumer of the drug's authenticity, he said.

There is no charge for consumers to use PharmaSecure's service, Sigworth said. The company profits from the drug manufacturers that purchase and use the printers, he said.

PharmaSecure, which was co-founded by Taylor Thompson '08, plans to use the funding to expand its team and develop new ways to use the data it collects regarding where drugs are used and who purchases them, Sigworth said. He said he hopes this information will allow people to receive better health care in the future.

Anne DeGheest, managing director of HealthTech Capital, said HealthTech was attracted to PharmaSecure because it fit with the fund's aim of investing in companies that use business models to improve health care delivery.

"PharmaSecure really hit our sweet spot," she said. "They found a low-cost and effective way to reach out to the patient so that he could confirm that the drug he had in his hands is correct." HealthTech invested over $400,000 in PharmaSecure and also encouraged Innovation Endeavors to give a donation to the company, DeGheest said.

Talking points about investment in Niveus and PharmaSecure

Sun, 02 Oct 2011 18:09:00 -0600

The Los Altos Town Crier published an interview this week about two recent investments with my angel group HealthTech Capital:

Local angel investors kick-start two health-tech firms By Elliott Burr

Los Altos Hills resident Anne DeGheest serves as managing director of HealthTech Capital, an angel-investor group based in town. Recently, the healthcare veteran's firm invested in two startups as part of a Series-A syndicated financing round. Following is a Q&A between the Town Crier and DeGheest.

Q: As the name suggests, your company invests in tech companies centered in the health-care industry. What are some telltale signs that a particular company is a good investment? A: HealthTech Capital is a group of angel and venture investors investing in companies that will decrease health-care costs. We typically see two big categories: better productivity tools to improve the delivery of health care by existing providers (from hospital to home health) and new patient engagement solutions from the very sick to the healthy/fitness market.

What I Know Now That I Wish I Knew Then: Anne DeGheest, MedStars and HealthTech Capital

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 14:05:00 -0600