Veronica Combs
Editor in chief at MedCity News
HIT startup takes pain and paper out of managing access to hospital health info systems
Takeaway: eProvision as an automated work-flow engine that fills the gap between HR and IT, and makes it easier to give and revoke access to medical records. At demo days, work-flow improvements often can’t compete with warmer, fuzzier, cooler topics like children’s health or apps for helping ... Read more »
Why I will ask my doctor to use a new breast cancer test
I do not get annual mammograms, even though I am 42. I got a baseline in my late 30s in preparation for regular mammograms in a few years. That was before the USPSTF revised its recommendations about the benefits of mammograms for women my age. The more I read about overdiagnosis and ... Read more »
Angelina’s alternative: New test spots breast cancer risk at cellular level
Earlier this year, Atossa Genetics launched the ForeCYTE Breast Health Test. The test uses a device similar to a manual breast pump and cytopathology to study the cells that line the milk ducts in a woman’s breasts. Most breast cancers start there. A doctor collects fluid from each breast and ... Read more »
A little help here! Ideas from payers about clinical areas ripe for innovation
What payer problem really needs fixing? The men representing UnitedHealth Care, Aetna and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota had quick answers to moderator Lisa Suennen ‘s question. The group was discussing reimbursement and how the current drive to cut costs is affecting treatment decisions ... Read more »
7 things you should know about protecting IP under the updated patent laws
Cyrus Morton gave this example of how patent law has changed under the new America Invents Act. Passed in September 2011, the final phases of the America Invents Act went into effect in March. Cyrus Morton, a partner at the Minneapolis office of Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi said this law ... Read more »
Medtech investors explain the nuances of evaluating reimbursement risk
A “early stage vs. late stage” panel at today’s MedTech Investing conference in Minneapolis talked about what questions they ask when determining whether payers will reimburse new products and services. Investors have to consider multiple definitions of “value,” out-of-pocket possibilities, and ... Read more »
Three examples of how “the system” is changing medtech investment decisions
Will Kaiser pay for this? Kirk Nielsen of Versant Ventures said that has become the litmus test for healthcare investing in the new world of healthcare reform. A “early stage vs. late stage” panel at today’s MedTech Investing conference in Minneapolis showed how venture capitalists of all types ... Read more »
Maxwell Health offers complete insurance experience from broker to concierge to coach
At Maxwell Health, innovation in healthcare means 360 degrees of service wrapped up in a beautiful user experience. The new company is helping employers and employees make health insurance decisions from the first step of buying the best policy through picking providers to becoming healthier. ... Read more »
HealthTap wins over Khosla and big Series B round
HealthTap has raised $24 million in Series B financing, with Khosla Ventures leading the round. Previous investors Mayfield Fund and Mohr Davidow Ventures also participated. Keith Rabois will join HealthTap’s board of directors, and Vinod Khosla is now an advisor. On HealthTap’s site and mobile ... Read more »
Why Rap Genius is exactly what doctors, patients and all of healthcare needs
Why Rap Genius is exactly what doctors, patients and all of healthcare needs News Genius allows registered users of the site to write footnotes and add background information to any article. Clicking the yellow text brings up the annotation. It’s hard to get past the crazy of the Rap Genius ... Read more »
5 strategic reminders for healthcare startups
Some advice is good enough to repeat and repeat and repeat. Marti Nyman is managing director of Altavail Partners, LLC, an innovation, strategy and business acceleration consultancy. He also writes at Think. Act. Grow. He recently spoke at a meet up of Health.mn to share advice about building a ... Read more »
Another example of how state laws make healthcare even more complicated
As I was writing about WellnessFX and their free blood test, I dug into LabCorp’s site. I wondered if there were laws about releasing lab results directly to patients. Obviously I haven’t been doing this long enough. Of course, there are laws, and of course, they vary from state to state ... Read more »
I would spend HSA dollars to cut out the bloodwork middle man
Waiting for lab results was the second biggest patient gripe in a recent Consumer Reports survey of patients. Now there is a free solution to that hassle: WellnessFX is offering its direct-to-you blood test results for free. The company is celebrating its third birthday by launching the new ... Read more »
Four investment opportunities in the brave new world of private insurance exchanges
Psilos seems to have the investment philosophy that it is better to be smart than hip. You won’t find any mobile apps or corporate wellness programs in the company’s portfolio. They have made lots of money on new approaches to providing health insurance – long before Obamacare started making ... Read more »
G1 Therapeutics developing treatment to protect soldiers, chemo patients from radiation damage
G1 Therapeutics developing treatment to protect soldiers, chemo patients from radiation damage G1 Therapeutics’ small molecules transiently arrest the cell cycle of hematopoeitic progenitor and stem cells in the bone marrow. This transient arrest is pharmacological quiescence or ... Read more »
Fighting the afternoon blahs? Check out these healthcare infographics on Pinterest
Finding it hard to focus on work or counting the minutes until 5? Take a work-related Pinterest break. Paul Sonnier, the founder of the Digital Health group on LinkedIn, has collected more than a dozen infographics on this board. I get several e-mails every day asking me to “Check out this ... Read more »
Health Wildcatters looking to support HIT entrepreneurs in the great state of Texas
A Dallas technology accelerator is launching a new program for healthcare startups. Applications for the first class of Health Wildcatters is now open. The accelerator is looking for companies working in digital health, mHealth, healthIT, SaaS, medical devices, pharma, and diagnostics. ... Read more »
What does it mean if the architect of the device tax retires?
What does it mean if the architect of the device tax retires? Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont. ) is calling it quits at the end of next year. Brian Johnson at MassDevice examines the opportunity this offers enemies of the device tax. Apparently there are rich people in Montana but no medical device ... Read more »
Negotiating healthcare bills: 20% off vs. “somebody will pay for it”
Didn’t know you have to negotiate your hospital bills? Maybe you are a healthy person who rarely gets medical bills or deals with them when they do come. Two of my experiences have shown me that yes, negotiating is possible and has a significant ROI. But the bigger problem with that “solution” ... Read more »
America is #1 in overall biotech innovation, but policy and stability is the big weak spot
America is #1 in overall biotech innovation, but policy and stability is the big weak spot America is tops in intellectual property protection, but Finland is catching up fast in every other category used to calculate Scientific American’s Worldview Report and Bio-Innovation Scorecard. The ... Read more »
