Hoag Orthopedic Institute, which operates under a joint venture between Hoag Memorial Presbyterian Hospital and a physician group, is expanding.
It is now working with Costa Mesa-based ProSport Physical Therapy & Performance, which provides rehabilitation services at its four physical therapy and performance centers in Southern California.
As part of the agreement, the Irvine-based orthopedic care provider will invest in ProSport.
Hoag Orthopedic has a medical staff of 300 physicians and more than 80 orthopedic specialists. It’s California’s largest provider of joint replacement surgery and is the official medical partner for the Los Angeles Chargers. Its operations include an inpatient hospital in Irvine and three ambulatory care surgery centers in Orange, Mission Viejo and Newport Beach.
ProSport currently has three 10,000-square-foot physical therapy facilities in Orange County, including Costa Mesa, Laguna Hills and Rancho Santa Margarita, as well as one in Rancho Palos Verdes.
Hoag Orthopedic Chief Executive Jennifer Mitzner said the collaboration will allow it to expand its outpatient care model to “a larger footprint of musculoskeletal nonsurgical care.”
UCI’s Goldstein Begins
Steve Goldstein on Feb. 1 officially started one of the most notable emerging roles in Orange County: overseeing the development of the Susan and Henry Samueli College of Health Sciences, which was formed last year with a cornerstone gift of $200 million, the largest in University of California-Irvine’s history and the seventh largest to a single public university.
Goldstein will be quarterbacking four schools, including the school of medicine and the Sue and Bill Gross School of Nursing, as well as helping start the schools of pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences and population health. He will also shepherd the construction of a new facility to house the college that will contain labs, classrooms and administrative offices. To top it off, he’ll lead the recruitment of new faculty, among them up to 15 Samueli endowed chairs across the medicine, nursing, pharmacy and population health disciplines.
The health sciences division currently employ more than 800 teaching, research and clinical faculty, serving 2,500 undergraduate and graduate students.
Goldstein replaced interim vice chancellor Alan Goldin, who has served since the resignation of Howard Federoff, who was the vice chancellor for health affairs and chief executive of UCI Health. Following Federoff’s resignation, the role was split into two positions. Richard Gannotta was named head of UCI Health in June last year. He will report to Goldstein, a UCI spokesperson confirmed.
Goldstein, most recently dean and chief diversity officer at the Stritch School of Medicine at Loyola University Chicago, has more than 30 years of experience in research, administration and hospital management.
Addiction Grant
Anaheim-based addiction treatment provider BioCorRx Inc. (OTC: BICX), this month received a two-year, $5.7 million grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, part of National Institutes of Health.
The grant is for the company’s BICX102, which it described as an implant for the multimonth release of naltrexone to treat opioid addiction. The grant will be distributed in two parts, with the second coming after a successful implementation of the first test.
BioCorRx Chief Executive Brady Granier told the Business Journal that the grant covers manufacturing, preclinical and clinical studies for the approval process.
Granier said BICX102 is considered a drug, not a device, and qualifies for an abbreviated approval pathway requiring a single two- to three-year trial compared to the traditional route of three testing phases.
“We believe this grant validates the clinical potential of BICX102 for the treatment of opioid use disorder,” he said, adding that current treatment options are limited.
“We also feel that BICX102 may be effective in helping the one in eight American adults … who now meet the diagnostic criteria for alcohol use disorder.”
The addiction treatment company offers a recovery program that includes behavioral therapy in addition to the implant.
The company has reported four straight years of losses. At press time, it traded at 9 cents a share with a $22 million market cap.
Bits & Pieces
Irvine-based physician and dental practice services and analytics software provider NextGen Healthcare Inc. (Nasdaq: NXGN) was ranked first place for small to midsized practice management category, 11 to 75 physicians, in the 2019 Best in KLAS: Software and Services Report. The designation was based on reports from more than 30,000 clinical professionals.
