FountainBlue

April 2012: Thoughts on Hybrid Clouds

Every week in March, FountainBlue featured interviews with members and leaders of CloudNOW, this month's featured nonprofit. With information from these interviews and surveys of dozens of in-the-know activists in this space, FountainBlue is pleased to stimulate discussion about hybrid cloud environments for enterprises, which leverages the data security of the private cloud implementations, while benefiting from the cost effectiveness, flexibility and versatility of public cloud access. Throughout the month of April, we will gather and compile and document examples and conduct interviews on hybrid solutions for the enterprise, and welcome your thoughts, nominations and questions sent to info@sventrepreneurs.com. More information is available at http://www.fountainblue.biz/consulting/cloud.html.

Integration Solutions:

Security Solutions:

Performance Solutions:

5. Solutions that maximize availability of information in large volumes - information locally and immediately - without internet connectivity.

6. Applications which allow users to define tiered access to information, resulting in optimal performance for sets of data of most relevance to them.

Virtualization Solutions:

7. Seamless integration of larger varieties of hardware platforms, operating systems, storage devices and network resources to allow for better security, performance and management.

8. Applications which optimize current resources and proactively anticipate and manage the hardware, infrastructure, application, performance and security needs of each customer.

System Management Suites:

9. Tools for managing the rapid integration of a larger range and volume of private, community and public cloud options.

10. Automated upgrades for individual clouds and integrated solutions to optimize security and performance.

March 2012: Partnering for Hackathon Events

FountainBlue will be partnering with organizations across the valley and beyond through our ‘Innovation Through Hackathons’ program, to collaboratively create different versions of hackathons, involving programmers working in collaboration over a targeted weekends to develop customer-requested mobile apps and social media/web (or other technology) solutions in Silicon Valley and later other tech regions around the world. These events might include:

• Customer-led Hackathons focused on creating demos for fundable ideas for eager customers;
• Company-led hackathon, delivered in a Reverse Job Fair manner, inviting hackers to create new and complimentary solutions;
• Funder-led Reverse Hackathons which allow active investors to define and invest in the market need, and invite hackers to create solutions for that need at a hackathon;
• And other solutions that focus on the trends in the market, the needs of the customer and the creation of technology-based, scalable, and personalized solutions to address both.  

For more information, e-mail us at info@FountainBlue.biz.

February 2012: What's New with FountainBlue: Advisory Boards

We are serving on the advisory boards of for select members of our community, supporting their marketing, business development and recruitment efforts. Currently, we are providing advisory and business development support Speck Design and their product innovation services http://www.speckdesign.com, and advisory and investment strategy support for Bell Biosystems and their research on heritable magnetic signature in therapeutic cells, with huge implications for diagnostics, cancer, regenerative medicine and cell therapies. http://www.bellbiosystems.com. For more information about any of these organizations and the services they provide, and more information about the organizations where we serve, visit http://www.fountainblue.biz/consulting/advisory.html.

January 16, What's New with FountainBlue: Members as Referral Partners

At the request of our members, we will be sending out our job reqs to our members, inviting everyone to strategically forward them on to their networks of contacts. Thank you in advance to everyone who elects to forward our reqs. Please tell your contacts to mention that you connected him/her to us, so that we can track the origin of our candidate leads. We are happy to pay a referral fee to members who recruit candidates who get hired and stay for a ninety-day period. You may also elect to donate your referral fee to a FountainBlue-approved nonprofit or a nonprofit of your choice. For more information about our job leads, visit http://www.fountainblue.biz/openreqs.html.

January 9, What's New with FountainBlue: Giving Back

Since our launch in January 2006, FountainBlue has been committed to giving back to the community through active participation and financial support. As we shift into recruiting and consulting, we are pleased to contribute financially to nonprofit causes providing executive education, educational benefit, and women-in-leadership. Currently we are supporting the following types of organizations:

Executive Development Organizations:

   Career Actions

Educational Organizations:

   A Schmahl Science Workshop, as a member of the advisory committee.

Women-In-Leadership organizations:

   Global Fund for Women

   Global Women Leadership Network

   Women's Initiative

Please e-mail us with the following information at info@whenshespeaks.com or complete the form above if you would like to considered an approved, adopted FountainBlue cause.

   Your name

   Recommended Nonprofit

   Your involvement with Nonprofit

   Why you would recommend this Nonprofit

   Why FountainBlue's membership of clean energy, high tech, and life science entrepreneurs would find this nonprofit beneficial to the community overall

We are happy to profile a nonprofit each month, and recommend any of these nonprofits as worthy causes.

