Epocrates EHR Too Late For the Show and Looking to Sell Their Mobile Medical Records System

<p>This is kind of too sad as I have used <a href="https://www.epocrates.com/sessionManager.do?type=rxweb&referurl=/online.do&refernext=https://online.epocrates.com" target="_blank">Epocrates</a> for years on my cell phone and<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="82" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-n498jHvhE9c/T08kZppmIQI/AAAAAAAA5gc/FJOP3cwxX2M/image%25255B2%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="240" /> PDA before that to look up formularies.  Even on this blog I put a courtesy search box for their web services to make it easy to look up a drug. The problem here is that they have way too much competition and the late start didn’t help them out a bit. </p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2010/03/epocrates-entering-mobile-ehr-market.html"><font size="2">Epocrates Entering the Mobile EHR Market</font></a></h4> <p>This is just yet one more merging or selling of software as it’s happening all over and I can’t even keep up with it, especially on the insurer side of payor software.  BD  </p> <blockquote> <p>The San Mateo, Calif.-based company acknowledged that building the EHR has hindered its ability to pursue other ways to expand its portfolio. “As a result, we are exploring strategic alternatives for our EHR offering,” according to a statement. The company noted it needed to focus more “on the natural extension of our core business.”</p> <p>The company had high hopes for the EHR, as it counts 340,000 physicians on its network. But the product, which is mobile-device friendly, was coming late into a saturated market. A first-phase version of the software was not available until August 2011 and the product did not receive Complete EHR meaningful use certification until February 2012.</p> </blockquote> <p><a href="http://www.healthdatamanagement.com/news/epocrates-stock-ehr-electronic-health-records-44090-1.html?ET=healthdatamanagement:e2388:120588a:&st=email&utm_source=editorial&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=HDM_Daily_022912">http://www.healthdatamanagement.com/news/epocrates-stock-ehr-electronic-health-records-44090-1.html?ET=healthdatamanagement:e2388:120588a:&st=email&utm_source=editorial&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=HDM_Daily_022912</a></p> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:034eb054-2ae7-44d8-bfd8-01a7a707b189" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Epocrates" rel="tag">Epocrates</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/EHR" rel="tag">EHR</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/medical+records" rel="tag">medical records</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/drugs" rel="tag">drugs</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/formularies" rel="tag">formularies</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/pills" rel="tag">pills</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/mobile+medical" rel="tag">mobile medical</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/cell+phone" rel="tag">cell phone</a></div>

Epocrates EHR Too Late For the Show and Looking to Sell Their Mobile Medical Records System

This is kind of too sad as I have used Epocrates for years on my cell phone and PDA before that to look up formularies.  Even on this blog...

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Judge Says No to Cardinal–Suspension Remains on Shipping Drugs from Florida Facility–Where Were The Algorithms/Analytics To Find This?

<p>As you read on here and with the way we use business intelligence for everything and even abuse it today in some areas,<u> here’s a case to where the CVS pharmacy would have stuck out like a sore thumb if the average store dispenses 69,000 a year and this store dispenses 1.8 million pills</u>.  I know any intelligence report of course would have caught that in a heartbeat <u>but the problem is, someone has to look at it</u> as well and bring it to the forefront.  I think the judge making this ruling is being tough as the numbers are so very far out of whack here with normal and customary numbers.   <a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-KQQLpvnyEjk/T08gnT6rLpI/AAAAAAAA5gM/a4FWvTYi6GY/s1600-h/image%25255B2%25255D.png"><img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="191" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-JLHwq3JwO2c/T08gnipXP4I/AAAAAAAA5gU/cZqG2f-uosk/image_thumb.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="205" /></a></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/02/dea-raids-2-cvs-stores-in-florida-and.html"><font size="2">DEA Raids 2 CVS Stores in Florida and Suspends License of Drug Distributor Cardinal Health–Lots of Oxycodone</font></a></h4> <p>Then you have the other side of the coin with making sales numbers too so perhaps in the name of sales and marketing this little observation here was perhaps not that important?  BD  </p> <blockquote> <p>WASHINGTON – <a href="http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/Cardinal+Health">Cardinal Health</a>, a Fortune 500 drug distribution company accused by the <a href="http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/Organizations/Government+Bodies/Drug+Enforcement+Administration">Drug Enforcement Administration</a> of selling excessive amounts of prescription painkillers to Florida pharmacies, must stop shipping drugs from its Lakeland, Fla., distribution center, <a href="http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/U.S">U.S.</a> District Judge Reggie Walton ruled Wednesday.</p> <p>The DEA says the Lakeland distribution center posed a danger to public health. A DEA investigation found Cardinal shipped 50 times as much oxycodone to its four top pharmacies in Florida as to its other retail customers. In 2011, a <a href="http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/Organizations/Companies/Retail/CVS">CVS</a> pharmacy in Sanford, Fla., purchased 1.8 million pills from Cardinal, DEA records show.</p> <p>An average U.S. pharmacy dispenses 69,000 a year, the DEA said.</p> </blockquote> <p><a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-02-29/cardinal-health-painkillers-florida/53307498/1">http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-02-29/cardinal-health-painkillers-florida/53307498/1</a></p> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:95fbedb0-d6e6-46a9-bab5-eda36b52b446" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/CVS" rel="tag">CVS</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/DEA" rel="tag">DEA</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/oxocodone" rel="tag">oxocodone</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/drugs" rel="tag">drugs</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/prescriptions" rel="tag">prescriptions</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/healthcare" rel="tag">healthcare</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Florida" rel="tag">Florida</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Cardinal+Healthcare" rel="tag">Cardinal Healthcare</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/license" rel="tag">license</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/painkillers" rel="tag">painkillers</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/stimulants" rel="tag">stimulants</a></div>

Judge Says No to Cardinal–Suspension Remains on Shipping Drugs from Florida Facility–Where Were The Algorithms/Analytics To Find This?

As you read on here and with the way we use business intelligence for everything and even abuse it today in some areas, here’s a case to wh...

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FDA Approves First 4 in 1 FluMist Vaccine For Ages 2 to 49

<p>We get some extra vaccine power in this FluMist vaccine it appears so I guess might as well get all you can at once and you inhale it.  Strains of two types of both strains A and B are included.  BD</p> <p><a href="http://www.flumist.com/"><img alt="image" border="0" height="121" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-8I3RT_HlRMw/T08c-sx4yRI/AAAAAAAA5gE/sNdP8ymGPpU/image%25255B4%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="346" /></a></p> <blockquote> <p>WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal health officials have approved the first vaccine that protects against four strains of the common flu, offering one additional layer of protection against the influenza virus that affects millions each year.</p> <p>The <a href="http://www.flumist.com/">FluMist</a> Quadrivalent vaccine from AstraZeneca's MedImmune unit protects against two strains of influenza A and two strains of influenza B. The Food and Drug Administration approved the spray-based vaccine for people ages 2 to 49.</p> <p>Previously all vaccines contained two strains of influenza A and one strain of influenza B, chosen annually by medical experts based on their potential to spread the virus. Having an extra strain of influenza B increases the likelihood that the vaccine will protect against illness, the FDA said in a statement.</p> </blockquote> <p><a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ibXE85rONseljFyN9twquE_-qoSw?docId=0f1bacee0d3d4d109f2cde74ead44952">http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ibXE85rONseljFyN9twquE_-qoSw?docId=0f1bacee0d3d4d109f2cde74ead44952</a></p> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:dc84248f-d308-44e3-a206-98226c8030f7" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/flu" rel="tag">flu</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/flumist" rel="tag">flumist</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/inhale" rel="tag">inhale</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/vaccine" rel="tag">vaccine</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/FDA" rel="tag">FDA</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/influenza" rel="tag">influenza</a></div>

FDA Approves First 4 in 1 FluMist Vaccine For Ages 2 to 49

We get some extra vaccine power in this FluMist vaccine it appears so I guess might as well get all you can at once and you inhale it.  Stra...

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Feds Bust Doctor in Dallas, Texas Area for Medicare Fraud–No Yacht and No Escape from the US Now… Biggest MD Fraud Case in History

<p>When you read through this he had it all pretty well planned out so this was not an “accidental” case of errors with medical billing by any means.  Getting busted one and then going around to create another company to keep functioning is like really asking to be caught and there’s greed in fraud for sure.  What is also kind of funny is the book that they found that evidently was his business plan to make all the money and run, "Hide Your A$$ET$ and Disappear."<a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-qvn0UN-_AUY/T08Z9WzYNaI/AAAAAAAA5f0/m2ytcxOaGGo/s1600-h/image%25255B2%25255D.png"><img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="152" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-HwznzY-P3Ao/T08Z9pLjLdI/AAAAAAAA5f8/kDGunL5vZ14/image_thumb.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="197" /></a></p> <p>Also too using folks from shelters and giving them grocery money and so forth was not a good idea either and if the folks were hungry well they maybe got some food out of the deal and probably had no idea as to the big over all scheme that was taking place.  Stories like this are just amazing as honest doctors fight, dig and scratch at times to get what’s owed and then you have this one who figured out how to work the system for $360 million.  Everyone got certified for care and a boiler room the article stated was in place to handle the paper work.  BD  </p> <blockquote> <p>Federal officials say they have taken down the largest Medicare fraud scheme investigators have ever discovered: a $375 million dollar home healthcare scam operating in the Dallas, Texas area. </p> <p>The alleged "mastermind" of the fraud, Dr. Jacques Roy, is charged with certifying hundreds of fraudulent claims for Medicare reimbursement, and pocketing millions in payments for services not needed, or never delivered. Prosecutors say the 54-year-old Dr. Roy, who was arrested today and could be sentenced to life in prison, operated a "boiler room" to churn out thousands of phony Medicare claims and recruited homeless people as fake patients. </p> <p>The government charges that Dr. Roy was planning to take the money and run. He allegedly hid much of his Medicare money in an offshore account in the Cayman Islands, and in documents filed in court today, the government charges that Dr. Roy was planning to change his identity and flee the country to avoid prosecution. In a motion opposing bail for Dr. Roy, prosecutors claim that he had created a false Canadian identity under the name Michel Poulin, had a copy of a book called "Hide Your A$$ET$ and Disappear," and a guide to yacht registration in the Caymans. </p> <p>In some cases, the indictment charges, Medicare patients were recruited by offering cash and groceries in return for signing up for home health care. These fraudulent "patients" were then allegedly certified by Dr. Roy for services. Some of those recruits didn't even have a home to visit, according to sources close to the investigation: they were recruited from homeless shelters. </p> </blockquote> <p><a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/biggest-medicare-fraud-history-busted-feds/story?id=15809129#.T08VuHlXWSo">http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/biggest-medicare-fraud-history-busted-feds/story?id=15809129#.T08VuHlXWSo</a></p> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:b3a3b3d4-59a2-47f4-9a6b-ed3ed3acd853" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Medicare" rel="tag">Medicare</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/fraud" rel="tag">fraud</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Texas" rel="tag">Texas</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/doctor" rel="tag">doctor</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/billing" rel="tag">billing</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/indictment" rel="tag">indictment</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/patietns" rel="tag">patietns</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/homeless" rel="tag">homeless</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/shelters" rel="tag">shelters</a></div>

Feds Bust Doctor in Dallas, Texas Area for Medicare Fraud–No Yacht and No Escape from the US Now… Biggest MD Fraud Case in History

When you read through this he had it all pretty well planned out so this was not an “accidental” case of errors with medical billing by any ...

