change:healthcare wants to empower “medical consumers” — but has more work to do

change:healthcare wants to empower “medical consumers” — but has more work to do

For empowered “medical consumers” to really transform the healthcare system, as Health 2.0 proponents would have, clear pricing and quality data for medical care is essential. Unfortunately, such information is currently in short supply.

The startup change:healthcare aims to fill that void with a revamped Web… Continue Reading

change:healthcare aims to make medical costs transparent — but falls short in execution

change:healthcare aims to make medical costs transparent — but falls short in execution

Can social networking help restrain, or even lower, healthcare costs? The Nashville, Tenn., startup change:healthcare is primed to find out.

Healthcare plans are inexorably forcing more cost-sharing on patients — a strategy some call YOYO, for “you’re on your own” — which means that the actual… Continue Reading

Life sciences briefing: Friday, Feb. 22, 2008

Life sciences briefing: Friday, Feb. 22, 2008

TODAY’S HEADLINES:

HemCon Medical acquires Alltracel Pharma (release)
Transoma Medical, implantable wireless device maker, withdraws its IPO (Edgar)
Oracle Healthcare cuts Precision Thera acquisition price by roughly 15 percent (release)
MedBillManager adopts change:healthcare name, aims for March 3 relaunch release

Another slow news day, as yesterday we covered most of… Continue Reading

Peeling back the veil of ignorance — why medical costs vary so much, and what Health 2.0 might do to help

Peeling back the veil of ignorance — why medical costs vary so much, and what Health 2.0 might do to help

The burgeoning movement known as “Health 2.0″ makes some pretty big claims about the power of social networks and Web services to transform the sprawling mess we like to call the U.S. healthcare system. One of the central principles is that providing individuals with better… Continue Reading

Life sciences briefing: Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2007

Life sciences briefing: Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2007

Featured companies: Change:healthcare, Gemin X Biotechnologies, Ipsogen, the Practice

Change:healthcare raises $1M for health 2.0 sites — Nashville, Tenn.-based change:healthcare, a provider of Web-based health information, raised $1 million in a first funding round. The investment firm Solidus, also based in Nashville, provided the cash. There’s no… Continue Reading