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For
the
most current ABL Healthcare Online
and access to ABL.org, go to
http://www.abl.org/new/html/resources_news_hc.asp
-- Click on Titles Below to Go to Each News Item --
Abraxis Demonstrates Longer Progression-Free Survival
Aperio Raises $10.6 Million to Fuel Growth
in Digital Pathology
Davis Wright Tremaine
Merges with Patent/Trademark Firm
Elite Engineering
Debuts New Products & Solutions
HealthCare Partners Opens South Bay Medical Spa
HeartMath Partners to Create New Video Game Category
Hythiam Among "Most Trustworthy" Companies in America
IBM
Intro's Grid Medical Archive Solution
I-Flow
Teams with GE Healthcare
Isotis Regulatory Review of Accell Products on Track
Newport Medical Debuts New Ventilator
Vocera Ships 100,000th Badge
And the ABBY Award Winners Were...
Democratic Healthcare Reform Plans Advance in California
State Senate OKs Move to Single-Payer System
OC Cuts Funds for Emergency Healthcare
State Begins Verifying Citizenship
for Medi-Cal
Brailer's Firm to Invest $700M to Reduce Healthcare Costs
AHIMA Offers Free EHR Purchasing Guide
Abraxis Demonstrates Longer Progression-Free Survival
Abraxis BioScience, Inc., where Patrick
Soon-Shiong, MD is CEO, announced that updated analysis of
an ongoing Phase II clinical trial has demonstrated that,
in the first-line
treatment of metastatic breast cancer, ABRAXANE administered
weekly (150 mg/m2) and every three weeks (300 mg/m2) resulted in longer
progression-free survival and an overall improved toxicity profile
compared to Taxotere administered every three weeks (100 mg/m2).
Aperio Raises $10.6 Million to Fuel
Growth in Digital Pathology
Aperio Technologies, where Dirk Soenksen is CEO,
has closed a $10.6 million round of financing, which will be
used to further expand sales, marketing and operations efforts,
develop new products, and implement clinical market strategy. To
date, Aperio has raised a total of $33 million in equity capital. This
round was co-led by Galen Partners and Advanced Technology
Ventures.
Davis Wright Tremaine Merges with Patent/Trademark Firm
Davis Wright Tremaine LLP,
where Gerry Hinkley is a Partner, and the San
Francisco-based boutique firm Parsons Hsue & de Runtz LLP have
merged, adding significant depth and breadth in the areas of
patent and trademark prosecution and counseling to DWT’s
well-established intellectual property group.
Elite Engineering Debuts New Products & Solutions
Elite
Engineering, where Bob Kay is CEO,
has announced additions to its
line of
off-the-shelf modules that make implementation of instrumentation,
control and sensor-based systems easier and faster,
including the UPM-550, a wide
bandwidth DC response preamp with a number of built-in
processing functions.
Elite's new systems can stand alone or interface to a PC or
network as needed.
HealthCare Partners Opens South Bay Medical Spa
HealthCare
Partners Medical Group, where Chris Wing is EVP and COO,
has opened a
new medical spa in Torrance that offers dermatology services,
non-surgical skin tightening, laser hair reduction, spider
vein reduction, peels and body wraps, as well as traditional
spa services such as massages and facials.
HeartMath Partners to Create New Video Game Category
Quantum Intech, the parent
company of HeartMath
LLC, where Bruce Cryer is CEO, has granted Digital Bamboo
a license to embed HeartMath technology in entertainment and
sports training games. This technology incorporates an ear clip
sensor that measures heart physiology and creates a visual image on a PC
or console that allows gamers to see how thoughts, emotions and stress
affect the heart and autonomic nervous system.
Hythiam Among "Most
Trustworthy" Companies in America
Hythiam, Inc., where Rick Anderson is
Senior Executive VP, is
ranked in the inaugural FORBES.com list of the "100 Most Trustworthy
American Companies" -- companies that "showed the highest
degree of accounting transparency and fair dealing to
stake-holders during 2006."
IBM Intro's Grid Medical
Archive Solution
IBM, where Bill
Craddock is a senior executive, has announced its new Grid
Medical Archive Solution, a cross-IBM offering comprised of
storage, software, servers and services that provides hospitals,
clinics, research institutions and pharmaceutical companies with a
multi-tier, multi-application and multi-site enterprise storage archive
for delivering medical images, patient records and other critical
healthcare reference information on demand.
I-Flow Teams with GE
Healthcare
I-Flow Corporation,
where Don Earhart is CEO, and GE Healthcare have agreed to
form a strategic alliance to conduct clinical trials and
explore joint opportunities in the anesthesiology market. The
companies are combining resources to conduct a clinical study
on the use of ultrasound for the placement of continuous
peripheral nerve blocks.
Isotis Regulatory Review of Accell Products on Track
Isotis, Inc., where Pieter Wolters is CEO,
recently received a positive response from
the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research and the
Center for Devices and Radiological Health of the FDA, confirming that IsoTis' Accell family of demineralized bone
matrix products will be regulated under the device provisions of the
Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. "We look forward to continue to
work closely with the FDA toward obtaining a timely 510(k)
clearance of our Accell family of products," said Pieter.
Newport Medical Debuts New
Ventilator
Newport Medical Instruments, where
Hong-Lin Du is President, has
introduced the Newport
e360 Ventilator, which provides comprehensive mode selections,
graphics and extensive monitoring built into a single compact
package. The e360 can easily transition from invasive to
non-invasive ventilation for adult, pediatric or infant
patients, for critical care or long-term care.