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United Healthcare Buys Two HMOs in Florida–More Cheap or Free Hearing Aids for Seniors Perhaps–Subsidiary Watch

<p>Not too long ago the cheap and free hearing aides were in the news.  These are distributed through yet another United Healthcare subsidiary, of which there are many, more than any other health insurer has.  As you can read below the bonus was a free hearing aid for those in Miami Dade county who enrolled in their plans, to include HMOs and Medicare Advantage.  <img align="right" border="0" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/TXCfvYCDCBI/AAAAAAAAsv0/8biVjC7dBI0/image_thumb%5B1%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" /></p> <h6><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2011/10/unitedhealthcare-throws-in-free-hearing.html"><font size="2">UnitedHealthCare Throws in Free Hearing Aids for Those Who Enroll In AARP Medicare Advantage, HMO & POS Plans in Miami-Dade County From Their New Subsidiary</font></a></h6> <p><strong>Maybe this is yet one more way to capture more market with United.</strong>  If you read the link below you can read up on some of their other subsidiaries and again they have a ton and you might be surprised as this is not the same company it was a few years ago as some investments are outside of healthcare.  With so many subsidiaries they are in every nook and cranny of healthcare today, whether it be owning an IPA, an HMO, their Optum Bank with deposits of over a billions, to all types of Health IT groups and they sell on heck of a lot of data for profit too from some of these divisions.  The more HMOs they buy, the more control they get on paying doctors and contracts for reimbursement.  </p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/02/united-healthcare-preparing-to-roll-out.html"><font size="2">United Healthcare Preparing to Roll Out New Contracts To Pay Doctors& Hospitals For Meeting Goals and Keeping Costs Down– Plenty of Subsidiaries to Provide Some of the Technology And/Or Products & Generate Income–Subsidiary Watch</font></a></h4> <p><strong>With all these varied subsidiaries, no wonder they hired former US Attorney General in Minnesota for their general counsel</strong> as I too sometimes wonder when the “conflicts of interests” or those of a monopoly of business sector questions will arise. <strong> They are also duking it out in Kansas and Nebraska for state and employee managed care contracts</strong>.  <u> In Kansas, Blue Cross who is the largest in that state decided not to even bid,</u> and again <strong>when up against the mighty subsidiary powers Untied has being being  able to bring in profit dollars from so many different areas from introducing a drug to the FDA all the way down to physician reimbursement, I do wonder how they compete</strong> not to mention the draw of the crowd for those cheap hearing aides in some areas.  <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-4Xn9TVkPWgc/T03mvvXv4YI/AAAAAAAA5fk/dRTFXeUL_4M/s1600-h/image%25255B2%25255D.png"><img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="157" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-fjfCa_Cfin8/T03mwC5wjjI/AAAAAAAA5fs/MMZXW0s4X0o/image_thumb.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="212" /></a></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/02/blue-cross-and-united-healthcare-duking.html"><font size="2">Blue Cross and United Healthcare Duking It Out In Nebraska Over State Health Insurance Contract–We Have More Subsidiaries My Cost Algorithms Are Better Than Yours?</font></a></h4> <p>If they don’t get a contract then there’s always a lawsuit like the Tri-Care situation which as far as I know has not yet been resolved, so again with all the might legal powers and a new general counsel is maybe why Blue Cross gave up in Kansas?  I guess time will tell.  BD  </p> <h6><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2011/06/update-unitedhealthcare-sues-department.html"><font size="2">Update: UnitedHealthcare Sues Department of Defense Over Tri-Care Contracts–They Said They Would Do This – Is This A Case Of My Algorithms Are Better Than Yours?</font></a></h6> <blockquote> <p>UnitedHealthcare, the giant nationwide insurer, is making a major move in South Florida by announcing Tuesday it has agreed to purchase two Miami-Dade based Medicare and Medicaid insurance plans that have more than 100,000 members and eight clinics.</p> <p>Terms of the two deals were not announced.</p> <p>Preferred Care Partners has 55,000 Medicare members in its health maintenance organization in South and Central Florida and another 5,000 members in its Medicaid HMO. It has six clinics in Miami-Dade. </p> <p>Medica Healthcare Plans has 35,000 Medicare HMO members and 7,200 Medicaid beneficiaries in Miami-Dade and Broward. It has two clinics, in Coral Gables and Hialeah.</p> <p>“This is certainly a bold move by United,” said Joseph Caruncho, founder and chief executive officer of Preferred Care. “It shows their commitment to become involved in South Florida and immediately become a major player.”</p> </blockquote> <p><a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/28/2665453/unitedhealthcare-buys-preferred.html">http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/28/2665453/unitedhealthcare-buys-preferred.html</a></p> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:6d663c06-56b9-4f4c-a4fa-9eae6f67aab1" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/UnitedHealthcare" rel="tag">UnitedHealthcare</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Ingenix" rel="tag">Ingenix</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/I3" rel="tag">I3</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/ChinaGate" rel="tag">ChinaGate</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/FDA" rel="tag">FDA</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/China" rel="tag">China</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/medical+devices" rel="tag">medical devices</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/drugs" rel="tag">drugs</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/heatlhcare" rel="tag">heatlhcare</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/mergers+and+acquisitions" rel="tag">mergers and acquisitions</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Optum" rel="tag">Optum</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Medicare" rel="tag">Medicare</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/AARP" rel="tag">AARP</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Intricom" rel="tag">Intricom</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/software" rel="tag">software</a></div>

United Healthcare Buys Two HMOs in Florida–More Cheap or Free Hearing Aids for Seniors Perhaps–Subsidiary Watch

Not too long ago the cheap and free hearing aides were in the news.  These are distributed through yet another United Healthcare subsidiary,...

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Gordon Gekko Comes Back to Help the FBI With A Public Service Announcement to Help Fight Financial Crime On Wall Street

<p>This is a little off topic but interesting that Michael Douglas, who played the role, twice, was asked to do a public service video but I guess it gets attention as he played a pretty ruthless character and I watched both movies myself just as like movies.  What’s interesting is when you read his comments below that people used to come up and congratulate him on being the bad guy, he doesn’t even get where that comes from as it was a movie.  BD  </p> <object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=10,0,0,0" height="245" id="msnbc5197e" width="420"><param name="movie" value="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640" /><param name="FlashVars" value="launch=46543343&width=420&height=245" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="wmode" value="transparent" /><embed name="msnbc5197e" src="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640" width="420" height="245" FlashVars="launch=46543343&width=420&height=245" allowscriptaccess="always" allowFullScreen="true" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"></embed></object> <blockquote> <p align="left"><font color="#000000"><a href="http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-02-27/douglas-s-gekko-is-fbi-s-newest-insider-trading-recruit.html"><strong><u>“The movie was fiction,</u></strong></a><strong><u> but</u></strong> the problem is real,” Douglas says in the announcement. “Our economy is increasingly dependent on the success and integrity of the financial markets. If a deal looks too good to be true, it probably is. For more information on how you can identify securities fraud, or to report insider trading, contact your local FBI.”</font> </p> <p align="left"><font color="#000000">Douglas’s spot is the latest element of “Perfect Hedge,” an initiative begun by the FBI New York’s office to combat insider trading at hedge funds, said FBI Special Agents David Chaves and Richard Jacobs, supervisors in the bureau’s New York’s securities and commodities fraud squads</font> </p> <p align="left"><font color="#000000">Douglas told agents that decades after the movie that won him an Oscar for best actor, he’s frequently stopped and greeted as a hero and not a Wall Street villain.</font> </p> <p align="left"><font color="#000000">Douglas said he was “startled over the positive response he received as Gordon Gekko,” Chaves said. He quoted Douglas saying, “I don’t know what’s wrong with Wall Street but I would be approached all the time, people would ‘high-five’ me or shake my hand for being this terrible man who stole people’s money. Where are the values? The culture has to change.”</font></p> </blockquote> <p align="left"><a href="http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/27/10519206-gordon-gekko-changes-sides-works-for-fbi">http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/27/10519206-gordon-gekko-changes-sides-works-for-fbi</a></p> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:06929fea-e34b-4601-b025-ea1b511cbeef" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/FBI" rel="tag">FBI</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/finances" rel="tag">finances</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Wall+Street" rel="tag">Wall Street</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Michale+Douglas" rel="tag">Michale Douglas</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/crime" rel="tag">crime</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/insider+trading" rel="tag">insider trading</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/hedge+funds" rel="tag">hedge funds</a></div>

Gordon Gekko Comes Back to Help the FBI With A Public Service Announcement to Help Fight Financial Crime On Wall Street

This is a little off topic but interesting that Michael Douglas, who played the role, twice, was asked to do a public service video but I gu...

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More Birth Control Pill Recalls–Patient Found This Error with Pills in Bubble Pack in Reverse Order–The “Shitty Deal” With No Bar Codes to Make Them Easier to Find…

<p>I goes pay to ask questions and look around anymore as you never know what you might find and obviously this woman knew her pills enough to the fact that she was able to recognize that the wrong colors for the wrong weeks were in the wrong places.  This time it’s generic pills on the hook.<img align="right" border="0" height="229" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/TXV46dS81PI/AAAAAAAAs8E/ujnPW5BnoFM/image_thumb%5B5%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" width="180" /></p> <p>No bar bodes yet to make the recalled lots easy enough to find so worth a mention again so I can sound like a 3 years old broken record here as that’s how long my campaign has been going to get the drug, device companies and the FDA to collaborate and get this going.  A few weeks ago Pfizer had their recalls with birth control pills.</p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/02/pfizer-recalls-1-million-birth-control.html"><font size="2">Pfizer Recalls 1 Million Birth Control Packs–Where’s the Bar Codes to Help Consumers Identify? Yet One More Big Example of the “Shitty Deal” American Consumers Get</font></a></h4> <blockquote> <p>Glenmark Generics is issuing a nationwide recall of seven lots of birth control pills. The pills are labeled "norgestimate and <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/02/27/more-birth-control-pills-recalled/?test=latestnews#">ethinyl estradiol</a> tablets."</p> <p>Because of a packaging error, some of the pills were placed in the wrong order within the packs, according to a statement from the <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/topics/health/wellness/fda-alerts.htm#r_src=ramp">Food and Drug Administration</a>. The packs contain three types of pills with varying levels of hormones, designed to be taken at different times during a woman's cycle.</p> <p><em>Lot numbers of affected packs are as follows: 04110101, 04110106, 04110107, 04110114, 04110124, 04110129 and 04110134. The packs were distributed nationwide between Sept. 21 and Dec. 30, 2011. The complete name of the product is norgestimate and ethinyl estradiol tablets USP, 0.18 mg/0.035 mg, 0.215 mg/0.035 mg, 0.25 mg/0.035 mg (Generic).</em></p> <p>The error was discovered when a consumer complained she received a pack in which the tablets were packaged in reverse order, the FDA said.</p> </blockquote> <p><a href="http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/02/27/more-birth-control-pills-recalled/?test=latestnews">http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/02/27/more-birth-control-pills-recalled/?test=latestnews</a></p> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:46040882-763d-4411-98e7-dd3879a1a0f4" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/FDA" rel="tag">FDA</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/recalls" rel="tag">recalls</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/birth+control+pills" rel="tag">birth control pills</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/drugs" rel="tag">drugs</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/healthcare" rel="tag">healthcare</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/bar+codes" rel="tag">bar codes</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/tag" rel="tag">tag</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/blister+packs" rel="tag">blister packs</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/mHealth" rel="tag">mHealth</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/generic+drugs" rel="tag">generic drugs</a></div>

More Birth Control Pill Recalls–Patient Found This Error with Pills in Bubble Pack in Reverse Order–The “Shitty Deal” With No Bar Codes to Make Them Easier to Find…

I goes pay to ask questions and look around anymore as you never know what you might find and obviously this woman knew her pills enough to ...

