There are basically two options for expecting mothers: obstetrician-gynecologists or midwives. Mission Hospital is combining the traditionally separate worlds—hospital delivery versus midwife practice—by opening three midwifery birthing suites at its birthing center. The hospital is the second in the state to offer an in-hospital birthing center.
“We are seeing a national trend of women desiring physiologic childbirth coupled with an attending certified nurse midwife through labor, delivery and recovery,” said Sue Jacobson, executive director of Mission’s women and infants institute. She said the goal is to provide a private, home-like birthing environment that is “less invasive and lower tech” while still being supported by the services of the hospital and of Children’s Hospital of Orange County.
CHOC operates a 54-bed location at Mission that’s south OC’s only Level III neonatal intensive care unit.
Mission’s inclusion of midwives speaks to alternatives—traditionally non-Western medicine approaches—becoming mainstream. The Business Journal wrote about the topic in last week’s issue.
The 523-bed regional medical center is part of Renton, Wash.-based Providence St. Joseph Health’s network of 14 Southern California hospitals.
Mental Health
Mission Viejo-based Mynd Analytics Inc. (Nasdaq: MYND) announced another partnership through wholly-owned subsidiary Arcadian Telepsychiatry Services LLC, joining forces with VisionQuest to provide telepsychiatry.
VisionQuest provides intervention services to at-risk youth and families in six states.
Arcadian provides telepsychiatry and telebehavioral services through a nationwide network of licensed and credentialed psychiatrists, psychologists and master’s-level therapists. It will start with LodgeQuest, VisionQuest’s outpatient mental health clinic in Chambersburg, Penn.
The Business Journal reported last week that Arcadian has started offering services to skilled nursing and assisted-living communities. It launched its program at Bayside Health and Rehabilitation in Florida, a 120-bed skilled nursing facility that’s a subsidiary of Pensacola, Fla.-based Gulf Coast Health Care.
Mynd is a predictive analytics company. Its product, Psychiatric EEG Evaluation Registry, or PEER Online, is designed to help medical professionals better match patients with the appropriate medications and exchange treatment outcome data. Information is based on a standard electroencephalogram, a test of brain activity. It has a nearly $8 million market cap.
Stem
Irvine-based biotech firm Aivita Biomedical received $1.7 million from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine. Proceeds will support further development of its stem cell-based therapy to cure blindness. The study will be conducted with the Sue & Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center at the University of California-Irvine.
The regenerative medicine developer plans to treat vision loss by transplanting three-dimensional retina sheets created from human stem cells into the eye to replace lost retinas and improve visual acuity. It’s tackling retinitis pigmentosa—a genetic disease that causes vision loss—and age-related macular degeneration.
Aivita has a cancer drug development arm and a cash-generating consumer beauty products business. It’s in a second-phase clinical study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of its immunotherapy for women with ovarian cancer.
Bits & Pieces
Aeri Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Nasdaq: AERI) entered a research collaboration and license-option agreement with Exton, Pa.-based DSM Biomedical Inc. The initial focus is on retinal diseases, such as wet age-related macular degeneration and diabetic macular edema. The two will continue research activities through the end of 2020. Aerie recently moved its headquarters to Durham, N.C., but maintains significant operations at its former headquarters in Irvine. … San Clemente-based ophthalmic device maker Glaukos Corp. (NYSE: GKOS) Chief Executive Thomas Burns joined Waltham, Mass.-based Avedro Inc.’s board of directors. Avedro develops corneal remodeling treatment. It’s in a third-phase study for patients with progressive keratoconus, a noninflammatory eye condition that progressively thins and weakens the cornea, and is the leading cause of corneal transplants in the U.S. … Community Medical Center Long Beach, formerly operated by Fountain Valley-based MemorialCare Health System, closed last month and will reopen next year. The hospital is getting a new operator, Molina, Wu, Network. MemorialCare determined it was financially infeasible to renovate the hospital to meet California’s earthquake standards.
