News Archive

The education establishment is in a twit over the phenomenon called “summer slide.” “Summer slide” is the loss of knowledge/competence in the summer months, according to research done by the RAND Corporation and Johns Hopkins University. “Summer slide” disproportionately plagues poor kids of color, so the recent, alarmingly low scores recorded by urban students on the Common Core tests heightened sensitivity around this issue.

Rather than acknowledging the corrosive effects of poverty, or conceding that the testing and accountability era has been a failure and has driven lousy practices, the answer is to make the least privileged kids work longer and harder while their more affluent peers summer in the Hamptons or South of France.

The NFL, Under Armour and GE on Wednesday launched Head Health Challenge II, an open innovation challenge to award up to $10 million for new innovations and materials that can protect the brain from traumatic injury and for new tools for tracking head impacts in real time. The challenge is part of the Head Health Initiative, a collaboration to help speed diagnosis and improve treatment for mild traumatic brain injury.

Kevin Plank, Founder and CEO of Under Armour said: “As longstanding partners of the NFL and in collaboration with GE, we take great pride in our participation in the Head Health Challenge II. We are excited to harness the power of innovation and assemble the best minds in the world towards an effort to make the field of play safer across all sports and for all athletes.”

This graph is a good visual depiction of how aging baby boomers, advances in technology and shifts in the way healthcare is delivered under reform may influence jobs in the healthcare sector.

In a Labor Day article, PBS directed us to interesting data published last year by U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in its Occupational Outlook Handbook (h/t @VentureValkyrie). Seventeen of the 30 occupations expected to grow the quickest between 2010 and 2020 are healthcare and medicine-related.

With all the concern (and liability) hospitals and their partners face to keep patient medical data secure and private, one new biometric security innovation could offer an interesting alternative to the typical password. This wristband grants users access to their devices by identifying the wearer by their heartbeat.

Image Courtesy of dream designs / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Johns Hopkins University’s Whiting School of Engineering said Tuesday it will partner with Campbell & Co., a Baltimore-based investment firm, in a teaching and internship program.

Staff from Campbell will teach an investment science course at Hopkins during the fall semester and offer paid internships to as many as three Hopkins students during the year.

BD Diagnostics, a part of Becton Dickinson and Company, announced on Tuesday that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has cleared the launch of its BD ProbeTec Trichomonas vaginalis Qx Amplified DNA Assay.

The BD ProbeTec Trichomonas vaginalis Qx Amplified DNA Assay will be used in BD Diagnostic’s BD Viper System with XTR Technology to detect T. vaginalis DNA in endocervical, vaginal and urine samples. The BD Viper System is used by laboratories to test samples for T. vaginalis, C. trachomatis and N. gonorrhea and can also be used in batch mode to test for chlamydia and gonorrhea, trichomonas and herpes.

Health care organizations in North America are projected to spend more than $34.5 billion on health IT in 2014 to comply with health care regulations, according to a new report from Technology Business Research, Clinical Innovation & Technology reports. 

For the report — titled “SourceIT Healthcare Report” — researchers interviewed 225 health IT executives and line-of-business managers and conducted 25 in-depth interviews to learn about spending intentions, priorities and perceptions (Pedulli, Clinical Innovation & Technology, 8/29). 

WellDoc® announces the appointments of Dr. David Levy, Terry Lierman, Donald Almeida and Michael Greenebaum to its Board of Directors. In addition, the company has formed a new strategic advisory board that includes Dr. Michael Stocker, Rt Hon Alan Milburn, H. Tom Watkins, and Christopher T. Rogers. These global healthcare and technology executives add experience and guidance to the company during the launch and commercialization of BlueStar™, the first FDA cleared, reimbursable, mobile prescription therapy for type 2 diabetes.

“I’m humbled to serve the company alongside individuals who literally crafted today’s ground breaking healthcare policies both in the U.S. and in Europe and who have built multi-billion dollar successful businesses” “We are proud to welcome David, Terry, Don and Michael to our Board of Directors and Mike, Alan, Tom, and Chris as advisors,” stated Ryan Sysko, Founder and CEO of WellDoc. “Each addition brings unique local and global experiences from private industry, healthcare, technology, and policymaking backgrounds. Their collective knowledge will be invaluable to the growth of our company.”

MEXICO-U.S. INNOVATIVE BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES

Tuesday, September 17, 2013; 7:30 AM – 10:30 AM

Mexico is currently the 3rd largest goods trading partner to the U.S. with $494 billion in total trade (2012) and is the 2nd largest economy in Latin America. This Global Trade Forum will provide access to experts and information about the ways innovative businesses connect across borders. A distinguished presentation will be made by the Mexican Ambassador to the United States, His Excellency Eduardo Medina-Mora. Public and private sector representatives will focus on bio-tech and other industry sectors as panelists and conduct one-on-one sessions with attendees.