Headhunters Get Expanded On-Line Healthcare Job Site
An OC healthcare consortium has committed more than $1 million over the next three years to combat diabetes, and its members will gather June 1 at the Westin South Coast Plaza to discuss battle plans.
Keynoter will be Tom McGuiness, Senior VP of Citrus Valley Health Partners in Covina. Also on the agenda are Azhar Qureshi, AVP of the R & D; department at St. Joseph Health System; Dr. America Bracho of Latino Health Access in Santa Ana; Robert Rivas of the American Diabetes Assn.; and Mary Zombek, head of school nurse efforts at the OC Department of Education.
Qureshi and co-writer Jeff Shafiroff recently nabbed a $340,000 grant from UniHealth Foundation to improve disease management for diabetes patients by using computers for case-management and tracking.
“We think this could be a model for intervention,” said Susan G. Zepeda, chairwoman of the Health Funders Partnership,the group meeting this week,and executive director of one of its members, The HealthCare Foundation of Orange County.
HCFOC has pledged $100,000 to the effort. Other members include St. Joseph Health System Foundation ($100,000) and Sisters of St. Joseph Healthcare Foundation ($50,000). Partners Irvine Health Foundation, PacifiCare Foundation and Pacific Life Foundation will vote in June on their commitments.
The Orange County Community Foundation, another member, oversees the trust. UniHealth, the final HFP member, had to give directly to St. Joseph Health System because of regulatory restrictions.
Boosters of the group, financial or otherwise, are the California HealthCare Foundation, California Endowment (voting in June), The California Wellness Foundation (voting in June on $300,000), the OC Health Care Agency and CalOptima.
The confab also includes policy wonks, HMO reps and front-liners from medical, community, educational and faith-based groups.
The work builds off the OC Health Needs Assessment developed last year. With chronic diseases like heart disease and cancer better-known and well-funded, attention turned to diabetes and asthma as suitable targets.
And if the “e-diabetes attack” works like it’s supposed to, asthma may be next.
Not Rocket Science
Jobscience.com has expanded its Web site to enhance customer service and add private e-mail. The site said it adds more services as it talks with seekers of healthcare jobs and seekers of healthcare jobseekers.
The site is part of a growing movement in on-line recruiting focusing on a particular business niche. Jobscience launched in 1999, and expects healthcare professionals to be in demand for at least 10 more years.
The company marshals figures showing a need for some 1.7 million nurses by 2010, with only 635,000 available. Meanwhile, the firm said, Thomas Wiesel Partners pegs on-line recruiting as a market with $30 billion potential in that 10 years, 12% of that in healthcare.
Along with the new stuff, the site has salary calculators, career assessment and relocation tools, professional development options and a cool logo. Jobscience said it has had 1 million page-views since March 1999 and posts thousands of new jobs each month.
Investors are the Washington Post and Tribune Co. and healthcare entities such as Catholic Healthcare West and Roche.
Cheerleaders include Oakland Mayor and former Gov. Jerry Brown. Jobscience Inc. is based in Oakland.
Going Through Withdrawal
Interpore Cross International withdrew a proposed secondary offering of stock. The original filing came March 15 within days of the market beginning its descent and gyration. The withdrawal was announced May 16.
The company had planned to sell 4 million shares at $12.50, for a net of more than $40 million after expenses.
With Interpore trading at about 9 last week, the company said it will use cash and short-term investments of $9.6 million, a $5 million line of credit and its operating cash flow for now. Final bill on filing costs (second quarter pre-tax charge) is $300,000, the company said.
Interpore designs, manufactures and markets spinal implants and synthetic bone and tissue products for other applications.
Bits and Pieces:
Play on: Allergan signed a multi-year deal with Surgical Instrument Systems AG of Switzerland to market and distribute the latter’s Amadeus microkeratome in North America and Latin America. The product for refractive surgeons combines computer monitoring, a vacuum and a blade-loader . . . Back so soon? Nexell Therapeutics received FDA clearance to market a new version of its Isolex 300i Magnetic Cell Selection System launching in July. The new version 2.5 upgrades a 300i approved by FDA only a year ago . . . I’d like to thank the academy: VitalCom snagged the blue ribbon at the first annual TEPR (Towards the Electronic Patient Record) awards in May. VCom won for PatientNet, part of its “e-hospital infrastructure solution” work.
