Kiger's Notebook

Rochester tech exec featured in new biz success book

Al Berning, known in Rochester as a former IBMer, a co-founder of Pemstar and current CEO of Hardcore Computers, is one of 45 entrepenuers featured in a new business book called "How They Did It."

The book, written by Robert Jordan, asked the 45 founders, "How do you start a company from scratch and turn it into a hundred-million-dollar success story"

  To promote the book, Jordan is hosting Entrepreneurial Bashes with panel discussions featuring some of the people from the book.

Look for Berning to appear in one at the New York Stock Exchange on Oct. 3.

Here's some from a press release that surfaced in my email this morning:

Each leg of the Entrepreneurial Bash features a different group of founders who have agreed to go on record about what it takes to win in any economy. "It's their way of giving back to the business community," says Jordan. If their advice on raising seed capital, hiring the right team, bouncing back from setbacks, and becoming leaner, smarter, and meaner than competitors sparks new startups that generate jobs, that would be an ideal outcome, he adds.

The founders featured in the New York Entrepreneurial Bash include Bonnie Baskin, AppTec Laboratory Services; Glenn Tullman, Allscripts and ECIN; Jim Dolan, The Dolan Company; Mark Tebbe, Answers.com and Lante Corporation; and Al Berning, Hardcore Computer and Pemstar. The event runs from 4:30 to 7 p.m., at the NYSE building, 11 Wall Street, New York City.

Vein finder device + Roch.

Here's some from an article by the intrepid Jeff Hansel. He did a great job outlining this medical device project Benchmark Electronics has cooking locally.

For the full piece, go here.

And he also has an interesting take today on Rochester's push for biotechnology business. Read that one here.

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Southeast Minnesota workers helped design and now are manufacturing a sophisticated device that pinpoints veins for medical workers, in an example of biotechnology taking root locally.

Accuvein is a New York state "virtual" biotech, one that doesn't have corporate cars, offices or laboratories.

One of its ideas is Accuvein, a portable vein finder to find the "first best vein."

It partnered with Benchmark Electronics of Rochester to do the detailed design and production work on Accuvein, said Vinny Luciano, vice president of marketing. Benchmark had the right skills in both medical design and medical manufacturing, he said.

Mayo Clinic created med scanner + Dubai medical expo

Here's an update on my favorite elastography device (OK. It's the only one that I know of) invented in Rochester.

Back in 2008, I wrote about Mayo Clinic and the creation of Magnetic Resonance Elastography, which is a completely new way to scan the human body that uses sound waves.

A team led by Mayo Clinic's Dr. Richard Ehman developed the process and a device dubbed the "Resoundant." It works as an accessory of sorts hooked onto a traditional MRI scanner.

It uses a drum-like paddle to send vibrations into a patient to determine the stiffness of tissue. A computer algorithm then interprets the results. Benchmark Electronics in Rochester started making the Resoundant.

Mayo Clinic partnered with the two top MRI scanner makers, GE Healthcare and Siemens Medical Solutions, to sell the device and install its software on all new MRI scanners they make. The two companies account for 82 percent of the market.

The latest news I picked up via a Kigerography® scan is that GE is displaying its model of the Resoundant  - called MR Touch (Sounds like a cousin of the iPod Touch) – at the 2010 Arab Health Expo.

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GE Healthcare, the healthcare business of General Electric Company showcased its range of new magnetic resonance  products on the opening day of Arab Health 2010 expo in Dubai on Monday.

The innovative MR portfolio complements GE’s ‘healthymagination’ initiative and is driven by the need to deliver and maintain sustainable health care globally, built on the core commitments of reducing costs and improving quality and access in health care worldwide, said its top official.

“We’ve chosen to spotlight our new MR products because they truly change the face of diagnostic imaging,” said Jim Davis, vice president and general manager of GE Healthcare.

“While the economy has slowed innovation elsewhere, GE Healthcare has accelerated the pace of new breakthroughs (Since Mayo Clinic doctors invented this, I guess GE means it has accelerated its pace of buying breakthroughs - Jeff), and we believe tremendous opportunity exists ahead,” he remarked.

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Based on technology invented at Mayo Clinic (Rochester, MN), MR-Touch extends the principles of physical palpation with a precise, non-invasive, cost- effective way to visually evaluate tissue stiffness in patients at risk for developing liver disease.