Category: News

NVIDIA on Tuesday announced the upcoming availability of its Shield gaming console. The Android-powered handheld will be one of the first devices to be equipped with NVIDIA’s Tegra 4 processor, which includes 72 custom graphics cores and four Cortex-A15 processing cores. The controller features dual analog joysticks, a full-sized D-Pad, left and right analog triggers and A/B/X/Y buttons, and can even stream PC games from a GeForce GTX GPU-powered computer. The Shield is also equipped with a built-in 5-inch 720p multi-touch display, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage, a 3.5mm headphone jack, a microSD slot, GPS, Bluetooth 3.0, a mini-HDMI port and runs a stock version of Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean.

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Disruptor Capital said Tuesday it has invested in Bills Khakis. Financial terms weren’t announced. Reading, Pa.-based Bills Khakis designs and markets branded men’s sportswear, including pants, shorts, jeans, shirts, sweaters, knits, belts and outerwear.

PRESS RELEASE

LEBANON, Va. — At a Tuesday afternoon press conference in Lebanon, Va., Disruptor Capital CEO Pete Snyder and Bills Khakis CEO Bill Thomas announced a major investment by Virginia-based Disruptor Capital in Bills Khakis, a made-in-America, manufactured-in Virginia apparel brand.

The investment will help support 160 jobs in Russell County, Va., where LACorp—a family-owned cut-and-sew operation—manufactures approximately 120,000 pairs of Bills Khakis pants per year.

“Bills is a classic American brand and a true entrepreneurial success story. At a time when many manufacturing jobs flocked to Southeast Asia, Bills bet on the talented and hardworking people of Southwest Virginia—and the quality shows,” said Disruptor CEO Pete Snyder, who also joined the Bills Khakis Board of Directors. “We’re excited to make this investment in a great American business and good Virginia manufacturing jobs.”

“We are thrilled to have an entrepreneur of Pete Snyder’s caliber join our Board,” Bills Khakis CEO Bill Thomas added. “Pete’s strategic investment in Bills will help us take our brand to the next level, and will help secure existing jobs and create new jobs right here in Virginia.”

Disruptor Capital (http://www.disruptor.com/), an angel and seed capital investment company, was founded in January 2012 by Virginia-based entrepreneur Pete Snyder. Snyder’s last venture, New Media Strategies, which he founded in 1999, led to the creation of the booming social media marketing industry. New Media Strategies, the first social media marketing company, remains the largest player and market leader in that field. Snyder sold the company to Meredith Corporation, a publicly traded media company, in 2007. He stepped down as CEO in December 2011 but remains affiliated with the company as Founder and Senior Adviser. Snyder has twice been named a Technology Titan by Washingtonian Magazine and led New Media Strategies to Inc. Magazine’s list of the 500 Fastest Growing Companies in America three years in a row.
Bills Khakis (http://www.billskhakis.com), based in Reading, Pa., is a leading designer and marketer of premium, branded men’s sportswear, including pants, shorts, jeans, shirts, sweaters, knits, belts and outerwear. All Bills Khakis products are cut and sewn exclusively in the U.S.A. The Company sells its products wholesale to premium men’s specialty retail stores throughout the United States, and retail direct-to-consumer through catalog and internet marketing. Bills Khakis has been named to Inc. Magazine’s “Inner City 100” five times as one of America’s 100 fastest-growing inner city businesses.
LACorp (http://www.lacorpusa.com), based in Lebanon, Va., was founded in 1968 as a cut and sew operation and is still owned and operated by the same family. One of the last remaining American companies of its kind, LACorp’s commitment to innovation and customer service has earned the company recognition as one of the top sewing plants in the US by Apparel Industry Magazine.

The post Disruptor Capital Invests in Bills Khakis appeared first on peHUB.

Third Rock Ventures announced several appointments and role changes. The VC firm appointed James Geraghty to the role of entrepreneur-in-residence while Steven Paul, M.D., will be increasing his capacity as a venture partner. Daniel Lynch was named venture partner to support the commercial and business development of existing portfolio companies while John Maraganore, Ph.D., has joined as a venture partner.

PRESS RELEASE

Third Rock Ventures, LLC, a venture capital firm focused on building healthcare companies, today announced that it has expanded and strengthened its team with several appointments and role changes. These additions allow Third Rock to continue to support the launch of new companies focused on disruptive areas of science and medicine, the maturation and development of its current portfolio companies, and the overall strategy and direction of the firm.

To aid in the development of new companies, Third Rock appointed James Geraghty, a 20-year veteran of Genzyme Corporation, to the role of entrepreneur-in-residence, and Steven Paul, M.D., the former president of the Lilly Research Laboratories of Eli Lilly and Company and director of the Helen & Robert Appel Institute for Alzheimer’s Research at Weill Cornell Medical College, is increasing his capacity as a venture partner. Daniel Lynch, former CEO of ImClone Systems, who joined Third Rock in 2011 as an entrepreneur-in-residence, has been named venture partner to support the commercial and business development of existing portfolio companies. John Maraganore, Ph.D., chief executive officer of Alnylam, has joined the firm as a venture partner, where he will participate in a limited capacity focusing on guiding strategy for Third Rock and its portfolio companies.

