For the most current ABL Healthcare Online 
and access to ABL.org, go to
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 -- Click on Titles Below to Go to News Item --

Tom Klopack, IntelliDOT Corporation
Art Small, Genentech

CMS Invitation to Secretary Leavitt's California Appearances
Newport Medical's In-Sync Ventilator Profiled
IntelliDOT Adds RFID Capabilities to CAREt
TripleTree Webcasts Address Health; Revenue Cycles
Vantage Oncology Teams on Tomo Unit Installation
Vocera Partners with Sprint on Wide Area Network
AARP Seeks to Maximize Patient-Physician Relationships
AIM Announces NCQA Certification
Aperio System Utilized for Enlow Library

MEMBER RESOURCES - TALENT WANTED

Planned Parenthood of L.A. Seeks CFO, with potential to become CEO: >>

HEALTHCARE TRENDS

New Online Comparison Tool Addresses Hospitals
California's Small Businesses Want Healthcare Reform
Memorial Announces Sale of Anaheim Memorial
Rx Prices Up More than Inflation

Tom Klopack, IntelliDOT Corporation
Tom Klopack is President and CEO of IntelliDOT Corporation, a venture capital-backed company that produces and installs a barcode medication administration system to eliminate medication errors made by care-givers at the hospital bedside. IntelliDOT’s CAREt™ System incorporates integrated software and wireless handheld hardware designed specifically to fit nurse workflows. The system is fully developed, deployed in customer hospitals and being actively sold. Previously, Tom was CEO of Aclara Biosciences in Mountain View; COO of Aurora Biosciences in San Diego; and spent 18 years in various roles at Raychem Corporation. Referred to ABL by Rob McCray of Triple Tree, Tom has joined the Life Sciences Round Table. >>


Art Small, Genentech
Art Small is Director of Value Based Healthcare at Genentech, responsible for working with managed care organizations, employers and benefit consultants on issues relating to biologic therapies. He leads a national clinical team, develops and implements payer-specific outcomes studies, and develops tools and programs to help carriers address patient and economic needs arising from biologics. Focused on discovering, developing, manufacturing, and commercializing biotherapeutics for significant unmet medical needs, Genentech's mission is to be the leading biotechnology company, using human genetic information to develop novel medicines for serious diseases. Previously, Art was VP, Clinical Solutions, for Uniprise, an arm of UnitedHealth Group; Chief Medical Officer for United HealthCare of California and United’s Pacific Region; in charge of Disease Management Program Development for Prudential Health Care and a Regional Medical Director; practiced primary care internal medicine and geriatrics for 10 years; and founded a multi-specialty physician organization. Referred by Walter Kopp of The Physicians Foundation at CPMC, Art has joined the Northern California Round Table. >>  

CMS Invitation to Secretary Leavitt's California Appearances
Jeff Flick, Regional Administrator of CMS, Region IX, has announced that U.S. HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt will be visiting California to promote his nationwide campaign to transform healthcare in the U.S. and to encourage support for the four cornerstones of Value Driven Health Care. ABL Members are encouraged to join Leavitt at any of three events on March 13-14, 2007, in Mountain View, Sacramento and Los Angeles. Reservations are requested by end of business day, Friday, March 9. For more information: >>  

Newport Medical's In-Sync Ventilator Profiled
Newport Medical Instruments, where Hong-lin Du, MD, is President (pictured above), was the subject of a recent feature article about the importance of patient-ventilator synchrony and Newport's development of "FlexCycle," a patented software algorithm that measures a patient's breathing patterns. It then tells the ventilator when to start pushing air into the lungs and when to open valves that allow the patient to exhale. >> (OC Register, 2/22/07)

IntelliDOT Adds RFID Capabilities to CAREt
IntelliDOT Corporation, where Tom Klopack is CEO, has announced a new handheld with radio frequency identification capabilities for use with CAREt System, IntelliDOT’s handheld barcode patient safety technology. As a result, the nurse will no longer need to see the patient’s wrist to scan the barcode. Instead, the reader can be within a few inches of the patient’s wristband. IntelliDOT will also read RFID information on clinicians’ name badges to ease workflow. >> 

TripleTree Webcasts Cover Health; Revenue Cycles
TripleTree, where Rob McCray is Managing Partner, has announced a series of upcoming webcasts focused on health and wellness and healthcare revenue cycle processes. Each one hour webcast will be moderated by TripleTree and include a panel of industry experts. Click here for the complete schedule: >>

