Tag: Uncategorized

Around the Web in 60 Seconds (Or Less)

Oct 15, 2008

By THCB Staff

The consumer genetics company Navigenics has partnered
with Scripps, Microsoft and Affymetrix in a landmark clinical study to
assess the behavioral impact of personal genetic testing on people
who choose to receive such screenings to identify their potential risk
for developing certain diseases.

Nonprofit hospitals feel the inner-city for affluent suburbs. No margin no mission, but what happens when the mission disappears? No tax breaks?

The credit crunch is squeezing hospitals, and forcing them to delay building improvements, the NY Times reports.

The BBC reports that researchers have identified the 9,000-year-old remains of a mother and her baby discovered off
the coast of Israel as the earliest concrete evidence of human TB,.

The WSJ Health Blog reports that nearly 1 in 6 online health insurance shoppers are ‘uninsurable.’

7-day countdown to Health 2.0

Oct 14, 2008• 2

By THCB Staff

The Health 2.0 conference is just a week away and with that comes the viewing of David Kibbe’s documentary, "The Great American Motorcycle Tour for Health 2.0." Go check out his blog to get a taste of what’s to come.

We knew the Swedes hated the Bush Adminstration, but…

Oct 13, 2008• 9

By Matthew Holt

…we never suspected that they hated it to this extent.

After giving Al Gore the Peace Prize a couple of years back, today Paul Krugman wins the Nobel Prize for Economics.

They say the prize is for his work on international trade, but it must be partially for his columns in the New York Times since 1999 skewering the Bush Adminsitration on economics, war, healthcare, and just about everything! Congrats, Paul.

Dissecting the Revolution Health-Waterfront Media merger

Oct 13, 2008• 3

By David Williams Davidwilliams

Like many of you, I was surprised to hear the news that Revolution Health would merge with Waterfront Media, the operator of Everyday Health Network. In this email interview, Mark Bard, president of Manhattan Research, shares his thoughts on the deal and its implications.

David Williams: When Steve Case launched the Revolution Health website last year he said, “While Revolution Health will be a journey over many years to come, we are excited today to launch a site that is the cornerstone of our efforts to revolutionize healthcare.” Now it seems like he’s throwing in the towel on the online business and keeping the rest of the company separate. What’s going on?

Mark Bard: This recent move by Revolution Health highlights the challenges in building a health site and achieving critical mass that appeals to both consumers using the site and advertisers investing in the channel. Like a number of industries today, there is the potential for significant value creation at the two ends of the size scale. You can be on top as one of the largest sites with scale or you can become a highly targeted site with a unique and engaged audience.

This move allows Revolution Health to achieve critical mass and deliver a combined network with the Waterfront team. The harsh reality is that building out a health site today takes more than just funding. It requires the ability to meet the needs of two customer segments – the consumer and the advertiser.

David E. Williams is co-founder of MedPharma
Partners LLC, strategy consultant in technology enabled health care services, pharma, biotech, and medical
devices. Formerly with BCG and LEK.

Tracking media coverage of health care

Oct 9, 2008• 4

By Christopher Weaver

You probably haven’t seen a lot of campaign coverage from the health beat these last few week, unless The Health Care Blog is your exclusive source.

The "Financial Crisis," and its predecessor, the troubled "Economy," have obscured the issue that many voters said should be near the top of the agenda back when Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney were serious contenders and the stock market was inching onward. Look back to the October 2007 Kaiser tracking poll for a recap.

A new tool from LexisNexis Analytics
puts health care media coverage in perspective; based on the charts, media attention hasn’t reflected the public’s call for reform – still the number 3 issue according to over-all voters. The Kaiser polls show 26 percent of independents marking health care as a top issue, up from only 13 percent in August

The Lexis analysis also suggests media scrutiny has focused on McCain’s campaign, which has been the brunt of Obama ads attacking the efficacy of the tax credit strategy. Health care was particularly unpopular with Republican’s last month, reaching "a new low" of 11 percent, Kaiser noted.