“With the recent close of Fund III, we are excited to welcome these proven industry stars to our team,” said Robert Tepper, M.D., partner at Third Rock Ventures. “These leaders have demonstrated – through decades of experience – their ability to integrate science and business. The depth of their expertise across commercial, business development, R&D, drug discovery and product development will be invaluable to Third Rock as we focus on translating scientific innovation into exceptional companies that make a difference for patients.”

New Additions to the Team

Having helped Genzyme launch rare disease therapies around the world, Mr. Geraghty will assist the firm in creating companies focused on rare genetic diseases and support existing portfolio companies in related spaces. Prior to joining Third Rock, Mr. Geraghty served as senior vice president, North America strategy and business development, at Sanofi. Before Sanofi, Mr. Geraghty spent 20 years at Genzyme Corporation, most recently as senior vice president and an officer. While at Genzyme, his roles include president of Genzyme Europe and general manager of Genzyme’s cardiovascular business.

“During the last 20 years, I have had the opportunity to participate in the development and commercialization of important new medicines that transformed patient care,” said Mr. Geraghty. “Third Rock’s hands-on approach to launching, building and supporting exceptional companies is uniquely aligned with my desire to contribute to shaping the next generation of great companies.”

Prior to joining Alnylam in 2002, Dr. Maraganore served as an officer and a member of the management team at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. As senior vice president, strategic product development for Millennium, Dr. Maraganore was responsible for the company’s product franchises in oncology, cardiovascular, inflammation and metabolic diseases.

Role Changes within the Team

As venture partner, Mr. Lynch will focus on guiding the strategic vision and business development efforts for Third Rock and its portfolio companies. Mr. Lynch has more than 25 years of experience serving in management positions in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. He currently serves as executive chairman of Blueprint Medicines and is on the board of directors for bluebird bio and Ember Therapeutics. Mr. Lynch spent nearly five years at ImClone Systems, serving as chief executive officer and chief financial officer. As CEO, he led ImClone through a significant turnaround, helping to restore the company’s reputation and to secure FDA approval of ERBITUX® (Cetuximab), a novel cancer treatment.

With Dr. Paul’s increased time commitment, he will play a more significant role in the ideation and development of new companies, serving in key management roles as appropriate. Prior to his appointment at Weill Cornell, Dr. Paul spent 17 years at Eli Lilly, during which time he held several key leadership roles, including vice president of neuroscience (CNS) research and group vice president of discovery research (all therapeutic areas). In his most recent role, he was responsible for the company’s overall research and development efforts – helping to expand Lilly’s R&D efforts in oncology and biotechnology – resulting in a pipeline of approximately 70 new molecular entities.

“The ongoing commitment from Dan and Steve and their intention to spend more time collaborating with Third Rock are testaments to the team we have assembled,” said Kevin Starr, partner at Third Rock. “We recognize that people are our most valued asset, and we rely on the experience, passion and dedication of our team to build these innovative healthcare companies.”

“Having worked with Third Rock since 2010, I respect and appreciate the firm’s approach to creating companies around disruptive areas of science and medicine,” said Dr. Paul. “With this additional time commitment, I look forward to not just launching companies, but to helping our portfolio companies grow, advance pipelines to the clinic and launch meaningful new products for patients.”

About Third Rock Ventures

Third Rock Ventures is a leading healthcare venture firm focused on investing and launching companies that make a difference in people’s lives. The Third Rock team has a unique vision for ideating and building transformative healthcare companies. Working closely with our strategic partners and entrepreneurs, Third Rock has an extensive track record for managing the value creation path to deliver exceptional performance. For more information, please visit the firm’s website at www.thirdrockventures.com.

Current Third Rock Portfolio Companies

Ablexis, Afferent Pharmaceuticals, Agios Pharmaceuticals, Alcresta, Allena Pharmaceuticals, Alnara Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Eli Lilly & Co. in 2010), bluebird bio, Blueprint Medicines, Cibiem, Constellation Pharmaceuticals, CytomX Therapeutics, DC Devices, Edimer Pharmaceuticals, Eleven Biotherapeutics, Ember Therapeutics, Foundation Medicine, Global Blood Therapeutics, Igenica, Jounce Therapeutics, Kala Pharmaceuticals, Lotus Tissue Repair (acquired by Shire plc in 2013), MyoKardia, NinePoint Medical, PanOptica Pharmaceuticals, Rhythm Pharmaceuticals, SAGE Therapeutics, Seventh Sense Biosystems, Taris Biomedical, Topica Pharmaceuticals, Warp Drive Bio and Zafgen.

The post Third Rock Ventures Announces Executive Appointments, Role Changes appeared first on peHUB.

It’s plain to see we’re experiencing a renaissance of mobile virtual network operators. After numerous virtual operators died off in the last decade, new MVNOs — which repackage and resell the major carriers’ voice, SMS and data services — are now popping up almost weekly. It’s becoming increasingly difficult for new virtual operators to distinguish themselves from one another.

