News

Every day thousands of Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries with end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) report for dialysis and are often greeted with an unfriendly and depersonalized experience. A patient once likened his dialysis experience to incarceration saying the dialysis center felt like jail. Research shows many dialysis patients are unhappy with the ESKD treatment experience, yet, since its inception, the dialysis industry is largely unchanged in its approach to care delivery. What if the kidney care experience could be transformed to one that is less onerous and more patient-centered? Fortunately, companies like Somatus are emerging and promise to offer better experiences and health outcomes for patients with ESKD.

Having just returned from a week in Greece, I may well have taken a few years off my life. If you have spent time on some of the Greek islands, you certainly know what I mean. And what a time to have been there, on the heels of a dramatic transition in political power (July 2019) and a resurgent economic environment, there was a sense of optimism that one would not have expected for a country emerging from a crushing economic crisis over the past dozen years.

Today, Aetion, the health care technology company that delivers real-world evidence (RWE) for life sciences companies, payers, and regulatory agencies, announced that former Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb has joined its board of directors. Gottlieb will advise the company as it expands the reach and utility of the Aetion Evidence Platform™, a scientifically validated tool to assess the safety, effectiveness, and value of treatments.

Startup insurer Bright Health, which is expanding next year into seven new states, has hired veteran Twin Cities executive Mike Mikan as vice chairman and president of the Minneapolis-based company.

July 2019 was determined to be the hottest month in recorded history according to scientists at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The temperature was 1.71 degrees above average July temperatures over the entire twentieth century. In fact, nine of the ten hottest Julys occurred since 2005.