BI Lahey to buy Joslin Diabetes. I’m quoted in the Boston Globe

Goodbye independent Joslin

Diabetes is a costly illness that affects tens of millions of Americans. Joslin Diabetes Center is a world renowned specialist located in the heart of Boston’s Longwood Medical Center. It seems like it should be booming, but in fact diabetes treatment is not a great business and Joslin has not had strong financial performance.

Cancer, cardiology and orthopedics –with their invasive procedures– are much better for making money. But good diabetes care means coordinating lots of people to examine and guide the patient. That’s expensive to provide but not well reimbursed.

And standalone specialty hospitals, even prestigious ones, need strong connections to integrated health systems if they want patients.

So it’s no surprise that Beth Israel Lahey plans to acquire Joslin. As I told the Boston Globe (Beth Israel Lahey Health plans to acquire Joslin Diabetes Center), the deal makes clinical and financial sense and is unlikely to attract regulatory scrutiny.

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By healthcare business consultant David E. Williams, president of Health Business Group

The post BI Lahey to buy Joslin Diabetes. I’m quoted in the Boston Globe appeared first on Health Business Group.

ICER founder Dr. Steve Pearson explains COVID-19 remdesivir pricing model

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1367974/6318007-icer-s-dr-steve-pearson-and-the-covid-drug-pricing-model.js?container_id=buzzsprout-player-6318007&player=small

Dr. Steve Pearson

Drug pricing is the hottest topic in healthcare, and ICER founder Dr. Steve Pearson is the coolest person to discuss it with.

In this episode of the HealthBiz podcast, Steve describes how the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) compiles and analyzes clinical evidence to estimate the fair value of treatments for cancer and other serious illnesses. ICER has been especially active during the pandemic, developing a pricing model for remdesivir and other COVID-19 therapies that’s being used in the United States and by health technology assessment agencies around the world.

For fun, he has been reading Paradise Lost by John Milton.

This is the second episode I’ve recorded on COVID-19 drug pricing. Check out the first one: Remdesivir powers activate! with Dr. Surya Singh.

The HealthBiz podcast is now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and  many more services, making it easy to subscribe.

Below is a rough (AI-generated) transcript of the episode.

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By healthcare business consultant David E. Williams, president of Health Business Group

 

The post ICER founder Dr. Steve Pearson explains COVID-19 remdesivir pricing model appeared first on Health Business Group.

Our email is down: Check this post for alternative addresses

The Health Business Group email server is down. It should be back up soon. Meanwhile, you can send emails to:

David Williams: dwilliams@mppllc.com
Karen Donovan: kdonovan@mppllc.com

We will forward to the rest of the team as needed.

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Jean Mixer: Podcast interview with Boston Children’s digital health maven

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1367974/6225070-jean-mixer-boston-children-s-digital-health-maven.js?container_id=buzzsprout-player-6225070&player=small

Jean Mixer

Jean Mixer has been guiding Boston Children’s Hospital into the digital future for the past seven years, so she was more than prepared when the COVID-19 pandemic arrived and suddenly everyone was forced to go remote. I first met Jean at Boston Consulting Group in the 1990s when she led growth strategy projects in healthcare, financial services and consumer goods. We stayed in touch and reunited five years ago when Health Business Group helped Jean put the Children’s digital strategy in place.

In this episode of the HealthBiz podcast, Jean traces her journey from JP Morgan to BCG to her own consulting practice and then to Boston Children’s. She shares her experience as a director of public companies in biotech, medical devices, and banking. And she explains what she’d do if she had a time machine.

The HealthBiz podcast is now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and  many more services, making it easy to subscribe.

You can check out the rough (AI-generated) transcript below.

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By healthcare business consultant David E. Williams, president of Health Business Group

The post Jean Mixer: Podcast interview with Boston Children’s digital health maven appeared first on Health Business Group.