MVNO veteran PlatinumTel is launching a new carrier brand called GIV Mobile Wednesday, separating it from the pack not by offering unlimited data, selling app-specific plans or implementing bandwidth sharing features. Instead GIV is playing the role of charitable fund-raiser. You don’t just sign up for a voice and data plan. You sign up for one or more charities such as the American Red Cross or the Alzheimer’s Association. GIV claims it will donate 8 percent of your bill to those selected charities each month, or up to $50 per year per customer.

Of course, it might seem easier to cut a check for $50 to your charity choice rather than build your mobile service around the idea of giving. But GIV seems to targeting the same segment of the population that latches onto to charity vanity credit cards, which donate a small portion of every purchase to a customer’s organization of choice, rather than award points or miles. By allowing customers to divide their giving between multiple charities GIV acts a bit like a donation box; it aggregates a bunch of tiny gifts from individual consumers into one big check.

The MVNO is offering customers dozens of initial charities to choose from, ranging from animal welfare groups to environmental causes to disease research (you can see a full list here). Every six months GIV will take submissions from its customers for new charities, and then those same customers will vote to name one new organization to its roster each period.

As for the actual mobile service, GIV looks like many of the new breed of smartphone-centric prepaid MVNOs popping up. It offers two plans both of which have unlimited voice and text, both of which use T-Mobile’s network. The $40 plan includes 250 MB of monthly HSPA+ data before speeds are throttled, while the $50 plan includes 2 GB of data. There’s still new word on what phones GIV will sell starting tomorrow, but it will support any GSM phone that works on T-Mobile’s network for customers who just buy a SIM card.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Updated: Forecast: global mobile subscribers, 2010-2015
• The future of mobile: a segment analysis by GigaOM Pro
• Mobile 2012 and beyond

Bill Hader, known for his impersonations of celebs like Clint Eastwood and Julian Assange, has announced that he’ll be leaving “Saturday Night Live” when this season is over.

Hader is also a popular face in films and has written for “South Park”. He’s also found success doing voice work in films like “Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs”. For now, he hasn’t said what his plans are for the immediate future, just that he feels it’s his time to go.

“It was a hard decision, but it has to happen at some point,” Hader said. “It got to a point where I said, ‘Maybe it’s just time to go.’”

Hader will be a big lose for the show, which has struggled to maintain a consistent audience base in recent years following the departure of Jimmy Fallon and Tina Fey. Besides his impersonations, he also did original characters like “Stefon” and “Herb Welch”.

Today was an exciting day at the BlackBerry Live keynote in Orlando. We brought you all the action live as it happened here on the Inside BlackBerry blogs, and our social media properties. But there are a few awesome things that you may have missed – so we’ve taken the time to collect all the highlights here in one post! Talk about efficiency.

Thorsten Heins, kicked off the day reflecting on the year behind us and the years ahead. It’s been a long journey, but BlackBerry has built a world-class executive team who successfully brought BlackBerry 10 to market. If you’re familiar with the BlackBerry 10 experience, you already know that it’s a truly mobile experience that’s designed to be fluid and keep you moving while on the go. We’ve come a long way since he took this very stage last year and his message is clear.

“BlackBerry is firing on all cylinders!”

Thorsten took a few minutes to talk about our rapidly growing app ecosystem with BlackBerry World now containing 120,000 BlackBerry 10 applications! The news and announcements flowed throughout the event with an epic crescendo (more on that later). From the announcement of BlackBerry 10.1 availability on the BlackBerry Z10, bringing with it the Skype app to the all-touch smartphone, to the release of U.S. availability information for the highly-coveted BlackBerry Q10 smartphone – there was no doubt that we are committed to this platform and to our customers.

To round out the hardware announcements, Thorsten stood on a glowing red stage to unveil the fun, youthful new BlackBerry Q5 smartphone to be available in select markets around the world. The QWERTY keyboard phone, also running BlackBerry 10, was met with cheers from the crowd of attendees.

The focus quickly shifted to our strength in mobile computing as the QNX Bentley Continental show-car rolled onto the stage. Thorsten joined Mark Rigley, of QNX, in the passenger seat and delighted the crowd with a BBM Video call to Vivek Bhardwaj who was jokingly taking a much-needed (and well-deserved) vacation. They rounded off the demo by updating the car’s software wirelessly through a BlackBerry 10 smartphone – a true demonstration of the unique strength of the platform in machine-to-machine connectivity.

The show themes of power in the auto sector didn’t end there, we’d still see two more partners join the stage, with horsepower abound. Thorsten welcomed President & CEO of Mercedes-Benz Research & Development North America, Johann Jungwirth, to talk about the future of the platform deployment in the auto industry. And, not to be out done, famed grand prix driver and MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS team member, Lewis Hamilton, rolled onto the stage with a stunning race car to introduce something very special.

Hamilton and Thorsten introduced a new way for brands, celebrities and others to connect with their fan base called BBM Channels. BBM Channels will bring the engagement power of the BBM platform to brands, something that will no doubt be a welcome way to connect with their user-base.

