Venture Valkyrie

Not Quite a No-Brainer

Lisa Suennen — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 16:13:45 +0000

I just read an article entitled 25 Things You Didn’t Know About the Human Brain. As a lay-person who works in the medical field, I love these stories that attempt to turn the true mysteries of science and medicine into pop culture style information digestible by the masses. While some of the facts in the brain article were more to the structural (the brain has 100,000 miles of blood vessels in it), others were more intriguing and got my imagination wandering.

My favorite factoid in the article was this: your brain generates between 10 and 23 watts of power at rest, enough to power a light bulb. I wonder if this is what led to the convention of showing a light bulb above the head to connote the formation of an idea. Perhaps this is a revelation that might lead to a solution to our nation’s demand for clean energy (excepting those with dirty minds, I suppose). Is there any way to harness the wattage of sleeping people to power their iPads and iPhones for tomorrow’s business day? Just think: no more slumming at Starbucks to use the free … (read the rest)

Study the Boomers! An Xconomy Report on Education

Lisa Suennen — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 06:01:35 +0000

Xconomy, an extremely informative and smart web publication, today released a special Report on the Future of Education They compiled the content of the report by canvassing their Xconomists—whom they refer to as some of the world’s leading innovators, entrepreneurs, and investors—for their thoughts on what students should study to be prepared for the future. The specific question they posed was this: What should students be studying now to prepare for 10 years from now?

Twenty-two of Xconomy’s advisors, these so-called Xconomists, gave a variety of interesting responses. Fortunate to be among the esteemed list of people whose opinions were included, my answer was this: Study the Boomers! The article below was the substance of my specific response, which can also be found on the Xconomy website by clicking HERE.

Study the Boomers!

The Who once sang, “I hope I die before I get old.” Despite their best efforts to exit the planet early, most of them didn’t. They and their fellow Baby Boomers represent the greatest technology and business opportunity of the 21st Century.

It is typical for each of us to be drawn to areas for … (read the rest)

Where The Boys Are…And Not The Girls: Tales from the 2012 JP Morgan Healthcare Conference

Lisa Suennen — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 02:32:06 +0000

I set off for five straight days at the annual JP Morgan healthcare conference last Monday, but on the way drove the carpool to my daughter’s high school that morning in a last ditch attempt to act like a responsible and caring parent. My poor daughter gets completely abandoned during JP Morgan week every year and, as she so aptly put it, it is a mixed blessing. When I arrived home finally yesterday afternoon she said to me that she likes that I am not there to tell her what to do, but not that I am not there to act as her personal assistant and laugh at her jokes. I must admit, she is pretty funny. Especially that part about the personal assistant.

Anyway, during my last parental act of last week, my daughter’s friend, who also happens to be a JP Morgan orphan (her dad is also a healthcare venture capitalist), asked me from the back seat, “So, are there many women at this conference?”

It was interesting to get that question from a 15 year old, as it certainly wasn’t the kind of thing I worried about … (read the rest)

Where in the World is Lisa Suennen?

Lisa Suennen — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 15:12:46 +0000

Warning: shameless self-promotion today—will be back to more thematic ideas next week if my feet and I survive the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference and Circus, which is occurring this entire week in San Francisco. Pretty much the entire healthcare world shows up for this, which means you see old friends and new, as well as people you hoped you might not have to see again. If you wanted to “Occupy Healthcare,” this is the place to do it. In any event, It always an interesting experience full of insight, deal-making, cocktail therapy and blister treatments. So for now, with time somewhat limited for committing deep-ish thoughts to paper, I thought I’d put a plug out there for a few conferences at which I have been fortunate to be invited to speak.

The first is The Personalized Medicine World Conference (PMWC), which bills itself as the only fully integrated conference to examine the advances and challenges of Personalized Medicine through a practical lens. PMWC brings together the thought-leaders of business, government, healthcare-delivery, research and technology into one information-rich, two-day conference and offers a really interesting agenda looking at the ideas of personalized medicine … (read the rest)

50% of Doctors are Worse than Average

Lisa Suennen — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 00:11:06 +0000

If you hired a lawyer who the world’s nicest office and excellent coffee in the lobby, but who lost the case for you every time, what would you think of that lawyer? How about if you hired a hairdresser who was always on time and had some great gossip for you when you sat in their chair, but who made you look like a refugee from Flock of Seagulls every time you left the salon? I am guessing that your general view on these people would be negative, despite their incidental charms.

However, when people are asked to rate their doctors, it is precisely the incidental charms that count the most. The primary correlates to doctors receiving high patient satisfactions scores are: 1) whether they were made to wait for an excessive period of time in the waiting room; and 2) whether the doctor spent a long period of time with them in the exam room. In other words, patients value comfort and attention and that, in their minds, tends to equate to high quality care. Buyer beware.

In mid-December 2011, a research team from the University of Michigan School … (read the rest)