Kiger's Notebook

Evidence of Walgreens impending opening in Roch.

Well, following my highly attuned instincts and heightened journalistic senses, I dug up the fact that Rochester's new Walgreens drug store along south Broadway is slated to open at 8 a.m.Thursday.

Uh…OK… I just read comments made by readers on this blog and read the big, flashing sign with red lights in front of the shiny new store.

Anyway, many people seem giddy about this, while others see it just as another retail opening. However, any openings these days are notable

Rochester fitness club + makeover

One of Rochester’s longtime fitness facilities is getting a makeover.

Northgate Health Club at 1112 Seventh St. N.W. in Northgate Center is undergoing what its owner Dave Skinner calls its “most comprehensive facility upgrade” in its more than 30-year history at the location.

This makeover will include painting, a new wood fitness class floor, refinishing and installing new “green” energy-efficient overhead lighting.

Skinner says every part of the club will be affected.

Phase one is under way. It’s focused on the lobby, group fitness classroom and the indoor pool facility.

Skinner expects to be done by Christmas with this phase. More will follow.

The 24-hour club will remain open while the work is done.

This upgrade was launched after Skinner signed a lease extension through 2011.

Labor shift - Union moves into new Rochester offices

The labor group that represents 1,200 workers at Mayo Clinic’s Saint Marys Hospital recently took on new digs in southwest Rochester.

In late October, Service Employee International Union Healthcare Minnesota moved out of the space on North Broadway that it has long shared with another labor group, Unite-Here Local 21.

Unite-Here previously represented the healthcare workers in Rochester. When those workers voted to work with SEIU, it created a space crunch for the union, says Ashley Christenson of the St. Paul-based organization.

“We wanted more space and a new location that would better accommodate our needs,” she says.

The group found that location on Second Street Southwest in the Corporate Gardens complex, next to Kwik Trip. Six to seven people work in the office.

The deal was brokered by Darci Fenske of Paramark Real Estate

Mayo Clinic's retiring CEO to partner w/ Smoldt

Here's an interesting tidbit from health reporter Jeff Hansel on what Mayo Clinic's top leader will do after he retire.
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When Mayo Clinic’s departing national president and CEO Dr. Denis Cortese retires Nov. 20, he’ll leave Rochester — but he’ll rekindle an old partnership.

Mayo spokesman Karl Oestreich said Cortese will work in concert with former Mayo national chief administrative officer Bob Smoldt.

Together, they’ll lead the new Healthcare Delivery and Policy Program at Arizona State University.

The program “will focus on health care delivery changes that result in higher value health care, as well as the role of public policy in delivery system reform,” Oestreich said.

He noted that Cortese will stay involved in health-care reform and continue to support the mission of the Mayo Clinic Health Policy Center’s efforts.

Smoldt led the center in 2007 while he transitioned out of his role as Mayo chief administrative officer. But he and Cortese will reprise their roles, this time at Arizona State.

IBM to cover all primary health care for employees

Here's an interesting tidbit I spotted on www.Bloggingstocks.com of all places this morning. This piece by David Schepp says that IBM will pick up all primary care costs for employees starting in 2010.

That means no co-pays or deductibles, I guess. I'll do some checking on this myself.

Here's some from the bloggingstocks.com story:

In an era in which employers increasingly are having to shift more health-care costs onto employees, IBM is taking the unprecedented tack of opting to pick up all expenses related to primary care for U.S.-based employees, beginning next year. In doing so, IBM is is among the first U.S. companies to cover primary care at 100%, the Armonk, N.Y.-based computing giant said Thursday.

The move means employees will not be subject to co-pays or deductibles for in-network primary care with their internist, general or family practitioner, pediatrician or primary osteopath. IBM said it was able to boost coverage due to the company's success in implementing wellness programs, an effort begun five years ago.
"As a result of our focus on wellness and primary care, IBM employees have become healthier and our costs are rising more slowly," said Randy MacDonald, senior vice president of human resources in a statement. The new benefit will apply to all IBM-self insured medical plans, which include PPO, PPO Plus and EPO options and currently cover about 80% of all U.S.-based employees, Big Blue said.

A self-insured plan is one in which health costs are borne by the employer, with an insurance company acting as an administrator. IBM noted that other employees participate in HMO plans, which typically provide most, but not all, preventive and primary services at low or no cost.

Employees will still contribute a share of premium costs, IBM said.

IBM also said it's introducing a new wellness incentive "to encourage changes in lifestyle to build energy, better health and vitality" through the implementation of rebates of $150, one of five such incentives IBM offers U.S.-based workers. Employees who participate in initiatives, which promote mental, physical and emotional well-being, receive the rebates upon completion of select programs.

Employees can chose any two rebates to receive up to $300 in cash a year, IBM said.

NeoChord's first human patient

Remember NeoChord?

That's the Minneapolis biotech company founded in 2007 that is working on bringing to market a Mayo Clinic-created non-invasive method for fixing a leaky heart valve AKA mitral-valve regurgitation.

Mayo Clinic does have an investment in an equity position in NeoChord. 

Well, it has installed its heart fix in a human patient in Europe now.

That sounds like a solid step toward getting a product to market, assuming the test goes well.

Here's some from a press release on the study:

NeoChord, Inc., a venture-backed, Minneapolis-based medical technology company, announced today that it has enrolled the first patient in its European clinical trial.

The trial is being conducted in Germany, Denmark, Czech Republic and Norway.

