UPDATE1-Private equity considers bidding for NBTY – source

July 17, 2010 By Leave a Comment

NEW YORK, July 14 (Reuters) – Private equity firms Blackstone Group LP (BX.N) and Carlyle may acquire U.S. nutritional supplements maker NBTY Inc (NTY.N), a source familiar with the situation said on Wednesday.

The private equity firms are working separately from each other, not as a consortium, the source said. It was unclear how advanced the plans were.

News of a potential deal was earlier reported by the Wall Street Journal which said Blackstone and Carlyle are in talks to buy the firm.

The companies could not be immediately reached for comment by Reuters outside regular U.S. business hours.

NBTY, which has a market value of about $2.3 billion, posted a quarterly profit in April and missed market expectations by a wide margin, hurt by increased spending on television advertising.

Private equity deals, put on hold when the credit crisis shut off access to cheap debt, have been making a revival.

Earlier in July, BC Partners [BCPRT.UL] and Silver Lake Partners [SILAK.UL] announced a deal to buy U.S. healthcare services firm MultiPlan from two other buyout shops. That deal was worth about $3.1 billion, sources said at the time.

(Reporting by Megan Davies in New York and Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore; Editing by Valerie Lee)

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Peking University People’s Hospital Partners with IBM to Build China’s First Evidence-Based Patient Centric Care System

July 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment

BEIJING, July 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Peking University People’s Hospital (People’s Hospital) have built an evidence-based patient centric care (ePC3) system to enable cooperation and resource sharing among medical services providers for improved patient care.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20090416/IBMLOGO )

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090416/IBMLOGO )

The ePC3 system, developed by scientists at IBM Research – China and People’s Hospital, will provide better clinical decision support at the point of care by offering a comprehensive overview of a patients’ health data as well as best practices from previous diagnoses, treatment and research. As a result, it has the potential to reduce medical errors and enable better interactions with patients and increase physicians’ efficiency, thus making healthcare services more accessible and affordable to patients.

The ePC3 system is a part of IBM’s healthcare efforts in which IBM researchers and scientists collaborate with medical practitioners to develop new technologies and business processes to improve patient care. IBM today announced a global initiative, valued US$100 million, where IBM will draw its expertise in system and information integration, services research, cloud computing, analytics and other emerging scientific areas to help physicians to develop patient entered healthcare systems. As part of this initiative, IBM is collaborating with clinicians in numerous medical institutions and adding medical doctors to its research staff.

Healthcare in China, particularly in remote cities, is often inaccessible and expensive. The Chinese government has pledged 850 billion yuan (US$124 billion) for a healthcare reform that promises to make healthcare services safer and more affordable for China’s 1.3 billion citizens by next year.

Through ePC3, People’s Hospital will be able to create longitudinal electronic health records (EHR) for patients, which will be shared among and updated by patients’ healthcare providers throughout treatment cycles. The longitudinal EHR will enable personalized health assessment and treatment based on patients’ individual medical circumstance. Currently, patients’ medical records are scattered across various healthcare providers, often leading to cumbersome patient referral procedures and wastes time, money and precious medical resources. The hospital aims to consolidate seven to eight internal systems as well as connect more closely with other medical services providers.

“We believe implementing a system such as eP3C could help patients with chronic diseases such as diabetes or high blood pressure by improving the management of their conditions. This ultimately enhances their quality of life and may even increase their lifespan. And that is invaluable,” said Professor Shan Wang, President, Peking University People’s Hospital.

To fulfill People’s Hospital’s goal to provide standard treatment to patients with chronic diseases, ePC3 is applying evidence-based medicine – including standard and best-practice diagnosis, medication, treatment and care plans – to manage the clinical processes of chronic diseases and provide decision support to clinicians at the point of care. During the long running chronic disease management process, it helps patients and clinicians clearly understand what clinical activities took place in the past, what actions should be taken at the point of care, and the next steps to take. The effectiveness of applying guidelines to treat medical conditions will be analyzed, which allows clinicians to improve the clinical process to enhance patient care. The project will focus its initial efforts on diabetic patients in the chronic disease management program.

Developed as part of IBM Research’s First-Of-A-Kind program, ePC3 also provides a healthcare mobile enablement platform to support round-the-clock remote care and monitoring services, timely diagnosis and proactive intervention. In the future, vital physiological data such as body temperature, blood pressure, heart rate and cardiogram and blood sugar level could be constantly monitored by mobile devices at their homes and fed into the system instantly. When any change or irregularity happens for a sustained period of time, the system will automatically generate an alert to the patient and his or her healthcare specialists to enable immediate actions.

