A major supporter of the patient safety movement led by Irvine-based Masimo Corp.’s Chief Executive Joe Kiani stopped by Orange County this month.
U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, along with Kiani and various other visitors, toured Children’s Hospital of Orange County and observed some of the Orange pediatric hospital’s programs to help reduce medical errors.
The patient safety movement aims to eliminate all preventable deaths in American hospitals by 2020.
Kiani praised CHOC and Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian, which have signed on to the movement, for being part of saving “over 600 lives” by adapting the movement’s principles, which require medical technology companies to share data and hospitals to commit to establish patient safety standards.
Boxer’s office released a report this year detailing the most common and harmful hospital errors and what California hospitals are doing to try to prevent them. The report estimates that between 210,000 and 440,000 Americans die as a result of preventable medical errors, such as hospital-acquired infections, adverse drug reactions, patient falls and bed sores.
“When you hear the number of [preventable deaths], it makes you choke up,” the Democratic senator said.
Medical errors also take a financial toll: Boxer’s report quotes research that estimates they account for $19.5 billion in direct costs to the healthcare system annually.
Boxer also featured the story of Lenore Alexander, who lives in the Ventura County community of Oak Park and is a member of advocacy group Mothers Against Medical Errors. Alexander has pushed for laws mandating hospitals use electronic devices to monitor post-surgical patients. Her advocacy was kindled after the death in a hospital of her daughter 11 years ago.
Alexander’s 11-year-old daughter, Leah Coufal, “died of undetected respiratory arrest. That was a preventable error,” Boxer said.
Other speakers included Kimberly Chavalas Cripe, CHOC’s chief executive; Dr. James Cappon, CHOC’s medical director of quality and patient safety; and Dr. Ann-Louise Kuhns, chief executive of the Sacramento-based California Children’s Hospital Association.
Startup Launches
A healthcare information technology company that grew out of presentations at a Silicon Valley industry event has launched in Aliso Viejo.
Sentrian calls itself a “remote patient intelligence company” that focuses on chronic diseases and aims to prevent unnecessary hospital admissions.
It’s focus appears to align with the patient safety movement’s precepts.
“Millions of unnecessary hospitalizations that endanger patients and cost tens of billions of dollars every year could be avoided if we could spot deterioration in patients’ health earlier using remote patient monitoring analytics,” said Dean Sawyer, Sentrian cofounder and chief executive and a former executive at Chicago-based Allscripts Healthcare Solutions Inc.
Sentrian is designed to take advantage of what Sawyer called the “exponential growth in biosensors and machine learning.” The company wants its product offerings to “detect the subtle signs that warn of an impending problem before the patient becomes acute and requires hospitalization.”
The company raised $12 million in financing toward its launch, made up of $4 million in seed money and $8 million in a first round of venture funding led by San Juan Capistrano-based Frost Data Capital, London-based Reed Elsevier Ventures, and Burnaby, B.C.-based Telus Ventures.
Sentrian officials introduced the new company at Singularity University’s Exponential Medicine conference in San Diego.
Weight-Loss Results Shared
San Clemente-based ReShape Medical Inc. said the U.S. pivotal trial for its weight-loss balloon device met its primary efficacy endpoints.
The trial showed that patients who had ReShape’s Duo saline-filled balloon device implanted in their stomachs lost more weight than those who underwent what the company characterized as a “sham” procedure.
Patients who received the balloon had it implanted with an endoscope and had it removed after six months. They also received concurrent monthly diet and exercise counseling, Dr. Jaime Ponce, medical director of the bariatric surgery program at Hamilton Medical Center in Dalton, Ga., said in a news release.
Ponce called the device “a useful intervention that can be used in patients with a [body mass index] of 30 to 40 who are not ready for surgery or do not qualify for surgery.”
ReShape’s study results were presented in Boston at industry conference Obesity Week 2014.
Bits & Pieces
Irvine-based ChromaDex Corp.’s shares now trade on the OTCQX exchange with the ticker symbol CDXC. It was previously on the OTCQB exchange. ChromaDex provides proprietary ingredients to the dietary supplement, food and beverage, cosmetic, and pharmaceutical industries. … Aliso Viejo-based Birth Choice Health Clinics said it’s working with the Lestonnac Free Clinic in Orange and Hurtt Family Health Clinic in Santa Ana to offer patients access to primary care services.