If you’re interested in catching up over the phone or in person, please visit http://meetwith.me/lindaholroyd and suggest a good time to connect. Please also let us know if we can support you with your recruiting, consulting and coaching needs as you grow your business.

January 2 Update: A New Year, A New Newsletter Format!

We are looking forward to an exciting new year, and an exciting new time for the valley and the global community! It is our hope that our weekly newsletter will provide you with relevant, useful information about business and market trends and their implications for your business. We invite your inquiries, suggestions, feedback and interest as we continue with our consulting, coaching and recruiting efforts! If you’re interested in catching up over the phone or in person, please visit http://meetwith.me/lindaholroyd and suggest a good time to connect. Please also let us know if we can support you with your recruiting, consulting and coaching needs as you grow your business.

For the month of April 2012, we are featuring 'The Quantified Self, Big Data, and Medicine', January 24, 2012, by Brian Buntz, http://www.mddionline.com/blog/devicetalk/quantified-self-and-big-data

VentureBeat recently ran a piece hailing the Quantified Self as one of the big trends of 2012. Based on self tracking, the Quantified Self movement might be characterized as "better living through self measuring" rather than the DuPont slogan "better living through chemistry."

One prominent device that exemplified this self-information-gathering trend is the Fitbit pedometer. The device not only keeps track of the number of steps a person walks but it can also estimate distance walked, calories burned, and even how well one sleeps.

Countless other examples abound: There is the iPhone ECG and non-medical device examples such as the Withings Wifi Bodyscale, and the Zeo Personal Sleep Coach. And there are numerous apps for mobile phones that are contributing to this trend as well, which, as you might guess, is leading to an explosion of data.

As a recent article in the Wall Street Journal explained, the field of medicine is undergoing a similar transition. That paper quotes Shamus Husheer, CEO of Cambridge Temperature Concepts saying that traditional medical information "is massively skewed. It is highly biased by the people who go to doctors; the ill, the hypochondriacs and the elderly."   

But that's beginning to change as the power behind Big Data becomes clear. The logic of all behind this is obvious: more data is more useful, and less biased, than less data. But, as the Wall Street Journal article points out, acquiring medical data has, historically, been problematic. It is wrapped in layers of regulations and stringent safeguards and is expensive to collect.

Husheer's company, Cambridge Temperature Concepts, is doing its part to reverse the trend and help produce data that can be useful for female patients facing infertility problems. The company has created the DuoFertility sensor that is worn 24 hours a day that measures movement and changes in body temperature to pinpoint medical problems that might interfere with ovulation.

For the month of March, we are featuring Future Medicine: Prescriptions for 21^st Century Healthcare from Futurist Jim Carroll http://media5.jimcarroll.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/HealthCareTrends.pdf.

THE EMERGENCE OF PERSONALIZED MEDICINE:

A fundamental and significant shift in healthcare philosophy and medical research is occurring – from a world in which we “react” to disease and illness after it has happened, to one in which we will be doing far more in advance to “prevent” specific health care problems. The driver for this massive change is the emergence of extremely specialized and highly personalized medical treatments based upon your own particular DNA.

SKILLS WARS:

Hyper-growth in knowledge means that every medical profession is becoming ever more specialized and niche-oriented. Add to this the looming baby boomer retirement wave and declining numbers of medical graduates, and it’s evident that the war for

talent is going to drive much of the agenda of the health care industry in the next few years.

HOSPITALS GO VIRTUAL:

A hospital today is a physical place; tomorrow, it will be defined by the reach of its virtual network of bio-connectivity devices. It will come to be thought of as an extended community network by which a good portion of its services are provided.

EXPONENTIAL KNOWLEDGE GROWTH:

Medical knowledge is doubling every eight years; this is expected to drop to every two years in the near future. Leading edge research now results in new methodologies, treatments and drugs faster than ever before. For medical professionals, the future is all about “keeping up,” and developing agility for rapid innovation, response, development, and implementation. For  pharmaceutical and health care suppliers, it's about rapid development and faster time to market. The pace of innovation and

discovery is picking up.

BIO-INFORMATICS TAKES CENTER STAGE:

Microsoft estimates that at least 50,000 people worldwide are now working in the field of bio-informatics – a field that involves the development of the highly sophisticated computer databases and computational methodologies that analyze a patient’s DNA – a development that is critical to our migration into the era of personalized medicine.

FEEL SICK? IT’S QUICK!