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Blue Cross and United Healthcare Duking It Out In Nebraska Over State Health Insurance Contract–We Have More Subsidiaries My Cost Algorithms Are Better Than Yours?

<p>Ok so the title got your attention but gee if you have followed news about insurers then you do know that United has tons of subsidiary companies and Blue Cross doesn’t even come close in number and as you have read too they are not all insurance companies.  We have all different types to include hearing aids, FDA consultants, Wellness and so on.  They have truckload of data too.<a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-5g-sWQW56cs/T0xW_WecuAI/AAAAAAAA5fA/tAekTLx7jek/s1600-h/image%25255B6%25255D.png"><img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="158" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-sMrPcOoBpCE/T0xW_iW2MRI/AAAAAAAA5fI/bl-rMIklu5s/image_thumb%25255B1%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="214" /></a></p> <p>The person making the decision says it will save around $8 million a year and again you wonder do subsidiary companies figure in here somewhere along the line?  We have the China Gate subsidiary that works to promote more drugs and devices for approval worldwide and in the US for one.  I don’t know if Blue Cross has an equivalent of that type of subsidiary or not but have not read about one.  Here’s the real back breaker is that the state of Nebraska has a contract with Express Scripts and we know what happened there with Blue Cross as of the first of the year so perhaps this enters in here as I’m sure there’s many Walgreen stores throughout the state.  </p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2011/10/anthem-blue-cross-members-will-no.html"><font size="2">Anthem Blue Cross Members Will No Longer Be Able to Fill Prescriptions at Walgreens After January 1, 2012</font></a></h4> <p>Well we know what happens if a rebid takes place though with government contracts, like this lawsuit they filed against Tri-Care over losing<a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-5s3gBjcFuVM/T0xW_-rhr4I/AAAAAAAA5fQ/Cdx6da5hiJk/s1600-h/image%25255B9%25255D.png"><img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="170" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-2ZW3tvdER4w/T0xXACr5uaI/AAAAAAAA5fY/v6JVqzs5orM/image_thumb%25255B2%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="134" /></a> the bid, if you remember this, so here we go again, all about contracts.  </p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2011/06/update-unitedhealthcare-sues-department.html"><font size="2">Update: UnitedHealthcare Sues Department of Defense Over Tri-Care Contracts–They Said They Would Do This – Is This A Case Of My Algorithms Are Better Than Yours?</font></a></h4> <p>They own enough companies to do all the analytics that one could desire I think and even said they would not stop short of legal action.  The Tri-Care contract for the south includes Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, part of Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and most of Texas.”  BD</p> <blockquote> <p>LINCOLN, NE – Blue Cross Blue Shield of Nebraska is challenging the state's decision to switch insurance companies for state employees to UnitedHealthcare - a decision worth $184 million annually. </p> <p>On Feb. 15, the state announced that it is awarding UnitedHealthcare with a contract to administer a health plan for state employees, which will take effect July, 1 2012. </p> <p>"We made this decision because United is going to save us a significant amount of money each year," said Department of Administrative Services Director Carlos Castillo. "It's about five percent, $8 million a year on average. We also looked into comparing some of the programs each company could provide to us to help make a decision to switch." </p> </blockquote> <p><a href="http://www.healthcarefinancenews.com/news/nebraska-drops-bcbs-state-health-insurance-provider?topic=05,19">http://www.healthcarefinancenews.com/news/nebraska-drops-bcbs-state-health-insurance-provider?topic=05,19</a></p> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:4bddb4ef-8909-45f3-a6a1-f1c2d4bc6ec0" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Blue+Cross" rel="tag">Blue Cross</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/United+Healthcare" rel="tag">United Healthcare</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/health+insurance" rel="tag">health insurance</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/algorithms" rel="tag">algorithms</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/cost" rel="tag">cost</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/contracts" rel="tag">contracts</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/savings" rel="tag">savings</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/employees" rel="tag">employees</a></div>

Blue Cross and United Healthcare Duking It Out In Nebraska Over State Health Insurance Contract–We Have More Subsidiaries My Cost Algorithms Are Better Than Yours?

Ok so the title got your attention but gee if you have followed news about insurers then you do know that United has tons of subsidiary comp...

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HHS Facebook Application Winners Announced for the Lifeline Challenge–But Are Any Privacy Policies/Protections Included?

<p>This is just my personal opinion but I think these are nuts and could not for the life of me figure this contest out and the press release says nothing about privacy so again we know who mines data on the web and who sells data so that is my first question here in wondering why privacy was not mentioned. </p> <p>Sure the intentions here are good but again in case of a hurricane for example if I were a victim, <a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-LqBM5ENiWiY/T0dCVk7KnJI/AAAAAAAA5ew/0iIpd7zOWIE/s1600-h/image%25255B3%25255D.png"><img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="73" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-5gibGAxOU7Q/T0dCV1P4iEI/AAAAAAAA5e4/Rf9Il6XJ0dA/image_thumb%25255B1%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="240" /></a>would I find my home owners insurance going up quickly and would I be receiving FEMA contractor coupons?  These are not dumb questions as that’s kind of how things work out there today with everything being connected.  On the other hand if privacy is not protected here would someone be out there ready to vandalize my house too?  When earthquakes occur Twitter is the one that seems to be all over disasters quickly and I’ve watched that many times. </p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2011/08/hhs-seems-to-be-confused-on-social.html"><font size="2">HHS Seems To Be Confused on Social Networks–Facebook for Disaster Support Contest, Give Me a Break Use Twitter Like Everyone Else Does</font></a></h4> <p>Secondly how many folks at HHS will be role models and use this application?  We don’t seem to have any role models around that talk about how social networks or any mHealth applications work for them and it’s always for “those guys over there” with experts telling us how great the apps are.  It’s nice that the developers got something for their work but with privacy out there today, I would rather not chance it with Facebook, but I also shut my page down about a year ago as it became a nuisance with taking too much time away from what I need to do.<strong>  Let’s see if Ms. Sebelius talks about how she uses the apps in the future, bet we’ll never hear anything on that topic <grin>. </strong></p> <p>Again my question here is are we putting too much out there for data mines to scrape and make billions in profits as many US Corporations do?  I<strong> think we need to license and tax the data sellers myself as even companies such as Walgreens for an example stated on their SEC form that they made under $800 million in selling data, sounds like a good number to tax</strong> and just thing when you add all the other big corporations and bank and others in here,<strong> they make billions mining “free taxpayer data”</strong> so that’s one more reason for me not to contribute to corporate profits in areas as such.  BD  </p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/02/start-licensing-and-taxing-data-sellers.html"><font size="2">Start Licensing and Taxing the Data Sellers of the Internet Making Billions of Profit Dollars Mining “Free Taxpayer Data”–Attack of the Killer Algorithms Chapter 17 - “Occupy Algorithms”– Help Stop Inequality in the US</font></a></h4> <p><u></u></p> <blockquote> <p>Three Facebook applications designed to help people prepare for emergencies and get support from friends and family in an emergency – from personal medical emergencies or car accidents to natural or man-made disasters – are winners of a Facebook application challenge sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR).</p> <p>ASPR’s Facebook Lifeline Application Challenge called on software application developers to design new Facebook applications that could enhance individual and community resilience by establishing social connections in advance of an emergency.</p> <p>Two recent Brown University graduates, Evan Donahue and Erik Stayton, partnered as Team ALP to win first place with their application, named Lifeline. The Las Vegas team JAMAJIC 360 with David Vinson, Erick Rodriguez, Gregg Orr, and Garth Winckler came in second with an app also named JAMAJIC 360. Third place was awarded to AreYouOk? developed by TrueTeamEffort, a team of 11 University of Illinois students led by Alex Kirlik</p> <p>Although these top three applications differ in how users interface with the app, all three allow users to designate three lifelines -- Facebook friends the person can count on and who agree to check on them in an emergency, supply them with shelter, food, and other necessities, and provide the person’s social network with an update about their wellbeing. Facebook users could use the lifeline app to create disaster readiness plans and share the plans with their emergency contacts, and provide users with news.</p> <p>The lifeline app is anticipated to be launched in the coming months, prior to the start of hurricane season. The team also receives $10,000 and complimentary passes from Health 2.0 to attend the spring Health 2.0 conference in Boston. JAMAJIC 360 receives $5,000 for second place, and TrueTeamEffort receives $1,000 for third place.</p> </blockquote> <p><a href="http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2012pres/02/20120223b.html">http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2012pres/02/20120223b.html</a></p> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:0e790c2c-3cfd-420d-8897-8e2988b5335a" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/HHS" rel="tag">HHS</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Facebook" rel="tag">Facebook</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/social+networks" rel="tag">social networks</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/disaster" rel="tag">disaster</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Twitter" rel="tag">Twitter</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/privacy" rel="tag">privacy</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/data+selling" rel="tag">data selling</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/healthare" rel="tag">healthare</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Health+IT" rel="tag">Health IT</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/role+models" rel="tag">role models</a></div>

HHS Facebook Application Winners Announced for the Lifeline Challenge–But Are Any Privacy Policies/Protections Included?

This is just my personal opinion but I think these are nuts and could not for the life of me figure this contest out and the press release s...

