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UCB on Epilepsy and Collaboration

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epilepsy

Chris Clark of UCB

epilepsy

Russ Lipari, Founder, Health Connect South

UCB on Epilepsy and Collaboration

On this week’s episode I hosted CEO/Founder of Health Connect South, Russ Lipari, and Chris Clark, Portfolio Strategy and Intelligence, Epilepsy at UCB, a pharmaceutical research and development company with a US location in Smyrna, GA.  It’s been three years since I first met Russ when he joined me as a guest on the Top Docs Radio show to talk about Health Connect South and its genesis as a platform for collaboration among healthcare organizations in the region.

At the time, it was thought the primary approach to fostering introductions and the partnerships/collaborations that would follow would be via meeting events throughout the year.  Over time, the platform has grown to include the weekly Health Connect South Radio show, regional educational events with subject matter experts, and a developing digital environment that will provide another means for organizations to share what they are doing, talk about resources they need, and potentially link up with partners that can meet them.

The primary needs of Health Connect South has relating to resources are funding and health care experts who are willing to support the initiative by making themselves available as thought leaders who can share information that will promote advances in healthcare outcomes for our communities.  Historically, HCS has been funded primarily through event attendance fees.  In order to insure sustainability and growth of this useful healthcare platform, the organization is actively seeking financial benefactors who will provide endowments or other ongoing funding beyond what is achieved through HCS events.

The 2016 Health Connect South event is fast-approaching—September 21, at the Georgia Aquarium’s conference facility.  This year’s focus will be featuring health leaders talking about how they are working to tackle the World Health Organization’s Top 10 Disease States affecting large populations around the globe.  Listeners of the show can take advantage of the promo code: RadioX and receive a discount on their registration fee.

Russ shared how UCB has been one of the first partners in making Health Connect South become a reality and they continue to do so today.  Chris explained the work UCB is doing to develop medications to address a number of challenging health problems, particularly neurologic and immunologic ones such as epilepsy and rheumatoid arthritis.

More info soon!

 

 

Reducing Hospital-acquired Infections

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hospital-acquired infections

Sam Perkins

ebola

Jay Shaffer isn’t afraid of Ebola

Reducing Hospital-acquired Infections

Jay and I sat down with Sam Perkins, CEO of Pūrgenix™, a company that has developed a technology that enables healthcare organizations to contain, and in fact, reduce rates of occurrence of hospital-acquired infections.  It is well known that pathogens such as MRSA and Clostridium difficile are challenging to treat and equally challenging to eradicate from a care environment once they have taken hold.  The Pūrgenix™ platform addresses a component that is often overlooked in dealing with these dangerous organisms—the air.

Sam shared how they saw a need for a new solution to eliminating illness-causing organisms from the hospital environment, ultimately developing a system that is custom-designed and installed to be installed into the building’s air handling units.  The Pūrgenix™ system employs powerful UV lights that use energy to kill air-borne organisms as they pass into the air handler from the return and again on the way back to the environment on the downstream side.

He shared some use-case examples where client hospitals were able to successfully reduce occurrences of infections for their patients, as well as experiencing a measurable reduction in absenteeism among their employees due to illness.

Sam also explained that deposits, including bioburden that is created by bacteria, as thin as a micron (a piece of paper is ~6 microns thick) can significantly reduce the cooling efficiency of a building’s air handling unit.  By preventing a build-up of bacteria within the unit on the cooling coils, the deposit of bioburden is eliminated, leading to marked increases in energy cost to condition the environment of the building.

Pūrgenix™ creates PūrHospitals™, an environment in which patients and employees experience a purer
environment where they can heal and work.  Hospitals deploying the system can advertise their status as PūrHospitals™, letting patients in the community know their environment is safer with less risk of hospital-acquired infection.  As Mark Haney, President at WellStar Paulding Hospital, said about the Pūrgenix™ solution at the launch of their new hospital: “…we still have to do the basics, but we have the building working for us now.”

Special Guest:

Sam Perkins, CEO, Pūrgenix™   linkedin_small1  twitter_logo_small

 

 

ChronicCareIQ

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ChronicCareIQ

Matt Ethington

ChronicCareIQ

This week Jay and I sat down with Matt Ethington, CEO of ChronicCareIQ to learn how this technology company is providing physicians and hospitals with tools that empower them to better manage patients with chronic illnesses.  The Affordable Care Act has put in place measures around patient outcomes that can affect how much the provider is reimbursed for care they deliver.  Managing patients with chronic illnesses is time-consuming and requires much patient education and follow up to facilitate compliance with the recommended care plan.  The ChronicCareIQ platform not only provides the practice or hospital with an efficient tool for engaging patients, it also provides documentation of required patient contacts, along with current health status data such as glucose measurements, blood pressure, weight, and others.

Matt shared how he is a patient dealing with a chronic illness, Type I Diabetes.  His experiences along the way helped him see how care delivery can be somewhat disconnected at times and inspired him to think about ways to bridge gaps in communication and give providers a better way to know what is happening with their patient between visits.