Friends do business together: Podcast interview with Clerio Vision’s Totterman and Zapesochny

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1367974/6098341-friends-do-business-together-clerio-vision-s-totterman-and-zapesochny.js?container_id=buzzsprout-player-6098341&player=small

Mike Totterman and Alex Zapesochny grew up on the same street of immigrants in Rochester, NY. Two decades later they joined with Sasha Latypova to co-found iCardiac Technologies, a high-tech success story that helped pharmaceutical companies measure cardiac safety in clinical trials. Now, with Clerio Vision they’re plotting to revolutionize the world’s eyesight with innovative contact lenses and a noninvasive procedure to replace LASIK. I’ve been along for the ride, as an investor and board member in both companies.

In this episode of the HealthBiz podcast, Alex and Mike talk about entrepreneurship, spinning technologies out of universities, making partnerships last, and what they do in their spare time. 

As I re-listened to the interview, I was struck by the wisdom they shared about how to turn a cool technology into a real business. It’s hard to do but there are some best practices to follow.

The HealthBiz podcast is now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and  many more services, making it easy to subscribe.

Show notes:

• The Hard Thing about Hard Things by Ben Horowitz 
• The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande

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By healthcare business consultant David E. Williams, president of Health Business Group

The post Friends do business together: Podcast interview with Clerio Vision’s Totterman and Zapesochny appeared first on Health Business Group.

Is ransomware unstoppable? No, it isn’t

This is stoppable

Chances are you’ve been hearing a lot about cyberattacks and specifically ransomware in healthcare lately. Attackers take over systems and encrypt files, demanding payment in Bitcoin. They often get away with it.

Attacks like the recent ones on Universal Health Services and ERT that make the papers are just the tip of the iceberg. No one wants to report that something like this happened to them.

Until recently, I had assumed that such attacks were really hard to stop. Some are. But it turns out there are often many ways to thwart ransomware, and often hours or even days in which to do so.

I asked security experts at Gamayan to analyze the UHS attack and was amazed that they found at least 28 ways it could be stopped. Check out the UHS ransomware case study that breaks down the attack and potential response step by step.

If you want to learn how to prevent such attacks at your organization, contact me.

Here’s the timeline of the attack:

Day 1

16:37 Bazar Malware Executed (Remote IP)

16:48 Domain discovery commands

17:06 Registry discovery commands

17:28 More domain discovery and network checks to domain controllers

17:41 AdFind used to map active directory

Day 2

18:49 checks again for domain trusts and AdFind using Bazar (FTP exfiltration to remote IP)

20:12 First lateral movement attempt with WMIC (SMB transfer, Multiple payloads tried)

20:23 P64.exe Cobalt Strike beacon run on beachhead host (Remote IP)

21:04 Second P64.exe Cobalt Strike beacon dropped on beachhead host (New remote IP)

21:09 Next lateral movement attempt via a service and PowerShell (First Successful Lateral Movement)

21:10-22:06 Continual lateral movement using Cobalt Strike beacons via SMB across the environment

21:43 Windows Defender begins to be disabled using Powershell commands

21:45 First RYUK ransomware executable transferred to the backup system (Ryuk Executed)

21:50-22:10 RYUK ransomware deployed enterprise-wide (Transferred via SMB, executed RDP commands)

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By healthcare business consultant David E. Williams, president of Health Business Group

The post Is ransomware unstoppable? No, it isn’t appeared first on Health Business Group.

The 30 Years’ War for value-based care: Podcast with Archway’s Dave Terry

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1367974/5997742-the-30-years-war-for-value-based-care-archway-s-dave-terry.js?container_id=buzzsprout-player-5997742&player=small

When Dave Terry started his career in healthcare three decades ago, he noticed something odd and disturbing. The fee-for-service model meant doctors were paid for quantity, not for quality or cost effectiveness. Since then he’s been working to do something about it: for the first twenty years at American Practice Management, then Partners Healthcare and Harborside Healthcare. He made progress, but also learned the limitations of acting against entrenched interests.

For the last decade he’s gotten even more serious, co-founding Remedy Partners in the wake of the Affordable Care Act and then Archway Health, where he is CEO. Archway helps physicians jump into the meaningful risk-based payment models that are finally on offer from the Feds and private carriers.