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The “Shit” Cancer Patients Say–Five Time Cancer Survivor and the Best Looking Amputee in Denver – Woody Roseland

<p>This is quite the video and being he’s a five time survivor he knows the chemo <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-UWTaUG11HIU/T0XKuWmLDDI/AAAAAAAA5eQ/XgUwUBPP7cc/s1600-h/image%25255B2%25255D.png"><img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="68" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-pt_fRLgloSw/T0XKurGxlaI/AAAAAAAA5eY/SZF0jS6QbEo/image_thumb.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="208" /></a>routine and you have have to admire his humor and going though a day in the chemo session here and making the best of it.  </p> <p><a href="http://woodyroseland.com/index.php/videos/player"><strong><u>He has a website</u></strong></a><strong><u> </u></strong>you can visit to hear his story.  The cancer came back 4 times!  </p> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; width: 370px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:5737277B-5D6D-4f48-ABFC-DD9C333F4C5D:6446aa8d-eeda-42b0-a883-3e74b11c6d43" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent"><div id="f2ebbabe-119d-4a84-ae1b-ca2d2c200c26" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline;"><div><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUP3XqjN69M" target="_new"><img alt="" galleryimg="no" onload="var downlevelDiv = document.getElementById('f2ebbabe-119d-4a84-ae1b-ca2d2c200c26'); downlevelDiv.innerHTML = "<div><object width=\"370\" height=\"208\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http://www.youtube.com/v/TUP3XqjN69M?hl=en&hd=1\"><\/param><embed src=\"http://www.youtube.com/v/TUP3XqjN69M?hl=en&hd=1\" type=\"application/x-shockwave-flash\" width=\"370\" height=\"208\"><\/embed><\/object><\/div>";" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-fAWl2JqLhkM/T0XKuwWs6_I/AAAAAAAA5eg/t_eEnNBG_0U/videof2052b7d2f3d%25255B23%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-style: none"></a></div></div><div style="width:370px;clear:both;font-size:.8em">Shit Cancer Patients Say</div></div> <p>Here’s a second video and this guy has been through hell and back and is able to talk and inspire others and have a sense of humor at the same time.  The cancer even took his knee and he’ so young and started when he was 17 years old.  He gives chemo a real face and what patients endure, and he even talks about the “beep” of the machine.  Hope this is the last chemo he has go through as it was a long regimen.  BD </p> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; width: 389px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:5737277B-5D6D-4f48-ABFC-DD9C333F4C5D:1d12ae1d-a2dd-4191-8ec1-dd731aeed578" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent"><div id="5b6fbf9e-ed07-41b9-9856-35ae77ee013c" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline;"><div><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7Sj5S0XOvk" target="_new"><img alt="" galleryimg="no" onload="var downlevelDiv = document.getElementById('5b6fbf9e-ed07-41b9-9856-35ae77ee013c'); downlevelDiv.innerHTML = "<div><object width=\"389\" height=\"218\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http://www.youtube.com/v/n7Sj5S0XOvk?hl=en&hd=1\"><\/param><embed src=\"http://www.youtube.com/v/n7Sj5S0XOvk?hl=en&hd=1\" type=\"application/x-shockwave-flash\" width=\"389\" height=\"218\"><\/embed><\/object><\/div>";" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-CEOTVwcFb1c/T0XKvLmH3oI/AAAAAAAA5eo/un6ukJOBj4s/videoda232e2fb6ed%25255B17%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-style: none"></a></div></div><div style="width:389px;clear:both;font-size:.8em">His Story</div></div> <p><a href="http://woodyroseland.com/index.php/videos/player">http://woodyroseland.com/index.php/videos/player</a></p> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:48274078-e4ee-41f8-b190-ae74b6132456" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Cancer" rel="tag">Cancer</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Woody" rel="tag">Woody</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/amputation" rel="tag">amputation</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/healthcare" rel="tag">healthcare</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/survival" rel="tag">survival</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/chemtherapy" rel="tag">chemtherapy</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/speaker" rel="tag">speaker</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/leg" rel="tag">leg</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/drugs" rel="tag">drugs</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/cure" rel="tag">cure</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/treatment" rel="tag">treatment</a></div>

The “Shit” Cancer Patients Say–Five Time Cancer Survivor and the Best Looking Amputee in Denver – Woody Roseland

This is quite the video and being he’s a five time survivor he knows the chemo routine and you have have to admire his humor and going thoug...

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FDA Finds 14 Additional Chinese Companies That Supplied Contaminated Raw Materials Used to Make Heparin And Puts Out Alert –Time To Start Raising More Pigs in the US?

<p>We all remember the Baxter incident from a few years ago.  The FDA has put out a warning list with additional companies listed and they did not know or state if they <img align="right" border="0" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/TMyG6PTGfEI/AAAAAAAAifI/v5dawAcVEkY/image_thumb%5B2%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" />were current distributors of the raw material that makes the blood thinning drug.  Back in October of 2010 it was back in the news again with another recall.  </p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2010/10/b-braun-recalls-seven-lots-of.html"><font size="2">B. Braun Recalls Seven Lots of Heparin–Potential Contamination–FDA States Not a Signification Public Health Threat</font></a></h4> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2008/03/despite-tainted-heparin-us-drug-and.html"><font size="2">Despite Tainted Heparin, US Drug and Medical Device Companies Still Like China</font></a></h4> <p>We need more home grown pigs intestines from the US is appears as that is one of the raw materials that goes into the drug.  BD  </p> <p><strong></strong></p> <blockquote> <p>The Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday it found 14 additional Chinese companies supplied contaminated raw material to make heparin, a widely used blood thinner.</p> <p>The companies supplied the materials in 2008, when the FDA found a link between contaminated heparin marketed by <a href="http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=BAX">Baxter International</a> Inc. to some Chinese suppliers of the active ingredient used in heparin. The contamination was linked to 80 deaths in U.S. patients and hundreds of allergic reactions. The same contamination was found in heparin sold by other pharmaceutical companies in other countries. </p> <p>The 14 companies were put on a so-called import alert list that allows the FDA to stop shipments at the U.S. border. The companies are being added to a list that already included eight other Chinese suppliers.</p> <p>The contaminated heparin contained oversulfated chondroitin sulfate, an altered version of chondroitin sulfate that is used as a dietary supplement and is typically made from animal cartilage. Oversulfated chondroitin sulfate is chemically similar to the active ingredient in heparin, which is derived from pig intestines. Federal health officials have said it is cheaper to make than the active ingredient in heparin. It still remains unknown how the heparin became contaminated and who might be responsible, although FDA is still investigating. </p> </blockquote> <p><a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203960804577239624228625522.html">http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203960804577239624228625522.html</a></p> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:688f3cf1-4aca-473f-aeae-193239ba7c45" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Heparin" rel="tag">Heparin</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/FDA" rel="tag">FDA</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/China" rel="tag">China</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/pigs" rel="tag">pigs</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/alerts" rel="tag">alerts</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/contamination" rel="tag">contamination</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/healthcare" rel="tag">healthcare</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/blood+thinner" rel="tag">blood thinner</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/patients" rel="tag">patients</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/hospitals" rel="tag">hospitals</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/drugs" rel="tag">drugs</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Baxter" rel="tag">Baxter</a></div>

FDA Finds 14 Additional Chinese Companies That Supplied Contaminated Raw Materials Used to Make Heparin And Puts Out Alert –Time To Start Raising More Pigs in the US?

We all remember the Baxter incident from a few years ago.  The FDA has put out a warning list with additional companies listed and they did ...

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Closed Hospitals in the Los Angeles Area Get a Second Life for Television and Movie Filming as Turn Key Sets

<p>Some facilities are better than others but when you stop and think of the shows we <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-Mblpkx-Xkwo/T0SCeYQZsPI/AAAAAAAA5d0/PYxhxSDOnZo/s1600-h/image%25255B2%25255D.png"><img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="137" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-h_SUX8g9zC8/T0SCfNAd0lI/AAAAAAAA5d8/WuIM7Jd_rdE/image_thumb.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="240" /></a>see on television, hospitals are all over the place as someone is always getting shot, or something along that line.  The location though formerly used for Scrubs though was not as nice as some of the other locations used. </p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/10/scrubs-television-show-hospital-filming.html"><font size="2">Scrubs Television Show Hospital Filming Site Filled with Rats</font></a></h4> <p>The one I remember though was the Bucket List which I believe used the closed Century City hospital for it’s set.  BD  </p> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; width: 395px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:5737277B-5D6D-4f48-ABFC-DD9C333F4C5D:98d62f7c-46ac-49be-8fe4-587eb4b98bc4" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent"><div id="e91375da-f0d7-4185-abb8-682a13355ddc" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline;"><div><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7JP8Y-ban4" target="_new"><img alt="" galleryimg="no" onload="var downlevelDiv = document.getElementById('e91375da-f0d7-4185-abb8-682a13355ddc'); downlevelDiv.innerHTML = "<div><object width=\"395\" height=\"222\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http://www.youtube.com/v/-7JP8Y-ban4?hl=en&hd=1\"><\/param><embed src=\"http://www.youtube.com/v/-7JP8Y-ban4?hl=en&hd=1\" type=\"application/x-shockwave-flash\" width=\"395\" height=\"222\"><\/embed><\/object><\/div>";" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-UHiFQCyujg8/T0SCf8oS9ZI/AAAAAAAA5eE/5OoPBXUBKrQ/video7bf417f42755%25255B7%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-style: none"></a></div></div><div style="width:395px;clear:both;font-size:.8em">Bucket List</div></div> <blockquote> <p>The scene, for an upcoming episode of the CBS crime drama “Criminal Minds,” actually unfolded last week on the former Sherman Way campus of Northridge Hospital Medical Center, which solely serves as a location backdrop for shows that have included such dramas such as TNT’s “Rizzoli & Isles” and "Hawthorne." <br />The Northridge facility is among a dozen current and onetime medical centers and hospitals represented by Real to Reel Inc., a 30-year-old Van Nuys location agency that has built a successful niche supplying location managers with something they frequently seek: film-ready hospital settings. <br />“Hospitals are a staple of crime dramas. Someone’s always getting shot, so we’re always going to the hospitals,” said Jeffrey Spellman, location manager for “Criminal Minds,” which plans to shoot its next episode at another closed hospital, St. Luke Medical Center in Pasadena. “To have a facility like this makes our job much easier.”</p> <p>Reel to Reel’s clients include St. Luke Medical Center in Pasadena, used in Clint Eastwood’s Oscar-winning boxing drama “Million Dollar Baby” and HBO’s vampire series “True Blood,” and St. Vincent Medical Center, the working hospital in downtown Los Angeles often used by crime dramas such as “CSI,” “The Closer” and “Southland.”</p> <p>The former Northridge medical center, for example, has gimbal windows that can swing open to make it easier to shoot inside rooms. The nurse’s station table was lowered to improve camera angles. <br />"These properties are affordable, they’re turn-key and they’re ready to go and directors love them because they offer a variety of looks," Onyshko said.</p> </blockquote> <p><a href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2012/02/criminal-minds-other-shows-turn-to-hospitals-for-filming.html">http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2012/02/criminal-minds-other-shows-turn-to-hospitals-for-filming.html</a></p> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:dd9e6f77-5926-4570-ba60-75b7dbb4d338" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Scrubs" rel="tag">Scrubs</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/television" rel="tag">television</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/filming" rel="tag">filming</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Los+Angeles" rel="tag">Los Angeles</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/movies" rel="tag">movies</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/hospitals" rel="tag">hospitals</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/income" rel="tag">income</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/TurnKey" rel="tag">TurnKey</a></div>

Closed Hospitals in the Los Angeles Area Get a Second Life for Television and Movie Filming as Turn Key Sets

Some facilities are better than others but when you stop and think of the shows we see on television, hospitals are all over the place as so...

