Health Care
A Booster Shot For Health Care
The new health care reform law requires employers with morethan 50 employees to provide coverage by 2014. Passage of reform may prove tobe serendipitous for Seattle-based Qliance, which is targeting companieslooking for lower-cost health care options for their workforce. Qliance Medical Group operates its own clinics and charges patients amonthly fee, from $44 to $129…
Worksite Wellness
As we know all too well health care is expensive. Health care-relatedexpenses for employers and employees alike are increasing and despite reformare expected to keep going up well into the future. Is it possible to addressspecific risk factors such as obesity or smoking to deliver a bottom linebenefit? The answer is yes. A strategically designed…
Spiration to be sold to Olympus
Shortly after raising $6.5 million in capital, Spiration Inc. announced that it is being sold to Olympus Corporation. Spiration, a Redmond-based company featured inour June issue, is the inventor and manufacturer of the IBV valvesystem, a device used to treat emphysema. Olympus was previously a distributor of Spiration’s IBV valve system in Japan and Europe.
Spiration Sells Out
Following in the footsteps of locally grown biomedical companies like Immunex, Icos and Physio-Control, Spiration Inc., who we profiled in our June 2010 issue, has sold itself off to a larger out-of-state corporation, in this case, Olympus America Inc., according to TechFlash. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Spiration, which makes a medical device…
Stroke of Fortune
Ekos Corp. has developed anew method of breaking up blood clots with ultrasound. Already being used onclots in the legs, the next step is to target clots in the brains of strokevictims. Stroke is the leading cause of adult disability in theUnited States, and for many patients, depending on the type of stroke, there isless…
Signature Genomics sold
Spokane-based Signature Genomic Laboratories has been acquired byWaltham, Mass.-based PerkinElmer, a maker of scientific instruments, for $90 million, Xconomy reports. Signature Genomics is a local leader in genetictesting. Seattle Business has featured the company several times. Co-founders Lisa Shaffer and Bassem Bajjani were on our list of the Top 25 Innovators and Entrepreneurs last year,…
Results Positive
CellNetix histology labtechnicians Karen Pilarc and Victor Atencio scan surgical tissue blocks tocreate bar-coded slides. A recent study says the use of bar codes reducesoverall lab misidentification cases by 62 percent. Amid todays fevered discussions about health care, there ismuch debate about HMOs and flexible spending accounts. However, little ismentioned about the nuts and bolts…
The Doctor Is In
The ideas, alone, horrified Group Health family doctor HarryShriver when he first heard them: Answer his own phonewithout a nursescreening calls first? Give patients his e-mail address? But these changes were part of a new experiment in healthcare that is now gaining attention around the nation. Its not that Shriver considers himself too important forsuch…
Bringing Health Care Home
Outstanding Health Care Professional James Bergman has fully subscribed to the electronic age ofmedicine. Bergman, a family practice physician at Group HealthCooperative’s Factoria Medical Center, now handles the bulk of his patients’care via e-mail and telephone. The result? More contact with more patients.More give and take. More validation for the patients-all of which allowspatients to…
Breaking Through
Outstanding Community Outreach No matter how well-trained in medicine or nursing they maybe, many health care providers aren’t prepared for the challenges that comewith differences in language and culture in an increasingly diverse population.But that is precisely what doctors and dentists at International CommunityHealth Services in Seattle attend to on a daily basis. For more…
Wellness Central
Employer Achievement in Wellness Programs Since its inception in 2006, the employee wellness programhas become a symbol of an emerging new culture in American businesses. AtUnited General Hospital, the wellness program has become a source of realimprovement, where participating employees eat better, show less stress andreduce their cholesterol levels. Even United General’s CEO, Greg Reed,…
A Man of Discovery
Outstanding Achievement and Innovation in Life Sciences As daylight broke, Leroy Hood floated gently along the Nileoutside Cairo, in the cradle of one of the oldest civilizations on Earth. It’s a fitting locale for a man of discovery who was takinga week off during the first few days of a new decade. Hood is the…
Keeping It Simple
Lifetime Achievement Award Aubrey Davis is a name that for many Washingtonians conjuresfar-reaching transportation projects, thoughtful politics and massive endeavorsin how health care is delivered in the Evergreen State. Indeed, for most of his adult life, Davis has lived inservice to the community. He has been mayor and city councilman of MercerIsland and is largely…