BlackBerry has been very effective over the past year in doing this – Frank Boulben , CMO at BlackBerry, took the stage at BlackBerry Live to discuss the year in BlackBerry marketing and the transformation of our brand in many different areas including social media. We have YOU to thank for that #TeamBlackBerry! He then welcomed Global Creative Director, BlackBerry – Alicia Keys to the stage to discuss the next phase of the Keep Moving projects and the BlackBerry Scholars program, a multi-level strategy to engage young women across the globe in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM).

The announcement that indisputably drew the biggest reaction from the audience was the introduction of plans to bring BBM to iOS and Android platforms later this year. The announcement made waves across the mobile community and definitely resonated with many. It’s a big step for our much-adored messaging platform that set the standard for mobile instant messaging with fast and reliable service and an added layer of engagement with delivered and read statuses.

The keynote was nothing short of a masterpiece for us here at BlackBerry, and it ended with the BlackBerry executive team taking the stage all at once for the first time. A wonderful photo-op and symbol of the strength of BlackBerry as we move to pioneer the future of mobile computing.

Did you tune in on the live stream or follow the action on our social channels? Which was your favorite moment from the BlackBerry Live 2013 keynote? Share it with us below in the comments.

Get those lucky numbers ready, folks, because anyone who can buy a lottery ticket in the United States has a shot at the recently-updated Powerball jackpot, and it’s a big one. According to reports, lottery officials estimate the new total to be around the $360 million. The cash option for the third largest Powerball jackpot is almost $230 million, which would result in a pretty nice payday for the winner(s), regardless of the taxation commitments. As you’re probably aware, the odds of winning the lottery are incredibly long, something that’s perfectly illustrated by an infographic posted over at PopSci.com.

To put it simply, you have a much better chance of getting dealt a true Royal Flush than you do winning the lottery (1 in 649,740 versus 1 in 135-175 million). That being said, if you want a shot at the big money, you have to throw your hat into the ring. Furthermore, a 1 in 200 million chance is better than having a zero percent shot at the jackpot.

The next drawing is scheduled for Wednesday, May 21st, meaning you have some time to run out and get your Powerball tickets. If you don’t win, don’t fret. Be happy knowing you contributed to the next Powerball jackpot and go on about your day. Of course, if you win, all bets are off. You’ll probably singing the following song a great deal:

But what else would you do? Donate it all? Spend it frivolously? Disappear from society to live on some huge estate in a foreign country? Or would you try to live the same kind of life you have now?

harmon.ie is a cross-platform SharePoint, Office 365, SkyDrive Pro and Yammer client. It currently supports iOS and BlackBerry 10 with Android support to follow in Q3. harmon.ie makes it easy to connect with colleagues and collaborate on projects.

harmon.ie is currently the only native Office 365 app available for BlackBerry 10. Collaboration happens without overlap by sharing links to documents in the cloud instead of emailing attachments and worrying about having the latest version. Be notified in real-time when a colleague makes an update to a project or document. You can also check up on all the historical edits or changes.

The free version which gives you read-only access and should be used personally to test drive the software. For untethered access, click here to go to the harmon.ie mobile product page and subscribe to their BES edition which costs about $4 per user per month.

Click here to download and try out harmon.ie Lite for free on BlackBerry 10.

The Task Force this month was all about healthcare. It was interesting to hear about the impact of moving healthcare online – both in terms of improved health and reduced costs. And it made the point that Minnesota residents and Minnesota tax payers need broadband to take avail the state of these benefits.

We also got a quick Legislative update – and while the balls are still in the air – as of Tuesday – the Office of Broadband Development is slated for $1 million (although that is expected to be reduced in Senate) and the Office has been moved to DEED.

Read on for full notes..

10:00-­‐10:15 Welcome/Introductions/Public Comments/Approve minutes from April 23, 2013 meeting

Welcome to new members – Fred Underwood (Director of IT at Fond du Lac) & Andrea Casselton (Direct of The for St Paul)

Legislative Update – related to the Office of Broadband Development

Legislation – $1 million for Office of Broadband Development. But that is expected to get cut before passed.

Providers were assured that the office would be in Commerce but not be a regulatory body. It will be a coordination body and will work with the Task Force. The idea is to formalize some of what the Task Force does.

Yesterday the Governor decided to move the Office of Development from Commerce to DEED. The Governor would like the Task Force to support the effort.

Dick Sjoberg wrote a nice editorial on tax issues and broadband deployment

Task Force votes to support the Governor’s change – moving Office of BB Development.

Presentations:

10:15-­‐10:45 Jennifer Fritz, Deputy Director, Office of Health Information Technology, Health Policy Division, Minnesota Department of Health – Office oversees Minnesota E-Health Initiative & Health Information Exchange

We are leading the nation is health care info exchange and deployment of electronic health records

Presentation Goals

• Learning about Minnesota’s approach to health information exchange
• Understand where Minnesota providers are at in regarding health information exchange
• Understand future plans for HIE

Why HIE matter to MN Providers?