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Foundation Medicine - Personalized Medicine for Biopsy DNA Studies - Will Cost $5000 for the “Pan-Cancer” Test - Any Oncologist Will Be Able To Use The Center For Testing

<p>This is very interesting article and goes in depth to discuss how running the DNA on a biopsy can help doctors with prescribing cancer drugs and many of which are still in early testing stages.  It could also lead to more patients in that respect being referred to a clinical trial. <a href="http://www.foundationmedicine.com/"><img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="107" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-Xr481dRMTIU/T0R0Jq0vgpI/AAAAAAAA5dc/8Pe9XzTtIws/image%25255B4%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="185" /></a></p> <p>The big problem here cited with this article is the same old same old with insurance reimbursement and the fact that some of the genes have patents like the HER2 gene which has really been scrutinized by insurance carriers with Myriad.  This however is going to be the way treating cancer will be in a few years as it makes sense rather than guessing.  Of course with reimbursements we have the generic versus the name brand costs to look at too.  Right now the clients are mostly drug companies and of course they want to know where their products would line up as far as treatments as well and really that part of the entire scenario too.  The company also is getting some investments and mentoring from Google.  <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-NkbnkJjtSW4/T0R0KPiG6DI/AAAAAAAA5dk/weVhQTba9Xo/s1600-h/image%25255B7%25255D.png"><img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="150" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-KlnvyXaA268/T0R0KZv2_MI/AAAAAAAA5ds/emPCB4BgU9c/image_thumb%25255B2%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="211" /></a></p> <p><a href="http://www.foundationmedicine.com/">Foundation Medicine</a> too has been rushing to file their patents as well and again we have this same question as to whether or not a gene should be patented.  </p> <p><em>“The company also scours the medical literature to provide doctors with the latest information on how genetic changes influence the efficacy of specific drugs.”</em></p> <p><em>“Molecular testing by Foundation Medicine provides precise genomic information about your cancer in a way never before available.”</em></p> <p>The commercial end is due to be launched soon and the website has a page of <a href="http://www.foundationmedicine.com/patient-stories.php">“<strong>patient stories”</strong></a> available to read.  BD</p> <blockquote> <p>Michael Pellini fires up his computer and opens a report on a patient with a tumor of the salivary gland. The patient had surgery, but the cancer recurred. That's when a biopsy was sent to Foundation Medicine, the company that Pellini runs, for a detailed DNA study. Foundation deciphered some 200 genes with a known link to cancer and found what he calls "actionable" mutations in three of them. That is, each genetic defect is the target of anticancer drugs undergoing testing—though not for salivary tumors. Should the patient take one of them? "Without the DNA, no one would have thought to try these drugs," says Pellini.  </p> <p><strong>Starting this spring, for about $5,000, any oncologist will be able to ship a sliver of tumor in a <u>bar-coded package</u> to Foundation's lab. Foundation will extract the DNA, sequence scores of cancer genes, and prepare a report to steer doctors and patients toward drugs, most still in early testing, that are known to target the cellular defects caused by the DNA errors the analysis turns up</strong>. Pellini says that about 70 percent of cases studied to date have yielded information that a doctor could act on—whether by prescribing a particular drug, stopping treatment with another, or enrolling the patient in a clinical trial. </p> <p><strong>So far, most of Foundation's business is coming from five drug companies seeking genetic explanations for why their cancer drugs work spectacularly in some patients but not at all in others</strong>. The industry has recognized that drugs targeted to subsets of patients cost less to develop, can get FDA approval faster, and can be sold for higher prices than traditional medications. "Our portfolio is full of targets where we're developing tests based on the biology of disease," says Nicholas Dracopoli, vice president for oncology biomarkers at Janssen R&D, which is among the companies that send samples to Foundation. "If a pathway isn't activated, you get no clinical benefit by inhibiting it. We have to know which pathway is driving the dissemination of the disease."</p> <p>So why pay $5,000 to know the status of only about 200 genes? Foundation has several answers. First, each gene is decoded not once but hundreds of times, to yield more accurate results. The company also scours the medical literature to provide doctors with the latest information on how genetic changes influence the efficacy of specific drugs. As Krenitsky puts it, data analysis, not data generation, is now the rate-limiting factor in cancer genomics. </p> <p>Although most of Foundation's customers to date are drug companies, Borisy says the company intends to build its business around serving oncologists and patients. In the United States, 1.5 million cancer cases are diagnosed annually. Borisy estimates that Foundation will process 20,000 samples this year. At $5,000 per sample, it's easy to see how such a business could reward investors. "That's ... a $100-million-a-year business," says Borisy. "But that volume is still low if this truly fulfills its potential." </p> <p>Insurance companies may also be unwilling to pay $5,000 for the pan-cancer test itself, at least initially. Some already balk at paying for well-established tests, says Christopher-Paul Milne, associate director of the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development, who calls reimbursement "one of the biggest impediments to personalized medicine." </p> </blockquote> <p><a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/39707/?mod=chfeatured">http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/39707/?mod=chfeatured</a></p> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:e4fec8ef-d5eb-4fbc-9cab-1f81f9ca3f70" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Tumors" rel="tag">Tumors</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/cancer" rel="tag">cancer</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/DNA" rel="tag">DNA</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/healthcare" rel="tag">healthcare</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Foundation+Medicine" rel="tag">Foundation Medicine</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/genomics" rel="tag">genomics</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/biopsy" rel="tag">biopsy</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/oncology" rel="tag">oncology</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/test" rel="tag">test</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/targets" rel="tag">targets</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/genes" rel="tag">genes</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/personalized+medicine" rel="tag">personalized medicine</a></div>

Foundation Medicine - Personalized Medicine for Biopsy DNA Studies - Will Cost $5000 for the “Pan-Cancer” Test - Any Oncologist Will Be Able To Use The Center For Testing

This is very interesting article and goes in depth to discuss how running the DNA on a biopsy can help doctors with prescribing cancer drugs...

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Minute Clinics Moving to Allscripts Medical Records System So I Guess E-Clinical Works Who Started With CVS Clinics Is Out the Door? How Do Medium/Small Companies Compete with Huge Corporate Conglomerates

<p>Back in January of 2010 this article was out with the two companies collaborating on e-prescribing so what did <a href="http://www.allscripts.com/">Allscripts</a> do, edge out eClincalWorks with a corporate package deal?  I don’t know that’s what occurred but it’s pretty accurate about 85% of the time today with mergers and acquisitions in healthcare<strong>.  <img align="right" border="0" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/Sik-WFaJ2QI/AAAAAAAAQFU/1uH7NCirz0E/image%5B23%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" />eClinical Works is an excellent EHR that is both web and client based and is used all over the US is connects with most hospital medical record systems and they have a big base of business but they are not a “corporate conglomerate” looking to feed hungry shareholders either.</strong>  </p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2010/01/cvs-and-allscripts-collaborating-on-e.html"><font size="2">CVS and AllScripts Collaborating on E-Prescribing – Minute Clinics Get Joint Commission Accreditation Award</font></a></h4> <p>We also have Humana in here hawking some software services too for consumers <img align="right" border="0" height="107" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/TA9MCMQvPvI/AAAAAAAAesg/3HYBCC6JMn8/image_thumb%5B1%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" width="108" />so they can get some data.  I do wonder what CVS makes on selling data as the Walgreens SEC statement for 2010 said they made just under $800 million on selling data, that’s a lot of money.  </p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/12/humana-and-cvs-minute-clinics-partner.html"><font size="2">Humana and CVS Minute Clinics Partner To Add More Services for Members such as Life Synch and InnoPsych</font></a></h4> <p>You can see that eClinical Works is even sold in Sam’s Club for a simple pre-configured system.    </p> <h6><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/03/healthvault-device-connector-works-with.html"><font size="2">HealthVault Connects with eClinicalWorks EHR, NextGen EHR/EMR Systems and more…Shop Wal-Mart (Sam’s Club) in the Spring</font></a></h6> <p><img border="0" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SbeLpGMEFXI/AAAAAAAAOn8/_jBwu0zc6WE/image301.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" /></p> <p>It just kind of looks like 2 big conglomerates that have shareholders here jumping in together and again the medium and smaller companies have no shot here.  Allscripts of course has been a merger and acquisition game too over the years and almost at it during 2008 with the crash.   This merger action took place in June of 2010.  BD  </p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2010/06/misys-sells-allscripts-shares-to-enable.html"><font size="2">Misys Sells Allscripts Shares to Enable Eclipsys Merger – Medical Records</font></a></h4> <blockquote> <p>CHICAGO and WOONSOCKET, R.I., Feb. 21, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- <a href="http://www.minuteclinic.com/">CVS Caremark's MinuteClinic</a>, the leading retail health clinic in the United States, will transition from its existing, proprietary Electronic Medical Record system to the <a href="http://www.allscripts.com/en/solutions/ambulatory-solutions/ehr/Show/ProductSelect/AllscriptsMyWay/Overview.html">AllscriptsMyWay Electronic Health Record</a>. This transition will assist MinuteClinic in its mission of delivering high quality accessible medical care in hundreds of retail clinics across the United States.</p> <p>"MinuteClinic is partnering with Allscripts to assure that we are utilizing the most advanced electronic health record platform in the market," said Andrew Sussman, M.D., president, MinuteClinic and senior vice president/associate chief medical officer, CVS Caremark. "This will help support our nurse practitioners and physician assistants in continuing to meet and exceed the high standards we have set for quality and adherence to practice guidelines."</p> </blockquote> <p><a href="http://www.embedded.com/electronics-products/electronic-product-releases/medical-design/4236629/CVS-Caremark-s-MinuteClinic-to-Deploy-Allscripts-EHR-Nationally">http://www.embedded.com/electronics-products/electronic-product-releases/medical-design/4236629/CVS-Caremark-s-MinuteClinic-to-Deploy-Allscripts-EHR-Nationally</a></p> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:ae86dcb4-8cb1-4a52-99ba-644d1f91207f" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/CVS+retail+clinics" rel="tag">CVS retail clinics</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Allscripts" rel="tag">Allscripts</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/iScribe" rel="tag">iScribe</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/e-Prescribing" rel="tag">e-Prescribing</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/heatlhcare" rel="tag">heatlhcare</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Heatlh+IT" rel="tag">Heatlh IT</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/technology" rel="tag">technology</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/PHR" rel="tag">PHR</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/personal+health+records" rel="tag">personal health records</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/software" rel="tag">software</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/EHR" rel="tag">EHR</a></div>

Minute Clinics Moving to Allscripts Medical Records System So I Guess E-Clinical Works Who Started With CVS Clinics Is Out the Door? How Do Medium/Small Companies Compete with Huge Corporate Conglomerates

Back in January of 2010 this article was out with the two companies collaborating on e-prescribing so what did Allscripts do, edge out eCli...

