1. Although the press likes to report that $20 billion is being appropriated for incentivizing doctors to adopt electronic medical records (EMR), that’s a net number. The CBO actually plans to spend $36 billion and save $15.5 billion from their use.
2. Eligible doctors who can show meaningful use of a certified EMR in 2010 can expect to receive up to $44,000 over 5 years in reimbursements from Medicare, even more from Medicaid. The amount of the reimbursement declines each year, so doctors are incentivized to switch early. Of course, meaningful use and certified EMR aren’t yet defined, and won’t be until the end of this year. That means that 2010 is going to be a horse race.
3. I went to the conference being skeptical that the stimulus was sufficient to get doctors to switch. The doctors I know really, really don’t want to give up their paper records. But I left the conference believing that this was going to work. The doctors I talked to were resigned to the fact that this is going to happen. You’re just not going to find a better offer than this.
4. I also went to the conference with a list of a dozen competitors I wanted to see and came back with a list of two dozen. The competition in this space during 2010 is going to be fierce. The fisticuffs-in-the-waiting-room kind of fierce. But given the competition, I was surprised to find a substantial variance in pricing. Now that the government has defined the upper bounds of pricing for an EMR, I expect we’ll see these pricing gaps close up. 
5. Finally, given that there are 200,000 practices in the U.S. and that 75% of them have 10 or fewer doctors, I’m thinking the big players in the EMR space will look to gain market share by buying up the smaller players. So if you’re a smaller player looking for an exit, your primary focus should be market share.

Anyway, that’s the condensed version of the report I wrote up after the conference. I’d love to hear anybody’s comments as I’m still wrapping my head around this space.

I’m a little late posting this–I’ve been in Chicago for HIMSS this week. The important part is that BioCamp Houston 2009 was a success! We had about 40 attendees for our first BioCamp and they stayed all day. There were several great presentations that started some good discussions.

I’d like to thank our sponsors: DFJ Mercury, The Harrington Law Firm, and Osha Liang. Special thanks go out to Josh Tabin, Matthew Wettergreen, Ivette Sandoval, Nasos Dousis, and Bibhash Mukhopadhyay for helping to organize the event. Finally, I’d like to thank all of our speakers. Without them, it would have just been another afternoon at Valhalla.

All in all, I couldn’t be happier with the event. If you’d like to see pictures, check out the BioCamp Houston website.

Here’s what I had previously written:

I just heard that President Leebron of Rice has made the announcement. I’m sitting in O’Hare airport blogging this on my iPhone, so I’ll post more when I get home. I’m very excited about the news, though. This is a terrific development for both institutions and for Houston.

Hat tip to Chris Miller.

Yeah, thanks Chris.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Update 1: Chron has the story. Citing the economic crisis as a reason, BCM will delay building out the interior of the new hospital. The delay will also allow BCM to raise more money for the project and to find partners. Butler emphasized that the board is committed to completing the hospital despite speculation that an exterior shell will be easier to sell than a completed hospital.

My take? Come on, who are they kidding? Everybody knows that BCM is in financial straits and the hospital is a hang up in the merger negotiations. Stopping construction at this point saves BCM money while it sorts out its finances, which is especially important if the merger falls through. On the other hand, if Rice won’t do a deal that includes the hospital, this makes it easier to sell or re-task the building.

Update 2: Something was up indeed! The Houston Chronicle is now reporting that the presidents of the two schools have signed a memorandum of understanding. This is a positive sign for those of us who support the merger and means that they are working through the process.

Gen Y must really be ruffling some feathers as it integrates into the workplace because I’m seeing articles and hearing complaints about them everywhere. It reminds me of the days when my fellow Gen-X’ers and I entered the workforce: we were all supposed to be slackers. Of course, eventually we adapted to corporate America and corporate America adapted to us. Nobody thinks we’re slackers anymore.