• Improved health outcomes – including patient safety
• Better communication with patients, families, care-takers and third-parties
• Streamlined practice processes
• Adherence to state law
• Compliance with meaningful use

Minnesota e-Health Profile – see MN e-Health HIE brief

Summary of Proposed Approach for Health Information Exchange in Minnesota

Governance of HIE and MN Approach

Possible governance models:

• Government-led electronic health information exchange: direct government provision of the HIE infrastructure and oversight of its use
• Electronic HIE as a public utility with a strong state oversight: public sector serves an oversight role and regulates private-sector provision of electronic HIE
• Private sector-led electronic HIE with government collaboration: government collaborates and advises as a stakeholder in the private-sector provision of electronic HIE

State Certification and Oversight of Health Information Exchange (HIE)

• Establishes oversight by Commissioner of Health to protect the public interest on matters pertaining to health information exchange
• Requires State Certificate of Authority to operate
  • Health Information Organizations (HIO)
  • Health Data Intermediaries (HDI)
  • Allows market-based approach for provision of HIE services
    • Allows for multiple HIE Service providers (HIOs & HDIs) to be certified and operate in the state

Minnesota Approach to HIE & the Role of the Shared Services

Questions:

What do you hear about infrastructure readiness?

In terms of EHRs – there is readiness. There may be shortage of certified health records specialists. Clinics and hospitals get money to do this – nursing homes do not. We are trying to provide small financial incentives to smaller settings.

Assessing Providers Readiness and HIE Needs

Minnesota Statewide Implementation Plan & Companion Guides

• Minnesota Statewide Implementation Plan and Guide 1: Addressing Common Barriers to the Adoption of EHRs (2008)
• Guide 2: Standards Recommended to Achieve Interoperability in MN (2008/2011)
• Guide 3: A Practical Guide to e-Prescribing (2009)
• Guide 4: A Practical Guide to Effective Use of HER Systems
• Guide 5: A Practical Guide to Understanding HIE, Assessing Your Readiness and Selecting HIE Options in MN (2012)

Sustainability of HIE

• Business sustainability of services directly offered or enabled (financial oriented)
• Conditions for sustainability of health information exchange (policy-oriented)

Questions:

There are corollaries between where healthcare is in exchanging info and where public safety folks are exchanging info (such as with the Boston Marathon event). Highest risk for medical errors is in transition. We do well between hospitals – but we need to look at the info that the nursing home needs. We have info that’s important – but it’s still in silos.

Don’t privacy laws prohibit some sharing?

Yes – and they need to be looked at. We could do more for people in health care with increased meaningful use. There are tough questions.

Do you have advice about what we might do to help you be successful – especially on the policy front?

10:45-­‐11:30 Dave Hemler, CEO, Revation Systems, Inc. (See www.revation.com) – get presentation

4 Healthcare Trends Enabled by Broadband

Trend 1: Self Service

• Online diagnosis & triage for common conditions
• Evidence-based rules & nurse practitioner/doctor review

You need broadband to take advantage of these services

Trend 2: Social Media

• Single-topic, search optimized health videos
• Video prescriptions

Trend 3: Care Coordination

• Minnesota Board on Aging connecting with 7 MN Area Agencies on Aging
• Dynamic, on-the-fly care coordination across federal, state, county, private and health system resources
• One virtual multimedia contact center for multiple locations & organizations
• Fostering human-human connections (vs HIE)

Minnesota seems to be ahead of the game when it comes to care coordination.

Trend 4: Non-Clinical Points of Care

Fairview Partners – Bringing the Care System to homebound seniors

• Virtual pharmacists
• Virtual behavioral health
• Virtual interpretation

Questions:

Any evidence on impact of products?

We know Fairview’s case that there’s a high cost saving. There’s another report out of Indiana on people doing better when they have ready-access to information. Many people would prefer to see someone in their home setting than see them on site. The cues and details you can see by watching someone in their home location is so helpful.

If you’re in healthcare today, you’re in the behavior change industry. These tools help stay on top of changing behavior.

It’s amazing how much technology and healthcare overlap. The health insurance exchanges are coming together with healthcare. One strong way to control the costs of healthcare is to use the virtual tools to change behaviors. Without the work that the task Force does we couldn’t do what we do.

11:30-­‐12:00 Pete Frank, Information Technology Director, MNSure

MNSure is Minnesota’s health insurance marketplace – there will be a website and staff on hand to help people find the insurance info they need.

Anyone can access the site; members can get insurance through the site. You need to register to determine eligibility.  Then you can move onto plan selection – you will only be able to see the plans for which you qualify.

The key is that we have strong oversight at federal level. And due to recent legislation, we have strong oversight at the state level.

What are other states doing?

About half of the states will use the federal exchange marketplace; 16-20 states will be creating their own; the rest will do a partnership marketplace. Minnesota is not doing a partnership. If we were not doing a good job, the feds could push us into a partnership. We recognized that doing it on our own wouldn’t be any more work than working with a partnership.

This project feels like a startup company.