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AMA Selling Online Physician Portal to AT&T–The Amagine Project, There’s Money in Selling And Aggregating Those Algorithms

<p>I guess if you are attending HIMSS this year you can find out more about it at their booth.  Writing code or in this case having an outsourced company do you development turns into money, right?   The AMA appears to have been just as busy in developing their software house as many vendors have.  Back in July they made the <a href="http://www.allscripts.com/">Allscripts</a> e-Prescribing tool available and enhancements and other offerings have proceeded from here.  <img align="right" border="0" height="121" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SlV4l_8dPtI/AAAAAAAAXmU/Dft_AwL3vA0/image_thumb%5B5%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" width="157" /></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/07/allscripts-eprescribing-tool-will-be.html"><font size="2">Allscripts ePrescribing Tool Will be Offered by AMA</font></a></h4> <p>Not too long after the above announcement it was followed with working with HealthVault personal health records for access.  </p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/06/american-medical-association-and_11.html"><font size="2">American Medical Association and HealthVault to Provide Physician’s Portal – Physicians Will be able to access “Patient Shared” Information</font></a></h4> <p>Further along in 2010 the AMA announced their own consulting group to help doctors with choosing medical record systems, so they have been busy in the software department with branding their installations and support as well and here’s a little more history on the Amagine project so this kind of gives you an idea as to some of the partnerships that were developed along the way with the <a href="http://www.amagine.com/index.html">Amagine project</a> with large Health IT vendors, one owned by an insurance company,Care Tracker, owned by United.  <a href="http://www.amagine.com/index.html"><img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="78" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-hZLkdftAb0g/T0PtZt9VnGI/AAAAAAAA5dA/lrnwdx3uzpA/image%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="193" /></a></p> <p><em>“In addition to agreements with Ingenix for its CareTracker product and with NextGen, the Amagine project has inked deals with DrFirst for e-prescribing; Quest Diagnostics' Care360, a suite that includes lab ordering, e-prescribing and other tools; WellCentive's patient registry; and Dell, which will offer e-mail and data-storage services, as well as discounts for Amagine customers who want to upgrade their hardware.”</em></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2010/11/ama-and-other-medical-groups-joining.html"><font size="2">AMA and Other Medical Groups Joining Forces with EHR and Health IT Businesses–More Software House/Consulting Choices</font></a></h4> <p>Here’s a quick screenshot from the AMAGINE page with some examples of a couple partners in Revenue Cycling and I see NaviNet who was just in the news as being bought by a group of Blue Cross Groups so they all are seeming to mesh together in some fashion or another and no wonder mergers and acquisitions in Healthcare today are so confusing at times.  BD</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-ROg3AQn0nSQ/T0PtaXe2QII/AAAAAAAA5dI/tu1W_MSdI0o/s1600-h/image%25255B13%25255D.png"><img alt="image" border="0" height="208" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-UygWv862KTQ/T0PtaxRYGCI/AAAAAAAA5dQ/2dJHLW2XZI0/image_thumb%25255B6%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="383" /></a></p> <blockquote> <p>The American Medical Association will combine the platform of its online physician portal, Amagine, with that of AT&T Healthcare Community Online in a deal that would have AT&T owning and operating the combined product. No financial terms were disclosed. </p> <p>AT&T will lead further development of the platform, though the AMA “will remain actively engaged” in collaborating on business strategies and expanding availability of health IT for physicians, according to <a href="http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/news/news/2012-02-21-ama-att-combine-care-management-platforms.page">a joint AMA-AT&T news release</a>. <br />Both Amagine and Healthcare Community Online operate on platforms <a href="http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20110309/NEWS/303099989">powered by Covisint</a>, a Detroit-based subsidiary of Compuware Corp.</p> </blockquote> <p><a href="http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20120221/NEWS/302219983/">http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20120221/NEWS/302219983/</a></p> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:290b4d81-d103-4299-aa5b-528b9965adbe" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/AMA" rel="tag">AMA</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/AT%26T" rel="tag">AT&T</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/software" rel="tag">software</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/algorithms" rel="tag">algorithms</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/coding" rel="tag">coding</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/HealthIT" rel="tag">HealthIT</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/doctors" rel="tag">doctors</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/patients" rel="tag">patients</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Compuware" rel="tag">Compuware</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/business+intelligence" rel="tag">business intelligence</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/AMAGINE" rel="tag">AMAGINE</a></div>

AMA Selling Online Physician Portal to AT&T–The Amagine Project, There’s Money in Selling And Aggregating Those Algorithms

I guess if you are attending HIMSS this year you can find out more about it at their booth.  Writing code or in this case having an outsourc...

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Healthcare Blogger Gets Spammed by Hedge Fund Using Internet “Reputation Restore” With Some Really Bad Algos–Attack of the Killer Algorithms Chapter 20