ChronicCareIQ enables healthcare providers to keep tabs on fragile and chronic patients through their smart phones. Recognizing the impact on patient outcomes when effective chronic disease management measures are in place, Medicare has begun to reimburse for patient engagement performed through the platform, allowing providers to simultaneously automatically meet compliance requirements, and measurably reduce call volumes. Identified as a “Best Practice” by leading consulting groups and with patient engagement rates that exceed 80% on an average weekly basis, practices, hospitals, or health systems can identify decompensating patients in real time, manage risk to prevent unnecessary hospitalization or ED visits, and advance material steps with payment reforms.

Special Guest:

Matt Ethington, CEO, ChronicCareIQ  linkedin_small1  twitter_logo_small  facebook_logo_small3

ChronicCareIQ

Insights in Healthcare Innovation

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Glenn Pearson

Insights in Healthcare Innovation

Jay and I sat down with Glenn Pearson, of Pearson Health Tech Insights.  Glenn’s background includes spending time in leadership roles in acute care hospital settings, as well as nearly 20 years with the Georgia Hospital Association.  During his career he realized challenges companies with technology innovation solutions have when selling into a hospital or health system.

He is leveraging that experience to help health care organizations evaluate technology and more effectively implement it, as well as consulting with technology companies to help them assess their solution against the health organization’s perception of the problem the solution solves.  In this way he is able to help the technology company have greater likelihood to be able to speak to the right leader with the right message about the right solution.

Check back soon for more information!

Special Guest:

Glenn Pearson, Principal, Pearson Health Tech Insights  linkedin_small1

innovation

MedTech Innovation

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MedTech Innovation

We sit down with Tif Wilson of Global Center for Medical Innovation, Jason Rupp, of Southeastern Medical Device Association, and Kelley Bennett of T3 Labs to talk about SEMDA’s recent conference and the state of medtech innovation here in Atlanta and the Southeast.

GCMI – The Global Center for Medical Innovation (GCMI) brings together core members of the medical device community, including universities, research centers, clinicians, established device companies, investors and startups, with the goal of accelerating the commercialization of innovative medical technology.

GCMI is an independent, not-for- profit, full-service product development organization — the first and only one of its kind in the Southeast. Launched in April 2012, the Center helps new-product teams enhance their product development, shorten time to market, and potentially achieve significant cost savings throughout the process. This collaborative environment makes everyone’s efforts more efficient and cost-effective.

The Center is located in Midtown Atlanta near Georgia Tech, T3 Labs, and Emory Midtown Hospital, an area thriving with technological innovation and entrepreneurship. It provides easy access to the city, the Southeast and — with the world’s busiest airport only 30 minutes away — the nation and the world.

SEMDA – Created in 2004, the Southeastern Medical Device Association provides unique educational resources to accelerate device development and achieve commercial success with access to funding, education, and networking opportunities for medical device companies, inventors, physicians, investors, tech transfer offices, universities, sponsors, and service providers interested in growing the medical device industry in the Southeast.

In May 2016, the organization held its 10 th annual conference in Nashville, and also launched MedTech Women @ SEMDA, whose vision is to serve as a strong advisory network for mentoring and professional development for female professionals and innovators across the medical technology industry in the Southeast. We want to see more women positioned for executive leadership in the industry and involved in the entrepreneurial process.

T3 Labs – Translational Testing and Training Laboratories, Inc. (T3 Labs) is a preclinical contract research organization (CRO) in Atlanta, Georgia. Medical devices and pharmaceuticals follow well-established paths to make sure that they are safe and effective when they reach the public. This path includes preclinical testing to determine if a product is effective and safe, and bioskills training which allows physicians and other end-users to evaluate or practice in clinical-grade environment.

With 15 years of experience, our mission remains – to provide high-value preclinical testing and training services to medical device, biologics, and pharmaceutical developers and manufacturers. We work with industry and academic sponsors to improve patient care by more effectively and efficiently developing and commercializing their devices and products.

 

Capital Through EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program

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foreign investment

CEOS from China’s top high tech companies visit Chamblee to discuss the potential International Innovation & Investment Technology Park

Capital Through EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program

We host experts in immigration investment through the EB-5 program, Alex Tirado, and Roger Luo, of Woodruff & Luo, and Fortuna Holdings International.  They shared information about a source of capital through foreign investment made by citizens of other countries seeking to immigrate to the US.  This program gives these investors a path to a green card in exchange for committing $500,000 or more to a US business that is likely to result in new jobs being created.

The US Department of Customs & Immigration administers the EB-5 Immigrant Investor program.  Their website explains the program this way, “Under this program, entrepreneurs (and their spouses and unmarried children under 21) are eligible to apply for a green card (permanent residence) if they:

  • Make the necessary investment in a commercial enterprise in the United States; and
  • Plan to create or preserve 10 permanent full-time jobs for qualified U.S. workers.

This program is known as EB-5 for the name of the employment-based fifth preference visa that participants receive.

Congress created the EB-5 Program in 1990 to stimulate the U.S. economy through job creation and capital investment by foreign investors. In 1992, Congress created the Immigrant Investor Program, also known as the Regional Center Program. This sets aside EB-5 visas for participants who invest in commercial enterprises associated with regional centers approved by USCIS based on proposals for promoting economic growth.”