Questions:

Majority of users will be Medicaid folks. DHS has been working with that audience. We know that those folks do not have access to computers, broadband or necessarily the skills to use a site like this. But the idea is that they can be assisted by county workers. Other service providers may be helpful too.

The rest of the users will have varying degree of access and expertise with technology.

12:30-­‐1:00 Sandy Long, PhD student in Health Informatics at the University of MN Topic: Health Information Technology in all areas of consumer engagement

http://youtu.be/GaZGBGHz7Us

Sandy presents a roadmap or ladder of engagement to getting healthcare information and patients to connect with a goal of improving health and reducing cost.

Here’s an abbreviated roadmap with dates on Minnesota’s progress to meeting the top tiers of engagement:

Inform Me – complete by June 2013

• MN Department of Health
  • Verify basic patient information is provided on MDH website
  • Use research to determine which treatments would be the most beneficial to list
  • Health Literacy Annotated Bibliography provided by U oF M School of Nursing
  • Create MN Statewide standardized forms for HIPAA, Insurance, Advanced Directives and Consent

Engage Me – complete by December 2013

• Integrate directories with Google maps and existing symptom checkers
• Build standard spreadsheets and make available on MDH website for pregnancy, fitness, diet
• Add Facebook & Twitter buttons next to info for sharing
• Create logins and exchange for forms between pharmacies/providers and patients
• Integrated health record – Create a standardized format so MN HER can also act as patient’s PHR
• Create online games that teach people about their health conditions

Empower Me – complete by Dec 2013

• Add a forum for reviewing and rating providers to online directories
• Enable secure messaging on MDH website
• Hire nurses who can monitor website and answer secure messaging related to care; acting as liaison for those in need
• Create method for HER & PHR on website; integrate with login of consumers and providers
• Add permissions capability to HER & PHR
• Create database to support patient level information; feed and populate with data from patient resources
• Write policy to require providers to use standard HER format and activation on MDH site

Partner with Me – complete by December 2015

• Build data analytics support to determine patient needs
• Build website to display content in different manners depending on what is important to patient populations segments
• Add alerts to MDH HER regarding interactions
• Use data analytics to determine if immunization plans are adequate
• Build automated reports based on data
• Use data collection for clinical trials
• Allow members to state their preferred communication channels, diet, and treatment types
• Collect the billing data associated with care episodes
• Use data analytics to compare costs to other states and determine if adequate

Support My e-Community – complete by 2016

• Create educational materials in other languages including audio and video formats
• Send updates to providers related to data analytics of care treatments and cost
• Enable live chat
• Create method for patient alters to be texted
• Use data analytics to create reminders for Rx and appointments
• Allow providers such as alternative medicine, behavioral, dentist to participate
• Create method for “levels of privacy” and switch to turn on/off for specific users/group types
• Build blog capability into site
• Build education of HIT use into K12 curriculum

1:00-­‐1:20 Subgroups “Best Practices/Incentives”

Status of past recommendations:

• Recommended Dig once – still in play
• Recommended exempting sales tax on Fiber – still in play, but not likely – move toward removing tax exemptions at higher level prevailed.

What do you use for recommendations in terms of showing that they will produce results?

We were looking for measurable outcomes. And Assessment of the Economic

We broke up the topics into smaller areas: Schools & Libraries, Healthcare, Adoption, Facilities.

Are we going to start with the recommendations from last round that didn’t get enough time for research?

Maybe we can look at what needs to be done to get broadband deployed and adopted in tribal areas.

Are we still trying to convince people that this is an important issue or are we trying to move the needle forwards? The legislators are moving forward with Office of Broadband Deployment? Do we still want to sell the story?

It’s important to make broadband an economic driver in Minnesota. That’s probably the bigger picture.

We need to look at how we can educate the legislation to do certain things.

Maybe we can create a C-level team to help hone and get the message out. We’ve come a long way; we still have a way to go.

Mostly the recommendations seem to have gone to providers – were there any for end users?

There were some focused on end users – but it seemed that it would cost too much.

But is it our concern to worry about the money; couldn’t we focus on making the recommendations?

Another issue – is how much lobbying we can/want to do?

We treat broadband like a utility but we have no sticks so we need to find carrots.

 “Broadband Adoption” meeting

 I missed this session as they were simultaneous – but I know they talked about http://everyoneon.org/

1:20-­‐1:40 Subgroups  “Coordination Across Govt./Monitor FCC & PUC Decisions/Cost of Broadband” meet

Changes to USF – have we talked about that? It would be nice to get someone in to talk about that.

We heard from FirstNet about their plan and how it might help expand broadband. It might be nice to get regular updates. And/or hear from other public safety folks.

Connect America Fund – heard from them.

What do we do with cost of broadband?

Dick Sjoberg worked on a lot of that.

Prior to 1992 – fiber was exempt from sales tax – but that was removed due to budget constraints.

Connect Minnesota recently released more data on broadband availability. The good news is that availability is on the rise.

Growth could be contributed to investment by providers – wired and wireless. Some providers have been able to increase speeds and that helps.

