MCCI (Medical Care Consortium, Inc.) is a physician owned Medical Group who partners with Humana to engage Primary Care Provider offices successfully transition to a quality or value based model of care by providing practice support around quality related activities such as appropriate documentation and coding, care coordination, Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH), closing Preventive Health and Quality gaps, etc. and now MACRA.
More info soon!
Jay and I sat down with Sam Perkins, CEO of Pūrgenix™, a company that has developed a technology that enables healthcare organizations to contain, and in fact, reduce rates of occurrence of hospital-acquired infections. It is well known that pathogens such as MRSA and Clostridium difficile are challenging to treat and equally challenging to eradicate from a care environment once they have taken hold. The Pūrgenix™ platform addresses a component that is often overlooked in dealing with these dangerous organisms—the air.
Sam shared how they saw a need for a new solution to eliminating illness-causing organisms from the hospital environment, ultimately developing a system that is custom-designed and installed to be installed into the building’s air handling units. The Pūrgenix™ system employs powerful UV lights that use energy to kill air-borne organisms as they pass into the air handler from the return and again on the way back to the environment on the downstream side.
He shared some use-case examples where client hospitals were able to successfully reduce occurrences of infections for their patients, as well as experiencing a measurable reduction in absenteeism among their employees due to illness.
Sam also explained that deposits, including bioburden that is created by bacteria, as thin as a micron (a piece of paper is ~6 microns thick) can significantly reduce the cooling efficiency of a building’s air handling unit. By preventing a build-up of bacteria within the unit on the cooling coils, the deposit of bioburden is eliminated, leading to marked increases in energy cost to condition the environment of the building.
Pūrgenix™ creates PūrHospitals™, an environment in which patients and employees experience a purer
environment where they can heal and work. Hospitals deploying the system can advertise their status as PūrHospitals™, letting patients in the community know their environment is safer with less risk of hospital-acquired infection. As Mark Haney, President at WellStar Paulding Hospital, said about the Pūrgenix™ solution at the launch of their new hospital: “…we still have to do the basics, but we have the building working for us now.”
Special Guest:
Sam Perkins, CEO, Pūrgenix™ 
This week Jay and I sat down with Matt Ethington, CEO of ChronicCareIQ to learn how this technology company is providing physicians and hospitals with tools that empower them to better manage patients with chronic illnesses. The Affordable Care Act has put in place measures around patient outcomes that can affect how much the provider is reimbursed for care they deliver. Managing patients with chronic illnesses is time-consuming and requires much patient education and follow up to facilitate compliance with the recommended care plan. The ChronicCareIQ platform not only provides the practice or hospital with an efficient tool for engaging patients, it also provides documentation of required patient contacts, along with current health status data such as glucose measurements, blood pressure, weight, and others.
Matt shared how he is a patient dealing with a chronic illness, Type I Diabetes. His experiences along the way helped him see how care delivery can be somewhat disconnected at times and inspired him to think about ways to bridge gaps in communication and give providers a better way to know what is happening with their patient between visits.
ChronicCareIQ enables healthcare providers to keep tabs on fragile and chronic patients through their smart phones. Recognizing the impact on patient outcomes when effective chronic disease management measures are in place, Medicare has begun to reimburse for patient engagement performed through the platform, allowing providers to simultaneously automatically meet compliance requirements, and measurably reduce call volumes. Identified as a “Best Practice” by leading consulting groups and with patient engagement rates that exceed 80% on an average weekly basis, practices, hospitals, or health systems can identify decompensating patients in real time, manage risk to prevent unnecessary hospitalization or ED visits, and advance material steps with payment reforms.
Special Guest:
Matt Ethington, CEO, ChronicCareIQ 
We host Dr. Johnetta Maccalla, CEO of Zyrobotics, an assistive technology company that was conceived in the summer of 2012 and officially incorporated in 2013 as a Georgia Tech Venturelab spin-off company. Their mission is to create accessible technologies that engage and empower children with disabilities and enhance their quality of life.
The technology company develops personalized technologies that are adaptive to each individual’s capabilities. Zyrobotics first product offerings include accessible interfaces and smart toys, socially assistive robots, and a suite of educational apps that are specially designed to enable educational and accessible play. The company’s mission facilitates freedom through technology for children of all abilities.
Johnetta shared how she saw an opportunity to leverage her long background in research and development and robotics for several large, well-known enterprises to help children with disabilities. Zyrobotics is now engaging with professionals in rehabilitation facilities to make them aware of this technology that has shown to help engage these children in their rehab exercises, as well as increasing compliance with the prescribed plan.
We talked about the fact that the technology company is actively seeking funding to support their marketing and production scalability. The company is also interested in partnering with rehabilitation centers and physicians who would be prescribing such services so they and their patients can benefit from access to this tool.
Special Guest:
Dr. Johnettta Maccalla, CEO, Zyrobotics
Karol Hatzilias
We host Karol Hatzilias, Chief Science Officer of United Sciences, the company that has developed custom-made, personally-fitted brain monitoring headphones. Karol talked about how he had helped to develop a device that gives 3D mapping of the features of the outer ear and canal. Using the data from the 3D scans, his company could print perfect-fitting, custom made ear pieces, which proved to be very useful to hearing aid manufacturers.
After selling his initial company he wanted to build on the 3D imaging capabilities he had developed. United Sciences is using the technology to design wireless headphones that, while providing excellent stereo sound, also contain numerous sensors that can monitor a host of physiologic activities.