We’re repeating the cycle now with Gen Y. The other night, some friends of mine were complaining about younger co-workers. One–with what’s considered an “old school” mentality–argued “I pay them to work, not to text their friends.” A recent issue of Harvard Business Review contained a case about the difficulty of managing Gen Y in an established corporate culture, and I was amused to read one commenter write that the Gen-Y’er was insubordinate for circumventing his boss and sending his ideas right to the CEO.

Perhaps the organization least compatible with Gen Y values is the federal government. NASA is a becoming a prime example of the culture clash between a traditional, top down, command-and-control organization, and ideals of minimal hierarchy and open communication. Frustrated Gen Y’ers have turned to  blogs, slideshows, and videos to try to change the culture. I actually think what they’re trying to do is great, and I’m looking forward to seeing how their efforts reinvigorate a stodgy and staid bureaucracy.

If this is your first BioCamp, you have to present.

We recognize that not everybody wants to get up in front of a crowd of people and start talking. That said, the format of BioCamp doesn’t work unless a non-trivial fraction of attendees volunteer to present something.

I presented at my first BarCamp, although I had no intention of presenting when I arrived that day. “Unconferences”, like BarCamp and BioCamp, start with a completely open agenda. At the beginning of the day, one of the organizers will grid out a whiteboard with the available rooms and half-hour time slots. Then, anybody who wants to present walks up to the board and writes the title of their presentation in an open timeslot.

At my first BarCamp, I was standing by the whiteboard watching people fill in their titles when a friend asked me if I was presenting anything. That was the impetus for me to volunteer to talk about entrepreneurship in Houston. I didn’t have any slides, just a vague outline in my head. But if you read my blog, you know it’s something I think about a lot.

BioCamp is an opportunity to talk about “the Big Picture.”

So, I want to encourage everyone who is attending BioCamp this year to start thinking about topics they can talk about. The audience at BioCamp will be a mix from academia, industry, finance, and services, so you’ll want to gear your presentation to a general audience. And I want to stress that BioCamp is an opportunity to talk about “the Big Picture.” 

If you’re an academic, this isn’t the environment to present your latest findings on the electrostatics of DNA-DNA juxtapositions. Rather, we’d like to hear your ideas about how to improve the NIH funding process, or the future of scientific publishing, or open source science. If you’ve got an idea for a biotech startup, this is a great environment to test your thoughts and see if they generate any interest.

If you’re not an academic, we want to hear from you too. Investors might want to talk about how the current economy has affected their approach to biotech investments. Attorneys could talk about developments in intellectual property law that affect biotech. I’m hoping we’ll get some participants from NASA to talk about the unique biomedical challenges they’re facing in planning for the upcoming missions to the moon and Mars.

This is going to be our first BioCamp in Houston, and it’s one of the first BioCamps in the country. I hope y’all will turn out, present your big (and not so big) ideas, and have fun!

BioCamp Happy Hour: Thurs., Apr. 2 at 6pm at Saute Bistro.

BioHouston Chili Cook-Off: Fri., Apr. 3 at noon at BioHouston

BioCamp Houston: Sat., Apr. 4 from 9am-4pm at 100 Keck Hall, Rice University.

By the way, if you use Twitter, you can now follow BioCamp Houston.

BioCamp Houston

BioCamp Houston will be the last of three days of bio-related festivities in Houston, which begin with a happy hour at the Caroline Collective on Thursday night, the BioHouston Chili Cook-off on Friday, and BioCamp on Saturday. Valhalla will be open Saturday afternoon so you can cap off the event with a relaxing beer in the shade of an oak tree.

Please go to biocamp.ning.com to register.

We hope to see you all there!

BioCamp Happy Hour: Thurs., Apr. 2 at 6pm at Saute Bistro.

BioHouston Chili Cook-Off: Fri., Apr. 3 at noon at BioHouston

BioCamp Houston: Sat., Apr. 4 from 9am-4pm at 100 Keck Hall, Rice University.

A few months ago, I posted on the “Financial Crisis Simplified.” Now, I’ve come across this explanatory video from Jonathan Jarvis that goes even deeper. Very well done.