1:40-­‐2:00 Legislative update/Next meeting location and topics/Wrap-­‐up

Location:

Staff will be contacting us about dates and possible locations for future meetings.

• June 11 – Lake Lena
• July 23 – St Paul – policy work – hoping for discussion on Office of Broadband and how things will be operating
• Aug 6 – Red Wing
• September 10 – Alexandria – digital literacy
• Oct 1 – Windom

The Adoption Subgroup talked about how to get hooked into the Governor’s Dashboard – specifically helping them focus on deployment and adoption. Maybe we can talk to them on this. There is an indicator on the broadband – but it’s about access, not adoption. We’d like to recommend that they include adoption component.

It might make sense to write a letter – then request a meeting.

We could invite them to the Task Force meeting. But it depends on their timeline.
2:00 Adjourn

Kentucky Kicks Ass. Seriously. It’s full of history, horses, mountains, rolling hills, great food, better bourbon, beautiful women, and we gave you George Clooney.

But here in Kentucky, we also produced Trevor Runyon, whose overnight grocery party for one would make Barney Stinson rethink his criteria for legen…wait for it…

A Mount Washington ValuMarket manager found an odd scene when he opened up the store on Monday morning. Little did he know, but he was gazing upon one of the most epic parties one could ever throw for himself.

Here’s a brief list of everything Trevor Runyon reportedly did on Sunday night, according to WAVE 3 News:

• Used (note, used, not necessarily consumed) 57 cans of Reddi-Wip whipped cream.
• Cooked and consumed 6 steaks
• Smoked an untold amount of cigarettes
• Ate an untold amount of shrimp
• Ate at least part of a birthday cake
• Peed himself and found replacement clothes
• Fell asleep in the rafters of the store

Apparently, Runyon was able to sneak into the grocery store at closing time on Sunday. He’s been taken into custody, after the fire department was called to get him out of the rafters. That’s one nitrous party for the books.

…DARY.

Daphne Miller, author of the book, “Farmacology: What Innovative Family Farming Can Teach Us About Health and Healing” recently gave an Authors At Google talk discussing her work.

“Increasingly disillusioned by mainstream medicine’s mechanistic approach to healing and fascinated by the farming revolution that is changing the way we think about our relationship to the earth, Miller left her medical office and traveled to seven innovative family farms across the country to better understand the connections between sustainable agriculture and the health of her patients,” Google explains in the video description.

“The product of her adventures is Farmacolog: What Innovative Family Farming Can Teach Us About Health and Healing, a compelling new vision for health and healing and a treasure trove of farm-to-body lessons that have immense value in our daily lives,” Google adds.

The talk took place on May 1st.

More recent At Google talks here.

In just a few short years, Google I/O has evolved into one of the must-attend-or-watch events on the technology calendar. Thousands of developers are expected to take part in the 2013 edition, which kicks off Wednesday morning at Moscone West in San Francisco, and we’ll be bringing you coverage of the show all week, including live coverage of Wednesday’s keynote address featuring top Google executives and likely to feature news about Android, Chrome, YouTube, and Google’s suite of enterprise-oriented cloud computing services.

While it might not feature anything as crazy as last year’s Google Glass-streamed skydive over downtown San Francisco, if you love (or love to hate) Google’s world, here’s what you can expect this week. We’ll update this post as new stories are posted.

Pre-show expectations:

• Why the time has come for Android @Home to finally make a splash
• Google I/O: Arming for the battle of the public cloud stars
• What to expect for Chrome and Android at Google I/O 2013
• Where to watch Google I/O 2013 live online

Day 1:

Featured photo courtesy Flickr user Thomas Hawk.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• HTML5’s a Game-Changer for Web Apps
• The evolution of consumer-media cloud storage
• New challenges for the IT organization

Rihanna was photographed sporting some pale blonde locks recently, and the photo has gone viral as fans repost it with the classic love/hate relationship they’re famous for regarding the singer’s looks.

The 25-year old songstress was just donning a wig for a photo shoot, however, and will likely debut a new look soon, as she never keeps the same one for very long. The wig is getting some comparisons to Anne Hathaway’s new punky ‘do, which she debuted at the Met Gala last week.

Image: SplashNews

.@rihanna has platinum blonde shaggy hair now. PSYCHE! nym.ag/13vTB1C

— The Cut (@TheCut) May 14, 2013

RT @rezilientkas: It’s just a wig for a shoot tho, stfu. “@tmz: Rihanna — Shines Bright Like a Blonde! tmz.me/10VWC5W“

— RiRi Bajan Navy ☈ (@RihannaNavyBDS) May 14, 2013

A blonde Rihanna? Yep! And we’ve got the photo: et.tv/WinRqQ

— EntertainmentTonight (@ETonlineAlert) May 14, 2013

to each his own but i am not a fan of that platinum blonde on rihanna. girl please go back to black.

— Ellen L (@iNospeakBS) May 14, 2013

This article originally appeared on GigaOM Pro, or premium research subscription service.