It is the Regional Center Program that Alexandra and Roger are focused on with Fortuna Holdings International.  They are actively courting support from investors to help get a local Regional Center started, along with a technology park that would provide incubation, acceleration, and mentorship, along with access to funding in a single ecosystem.

The firm, along with the City of Chamblee, recently hosted a delegation of investors from China (pictured above) to tour the region and view possible locales for such a venture.  It is exciting to see such a potential economic engine that will add US jobs (many of which will be here in the metro area) and additional resources that will continue to expand Atlanta’s reputation as a center for tech innovation and start-up.

Special Guests:

Alexandra Tirado, Co-CEO, Fortuna Holdings International  

immigrant investor

Roger Luo, Partner, Woodruff & Luo, LLC  

immigrant investor

 

Cyber Security

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Cyber Security

Steve Robb

Cyber Security

Jay and I hosted Steve Robb, SVP of Security Marketing & Product Strategy of ControlScan, a firm that specializes in information and network security for enterprises, including healthcare organizations.  With the rise of “smart” devices of all kinds that have sensors that communicate with applications via networks and/or internet, there are now a myriad of entry-points for persons intent on nefarious activity to access a company’s network.

We’ve all heard the news stories about major firms, including the US government, who have had their networks and data compromised by hackers, causing millions of people to be exposed to identity and financial theft.  As technology has continued to evolve rapidly, it is difficult for enterprises to be able to afford to recruit and retain security experts with sufficient breadth of knowledge to truly secure a business’s information as well as it could be.

Atlanta-based ControlScan brings a unified approach to security and compliance solutions, enabling organizations
to better protect sensitive data while making compliance easier to achieve and maintain. ControlScan’s combination of professional services and Managed Security Services delivers a full security lifecycle – from Security Risk Assessments to identify gaps, through HIPAA and PCI compliance analysis, to ongoing management and monitoring of security measures.

Steve shared some great information about some of the various sources of risk to networks that exist today, along with things the enterprise should be considering regarding how secure their information actually is.  The ControlScan team can provide thorough evaluations of security protocols and measures and identify weaknesses that can be shored up.  Additionally, the company provides outsourced security managed services that gives the client access to a high-level security team for less than it costs to employ one outright.

Special Guest:

Steve Robb, SVP Security Marketing & Product Strategy, ControlScan   feed-logo  twitter_logo_small  youtube-logo1  google-plus-logo-red-265px  facebook_logo_small3  linkedin_small1

Cyber security

Migraine Again

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Migraine Again

Paula Dumas

Migraine Again

This week, Jay and I hosted Paula Dumas, Founder/CEO of MigraineAgain.com.  As the leading Migraine Wellness website for patients, Migraine Again helps patients and their families suffer less and live more — until there’s a cure.  Migraine Again helps bridge the access to care, bringing evidence-based healthcare content to migraine
warriors in 45 countries.

It’s a genetic neurological disorder that hurts over 1 billion people worldwide, 37 million in the US alone: 1 in 6 women, 1 in 10 kids and 1 in 18 men. Migraine Again helps spread awareness and increase funding for one of the most disabling, invisible disorders on the planet.

Providing information on research and lifestyle changes migraine sufferers can make that can sometimes help mitigate frequency and severity of migraines, migraineagain.com reaches over a million patients worldwide each month.  When the website shares information about promising treatments or options available for migraine sufferers, Paula explained they focus on those where a significant body of reputable evidence is available to support them.  This helps to prevent making recommendations that are unproven or have little likelihood to actually provide relief.

A lifelong migraine warrior, Paula struggled and juggled through her career with CNN, Apple and Disney, and then shifted gears to devote herself to non-profit work and health advocacy. Under her direction, Migraine Again offers hope and help to people who suffer with this chronic, disabling condition, while raising awareness and funding for a cure.

A member of the American Headache Society electronic media team and an advisor to Migraine Research Foundation, Paula has been nominated for a WEGO Health Advocate Award, and a featured expert speaker at the Migraine World Summit. She’s authored over 250 articles and research papers, and conducted interviews with the world’s top migraine and headache doctors, all of which can be accessed for free on MigraineAgain.com.

Special Guest:

Paula Dumas, Founder/CEO of migraineagain.com

migraine again

 

Return of the House Call

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house calls

Return of the House Call

We sat down with Sam Zebarjadi of Medicast on this week’s show.  This company is using technology to facilitate the return of the house call as model of healthcare delivery.  Founded in 2013, Medicast is a healthcare technology company that enables hospitals and health systems to deliver care in a patient’s own home. Medicast’s platform, Virtual Practice, is used by organizations to send nurses and doctors to patient’s homes as an alternative to traditional primary or urgent care visits in a clinic—often in 2 hours or less from the time a visit is requested.

Medicast is a Techstars and StartUp Health company, and was recently recognized by Becker’s Hospital Review as one of the top disruptive healthcare companies to watch in 2016.

Check back soon for more information!