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Healthcare

01.11.07

Pitching Doctors Education (and Drugs) Healthcare | Comments
Dr. Benjamin Brewer writes a bi-weekly column for the Wall Street Journal called, "The Doctor's Office" (subscription required). It's a good homespun view of the small-town family practitioner (Dr. Brewer works out of Forrest, IL) and yesterday's piece offered an important retrospective following Dr. Brewer's decision to "stop seeing drug company sales representatives." I'm covering it because I think there's change afoot here (Wyeth and Pfizer have both announced drug rep pullbacks over the last couple years), and because the issue ultimately boils down to "samples" and an information services problem, the latter a topic I can't put down. Let's put samples aside for a minute. Improved ...
12.31.06

"This Child Is Still You, Simply the Best of You" Healthcare, Science and Tech | Comments
Some interesting news came in today, buried behind front page Gerald Ford memorials and recounts of the Saddam Hussein hanging and its aftermath. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) recommends that all expecting mothers, not just those over 35, receive testing options for Down syndrome. The details are muddied in the Washington Post article on the topic, but if you're willing to pay $20 to read the new guidelines, head to the January 2007 Obstetrics & Gynecology archives for access. At a high level, new testing techniques and improved understanding of prevalence are driving the recommendation. What struck me about the news is ...
12.21.06

Who Needs Doctors in 2030? Books, Entrepreneurship, Healthcare, Science and Tech | Comments
I'm in the midst of reading Andy Kessler's new book, "The End of Medicine." It's an important read for those building or investing in healthcare services companies. Kessler plays the layman in the industry peering at it behind the lens of a tech/finance junkie. He sets out with the basic understanding that the healthcare system is enormous and bloated with cost, and brings hope that there's a killing to be made in overhauling it with technological intervention. That's an old tune, and Kessler's no geriatric fiddler. His "special sauce" lies in uncovering the diagnostic inventions that will remake the industry. Sure, electronic medical records will help, but Kessler ...
11.15.06

Health Services Coming to a Location Near You Healthcare | Comments
RVK Architects, from detnews.com Gone are the days when healthcare was siloed in hospitals and doctors offices. I've written before about the "retail" model that's taken nurse practitioners into big box retailers such as Target and CVS. In recent weeks, we've seen further movement in the space with Duane Reade's ("DR") announcement that LabCorp will offer clinical testing services within DR's premises and Toyota's annoucement of a $9 million health clinic in its San Antonio, TX facility. Anyone who's had their blood drawn from Quest or Lab Corp knows that they've got good geographic coverage (relatively convenient), but often terrible ...
11.11.06

Donuts and Flu Shots! Healthcare | Comments
The following fell into my inbox on Friday afternoon from Chrysalis' building management: Free donuts followed by $30 flu shots. Loss leaders can make for a good business tactic, but this one's just morbid.
11.08.06

Two Healthcare Related Startups Worth Knowing Entrepreneurship, Healthcare, Media | Comments
As follow-up to this morning's post on a grocery chain's nutritional rating system, I thought I'd point out two healthcare startups worth keeping tabs on and, incidentally, applauding. DailyStrength, which offers a health-focused social network, just received a glowing review on TechCrunch. I've long thought that this market was ripe for "entrepreneurial picking" given the great lengths that health sufferers will go to in order to connect with others suffering from similar conditions (Yahoo! groups, forums, etc) and the lack of any company addressing such a need in a comprehensive, polished way. MyCancerPlace comes to mind as a niche ...
11.07.06

Three Stars For Health Healthcare | Comments
It was, I'd say, with a fair bit of glee that I read one of yesterday's headlining stories in the Health section of the New York Times: "The Package May Say Healthy, but This Grocer Begs to Differ." The piece covers Hannaford Brothers' (a Portland, Maine-based grocery store chain) decision to independently rate foods based on their nutritional value and post that information for customers in order to aid in the consumption decision process. Specifically, the company has scored foods with 0-3 stars, recognizing highly nutritious foods with 3 stars, lesser foods with 1 or 2, and faulting foods with little (or negative) nutritional value by "omission" (0 stars). ...
10.12.06

"Paging Dr. X to the MinuteClinic Hotline" Healthcare | Comments
Quick service health clinics have recently been making headlines and they're worth a hard look if you're interested in healthcare (hint: if you're interested in self-preservation, you should be interested in healthcare because the economics of the system aren't always in your body's best interest). The concept addresses a resource allocation inefficiency: a majority of visits to the doctor are made for mere colds, flus, poison ivy rashes, and the like, yet doctors treat these in the same 7-8 minute appt that they treat any other malady. Doctors' time is expensive, service quality and cost is relatively hidden to the ...

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