“We are very pleased with the early results of this first procedure,” said Per Wierup and Sten Lyager Nielsen, the cardiac surgeons who performed the surgery. “The patient is an otherwise healthy, very active 47-year-old male who preferred to not have a sternotomy or cardiopulmonary bypass to fix his severe mitral regurgitation. The NeoChord approach has successfully treated his mitral regurgitation and potentially offers him a quick return to his military career and favorite hobby, scuba diving.”

Intra-operative transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) confirmed that the patient’s severe, eccentric mitral regurgitation was reduced to zero or trace mitral regurgitation. 

Giovanni Speziali, MD, the cardiac surgeon who is the primary inventor of the NeoChord device also attended the procedure.  “These results, although early, are equivalent to what we obtain in traditional open heart surgery for correction of mitral regurgitation,” said Dr. Speziali.

Mayo Clinic Dr. + 'Dancing with Doctors'

No worries. This is not a spin-off of the 'Dancing with the Stars' TV show.Dr. Michael Brennan, an endocrinologist, appears on an espisode called 'Dancing with Doctors,' which is part of the PBS series "Life (Part 2)."

Thanks to Mayo Clinic's Social Media Guru Lee Aase for pointing this out on Twitter.

Here's some of PBS' introduction to the show:

Why do we often feel scared, rushed, and powerless in the doctor’s office? Can this affect how we heal? Why do doctors behave the way they do? How can we improve the “dance” we do with doctors?

Host Robert Lipsyte, a two-time cancer survivor, asks the insiders. The Mayo Clinic’s Dr. Michael Brennan offers pointers on getting and keeping your physician’s attention and reaping the greatest benefits from a visit to the doctor.

More on Kardia's new offering

Here's more on Kardia's new product/service.Extra info tidbits:

• Roch. developer Gus Chafoulias is major financial backer and he has an office in Kardia's management suite in the Minnesota BioBusiness Center.

• Kardia posted a $9 million loss in 2008 as the firm spent about $600,000 a month during the year

• Kardia logged 150 new customers in 2008 and took more than $2 million in orders.

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Kardia Health Systems launched a new online platform this week for managing and archiving cardiology medical reports.

ConnectedCare is a software service that allows doctors to study and archive all medical images, like echocardiograms, for heart patients.

“As cardiologists do their work today, they have a vast amount of information they can use when treating a patient and much of it is image-based,” said Doug Marinaro, chief operating officer of Kardia Health Systems. “ConnectedCare helps them with the acquisition, archiving and management of those images, so they can be accessed from anywhere and at anytime.”

Kardia, which was founded in Rochester in 2006, recently moved into offices in the third floor in the Minnesota BioBusiness Center in downtown. It also has offices in Minneapolis and Denver.

This pay-per-use service complements Kardia’s earlier online offerings of imaging system specific programs for echocardiography, vascular echocardiography and nuclear cardiography.

The echocardiography system is the foundation that Kardia started with and built upon. Kardia licensed that original software from Mayo Clinic, which created it.

Those first online services are tailored more towards larger, research-based medical centers, like Mayo Clinic. Marinaro said ConnectedCare is anticipated to open new doors for Kardia.

“This market has been developed and penetrated at the level of large hospitals. The medium and small practices are an unpenetrated market. We think it is wide open for us,” he said.

This system knocks down the two main barriers that has kept smaller medical organizations from adopting such services — complexity of the technology and price, he said.

Kardia’s online interface addresses the technology and using the pay-per-use model is expected to keep costs down, according to the company.

“ConnectedCare will transform health care by streamlining the way physicians manage, view and report cardiovascular information,” said Marinaro.

MayoClinic.Com vs Righthealth.com

Here's a tidbit I stumbled upon. It looks like, according to MarketCharts.Com that MayoClinic.Com has been topped by RightHealth.Com in the standings as online medical sources.

In January, MayoClinic.com had 4.76 percent of the U.S. visits, which placed it as #2 behind WebMD's 12.67 percent. RightHealth.Com was #7 with 2.18 percent.

In February, MayoClinic was still #2 with 4.92 percent and RightHealth.com was #3 with 4.07 percent.

In September, RightHealth.Com has #2 with 5.67 percent with MayoClinic.com #3 with 3.48 percent.

Alexa, a Web site traffic tracking site, ranks MayoClinic.com as 513th top visited site for U.S. traffic.

Alexa puts RightHealth.com at 1,024 for the U.S.

MayoClinic.com has 10,463 sites linking to it compared to 284 linking to RightHealth.Com., according to Alexa.

Earlier this week, Time Inc.'s Health.com announced a partnership with RightHealth.comm to expand Health.com in 2010.

Not sure what all of this adds up to for MayoClinic.Com, but the pieces are interesting. I'll follow up with Mayo soon.

Kardia Health Systems launches new service

Rochester-based Kardia Health Systems, the imaging software firm based in the Minnesota BioBusiness Center, announced this afternoon that it is launching a new service.

Here's a little bit from the press release. I'll check for more details to see what this means for Rochester.

Kardia Health Systems, today announced the immediate availability of ConnectedCare, the first complete, online, fee-per-study cardiovascular information system. ConnectedCare combines Structured Reporting and picture archiving and communication systems in an online solution.  

ConnectedCare is a comprehensive image management system for cardiology, including remote archiving, viewing, analysis and intelligent structured reporting, in one solution. ConnectedCare includes Kardia’s new ConnectedArchive, a unique remote archiving system that lets physicians edit and complete reports remotely, while eliminating the administrative task of implementing and maintaining a local archive. T
 
“ConnectedCare will transform health care, by streamlining the way physicians manage, view and report cardiovascular information,” said Doug Marinaro, chief operating officer of Kardia Health Systems. “Increasing productivity ultimately leads to improved patient care.”
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ConnectedCare is priced on a fee-per-study basis….