Customer service is coming to the health care industry faster than you might think, and nothing will ever be the same. Pioneers such as Minute-Clinic (with the tag line, “You’re sick, we’re quick”) are rapidly redefining the delivery of health care. Once “patients” become “customers,” their expectations of their family doctor and local hospital will have forever changed.

DRUGS GET SMART:

In the next few years, medical packaging will become smarter as it plugs into your home network. Your pill bottle with provide you advice on how the medicine will be used and when it should be taken. A few years after that, medicine itself will become intelligent: an in-home bio-monitor will analyze the effectiveness of the treatment, adjusting the dosage up or down as appropriate.

CARBON-COMPOSITES AND YOU!

Hip replacements are going hi-tech! By the time you reach the age of 72, you might find that up to 10% of your bone structure is made up of composite carbon fiber structures. The world of bio-materials is set to evolve at a furious pace as the science of golf-clubs comes to personal body structure re-engineering.

ATTITUDE CHANGES:

The entire medical system is set to be transformed with the entrance of GenConnect (those born after 1990) into the health care system. As they take on careers as medical professionals and administrators, they will bring with them a flood of new ideas, innovation and different ways of thinking. Health care institutions currently clogged with organizational sclerosis

cannot keep pace with today’s demands. But GenConnect’s aggressive attitude towards change will quickly break down this sclerosis.

BIO-CONNECTIVITY BECOMES THE NEXT BIG THING:

A flood of highly intelligent, Internet-connected medical devices enters the health care industry, providing new opportunities for monitoring and managing difficult health care conditions. A furious pace of innovation comes to dominate the healthcare device and medical technology industries.

For the month of February 2012, we are profiling: The Big Think: The Future of Healthcare - Top 10 Trends That Are Changing Medicine, John Nosta http://www.johnnosta.com/2011/12/the-big-think-the-future-of-healthcare-top-10-trends-that-are-changing-medicine/

Healthcare is changing. Changing radically and driven by powerful forces of cost, technology and consumer empowerment. Here's what you can look for:

1. The electronic medical record. All your health records will soon be stored electronically. The don't live in a file at the doctor's office, radiologist or hospital anymore. This "instantly accessible" tool will be a significant advance for care anywhere YOU may be. Further, the emergence of the EMR will help drive superior care and less medical errors as computers can flag potential problems.
2. The clinical cloud. It's no longer only your music that will be downloadable. But soon, your health record will be digital and follow you. You CAT scan and ECG are a click away for any necessary viewing.
3. Retail Medicine. Yep, it's already there. But the medi-clinics on the corner will be replaced by chain-style medical offices that will appear in your local mall or big box store. Even retail pharmacies will expand their service to include some medical care.
4. Smart phone monitoring. Your smart phone will monitor your ECG, blood sugar, sleep patterns (to name a few) and alert you and your doctor when there's a problem. It will track and record these trends and offer valuable diagnostic information.
5. Expert engagement at a distance. Distance is no longer an issue. With video engagement and the medical cloud at hand, difficult (and even simple) cases can be evaluated by experts around the world. Even surgical procedures by physicians thousands of miles away--with the help of robotic.
6. Implantable devices. Pain, depression, and common conditions that are generally treated with pills will be successfully managed with implantable devices that use both drugs and electric current to stimulate and normalize conditions with less toxicity and superior long-term management.
7. On-line office visits. At-home diagnostic tools and data transfer to a physician's office will reduce the need for an actual office visit. Video conferencing and these diagnostic tools will provide an accurate assessment, care and risk-management.
8. The patient-doctor. The empowered patient will learn to make informed decisions based upon new at-home tools and techniques. We will measure our own blood chemistries and take and transmit our ECG's. Our actions, guided by experts will allow us to be engaged and informed.
9. Value driven intervention. Cost will emerge as a key factor in care. And value will be an important element. Patients will be rewarded for seeking cost-effective care and value seekers "shop around" procedures like CAT scans on the basis of technology and cost. Long gone will be the day of having a complex test without knowing or caring about the price.
10. The vanishing private practice. The economics of medicine are squeezing the solo practitioner.   Seeing "your" doctor at Walmart may be more likely than that small practice in your home town.

Glooko is an example of a smartphone innovation.

Glooko is an innovative Silicon Valley startup with a unique solution for people with diabetes. Their products enable users with an iPhone® and iPod touch® to easily collect and view the information they need to keep track of their glucose levels – anytime, anywhere.