Vantage Oncology Teams on Tomo Unit Installation
Vantage Oncology, Inc., where Mike Fiore is CEO, has partnered with Brockton Hospital, in Massachusetts, to design and develop a $3.8 million radiation center upgrade, which includes New England's first installation of a TomoTherapy unit that combines radiation with a CT scan to direct higher doses and more precisely targeted radiation therapy. There are currently fewer than 25 TomoTherapy units throughout the country, said Vantage. >> (The Enterprise, 2/20/07)

Vocera Partners with Sprint on Wide Area Network
Vocera Communications, where Brent Lang is Acting CEO, has announced a new partnership with Sprint, whereby Vocera System's capabilities will be extended from a purely WiFi network to a Wide Area Network. Physicians, nurses and staff outside of the hospital building will be able to use the walkie-talkie feature on their Sprint and Nextel cell phones to communicate instantly with those inside who are wearing Vocera badges.  Also, Vocera recently showcased additional integrations that extend its platform to other wireless devices and applications, including partnerships with Motorola, Dictaphone, Cisco, WorldWide Interpreters and Emergin. >>

AARP Seeks to Maximize Patient-Physician Relationship
AARP, where Jennie Chin Hansen is President-Elect, and the AMA have joined forces to release a shared responsibilities and health and safety resource guide, available on both of the organizations' Web sites, free to the public. The pamphlet outlines three core areas where patients and physicians can work together: communication, shared decision-making, and the patient-physician partnership. >>

AIM Announces NCQA Certification
American Imaging Management, where David Soffa, MD, is  Senior VP, Medical Affairs, has been certified by the NCQA for Utilization Management functions through March 1, 2008. >>

Aperio System Utilized for Enlow Library
Aperio Technologies, Inc., where Dirk Soenksen is CEO, has implemented its ScanScope slide scanning system at the New York University College of Dentistry to facilitate the creation of the Donald H. Enlow digital image library. Enlow created one of the most notable comparative bone histological slide collections in the world and authored numerous papers and books on the growth and organization of bone. >> 

HEALTHCARE TRENDS

New Online Comparison Tool Addresses Hospitals
The new www.CalHospitalCompare.org allows the public to compare more than 200 California hospitals on more than 50 performance measures. Users can search a hospital by zip code, city, county, name or medical condition. Up to five hospitals can be compared side-by-side. The reporting system was developed by the California Hospital Assessment and Reporting Taskforce, a coalition of hospitals, health plans, consumer groups, government agencies, researchers, consumers and businesses organizations. The site uses data from CMS, the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, and other sources. It represents 70% of all hospital admissions in California. (San Francisco Chronicle, Oakland Tribune, Sacramento Bee, 3/6/07)

California's Small Businesses Want Healthcare Reform
Nearly nine in 10 small businesses in California say the lack of availability and high cost of health insurance is a problem and want elected officials in Sacramento to place a high priority on fixing it, according to a survey from Small Business California. 88% of the 418 small businesses surveyed said that fixing healthcare should be either a high priority or the highest priority of state elected officials. 60% favored a healthcare reform plan similar to the one proposed by Gov. Schwarzenegger with “shared responsibility between employers, employees and the government." But an overwhelming 91% said there should be purchasing pools for small businesses to give them more bargaining power in negotiating healthcare premiums. (L.A. Business Journal, 2/26/07)

Memorial Announces Sale of Anaheim Memorial
Memorial Health Services, a not-for-profit healthcare system with hospitals in Los Angeles and Orange Counties, has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its 224-bed facility in Anaheim to Prime Healthcare Services, Inc., a rapidly expanding hospital management company whose principal owner is cardiologist Prem Reddy. (PRNewswire, 2/28/07)

Rx Prices Up More than Inflation
Manufacturers' prices for the 193 prescription drugs most commonly used by U.S. residents ages 50+ increased at about twice the rate of inflation in 2006, according to AARP. Manufacturers' drug prices on average increased by 6.2%, while the Consumer Price Index increased by 3.2%. Average drug prices since the end of 1999 have increased by nearly 54%, while overall inflation increased by 20%, said AARP. However, the pharmaceutical industry called AARP's report "inaccurate and misleading," citing data from CMS and the Bureau of Labor Statistics that show increases in prescription drug spending slowed for the sixth year in a row and retail drug prices increased by 1.5% in 2006. (Cox/Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 3/7/07)

UPCOMING ROUND TABLES & EVENTS

3/8 - Northern California Round Table
3/16 - Los Angeles Round Table
3/21 - Life Sciences Round Table
4/4 - Orange County Round Table

For the most current ABL Healthcare Online and access to ABL.org, go to
 http://www.abl.org/new/html/resources_news_hc.asp