Vocera Ships 100,000th Badge
Vocera Communications,
where Brent Lang is a senior executive, announced the shipment of
the 100,000th Vocera Badge -- its wearable, hands-free,
instant communication system -- ordered as part of the expansion of the Vocera
installation at Sutter General Hospital in Sacramento.
And the ABBY Award Winners Were...
Congratulations to our
Innovations in HealthcareSM award winners:
*Gary Lauer, Chairman &
CEO of eHealth Inc., in the Innovative Healthcare Information
Technology category;
*Matthew Jenusaitis,
President of the Neurovascular Division of ev3, Inc., in the
Innovative Medical Technology category;
*Gordon Hunt, MD, Senior
VP & Chief Medical Officer of Sutter Health, in the Innovative
Approaches to the Delivery of Healthcare category; and
*Steve Burd, Chairman,
President & CEO of Safeway Inc., the 2007 Leadership in
Innovation Award winner.
See Photos
Democratic Healthcare Reform Plans Advance in California
The Senate
and Assembly have approved bills by Senate President Pro
Tempore Don Perata (D-Oakland) and Assembly Speaker Fabian
Núñez (D-Los Angeles), respectively, to overhaul California's
healthcare system. Both pieces of legislation, approved
without any Republican votes, were passed on to the other
chamber.
Each
measure would require employers to contribute 7.5% of payroll
to healthcare coverage or pay into a state fund that would
provide coverage. Núñez's overhaul legislation (AB
8) does not state a maximum percentage for workers'
contribution to health coverage, but Perata's bill (SB
48) would cap workers' contribution at 5% of income.
Núñez's measure would exempt businesses that have been
operating less than three years and those with a payroll of
less than $100,000. Self-employed individuals also would be
exempt. The plan is projected to cost $8.3 billion, and
families with incomes that do not exceed 300% of the federal
poverty level would be eligible for state subsidies for health
coverage. Perata's bill would require all working California
residents and their dependents with household incomes that
exceed 400% of the poverty level to obtain a minimum health
insurance policy. Each plan would cover about 70% of uninsured
residents in California.
(San
Jose Mercury News, Sacramento Bee, 6/8/07)
State Senate OKs Move to Single-Payer System
The California Senate has approved legislation (SB
840) by Sen. Sheila Kuehl (D-Los Angeles) to create a
state-run, single-payer healthcare system. The bill would rely
on funding from
employer contributions; consumer copayments; and
premiums based on income.
The
measure is intended to decrease costs by reducing
administrative spending and using bulk purchases of
prescription drugs. Governor Schwarzenegger in 2006 vetoed SB
840 and continues to oppose it.
(L.A.Times
& Mt. Shasta News, 6/7/07)
OC Cuts Funds for Emergency Healthcare
The Orange County Board of Supervisors has cut county funding
that helps compensate physicians and hospital emergency
departments for caring for uninsured patients. County staff
had proposed eliminating county funding for the program
entirely, but will provide $1 million to the effort, rather
than $3.5 million, and evaluate other options for revenue for
the program. OC supervisors are expected to approve a budget
within two weeks. (L.A. Times, 6/13/07)
State Begins Verifying Citizenship
for Medi-Cal
The
state of California has notified county Medi-Cal offices that
they must begin verifying the citizenship of Medi-Cal
applicants in order to comply with the 2006 federal Budget
Deficit Reduction Act. The proof-of-citizenship requirement
will affect about 3.5 million of the 6.7 million people in
California who receive health benefits. The elderly, those who
receive Supplemental Social Security and foster children are
exempt from the rule. (Fresno Bee, 6/7/07)
Brailer's Firm to Invest $700M to Reduce Healthcare Costs
David
Brailer has
founded
Health Evolution Partners, a venture capital firm that will
initially invest $700 million from CalPERS. The firm will
invest in "things that can reduce the crushing costs of
healthcare," said Brailer, who served as the nation's first
national coordinator for health information technology at HHS
and who recently resigned as vice chairman of the American
Health Information Community, an HHS IT advisory group.
This will include
companies with new ideas in fields such as remote patient
monitoring, the management of chronic diseases, telemedicine,
predictive genomics to tailor drug doses, and eBay-style
Internet marketplaces for services like reading chest X-rays.
(HITS - Modern Healthcare's daily IT enewsletter, 6/5, 6/6 &
6/11/07)
AHIMA Offers Free EHR Purchasing Guide
The
American Health Information Management Association has
produced a free
guide
to healthcare organizations on how to properly plan and
contract for purchasing an electronic health-records system.
Practice leaders assigned to the task of selecting an EHR can
use the step-by-step guide to set up a selection committee,
create a request for proposals, develop an initial list of EHR
vendors, evaluate vendor responses to the request for proposal
and select the most appropriate vendor. (HITS
- Modern Healthcare's daily IT enewsletter, 6/5/07)
7/12 - Northern California Round Table
7/18 - Combined Orange County Healthcare & Life Sciences
Tables
7/20 - Los Angeles Round Table
7/27 -
Membership-wide Social at Bower's Museum: Treasures from
Shanghai, Gems!, and Mummies
For
the
most current ABL Healthcare Online and access to ABL.org, go to
http://www.abl.org/new/html/resources_news_hc.asp