MedStars - Blog

Workflow Management and Patient Engagement

Mon, 24 Dec 2012 11:33:00 -0700

Good Luck: Why the Year's Best Business Book Says You'll Probably Need It

Mon, 05 Nov 2012 11:50:00 -0700

David Shaywitz wrote an interesting article in Forbes about a book called “The Success Equation,” by Legg Mason Chief Investment Strategist Michael J. Mauboussin.
Mauboussin’s specific focus is understanding the relative contribution of luck vs skill in a range of endeavors, from sports to business.

Digital Health: Almost a Real, Live Business

Sat, 13 Oct 2012 11:35:00 -0700

David Schaywitz wrote an interesting article in Forbes called Digital Health: Almost a Real, Live Business.

"While the evolution of the digital health ecosystem has seemed at times almost painfully contrived, it’s now appears to have reached the point where it requires but a few sprinkles of magic fairy dust to be truly alive". David does an excellent job describing the growing amount of digital health incubators and exploding number of digital health entrepeneurs ..but there is a serious lack of funding by established venture capitalists ..still sitting on the fence..until succesfull revenue models emerge for the Direct To Consumer models.

Mary Meeker’s Internet Trends Slides

Wed, 06 Jun 2012 05:52:00 -0700

This year, Mary Meeker brings her famous annual Internet Trends report to D10, where she just appeared onstage.
Meeker, a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and former financial analyst, is describing what she calls “the re-imagination of nearly everything” powered by mobile and social, with a torrent of slides tracing what was then and what is now. For example: News outlets are reimagined on Twitter, note-taking is reimagined on Evernote, scrapbooking is reimagined on Pinterest. Meeker also traces out the story of the mismatch between mobile growth and mobile monetization, pulling together numbers and analysis of one of the biggest weaknesses in today’s Internet industry.

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

Thu, 03 May 2012 16:07:00 -0700

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 17:18:00 -0700

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