Deal Radar 2010: OmniGuide

OmniGuide, Inc. develops and commercializes high-precision, flexible, minimally invasive surgical instruments. OmniGuide’s family of indication-targeted fiber-optic scalpels enable flexible delivery of clinically beneficial CO2 laser energy, thereby broadening the field of minimally invasive surgery. >>>

Building A National Health Information Network: NaviNet’s Brad Waugh and Tom Morrison (Part 7)

SM: How does the architectural approach change things on the clinical side?

TM: On the clinical side it is exactly the same thing. ONC has put together the quality metrics for meaningful use. The metrics on the list were designed around elements which will improve quality and remove costs from the system. >>>

Deal Radar 2010: Chegg

This year’s Deal Radar series begins with a company that is direct competition for your campus bookstore, Chegg. Chegg is an online textbook rental company whose name is a play on the well-known conundrum of which came first, the chicken or the egg. Founded in 2003 by Aayush Phumbhra, Josh Carlson, and Osman Rashid, Chegg started as a “Craigslist-like” classifieds site at Iowa State University. The three realized that the high cost of textbooks was a huge problem for students and started to rent textbooks. Though Carlson left Chegg in 2006 to pursue other interests, Phumbhra and Rashid tweaked the original version and launched Chegg.com nationwide in 2007. >>>

Building A National Health Information Network: NaviNet’s Brad Waugh and Tom Morrison (Part 6)

SM: Suppose the government mandated that all insurance providers in America standardize on a payment system similar to yours. What would the total cost savings be?

BW: Our marketing department estimates that based on our 812,000 providers, if you take a combination of what we are saving today on both the provider and the payment sides, it is just over $800 million. >>>

Building A National Health Information Network: NaviNet’s Brad Waugh and Tom Morrison (Part 5)

SM: Are you doing anything with electronic health records?

TM: We believe that a far more effective way to create the broad, automated records needed is to automate information outside the office and present it as a package to a treating physician. Our model has the ability to do that. We are doing that today for Aetna. >>>

Catching Up On Readings: New Year’s Resolution

I was reflecting back on 2009, and thinking what would be a good synthesis of the work I have been doing, and how I might succinctly summarize a New Year’s resolution for myself. Here is what I have come up with:

Through the Entrepreneur Journeys project, I have come to conclude that the most vulnerable phase in an entrepreneur’s life is the pre-$1 million revenue stage. This is where numerous ventures fail. Once the $1 million revenue milestone is crossed, entrepreneurs find it easier to find additional customers, manage working capital, and access funding, whether it is credit or equity. To find out about this and the rest of the week’s posts, click on the four articles.
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Campaign In Poetry, Govern In Prose

I am, quite obviously, in a reflective mood.

Fareed Zakaria was just taking stock of Obama’s presidency so far on CNN, and quoted Mario Como: “You campaign in poetry and govern in prose.” Reminded me of Bengali poet Sukanta Bhattacharya’s famous line:

“Poetry, we do not need you anymore.
A world devastated by hunger is too prosaic.
The full moon now reminds us of toasted bread.”

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Next Roundtable January 7, 2010

Many of you have read my New Year’s resolution post, and asked me how you can help further the entrepreneurship movement. >>>