<p>First of all who was the blogger, it was me of course and this is my story on how this all took place.  <strong>If you are not familiar with “Reputation Restore” you can search it on the internet and find many companies who will provide this service for you if you feel you have been slammed with bad publicity on the internet or just want to hide what is out there</strong>.  You will find quite a few pages with companies that advertise on the web and run a business to fix your reputation.  Here’s  a screenshot of what a <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=restore+reputation&ie=UTF-8#q=reputation+restore+internet&hl=en&prmd=imvns&psj=1&ei=CixBT-3ZOIqviQL7uomIAQ&start=10&sa=N&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.,cf.osb&fp=24b9eb7a531d2a7f&biw=1440&bih=683"><u>simple search turns up.</u></a>  As you can see there are a lot of folks out there offering to fix your reputation on the internet.  <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-YVMEDmQ1mow/T0L-yw95XTI/AAAAAAAA5YE/faAxw6HlBh0/s1600-h/image4.png"><img alt="image" border="0" height="392" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-THie-9J7ans/T0L-zaZJQQI/AAAAAAAA5YM/DuRqd8HMG4I/image_thumb2.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="384" /></a></p> <p>I won’t get into the specifics of it here yet but if you watched 60 Minutes a couple weeks ago and heard the story about the<strong> <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/02/placebo-drug-effectsclinical-studies.html"><u>Duke Cancer Clinical Trial</u></a><u>,</u> at the very end of the story they mention the doctor who created the false information was found on the internet, practicing in another state and they mentioned “Reputation Restore”</strong> was used.  New information about the doctor was created on new websites to show a more favorable side of the doctor.  <strong>In case you missed it you can watch the video at the link below where I covered the story and added it to my series on the Attack of the Killer Algorithms as Chapter 15.</strong>  </p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/02/story-of-duke-university-sad-case-of.html"><font size="2">Story of Duke University - The Sad Case of Flawed Data Published in Medical Journals That Was Declared Inaccurate 60 Minutes –Attack of the Killer Algorithms Chapter 15</font></a></h4> <p>I’m a Healthcare blogger that has been around for about 5 years now on the internet and the name of the blog, Medical Quack sometimes attracts attention by tags and keywords that may or may not be relative.  This seems to be happening quite frequently today as free text is being mined and searched for words that can bring relative information of value to various posts I have.  Everybody gets this today with search engines and aggregation of data.</p> <p><strong>Sometimes using such methodologies can create some very surprising results too and in my case with Reputation Restore, it created a ton load of spam.</strong>  Anyone who blogs today pretty much uses their<u> “spam” filters, </u>and I do too so spamming comments are not allowed to “auto populate” on my blog posts; however the spammers are still alive and well out there and keep trying.  I get an email notification on every comment so this way I can approve the comments and this is done to keep the spamming commenters out.  When you see such comments you can easily recognize them as they are comments not relative to the topic at all and usually contain a link that advertises something or is a link to promote their own site.</p> <p>I have other healthcare bloggers who post and have a link back to related material they have, it’s not a problem for me to allow those as it is good sharing of information and I do encourage that; however, when the unrelated and <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-UKZ4ct_p4FY/T0L-zl0SeUI/AAAAAAAA5YU/YVaepPKjgsc/s1600-h/image72.png"><img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="180" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-hBBhjolsu14/T0L-z9AgcFI/AAAAAAAA5Yc/KhrqGAVIka0/image_thumb35.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="240" /></a>easily recognized spammers hit, again I don’t want those and neither do my readers want to see such clutter either.  </p> <p>The commenting is also done to create links back for SEO purposes as well and<strong> if you read the news last year both JC Penney and Overstock were a couple of the companies busted by Google </strong>for using text links to move their ranks up higher in the search engines.  They were both put in the penalty box by Google for a while and then once fixed they were back out again.  What was also interesting about this though was a few months later Google was challenged on their own policy with such links.  The whole idea here is too keep things fair and not allow certain companies and websites to monopolize search engine results and rank at the top unfairly as I see it.  </p> <p><strong>Now back to the story line here</strong> and as a disclosure I don’t’ own any stocks and thus have no ties one way or another to anything in this story other than the fact that I do a website that helps give small cap companies exposure.  I am a 1099 webmaster here and they are a publishing website so I wanted to put this out front so there’s no confusion there with the sponsor of my blog.</p> <p>Ok so here goes…about a year ago my spam filters and email notifications one day started going crazy.  When you do a blog you have few comments that come in every day and depending on the size and circulation of your blog it varies but when you get about <u>20-30 from the same source in a matter of 15 minutes</u> coming in, you go look.  My first thoughts were that someone was trying to game the search engines and was placing a number of links on my blog posts.</p> <p><strong>Again these are all non related topic “generic and canned” comments that <u>an algorithm created.</u></strong>  I have had these before but not quite this heavy as they continued on for a number of days. <strong><em>20-30 blog comments each time were being sent to my blog.</em></strong>  It would stop for a couple days and then about<u> 2-3 days later, the next rush of spam comments would fill up the spam filter and my inbox notification system</u>.  Well after a few days of this I decided to check into this as I had not seen anything as persistent as this and the fact that every few days more loaded up got my curiosity going.  </p> <p><strong>In looking at the spam comments I noticed that all of them contained links and they went back to the same 10 to 20 websites and decided to do some looking around.  They were comments all made by Lindsay Rosenwald that had links back to other websites.</strong>  Well needless to say I got an education in this process and found some very interesting websites and some that are very quirky, which are known as <strong><u>“splogs”. </u></strong>If you have not heard that term before this is a new word that was created to be a merge of the words spam and blogs which means these are not in fact “real” blogs but rather aggregated material from various sources.  <strong>Lindsay Rosenwald is a Biotech related Hedge Fund manager and all of these comment links lead me back to the splogs.</strong>  </p> <p><u>Now upon finding these “splogs”</u> I decided to do a search to see if they came up in general searches, and guess what, they did.  They are easily recognized as the “splogs” all have very similar names so if you spend time searching the web enough you see patterns.  Here’s an example of one of my notifications I had in my inbox.  You can read the comment and clearly see that<strong> it was created by a “bot” just by the content.  I had a bunch of these.  </strong></p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-Y9by4iBA8e0/T0L-0CncIhI/AAAAAAAA5Yk/rABntXnEcCE/s1600-h/image8.png"><img alt="image" border="0" height="209" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-9lrua287hao/T0L-0Z98BMI/AAAAAAAA5Ys/a4kI-J_nzsY/image_thumb4.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="383" /></a></p> <p>It looks like the “splogs” were updated since the comments in April.  By following the <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-Cn9csiOiJgE/T0L-0nHa1XI/AAAAAAAA5Y0/Vq9iRi9Hsr8/s1600-h/image12.png"><img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="126" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-d6dOeOjJiSk/T0L-06ecJtI/AAAAAAAA5Y8/EARPcZ9aABc/image_thumb6.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="206" /></a>link I find out that he has a hedge fund called OpusPoint Partners.  How does one know this is a “splog”…one look at the blogroll tells all as all the past articles have the same title…his name…</p> <p>Ok so in searching this link from April of 2011 and finding a link to a September 2011 updates, this tells me the “splogs” and Reputation Restore seems to be alive and well and occasional updates have been made.  The good thing though is that I didn’t get “spammed” again with 20-30 comments this time as back in March and April of 2011 I had over 200 spam comments, all just like the screenshot above.  </p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-9s01Mjm_I3E/T0L-1FuPOLI/AAAAAAAA5ZE/avPN9yXWz2A/s1600-h/image16.png"><img alt="image" border="0" height="66" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-JwPU6zAYJL0/T0L-1ZhJIWI/AAAAAAAA5ZM/kLsLYYTzTSI/image_thumb8.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="405" /></a></p> <p>Ok so looking at this splog a little closer I see several categories here and decided to poke around a bit and see what’s there as we have Mystery, Romance and Adventure posts here to see.  At the bottom of the page is an advertisement stating the page was done by <a href="http://www.srssolutions.com/en/">SRS Solutions</a> a marketing firm.  The <a href="http://www.lindsayrosenwald.info/category/romance-stories/">romance column</a> is hysterical as you can see this is <u>“filler text”</u> and I wonder if anyone else besides me was curious and read this?  Here’s a small preview of the filler text, again all arranged and put in place by some algorithm bots…kind of funny…and I don’t know what novel or book this came from but random text as filler (enjoy) …and see how the algorithms put his name in place in selected tag areas with links back to other “splogs”.  In reading this I am thinking if perhaps his wife saw this?  If she didn’t know a lot of questions could come about <grin>, but we all know this is filler text created by an algorithm.  </p> <hr /> <p><em>“No matter how much she hung around him, she couldn’t help but stare – not at his well toned physique, not at his startlingly blue eyes, not at his near transparent blonde hair – but at his perfectly straight teeth, as bright as polished white marble.  Normally she had to stop herself from watching him quite this intently, but “the guys” (Michael, Ryan, and Wes) were all occupied.  Michael was in the kitchen, where he meticulously topped off three shot glasses with smooth, amber-colored tequila. Meanwhile, Ryan and Wes in the other room.</em></p> <p><em>Stacey pried her eyes away from Lindsay Rosenwald, the man she kept staring at, and looked at the blank white ceiling for a moment, startled to realize that it now seemed off-white compared to Lindsay’s teeth.  The white was a strange contrast to the eight-decade old wood paneling that covered all the walls.  Stacey slouched back into the couch – which was mostly a khaki color, though marked artistically with various chocolate, rum, and soda stains. The couch was easy to sag back into; Stacey gave in to the sensation of being devoured by the plush micro-fiber fabric.</em></p> <p><a href="http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Who_is_lindsay_rosenwald"><em>Lindsay Rosenwald</em></a><em> took a gulp of his beer then lifted it into the air in a mock salute and said “I’m lame.”  Stacey laughed, and Ryan jokingly flipped Lindsay off.</em></p> <p><em>As the guys started doing shots (yelling inappropriate words before each one) Stacey stood and silently went into the bathroom, turning on the light and closing the door behind her, leaning against the counter.  She started looking herself over in the mirror.</em></p> <p><em>In the back of her mind, she knew she was checking how she looked.  Checking to make sure she looked like the cute girl-next-door that she had always been labeled as.  She knew she was making sure because of the unspoken temptation in the back of her mind.  A temptation she had completely resisted during the two years that Becky Fullmer and Lindsay Rosenwald were together, but that was getting harder and harder to ignore.” </em></p> <hr /> <p><strong><em>Going back to the home page on this particular “splog” we see that Mr. Rosenwald has his hedge fund discussed and also has some other pretty high credentials to his name as well, such as his involvement with Cougar Biotech and selling the company to Johnson and Johnson last year and this bit of information below.</em></strong>  </p> <hr /> <p><em>“Rosenwald has had an extensive career in managing investment funds, most notably for the Aries Fund (1994 – 2007) and the Orion Fund (2002 – 2006.) Both of which are highly regarded. In the year 2000 under the overseeing of Dr. Rosenwald the Aries Fund invested a substantial one billion dollars into healthcare.”</em></p> <p><em>Dr. Lindsay Rosenwald partakes in many other activities outside of his professional career at OpusPoint Partners, most notably he sits as a member of the Board of Directors in the Republican Jewish Coalition. Though maintaining his thriving business is his main goal, he foresees its continued growth and works diligently to expand and preserve his solid contacts in the biotech and life science financing industry.” </em></p> <hr /> <p>When you follow some of the links, you are lead to even more “splogs” and again you can see where the algorithms mess up with formatting text…<a href="http://www.lindsayrosenwald.blogspot.com/">like here</a>…you find the same text over and over and again in some areas the algorithm really messed up <grin>.  Utah SEO is another company listed at the bottom of the sites for producing some of these.  I would call this a rogue algorithm here that got a little out of control and we read this happening to in the stock markets and a company called Nanex is very good at reporting these incidents with great images, but this is one little algo who couldn’t spell or follow formatting rules.  </p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-1NbWsGS9OSw/T0L-1oE8sgI/AAAAAAAA5ZU/xWn3rI6pmDA/s1600-h/image20.png"><img alt="image" border="0" height="183" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-Rl36cIPIhe0/T0L-15BzEoI/AAAAAAAA5Zc/-8casH9Zm2g/image_thumb10.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="389" /></a></p> <p>Here’s another “splog” page and again all the past articles have all the same titles..wild stuff!</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-um_JPx3QxMo/T0L-2BGW-jI/AAAAAAAA5Zk/iyRY2gJcYMc/s1600-h/image24.png"><img alt="image" border="0" height="280" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-VyR65YdoZFo/T0L-2XowWpI/AAAAAAAA5Zs/xGxuObTYqEw/image_thumb12.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="388" /></a></p> <p><strong>Coming back around here I would have probably cared less and never would have seen any of this if it were not for the big spam attack on my blog.</strong>  When the company did the “Reputation Restore” process it was probably not a good idea to hit a rather well read healthcare blog like mine, you think?  Did they check that out, obviously not.  Here’s yet another spam comment, again one of a few hundred that infiltrated my blog, so I went to go <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/14/business/business-people-dh-blair-picks-doctor-as-director-of-finance.html">check out this link that goes way back to the New York Times in 1988</a> and talks about his Director of Finance appointment at D.H. Blair.  Well before I read this link I didn’t know who or what D.H. Blair was but after reading several of these links I thought this was some of the content that was maybe meant to be hidden or buried?  Keep on reading…</p> <p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/14/business/business-people-dh-blair-picks-doctor-as-director-of-finance.html"><img alt="image" border="0" height="214" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-pxmVv8nfIBs/T0L-265XYoI/AAAAAAAA5Z0/0UWclfOT_WY/image29.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="392" /></a></p> <p><strong>Ok so now my curiosity is aroused to find out what is D H Blair</strong> since this article was so old and was obviously put in there for folks to read, right?  So let’s go see <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=medical+quack+lindsay+rosenwald&ie=UTF-8#sclient=psy-ab&hl=en&source=hp&q=d+h+blair&psj=1&oq=d+h+blair&aq=f&aqi=g-s1g2g-s4g-v3&aql=1&gs_sm=3&gs_upl=882078l883550l1l883875l9l9l0l0l0l0l288l1144l4.4.1l9l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.,cf.osb&fp=24b9eb7a531d2a7f&biw=1440&bih=683">what a search turns up here.</a>  This is what shows up with a search…OMG Bernie Madoff?   We all know who that is, so I decided to do some reading as I do a lot of that but now I’m curious and boy what a reading file Google pulled up for me.  I also looked at Google images via a search and he was the first picture that came up.  Actually it was a good thing that my spam filter caught a lot of the comments as more of my Medical Quack readers may have done some additional reading.  </p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-_he_7WMZLzk/T0L-3IETCtI/AAAAAAAA5Z8/TmNxAhABA4g/s1600-h/image34.png"><img alt="image" border="0" height="411" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-IZSaqKe6pw4/T0L-3bt584I/AAAAAAAA5aE/fqPR-e5XiqI/image_thumb17.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="393" /></a></p> <p>Ok so now it’s starting to set in as to why this Reputation Restore campaign might exist as I begin reading? <strong>From what is published on the web, there’s a lot of players here and again I don’t know any of these folks here and didn’t know any of this, but I do now after being spammed.</strong>  Shoot this was more reading than I bargained for in just my small pursuit of finding out who spammed me!  Let’s dig around and check out another spammed comment shall we.  </p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-pwHEzPVyfXg/T0L-3wlDREI/AAAAAAAA5aM/lXJacSRwgBA/s1600-h/image38.png"><img alt="image" border="0" height="218" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-IuiQLBkdj_k/T0L-4Nt9bJI/AAAAAAAA5aU/m2ztEL7t52U/image_thumb19.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="394" /></a></p> <p>So I followed this link and found yet another so called “splog” and checked it out.  I found out he was a Republican and part of the Republican Jewish Coalition as a member of the Board of Directors and there’s a video at the splog that references the other “splogs”..and it was done in March of 2010 but it looks like they have his age wrong in the comments at stating 76? It was created by <a href="http://animoto.com/">this firm it</a> states under the comments.  <strong><u>Looks like a bunch of bad algorithms to me.</u></strong>  </p> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:5737277B-5D6D-4f48-ABFC-DD9C333F4C5D:220a97f5-8e1a-4fe8-aa3a-c491ec769a43" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent"><div id="c2601207-83ba-4b15-a00c-711457724ce0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline;"><div><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s485sqUgSzc" target="_new"><img alt="" galleryimg="no" onload="var downlevelDiv = document.getElementById('c2601207-83ba-4b15-a00c-711457724ce0'); downlevelDiv.innerHTML = "<div><object width=\"385\" height=\"216\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http://www.youtube.com/v/s485sqUgSzc?hl=en&hd=1\"><\/param><embed src=\"http://www.youtube.com/v/s485sqUgSzc?hl=en&hd=1\" type=\"application/x-shockwave-flash\" width=\"385\" height=\"216\"><\/embed><\/object><\/div>";" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-Z86ZrVXS98w/T0MwrrgiSLI/AAAAAAAA5c4/-J3RlBFE3lw/video15e054a9ad0f%25255B18%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-style: none"></a></div></div><div style="width:385px;clear:both;font-size:.8em">Paramount BioCapital</div></div> <p>If you look around under similar videos that appear we seem to have the same video created by <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2NaRLw5mE0&feature=related">SEORouters</a> here and another one <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2uEvSqk2PY&feature=related">here</a> and yet <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZI3tAvqa1o&feature=related">one more here</a> that dates back to the same time when I was being spammed.  </p> <p>The only half way decent page linked in all of this is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindsay_Rosenwald">Wikipedia</a> but guess what, I found different links  and some other artifacts such as the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/25/realestate/25deal2.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=lindsay%20rosenwald&st=Search">New York Times paper article from 2008</a> stating he had been offered $85 million for his penthouse in New York and again the sale of Cougar Biotech to Johnson and Johnson.  What I also found interesting on this page were the “<a href="http://www.lindsayrosenwald.com/category/lindsay-rosenwald-info/">dead” social network links,</a> in other words they don’t work and take you back to the home page.  </p> <p><a href="http://www.lindsayrosenwald.com/category/lindsay-rosenwald-info/"><img alt="image" border="0" height="149" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-0RSeYa7_8Vw/T0L-4Y22B6I/AAAAAAAA5ak/aFWGiI8O2IQ/image46.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="392" /></a></p> <p><strong>Needless to say this is the work a a ton of “bots” to say the least.</strong>  Anyway getting back to the search I did above<u> now I’m reading Deep Capture, Market Rap and a ton of other archived articles which I probably would not have known existed otherwise:)</u>  </p> <p>So the question here is what purpose has the Reputation Restore accomplished? <strong>Did this Hedge Fund manager get taken for a ride on his money spent?  I am guessing he did spend some money on this project as these folks would not work for free with creating and running these algorithms.   </strong></p> <p>With all the wealth and money I wonder what he was sold on the job this company did and why the bots used were so “not good” as they connect to “splogs” and when you look at the examples you can see what is out there.  Let’s go one more step and see what Google has for searches that are related…and here it is…</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-1t1sFRPL1rg/T0L-4vg3RaI/AAAAAAAA5as/_yMNpPUmsIE/s1600-h/image50.png"><img alt="image" border="0" height="177" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-B5EMz6jO0W8/T0L-44reyKI/AAAAAAAA5a0/YE-TuG7JXnw/image_thumb23.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="397" /></a></p> <p><strong>We come right back around to D H Blair again for one and Madoff,</strong> along with a few others added in there.  Guess what, I get a lot of the same “splogs” again and a few other tidbits and this time the Market Rap and Deep Capture results are at the top, (which I am guessing is the portions meant to be buried in searches)  so what is this campaign doing besides making a mess out there?  The You Tube videos in the splogs have little play so hardly anyone is looking at those either. </p> <p>This even gets better as when you do a search for <u>reputation restoration</u> there’s even a <a href="http://www.deepcapture.com/podcast-rexxfield-repairs-online-reputations/"><u>link on the Deep Capture page</u></a> where a company wrote a story about this and is probably looking for new business.  What I did learn by reading is that Deep Capture did not profile Mr. Rosenwald very favorably and again Deep <u>Capture has their own naked short selling tale to tell</u> and who knows what the whole story is once it all comes together.  Now in my travels around searching Google I ran across a few other blogs with the same “spammed-canned” comments, like this one.  My spam catcher caught mine but no back links from the Quack to the splogs which doesn’t do anything for “splog search engine optimization” <grin>. </p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-wBrhLwShUMs/T0L-5E45jeI/AAAAAAAA5a8/BNPcpDUVTw0/s1600-h/image56.png"><img alt="image" border="0" height="206" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-s8QRh3JfRRY/T0L-5Qc6b5I/AAAAAAAA5bE/me560rLfQSo/image_thumb27.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="383" /></a></p> <p>Also this came up in a search, a comment that is exactly the same as the posts on the “splogs”…at a reverse merger page back in 2009…</p> <p><a href="http://www.reversemergerblog.com/2009/08/08/cougar-biotech-wow/">http://www.reversemergerblog.com/2009/08/08/cougar-biotech-wow/</a></p> <p>Here’s yet another one by a blogger called “<a href="http://lindsayrosenwald61.qapacity.com.qapacity.com/my-blog/">Noel Vega”</a> and yup it’s all about Mr. Rosenwald and is yet one more splog it appears.  Actually I was not the first site to notice this activity as a site in Germany (which I don’t know if they were spammed or not) figured it all out too.  Below is what that site had to say as he linked right over to the Deep Capture site, which by the way is published by the CEO of Overstock.com.  He did a pretty good job as describing the whole lot of web sites.</p> <p align="center"><strong><a href="http://www.marchionni.ch/reputation-management-campaign/"><u>Real-Life Reputation Management Example</u></a></strong></p> <p><em>“These are all simple WordPress installs with a few articles. It’s pretty obvious they’re only here to occupy the first page on Google. <br />As soon as you dig deeper into the SERPs (search engine results pages) you’ll find tons – <u>and I mean TONS</u> – of web 2.0 properties linking and pushing his WordPress sites and the EDU profile among others”</em></p> <p><em>“Lindsay Rosenwald may be the son-in-law of “the king of stock fraud.” And he was once the vice chairman of D.H. Blair, a firm affiliated with the Mafia – a firm that was run by two former top lieutenants of Michael Milken before it found itself at the center of one of the biggest Mafia investigations in the history of the FBI and on the business end of a 173-count federal indictment.” </em></p> <hr /> <p>In some cases the splogs even spam themselves with comments such as here…</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-0tCaZLyfhjw/T0L-56dGW8I/AAAAAAAA5bM/QCt6sP9CnR8/s1600-h/image60.png"><img alt="image" border="0" height="367" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-k1OM7LdX8dU/T0L-6DTl_SI/AAAAAAAA5bU/8Akk_KXk01U/image_thumb29.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="408" /></a></p> <p>And there’s some links back to some cached pages of <a href="http://www.cougarbiotechnology.com/company/board-of-directors.htm">Cougar Biotech</a> floating around out there which we know now was purchased by Johnson and Johnson mainly for their prostate drug which is now on the market.  </p> <p>It sure looks like he got soaked on this deal on repairing his reputation as with browser and search changes <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-bX0DVDR3eso/T0L-6YqWD1I/AAAAAAAA5bc/qQtAUrbVhvE/s1600-h/image65.png"><img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="296" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-YL6JNBFm7kk/T0L-6ocpM-I/AAAAAAAA5bk/ormibRhGjlU/image_thumb32.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="131" /></a>made by Google and others, all it appears to be doing now is stuffing the web full of spam and again I would not even be aware of this if who ever they hired knew what they were doing and wouldn’t have spammed my blog so badly.   <u>You know we hear in the news all the time about money not matching up or they can’t find it, like Corzine </u>and no wonder if the big guys at the the top get sucked in by folks like this who did this some what make shift reputation restore effort which only serves to bring all of the stuff I feel they want to hide out into the forefront.  </p> <p>How do they make business decisions today one might ask?  Obviously nobody can be an expert in every area but gee to use one of these services that does a job like this?  I would hope they could hire staff that could at least get a quality job done if pursing such a project.</p> <p>These are a bunch of programmed algorithms that go out and mine the web and relate articles and such on tags, keywords and so on.  I still laugh at the romance section that was just jammed in there as filler.</p> <p><strong><em>Mr. Rosenwald got attacked by the very algorithms he hired to help hide him it seems to me.</em>  </strong></p> <p><strong>I am now much better educated on the past of the financial markets and biotech having been spammed and have passed along some of the articles I found interesting to others to read.</strong>  His bot did try to comment on my Happy Doctor’s Day post though to let us know he went to school at Penn State and this was yet another comment that the algorithm was responsible for.  </p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-U90KDxaWZkE/T0L-7JYBLNI/AAAAAAAA5bs/tHV_FdzGI8s/s1600-h/image69.png"><img alt="image" border="0" height="208" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-dTmB2EQ83k0/T0L-7b_mTXI/AAAAAAAA5b0/ViTcMUUa6EY/image_thumb34.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="417" /></a></p> <p>I had pages of these comments stacking up and of course when you read them the English is not that good and of course never would been written from a man in his position and education, so maybe “splogs” have a side benefit of not making one look to smart?  Anyway, I wouldn’t want my name attached to such <grin>. </p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-Bjex1Kg_BG4/T0L-7k5CIUI/AAAAAAAA5b8/KWoJnaAB9a8/s1600-h/image76.png"><img alt="image" border="0" height="180" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-At3VtGyWMvg/T0L-75S5zuI/AAAAAAAA5cE/KUDJt4HTomo/image_thumb37.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="424" /></a></p> <p>This page at <a href="http://knol.google.com/k/lindsay-rosenwald/biography-of-lindsay-rosenwald/1o9w67occ8qjz/1#">Google Knol</a> which will end on May of this year even has a Creative Commons License listed, pretty funny as splogs can have those too.  SEO Services of course is one of the commenters here so those are his fans the SEO folks it seems:)  Again I have just never seen anything so extensive and they must be working hard to justify their contract with Mr. Rosenwald.  I have to say the algorithms that created these sure did use and re-use the same text to the maximum!  It’s over here at the Knol site too, so blog platforms were not issue for the algorithms to cross with speed running bots at work.  </p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-rxgcngl8Wvw/T0L-8faq4eI/AAAAAAAA5cM/ZRQ3RWhOuKs/s1600-h/image83.png"><img alt="image" border="0" height="364" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-v8blNpBCJdM/T0L-8ta_aVI/AAAAAAAA5cU/xutSd1bSGXk/image_thumb42.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="289" /></a></p> <p>There was actually one “real” press release from PRWeb buried in the splogs and I wonder why he doesn’t use avenues as such to promote himself instead of splogs?  If you publish enough legitimate information out there the other stuff with age will go down the ranks.  Link at the title below from March of 2011.  </p> <p><strong><a href="http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/3/prweb8249794.htm">Lindsay Rosenwald: Biotechnologies Financial da Vinci</a></strong></p> <p><strong>Once more it is amazing that a well known hedge fund manager would not know the difference here and is more comfortable with the Splog efforts.</strong> </p> <p>One thing too about the web is that what may have been an effective tool yesterday, may not be so today and some Killer Algorithms here appear to be biting the Hedge Fund Manager.   I happen to have a series on the Attacks of the Killer Algorithms that you may want to check out.  I certainly was attacked by the Killer Algorithms here with spamming my blog and Mr. Rosenwald has them biting at his back too as they are getting to be just in the <img align="right" border="0" height="91" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-6HDDm04lOwA/Ts0zq-EuFHI/AAAAAAAA4d8/nMT-KL0JEDY/image_thumb%25255B12%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" width="189" />way and not really serving a purpose any longer.  </p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/02/attack-of-killer-algorithmsdigest-links.html"><font size="2">Attack of the Killer Algorithms–Digest & Links for All Chapters–See How the Math and Crafty Formulas Today Running on Servers 24/7 Make Life Impacting Decisions About You</font></a></h4> <p>Perhaps to his good news or maybe not so good news, this post will now be circulating and searched in Google and other browsers as well and perhaps it may even give Mr. Rosenwald ’s “splogs” some real competition for that top spot:)  </p> <p>So why did I do this story, that algorithm woke up and snuck in another spam comment!  I was attached by the Killer Spamming Algorithms hired by a Hedge Fund who maybe didn’t have a clue on what he thought he was paying for.  BD  </p> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:ff467504-811c-4056-ac4e-0c31cec4c54b" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/algoirthms" rel="tag">algoirthms</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/mathmatics" rel="tag">mathmatics</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/12+step+addictions" rel="tag">12 step addictions</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/healthcare" rel="tag">healthcare</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/desired+results" rel="tag">desired results</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/rogue+algorithm" rel="tag">rogue algorithm</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Charles+Seife" rel="tag">Charles Seife</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/books" rel="tag">books</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/numbers" rel="tag">numbers</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/analytics" rel="tag">analytics</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/journalism" rel="tag">journalism</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Google" rel="tag">Google</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Rosenwald" rel="tag">Rosenwald</a></div>

Healthcare Blogger Gets Spammed by Hedge Fund Using Internet “Reputation Restore” With Some Really Bad Algos–Attack of the Killer Algorithms Chapter 20

First of all who was the blogger, it was me of course and this is my story on how this all took place.  If you are not familiar with “Reputa...

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