The Aware headphones, as they’re called, can provide pulse oximetry, monitor brain wave activity, report steps taken, heart rate, activity of the muscles of the jaw, and potentially others. Because of the secure fit, the headphones provide significant sound protection for the wearer. To provide situational awareness when desired, the user can activate mics on the exterior of the device that allow them to listen to audio and also hear approaching cars or other activity around them.
The Aware hearable can track brain waves through EEG and provide real-time feedback about focus, stress, sleep patterns, and relaxation. This enhanced awareness may help users increase focus, lower stress levels, understand their sleep patterns, and help guide them to be more mindful.
Karol and his team are collaborating with academic institutions to conduct research that may enable these devices to be deployed for a variety of clinical studies, facilitating real-time, real-life monitoring of key biodata. United Sciences is currently raising funds through a Kickstarter campaign, where contributors can pre-purchase a set of the Aware headphones at a discount in exchange for their investment support.
Special Guest:
Karol Hatzilias, Chief Science Officer, United Sciences
Jay and I hosted Steve Robb, SVP of Security Marketing & Product Strategy of ControlScan, a firm that specializes in information and network security for enterprises, including healthcare organizations. With the rise of “smart” devices of all kinds that have sensors that communicate with applications via networks and/or internet, there are now a myriad of entry-points for persons intent on nefarious activity to access a company’s network.
We’ve all heard the news stories about major firms, including the US government, who have had their networks and data compromised by hackers, causing millions of people to be exposed to identity and financial theft. As technology has continued to evolve rapidly, it is difficult for enterprises to be able to afford to recruit and retain security experts with sufficient breadth of knowledge to truly secure a business’s information as well as it could be.
Atlanta-based ControlScan brings a unified approach to security and compliance solutions, enabling organizations
to better protect sensitive data while making compliance easier to achieve and maintain. ControlScan’s combination of professional services and Managed Security Services delivers a full security lifecycle – from Security Risk Assessments to identify gaps, through HIPAA and PCI compliance analysis, to ongoing management and monitoring of security measures.
Steve shared some great information about some of the various sources of risk to networks that exist today, along with things the enterprise should be considering regarding how secure their information actually is. The ControlScan team can provide thorough evaluations of security protocols and measures and identify weaknesses that can be shored up. Additionally, the company provides outsourced security managed services that gives the client access to a high-level security team for less than it costs to employ one outright.
Special Guest:
Steve Robb, SVP Security Marketing & Product Strategy, ControlScan 
This week, Jay and I hosted Paula Dumas, Founder/CEO of MigraineAgain.com. As the leading Migraine Wellness website for patients, Migraine Again helps patients and their families suffer less and live more — until there’s a cure. Migraine Again helps bridge the access to care, bringing evidence-based healthcare content to migraine
warriors in 45 countries.
It’s a genetic neurological disorder that hurts over 1 billion people worldwide, 37 million in the US alone: 1 in 6 women, 1 in 10 kids and 1 in 18 men. Migraine Again helps spread awareness and increase funding for one of the most disabling, invisible disorders on the planet.
Providing information on research and lifestyle changes migraine sufferers can make that can sometimes help mitigate frequency and severity of migraines, migraineagain.com reaches over a million patients worldwide each month. When the website shares information about promising treatments or options available for migraine sufferers, Paula explained they focus on those where a significant body of reputable evidence is available to support them. This helps to prevent making recommendations that are unproven or have little likelihood to actually provide relief.
A lifelong migraine warrior, Paula struggled and juggled through her career with CNN, Apple and Disney, and then shifted gears to devote herself to non-profit work and health advocacy. Under her direction, Migraine Again offers hope and help to people who suffer with this chronic, disabling condition, while raising awareness and funding for a cure.
A member of the American Headache Society electronic media team and an advisor to Migraine Research Foundation, Paula has been nominated for a WEGO Health Advocate Award, and a featured expert speaker at the Migraine World Summit. She’s authored over 250 articles and research papers, and conducted interviews with the world’s top migraine and headache doctors, all of which can be accessed for free on MigraineAgain.com.
Special Guest:
Paula Dumas, Founder/CEO of migraineagain.com
Chronic back pain (traumatic and neuropathic) affects over 26 million Americans, of which about 7 million have spinal stiffness (spasticity). Current therapeutic management is not working: drugs in use have poor efficacy, and cause undesirable side effects such as resistance, dependency/abuse and other disorders.
The estimated annual economic burden of back pain is over $150 billion. Our mission is to positively impact this “pain” by means of our patented innovation to provide a therapy that works, improves patient’s quality of life and reduces the overall burden.
Neurgain Technologies, Inc., is a Delaware Corporation founded to license, develop and commercialize the technologies arising from Dr. Martin Marsala’s regenerative medical research at the University of California-San Diego (UCSD). The innovation is distinguished by a unique combination of a novel delivery method and a specially designed device for practicing it, both of which are patented.
The delivery method has been validated in both rodent and swine models; and we have verified the satisfactory functionality of a proof-of-concept device prototype.
Special Guest:
Sai Kumar, Principal, DiligentCXO
We sat down with Sam Zebarjadi of Medicast on this week’s show. This company is using technology to facilitate the return of the house call as model of healthcare delivery. Founded in 2013, Medicast is a healthcare technology company that enables hospitals and health systems to deliver care in a patient’s own home. Medicast’s platform, Virtual Practice, is used by organizations to send nurses and doctors to patient’s homes as an alternative to traditional primary or urgent care visits in a clinic—often in 2 hours or less from the time a visit is requested.
Medicast is a Techstars and StartUp Health company, and was recently recognized by Becker’s Hospital Review as one of the top disruptive healthcare companies to watch in 2016.
Check back soon for more information!