The hospital plans to provide the new services to patients of selected hospital and community clinics beginning in early 2011. Following the completion of this pilot project, People’s Hospital plans to expand the system to further facilitate a more evidence-based, patient-centric approach across the hospital’s regional network of care. Citizens will be able to obtain medical services in their local community rather than going to urban hospitals for minor illnesses. Patients with more complicated conditions will be referred to central hospitals and specialists.

“As the Chinese government is trying to address the issue of isolated and disparate systems located across hospitals and medical centers, we are excited to participate in the ePC3 project which we believe can contribute to China’s efforts in healthcare reform,” said Dr Thomas Li, director of IBM Research – China & Chief Technology Officer, IBM Greater China Group.

To address the rising demand for information technology-enabled healthcare solutions in China, IBM opened a Healthcare Industry Solutions Lab in Beijing, where IBM experts work with hospitals and medical service providers to develop healthcare and medical systems.

IBM’s track record of helping to improve healthcare through scientific achievements and collaboration with healthcare companies dates back to the 1950s. In the last decade alone, IBM has collaborated with Scripps Research Institute to understand how influenza viruses mutate, worked with European universities to develop better HIV antiretroviral therapy methods and launched the World Community Grid, which has done projects on cancer, aids, dengue fever among other groundbreaking healthcare innovations.

For more information on current IBM Research healthcare efforts, please go here or follow us on Twitter @IBMResearch.

For more information about IBM and healthcare, please visit: http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/us/en/healthcare_solutions/ideas/index.html?re=sph

Media Contact

Sara Delekta Galligan

IBM Communication

408.927.2272

sdelekta@us.ibm.com

Liping Zhu

IBM Media Relations, China

86-10-63612323

zhulp@cn.ibm.com

Harriet Ip

IBM External Relations, GMU

65-6418-1521

harrieti@sg.ibm.com

SOURCE IBM

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UPDATE1-Private equity considers bidding for NBTY – source

July 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment

NEW YORK, July 14 (Reuters) – Private equity firms Blackstone Group LP (BX.N) and Carlyle may acquire U.S. nutritional supplements maker NBTY Inc (NTY.N), a source familiar with the situation said on Wednesday.

The private equity firms are working separately from each other, not as a consortium, the source said. It was unclear how advanced the plans were.

News of a potential deal was earlier reported by the Wall Street Journal which said Blackstone and Carlyle are in talks to buy the firm.

The companies could not be immediately reached for comment by Reuters outside regular U.S. business hours.

NBTY, which has a market value of about $2.3 billion, posted a quarterly profit in April and missed market expectations by a wide margin, hurt by increased spending on television advertising.

Private equity deals, put on hold when the credit crisis shut off access to cheap debt, have been making a revival.

Earlier in July, BC Partners [BCPRT.UL] and Silver Lake Partners [SILAK.UL] announced a deal to buy U.S. healthcare services firm MultiPlan from two other buyout shops. That deal was worth about $3.1 billion, sources said at the time.

(Reporting by Megan Davies in New York and Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore; Editing by Valerie Lee)

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America Service Group to Broadcast Conference Call Live on the Internet

April 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment

BRENTWOOD, Tenn.–(Business Wire)–
America Service Group Inc. (NASDAQ:ASGR) announced today that it will provide an
online Web simulcast of its first quarter 2010 earnings conference call on
Wednesday, April 28, 2010. The Company`s results for the first quarter ended
March 31, 2010, will be released after the close of the market on Tuesday, April
27, 2010.

The live broadcast of America Service Group`s conference call will begin at
11:00 a.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday, April 28, 2010. A 12-month online replay
will be available approximately an hour following the conclusion of the live
broadcast. A link to these events can be found on the Company`s website at
www.asgr.com or at www.earnings.com.

America Service Group Inc., based in Brentwood, Tennessee, is a leading provider
of correctional healthcare services in the United States. America Service Group
Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides a wide range of healthcare programs to
government agencies for the medical care of inmates.

America Service Group Inc.
President and Chief Executive Officer
Richard Hallworth, 615-373-3100
or
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Michael W. Taylor, 615-373-3100

Copyright Business Wire 2010

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Cabinet gives nod to set up six AIIMS-like institutions

March 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment

New Delhi, Mar 19 (ANI): The Union Cabinet on Friday approved the revised cost estimates (RCE) for setting up of six new All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) like institutions in different parts of the country.

The cabinet approved cost estimates also includes upgradation of 13 existing Government Medical Colleges under The Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY) -Phase I for an outlay of Rs.9307.62 crore.