With the Glooko MeterSync Cable, readings are transferred from a glucose meter into the Glooko Logbook app. From there, users can add notes, review history, and share their logbook to help them get insight into the effect their activities have on their numbers. The Glooko MeterSync Cable is compatible with many of the most popular meters on the market. 

For more information, please check out Glooko.com. The Glooko MeterSync Cable is available on Amazon.com for $39.95 and the Glooko Logbook app is available for free download from the Apple iTunes Store.

MEDgle is an example of expert engagement at a distance as well as online-office visits and the changing patient-doctor relationship with elements of value-driven intervention.

MEDgle provides the engine to transform clinical data into patient-specific, concrete, human-meaningful, information, options, and tasks. For each patient, MEDgle leverages their real-time Health Data Streams (including chronological health history) and transforms them into individualized next-step care action items and health indicators. At the macro level, we use the aggregate patient Health Data Streams and produce interactive clinical and financial predictive models so that the best care, with less time and cost, can be delivered.

Technology-wise, MEDgle is a big data health stream analytics cloud made up of over 130 million points of data, learning algorithms, and real-time big algorithms. MEDgle's specifically translates any available clinical data (age, gender, symptoms, durations, vitals, previous conditions, family history, claims) into on-demand clinical expertise such as acuity level, short and long term differential diagnosis, admission risk, investigative questions, labs, treatments, and more. Just as Intel provides chips to power computing devices, MEDgle provides cloud based APIs to EHRs, medical devices, health sensors, health social networks, and more. In addition, MEDgle is delivered as ready-to-use web/mobile applications such as Clinical GPS and BigPatient. In short, MEDgle is simplifying human health management. http://www.medgle.com

Rexanto is an example of the retail medicine and value-driven intervention trend.

Rexanto builds & operates Web2.0 managed-B2B-markets of goods & services for the Rx industry that enables transparent-pricing of goods, stimulates innovative technology-enabled services and transforms the incumbent supply chain for the pharmaceutical industry. Current Rexanto services are procurement, distribution, Rx-Packaging and Rx-Labeling of meds. Rexanto’s partnerships with UPS Healthcare, a supply chain services division with global footprint, partnerships with a network of 90 pharmacies that represents $750M in buying power, and relationships with suppliers, including seven generic med suppliers position Rexanto for rapid adoption, expansion and growth. Over the next quarter, Rexanto will be focusing on building relationships with assisted living facilities, and welcome your thoughts and connections in this area. For more information, visit http://www.rexanto.com.

For the month of January 2012, we are profiling ‘Science Trends in 2012: Developments to Expect’, by IB Times Science Desk, Dec 22, 2011

The biotech market did well in 2011, a trend expected to continue into 2012, analysts say, though the pharmaceutical sector is expected to struggle as many drug patents expire. The S&P 500 Biotechnology Sub-Industry Index gained 15.7 percent in 2011 and even during the last three volatile months of 2011, gained 4.9 percent, according to data compiled from The Street.

"Continued merger and acquisition activity and favorable legislation will be key growth drivers, while an aging population and environmental concerns could spur demand in the industry," wrote analysts with Karvy Global Services, a Wall Street research firm. While the biotech market could gain in 2012, the outlook for the pharmaceutical industry is gloomier as drug patents continue to expire in the upcoming year. In 2011, the patent expired for Lipitor, the cholesterol drug Pfizer with 2010 sales of $13 billion.

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/271686/20111222/science-trends-2012-developments-expect.htm

Our January 9 profiled company is Heartflow, which has come out of stealth with the announcement of a 75M round of capital with U.S. Venture Partners as a new investor.

HeartFlow is a venture backed cardiovascular diagnostics company located in Redwood City. Its FFRCT technology is based on 15 years of scientific research at Stanford University and is the gold standard for determining whether patients with coronary artery disease require treatment, either with balloons, stents, or coronary artery bypass grafts (CABG)1,2. HeartFlow’s FFRCT analysis uses the power of high-performance computing and image data from computed tomography (CT) scans to provide physicians with data about blood flow within the coronary arteries, which enables the computation of FFR in a non-invasive manner. A HeartFlow DISCOVER-FLOW study was recently published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology and EuroPCR 2011. Data and results from this study show a 25% improvement in per-vessel diagnostic accuracy as compared to a standard CT scan3. http://www.Heartflow.com

If you are interested in nominating a company for an upcoming newsletter on this month's trend, please visit or e-mail your profile to info@svlifescience.com with the following information:

Name and Company:

100-word description of why it is innovative:

Link for more information

URL with picture of innovation

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