Health care stocks falling, too

Oct 9, 2008• 2

By Don Johnson

Health care stocks are proving that they’re not recession proof as I and others predicted back in April.

Look at these charts
for 10 prominent health care stocks. Every one of them has declined so
much in recent weeks that in terms of relative strength, compared with
the market, they’re oversold. All are down significantly from their
52-week highs and several are making new lows.

Schering Plough (SGP), Novartis (NVS) and Quest Diagnostics (DGX) are still trading slightly above their April lows.

Mylan Labs (MYL), Wellpoint (WLP), Humana (HUM), United Health Group
(UNH), Aetna (AET), Universal Health (UHS) and LifePoint (LPNT) are all
trading below their April lows, if not at their lows for the year. (FD: I own none of these stocks.)

Around the Web in 60 Seconds (Or Less)

Oct 9, 2008• 1

By THCB Staff

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s reader blog has a great entry by a college-educated working individual who wonders how people making twice the minimum wage can afford health benefits for the entire family — even if the employer foots part of the bill.

Politico assesses the brain power behind McCain and Obama’s health plans.

Senators discussed this week draft legislation that would encourage more disclosure of health care costs to workers. "As long as people are insulated from the cost and just think someone
else is paying for it, then it’s easy to overlook expenses," Sen. Grassley
said. "But once they realize they themselves are paying for it, it
should spark a genuine conversation about what to do."

Health Partners published on its Website the prices for 83 procedures at its network primary care and radiology facilities in Minnesota’s seven-county metro area.

A British woman is fighting in the courts to use the sperm of her husband who died unexpectedly in the hospital last year following a routine operation. The law currently says sperm can only be used with consent for the donor. (They have laws for this stuff? Wow.)

Tell us what you think

Oct 8, 2008• 3

<a href="http://www.buzzdash.com/index.php?page=buzzbite&BB_id=121448">Is health care is a right, privilege or social responsibility?</a> | <a href="http://www.buzzdash.com">BuzzDash polls</a>

Presidential candidates on health care

Oct 8, 2008• 2

By Charlie Baker

As CEO of Harvard Pilgrim, I find I do a fair amount of public speaking. Over the past ten days or so, I’ve been on several panels with a variety of public policy, health policy and industry types. We also represented a pretty broad collection of political philosophies – some Democrats, some Republicans, some liberals, some moderates and some conservatives.

What really struck me, though, was the amount of cross-over support several policy ideas had in the “what do we need to do about health care” arena. To listen to the media, one would conclude there is no common ground between the parties on this issue – and, frankly, a lot of the stuff the people I was with were talking about hasn’t really showed up on the national debate scene at all.

So – at the risk of over-simplifying what my fellow panelists and I talked about during these discussions – I’d offer up these four national policy ideas – all of which seemed to have pretty broad ideological support.

Online cancer resources invaluable for empowering parents of sick children

Oct 7, 2008• 6

By Christine Gray

Five years ago, when many pediatric hospitals were unaware of or
unwilling to
acknowledge the capacities of online medical support
groups, my thirteen-year-old daughter was diagnosed with a subset of a
rare cancer (sarcoma or soft tissue cancer).

It was clear from the outset that California lacked the expertise
for correct diagnosis, to say nothing of the specialist teams
recommended for best practices. Misdiagnosis and errors in treatment
are the rule rather than the exception for sarcomas. Survival rates
remain at about 50%. The AYA (adolescent and young adult) population
has the highest mortality rate from cancer, in part due to sarcomas,
which comprise up to 20% of pediatric cancers.

Guided by a sophisticated ACOR (Assn. of Online Cancer Resources) list whose members were at ease with PubMed, the NCI sites
and more, we blasted our way from one bumbling pediatric institution to
another. Our physician teams of self proclaimed experts practically
went into cardiac arrest.