The allocation made for the PMSSY-Phase I projects for the XI Plan was Rs.3955 crore, additional expenditure involved would be Rs.5535.62 crore.

The PMSSY was initially started in March, 2006 with the object of correcting regional imbalances in the availability of affordable and reliable tertiary healthcare services and also to augment facilities for quality medical education in the country.

The PMSSY has two components in its first phase –setting up of six AIIMS-like institutions and upgradation of thirteen existing Government medical college institutions.

The Cabinet Committee of Economic affairs (CCE) approved the proposal for setting up AIIMS-like institutions in March 2006 and upgrdation proposal in June 2006.

However, the allocation of XI Plan is sufficient to meet the expenditure in the remaining two years of the plan period.

The new institutions and upgraded facilities in the existing medical colleges would provide tertiary health care facilities in and around the location and adjoining districts and States in the country.

The projects under Phase-I of PMSSY are spread over 19 locations in the 16 States of the country.

The new AIIMS-like institutions are located at Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Jodhpur, Patna, Raipur and Rishikesh.

The AIIMS-like institutions will be completed by the end of 2012.

The upgradation components in Phase-I involves upgradation of Government Medical Colleges at Trivandrum, Salem, Bangalore, Kolkata, Jammu and Srinagar; NIMS, Hyderabad; SGPGIMS, Lucknow; B.J. Medical College, Ahmedabad; RIMS, Ranchi; IMS, BHU, Varanasi; SVIMS, Tirupati; and Grants Medical College, Mumbai. (ANI)

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Slim a maverick tycoon in Mexico’s business elite

March 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment

(Reuters) – Carlos Slim, the world’s richest man according to Forbes, has created hundreds of thousands of jobs in Mexico, but he also is seen to typify a business elite that amassed fortunes by exploiting the poor.

World | Lifestyle | Mexico

Slim, whose Telmex and America Movil companies dominate Mexico’s telephone industry and have helped him build a $53.5 billion fortune, was named the world’s wealthiest tycoon by the business magazine last week.

In a country where homes made of sheet metal and cardboard sit in the shadows of flashy apartment buildings, Slim, 70, personifies the yawning gap between Mexico’s small wealthy class and its millions of impoverished residents.

“He owns Telmex, he’s the owner of all of Mexico. It’s very ironic that as a country we don’t have the same economic growth,” said Veronica Delgado, an architect shopping at one of Slim’s gift stores in a well-to-do Mexico City neighborhood.

Like many developing nations, Mexico suffers from a weak education system, shoddy healthcare services, rampant corruption and a shortage of high-quality jobs. One in five Mexicans does not earn enough to eat properly, and half of all adults never progress beyond primary school.

But Mexico also boasts a significant upper class that drives flashy sports cars, lives in swank neighborhoods and sends its children to the United States to be educated.

The gap between rich and poor is wider in Mexico than in more developed countries like the United States and Canada, although it has narrowed slightly over the past decade, according to data from the World Bank and United Nations.

While Mexicans joke that it is impossible to go a day without paying Slim, his companies have grown over decades to employ 270,000 people, including 35,000 jobs created last year as the economy battled the worst recession since the 1930s.

Slim’s far-flung business empire includes some of Mexico’s best-known department stores, hotels, restaurants, oil drilling, building firms and the Inbursa bank.

Since acquiring Mexico’s state telephone company in a 1990 privatization, he has been accused of trying to maintain a monopoly and of charging unreasonably high prices that have made it harder for small companies to expand.

“He’s a businessman with a lot of vision … Good for him, but the fact that he’s the world’s richest man doesn’t help me,” said Heriberto Gonzalez, a taco seller paying his monthly phone bill at a Telmex store in Mexico City.

A poll published on Monday by the newspaper Milenio showed Mexicans were divided on whether Slim deserved his fortune, with about a third saying he had earned it and slightly fewer saying it was due to connections with powerful officials.

NO JETS, NO YACHTS

Mexico’s rich fawn over Slim, but his fortune contrasts with a low-key lifestyle.

He has lived in the same house for about 40 years and drives an aging Mercedes Benz, while eschewing private jets, yachts and the other luxuries popular among Mexico’s super-wealthy.

At the end of a recent glitzy event in Mexico City he was seen strolling away with a bodyguard while other wealthy attendees waited for their chauffeured automobiles.

But the heyday of Slim’s telecommunications empire is passing as competition in the industry slowly picks up due to improving technology — Telmex controls 80 percent of Mexico’s fixed lines and America Movil has more than 70 percent of the wireless market.

