Medsphere Systems Corp., an Aliso Viejo-based medical software company, has a new chief executive.
Kenneth Kizer, a longtime company adviser and Medsphere’s chairman, is adding chief executive duties, effective Dec. 1.
Larry Augustin, who had served as the software company’s interim chief executive since January, is going to become a board member and strategic adviser.
Kizer, a doctor who holds a master’s degree in public health, has been chief executive of the National Quality Forum, a Washington, D.C.-based group that sought to develop national strategies for healthcare quality management and reporting.
In a release, Steve Shreeve, Medsphere’s cofounder and chief technology officer, said he believed that Kizer’s understanding of “the transformational role that information technology can play in healthcare delivery” would be a guide for Medsphere’s software and product strategy.
Kizer’s background includes serving as undersecretary for health in the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Shreeve and brother Scott founded Medsphere in 2001. The brothers got their inspiration while they were medical students, undergoing rotations at hospitals.
In 2003, Scott Shreeve, Medsphere’s chief medical officer, said he and his brother had to go to “several disparate sources” to gather patient data.
But when the Shreeves’ rotations landed them at Veterans Affairs hospitals in Long Beach and Salt Lake City, they found “a single integrated system,” Scott Shreeve said.
“All your images are there, your labs,the whole patient record was there,” he said.
Medsphere offers software used to manage clinical, financial and administrative data for hospitals, clinics and doctors. It’s based on an “open source” program dubbed VistA and developed by the VA. Medsphere’s version is called OpenVista.
Open-source software can be freely accessed, and programmers can alter or tweak it to meet their needs. Linux software perhaps is the most prominent example of open-source software.
In January, Medsphere raised $7.5 million in a second round of venture capital funding led by Azure Capital Partners of San Francisco, which joined prior investors Thomas Weisel Venture Partners of Palo Alto and Wasatch Venture Fund of Salt Lake City.
Ev3 Ups Ante
Ev3 Inc. upped its offer last week for the rest of Irvine-based Micro Therapeutics Inc. that it doesn’t already own.
Plymouth, Minn.-based ev3 Inc. now is offering about $115 million for Micro Therapeutics, which makes products to treat stroke-related brain disorders and blood clots. Ev3’s previous offer in October was an all-stock deal worth about $110 million.
The company already owns slightly more than 70% of Micro Therapeutics’ shares.
In a release, ev3 said it would issue about 6.9 million new shares of its stock to Micro shareholders at the deal’s close, which is expected in the first quarter.
The acquisition doesn’t require approval by the remaining shareholders because ev3 is Micro Therapeutics’ majority owner.
But ev3, Micro Therapeutics and several of its officers and directors were sued last month by Lascala Partners LLC, a shareholder that alleged that the deal undervalued Micro Therapeutics.
Ev3 has said in federal filings that it believed the suit was without merit.
Sybron Ups View
Sybron Dental Specialties Inc. of Newport Beach last week said it has to delay its results for the September quarter. But investors didn’t seem to mind.
Along with word of the delay, Sybron raised its earnings outlook for the recently ended quarter.
The maker of dental products was set to release results Nov. 14. Now Sybron said they’re due next month because it needs more time to figure out its year-end tax liability.
Sybron makes orthodontic and general dentistry products.
The company said it expects to earn $20.1 million to $21.8 million on sales of $169 million to $171 million in the quarter.
Before, Sybron forecast a profit of $18.1 million to $20.1 million on revenue of $161 million to $166 million.
Wall Street on average expects Sybron to post a profit of $19.4 million on revenue of $163.4 million.
Bits and Pieces:
Versant Ventures, a healthcare venture investor with an office in Newport Beach, said earlier this month that it closed Versant Venture Capital III, a $400 million fund that will invest in early-stage healthcare companies St. Joseph Hospital in Orange promoted Sonoma Van Brunt to vice president of business development, marketing and public relations. Van Brunt, whose career includes serving as vice president of business development for several Tenet Healthcare Corp. hospitals in OC, was previously St. Joseph’s executive director of business development Cardiomedics Inc., Irvine, said a study showed that its CardiAssist ECP medical device for treating congestive heart failure resulted in a 90% death reduction and an 87% cut in the number of hospitalizations in the year following therapy with the device.
