Interesting Articles, Companies, and Links From 2013 – Part I

One of the big challenges with healthcare is an explosion of new drugs, new technology, new business models, and information.  As I begin to plan for 2014, I’m trying to clean up my e-mails.  There are so many interesting articles that I never made it to this year. 

Here’s some quick summaries direct from the stories, e-mails, or newsletters that I saved, but I’ve never had time to share with you.  Enjoy!

TracFone Wireless and Voxiva, Inc. are creating a better way for Amerigroup to reach and engage millions of members and improve their health.  SafeLink Health Solutions, a service of TracFone Wireless, was created to assist partners such as Amerigroup to stay connected with their Medicaid population. Customers receive a phone, unlimited text messages, 250 minutes each month and calls to Amerigroup’s member services all at no cost.

Juniper Research’s latest report on the mHealth market forecasts cumulative cost savings from remote patient monitoring of up to 36 billion USD globally over the next five years – under Juniper’s most optimistic forecast scenario.

Sleep infographic from the NIH – http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/news/spotlight/fact-sheet/sleep-disorders-insufficient-sleep-improving-health-through-research.html

“Designing an Effective Behavior Change Platform” unveils the findings of a comprehensive research effort into how mobile is currently used to influence behavior, and identifies best practices within a new Mobiquity framework that furthers the goal of using mobile to achieve beneficial behavior change.

Three types of managerial activities can make a capability dynamic: sensing (which means identifying and assessing opportunities outside your company), seizing (mobilizing your resources to capture value from those opportunities), and transforming (continuous renewal). This framework, which I described in my paper “Explicating Dynamic Capabilities” [Strategic Management Journal, Dec. 2007] explains how to get the future right: how to position today’s resources properly for tomorrow.  (David Teece)

Great TED-Ed video “How to sequence the human genome”. http://lnkd.in/brdYsJf 




Turn our genes on and off like dip switches? A great and far-reaching conversation between Richard Dawkins & Neil deGrasse Tyson (1hr 17mins) http://lnkd.in/b2vKf_U

“The approach of the medical establishment to health care is to cure disease, and yet the potential exists, given the appropriate focus and funding, to eliminate most diseases.” http://lnkd.in/baM5gb6 


Gluten and carbohydrates may be at the root of Alzheimer’s disease, anxiety, depression, and ADHD. Dr. David Perlmutter is author of “Grain Brain: The surprising truth about wheat, carbs, and sugar; your brain’s silent killers” http://lnkd.in/buBmYmi

Top 10 Genetics Stories of 2013. http://lnkd.in/bXQKtzp

These last 5 are from Paul Sonnier’s newletter.  You can see an infographic on digital health by him here – http://storyofdigitalhealth.com/info graphic

Up is turning data into infographics if you haven’t seen any of them – http://jawbone.tumblr.com/post/69082031058/bookworms-bikers-or-bi-coastal-jet-laggers-the

One thing I think many healthcare companies miss is the customer experience perspective.  You should look at Bruce’s top 20 posts from 2013 on this topic – http://experiencematters.wordpress.com/2013/12/26/20-most-popular-cx-matters-posts-in-2013/

Keas (www.keas.com), the market leader in employee health and engagement programs, today announced the results of its 2014 Health Trends Survey. Employees have health at top of mind for 2014, with 82 percent resolving to lose weight, exercise more, or reduce stress in the New Year — and they are looking to their employers to create company cultures of health to help them make these resolutions stick. Employees report that key motivators would be cash and prize rewards for participating in corporate health programs (55 percent) and access to health programs and on-site gyms and fitness classes (38 percent).

THE NEW YORK TIMES: As Hospital Prices Soar, a Single Stitch Tops $500 – Hospital pricing is often convoluted, and hospital charges represent about a third of the total United States health care bill. In the latest installment of her health series, Paying Till It Hurts, Elizabeth Rosenthal focuses on the high price of getting stitches in an emergency room, one of the simplest procedures imaginable.  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/03/health/as-hospital-costs-soar-single-stitch-tops-500.html

Story about HHS and copay cards – http://aishealth.com/archive/ndbn112213-01?utm_source=Real%20Magnet&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=28181988

An infographic comparing US healthcare to the world based on WHO data – http://publichealthonline.gwu.edu/us-health-care-vs-the-world/

Holidays increase stress for everyone, especially caregivers. A new APA study found that more than 6 out of 10 Americans report significantly more stress during the holidays, and most of these are women. (Here’s the link.) 

The five semi-finalists in the Merck I Heritage Provider Network Innovation Challenge, a crowdsourcing competition that offers a total prize purse of $240,000 for breakthroughs in diabetes and heart disease research.

·         Fit4D (@Fit4D): Fit4D has developed a scalable and personalized program using an optimized mix of its Pathways technology platform and expert clinical service providers. The platform synthesizes workflow, data capture, device integration, and reporting– enabling personalized service delivery via coaches within Fit4D’s national network of nurses, dietitians, exercise physiologists, social workers & pharmacists. (http://fit4d.com )

·         Frame Health: Frame Health leverages the world’s largest personality characteristic database to produce comprehensive patient adherence profiles for the first time. In a 6 minute session, the platform determines the psychological triggers that will be most effective to use to attain medical adherence with each patient. (http://www.framehealth.com )

·         Sense Health (@SenseHealth): Sense Health crafts interactive conversations so providers can better support patients in between appointments. The Sense Health concept helps providers both create care plans and monitor care plans (and thus patient progress), while delivering SMS support to patients. (http://www.sensehealth.com )

·         Vital Score (@VitalScore): Vital Score is a new vital sign for the primary care visit, modeled on the APGAR score and checklist — simple interventions that radically improve care. Now, for the first time, the behavioral referral — whether for smoking cessation, medication adherence or care management — is as easy as writing a prescription. (http://vitalscorehealth.com )


·         Well Frame (@WellFrame): Wellframe reinvents the care plan using mobile devices, artificial intelligence, and human-centered process redesign. Wellframe has developed a clinically proven proprietary method of delivering care plans to patients as dynamically generated personalized multimedia daily to-do lists on mobile devices. (http://www.wellfra.me)

An article and interview with the author of The Lean Startup – http://www.strategy-business.com/article/00224?gko=82198&cid=TL20131121&utm_campaign=TL20131121

Healthcare Shifts from à la Carte to Prix Fixe article – http://www.strategy-business.com/article/00220?gko=4b689&cid=20131119enews&utm_campaign=20131119enews

Aetna (NYSE: ΑET) and Consultants in Medical Oncology and Hematology, PC (CMOH) have launched a first-of-its-kind patient-centered medical home model for oncology. Combining the proven results of evidence-based decision support in cancer care, enhanced personalized services, and realigned payment structure, Aetna and CMOH are collaborating to help increase treatment coordination, improve quality outcomes and reduce costs.

More to come as I catch up…