What are the challenges of growing a solar installation company? SolarCity provides some good insight into that question as it reports earnings for the first full quarter since it became a public company last December.

Raising funds to support its financial product offerings, signing up a greater number of new customers, expanding its operations, and shortening the project completion process are just some of the issues outlined by SolarCity’s executives during their discussion with financial analysts yesterday.

These issues are nothing new, of course, but SolarCity’s financial results help to quantify some of their costs. Given that the solar market is still young, most of SolarCity’s competitors are private and often much smaller.

The California company installed more megawatts of solar energy projects during the first quarter than it initially anticipated (46MW instead of 41MW). But it didn’t raise its 2013 installation forecast, which remains at 250 MW this year. SolarCity boosted its first-quarter sales to $28.2 million but posted $31 million in losses.

“At this stage, we still find ourselves delivery constrained. It’s a matter of scaling our residential operation as well as bringing in our commercial projects on schedule that prevent us from increasing the guidance from 250MW right now,” said CEO Lyndon Rive during the conference call. “We are just focusing our operational capacity.”

SolarCity runs on a business model that is quite different from many of its competitors. The company does the sales, engineering, installation and maintenance with its in-house crew. Rivals such as Sungevity, OneRoof Energy, Sunrun and Clean Power Finance farm out the installation and maintenance work to roofers and other installers. Some of them want to build their brands and invest in marketing and sales to consumers while others sell their financial products and services to installers. Vivint, which has built a large home security system business before getting into solar, operates more like SolarCity.

SolarCity’s model requires much more capital to scale up the business. It needs to hire and train more people, maintain trucks and other tools of the trade and set up shop in expanding its reach across the country. It also has to aggressively court consumers.

The company does business in 14 states, and in March it announced a plan to set up operations in Nevada. The company saw its operating expenses grow from $24.7 million in the first quarter of 2012 to $34.5 million a year later. It serves home and business owners, as well as schools and government agencies. It’s getting into the utility market, too. By the end of the first quarter, SolarCity had accumulated 54,416 customers, and most of those customers are in the residential space: 33MW of the 46MW it completed during the first quarter went to homes.

Raising enough money to finance leases and power purchase agreements is another big challenge for SolarCity and its competitors. With leases or power purchase agreements, customers pay a monthly fee for the electricity generated from the solar panels on their rooftop. They don’t own the panels, however, since they didn’t pay for the high upfront costs of the equipment and labor that can run around $20,000 for an average system in places like California.

The investors that give the funds that support those financing options own the solar electric systems, and they get to take advantage of a 30 percent federal investment tax credit and count on revenues from the monthly payments for the duration of the contracts, which usually run 20 years. As of May 10, SolarCity has enough funds to finance 158MW worth of projects.

SolarCity is a formidable fundraiser. In its 2012 annual report, the company said it had raised $1.7 billion to finance installations since its inception from companies such as U.S. Bancorp, Google, PG&E and Credit Suisse. SolarCity also puts in its own money in some of the funds to finance the installations. The pressure to raise money consistently is even greater now that SolarCity is a public company and must not only show growth but also generate profits at some point. It doesn’t want to be in a situation where the demand for its leases outstrips the funds available, something that happened to SunPower during the first quarter of this year.

SolarCity also needs to shorten the amount of time it takes from selling solar panel systems to installing each project. It has 195MW of backlog, some of which are planned as multi-year projects. But overall, the company wants to sell and install the equipment during the same month, Rive said. To accomplish that, the company is constantly looking for ways to simplify the installation process by using different designs for racks and other components. It also invests in software to reduce the time it takes to apply for permits and complete the sales process.

SolarCity has been an interesting company to watch since its start in 2006. It was one of a crop of venture-backed companies in the emerging residential solar market. Now, how well the company can grow its business and make a profit will be used by investors to evaluate other solar retail service companies that want to go public.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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• After Solyndra: analyzing the solar industry
• The fourth quarter of 2012 in cleantech
• Cleantech and investment in 2013

Google has added numerous languages to its Google Translate for Android app. A week ago it added 16 more choices, but sadly Klingon wasn’t among them. In fact one of our readers, blindwanderer, even observed: “You won’t ever see Klingon, Klingon as a language is more tightly controlled by its creators than De Beers controls diamonds”. Which is particularly interesting given what language Bing can now speak.

The Microsoft service announces that it has partnered with Marc Okrand and Paramount Pictures to bring Klingon to the translation table. “Now in a few simple clicks you can translate text from English to Klingon (and vice versa!) Available via the web here and also as an update to Bing Translator for Windows Phone 8, regardless of whether you’re new to the Star Trek universe or fresh from a convention, we’ve got you covered,” the search team promises.

This is done, of course, in honor of the new movie — Star Trek: Into Darkness — which hits theaters on May 16th. Bing wants to help fans celebrate the latest release from director J.J. Abrams which even features a cameo from Leonard Nimoy. The movie may well be the first of the major summer blockbusters for 2013.

Are you going to see the flick? Have you always secretly wanted to learn Klingon? This week you get the chance to accomplish both of these goals.

*Take that Google