I compared Dave’s quest to the Thirty Years’ War, but reminded him that there was a Hundred Years’ War, too, so he better gird himself.

The HealthBiz podcast is now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and  many more services, making it easy to subscribe.

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By healthcare business consultant David E. Williams, president of Health Business Group

The post The 30 Years’ War for value-based care: Podcast with Archway’s Dave Terry appeared first on Health Business Group.

Pharma jumps into digital health: Podcast interview with Medullan CEO Ahmed Albaiti

The HealthBiz podcast is now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and  many more services, making it easy to subscribe.

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1367974/5878438-pharma-jumps-into-digital-health-medullan-s-ahmed-albaiti.js?container_id=buzzsprout-player-5878438&player=small

The pharmaceutical industry is one of the last to be transformed by the digital revolution. But companies like Roche and Novartis have been experimenting for a long while, and the fruits are finally ripening.

Medullan CEO Ahmed Albaiti is a digital health pioneer. In this episode of the HealthBiz podcast, he takes us on a trip down the memory lane of digital health, sharing pharma’s successes and failures. We discuss the shock brought on by COVID-19 and why software is often classified as a medical device. He also shares his vision for an integrated and harmonized future for pharma, payers, providers –and patients.

I’m proud to serve as chairman of Medullan’s advisory board.

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By healthcare business consultant David E. Williams, president of Health Business Group

The post Pharma jumps into digital health: Podcast interview with Medullan CEO Ahmed Albaiti appeared first on Health Business Group.

Health Business Group Launches New Podcast: HealthBiz with David E. Williams

Weekly show features interviews with healthcare entrepreneurs and experts

BOSTON, October 14, 2020 – eTradeWire — Health Business Group (HBG), a healthcare strategy consulting boutique, launched a weekly podcast series titled HealthBiz with David E. Williams. Hosted by HBG’s president, the podcast presents interviews with healthcare business and policy leaders. Williams’ unique interview style fuses deep healthcare insight with engaging humor.

The first episode, Data Will Eat Public Health featured Shahir Kassam-Adams, a healthcare entrepreneur at Datavant. Kassam-Adams described how steps taken after 9/11 can inform our post-pandemic response. He explained how the collection and analysis of vast amounts of data has helped identify and mitigate threats, albeit at the expense of privacy.

For public health, there is an opportunity to leverage and synthesize disparate electronic data while protecting privacy. “Almost everything about public health is information based,” said Kassam-Adams. “The power of that information is going to make new public health professionals out of information technology professionals, or public health professionals will step up to become information giants. Data is going to eat public health.”

Guests on subsequent episodes include Dr. Surya Singh (entrepreneur and CVS executive), Daniel Kivatinos (DrChrono co-founder), Ahmed Albaiti (Medullan CEO) and Dave Terry (Archway Health CEO).

“Healthcare is critically important to the economy and to everyone as individuals. But it’s easy to be consumed by jargon and bore people to death when discussing the complexities and nuances,” said Williams. “I invite really knowledgeable and engaging people to HealthBiz, where we provide clarity and depth to inform and provoke.”

HealthBiz is an outgrowth of the Health Business Blog, where Williams has written thousands of posts about healthcare business and policy and conducted more than 100 podcast interviews since 2005.

HealthBiz with David E. Williams is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other services.

About the Health Business Group

Health Business Group is a leading strategy consulting firm advising companies, investors, and non-profits in healthcare technology, healthcare services, and pharmaceutical services. Client service professionals average more than 20 years of healthcare consulting, industry and start-up experience. Visit www.healthbusinessgroup.com for more information.

David E. Williams is president of Health Business Group and an independent director of Clerio Vision, Home Care Delivered, and Vericred. He is chair of Medullan’s advisory board. Previously he worked at Boston Consulting and LEK Consulting. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in Economics from Wesleyan University. Follow David on Twitter @HealthBizBlog

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