Slim was not the only Mexican to make the Forbes list of billionaires.

Also on it was Ricardo Salinas, who built his fortune selling furniture and appliances to low-income Mexicans, offering credit at interest rates above 60 percent and sending motorcycle couriers to their homes to collect weekly payments.

Other Mexican billionaires include German Larrea Mota, owner of copper miner Grupo Mexico, Televisa broadcasting tycoon Emilio Azcarraga, supermarket operator Jeronimo Arango and banker Roberto Hernandez.

To the ire of Mexico’s government, the country’s No. 1 drug lord fugitive, Joaquin “Shorty” Guzman, is also on the list.

In recent years, Slim has become more involved in combating poverty, illiteracy and poor healthcare in Latin America, while promoting soccer, boxing and other sports projects for the poor. His foundations donated more than $600 million in 2009.

Slim, who is far less charitable than Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates or billionaire investor Warren Buffett, has said that creating jobs is the best way for businessmen to combat poverty.

Gates’ $53 billion fortune would be worth more than $80 billion if he had not given much of his money to charity, according to Forbes. ($1 = 12.54 pesos)

(Editing by Paul Simao)

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Punjab’s poor find Rural Health Scheme of great benefit

June 27, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Abohar, June 26 (ANI): The healthcare services initiated by the Central and State Governments in Punjab have helped to provide better health care for the people in rural areas.

The new schemes, which offer free health check-up and treatment, are being extensively patronised by the people.

One such beneficiary is Sunita, a resident of Amritsar district who has been suffering from cardiac disorder. Her family was incapable of meeting the expenses of her treatment.

The Surgical Correction Project, a joint initiative by the State’s Health department and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (Education for All) of the Central Government helped her to get medical care.

“She had suffered a heart attack. We gave her normal medicines, as we are giving to the poor people. We took her to hospital and got some tests done. We learnt that there was some problem with her valve. We returned home because we did not have money for the treatment. But now she is being treated under the Government’s new scheme,” said Gurmeet Singh, Sunita’s father.

Under the scheme, poor children studying in schools provided free medical check-ups by the state health department.

Children suffering from diseases like polio, defective hearing are referred to short-listed hospitals for treatment.

The staff of the ‘Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan’ counsel the parents and make them aware about the scheme.

“A survey was carried out and camps were organized in the villages under Government’s new scheme. Medicines were provided to the kids who were handicapped, deaf and dumb and were suffering from other diseases and their data was collected under Government’s Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan,” said Harjinder Singh, BRP and Block source person.

Since the launch of scheme in May 2009, over 100 children were identified and many of whom have been treated at various hospitals, including DMC Heart Institute in Ludhiana.

Many of these children come from disadvantaged families and their parents were hesitant about taking them to specialist hospitals because of the high costs of treatment.

“The boy’s arteries were blocked. We took him to many doctors and they asked for 150-200,000 rupees for the treatment. We don’t have such money. We have benefited a lot from the government’s new scheme,” said Birbal Singh, a patient’s father.

“In Hero DMC Heart Institute, we perform free surgery if required under the Government’s scheme. Moreover, the hospital management has fixed nominal rates for these patients, so that the needy people can benefit from this scheme,” said Dr. Gurpreet, Chief Cardiologist at Hero DMC Heart Institute.

The new healthcare scheme has made good healthcare accessible to poor people. By Avtar Singh (ANI)

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Nurses to play key role in providing primary healthcare to all: President

May 12, 2009 By Leave a Comment

New Delhi, May 12 (ANI): President Pratibha Patil on Tuesday said nurses have a key role to play in achieving the national objective of providing primary healthcare to all.

Speaking at the presentation of the National Florence Nightingale Awards for nursing personnel, she said, “To achieve the national objective of delivering primary healthcare to all, nurses must join in the efforts to take medical services to the doorsteps of the people in villages, remote and tribal areas including economically weaker sections in cities and towns.”

She said they could contribute to creating awareness about healthy practices, disease prevention, and provide vital maternal and child healthcare services to the community.

Mentioning several points regarding the role of a nurse, she said, “The role of nursing has been significant in the past.

It remains so and will be vital in the future also. Nursing constitutes a very important strand of the healthcare system.

While doctors diagnose and treat the disease, it is nurses who take pre-and-post operative care of the patient.”

Observing their role as innovators in providing better healthcare to the patients, she said nursing personnel remain in constant communication with the patient.

The President said nurses can play an important role in the safe disposal of medical waste as its segregation and handling begins from the bedside of the patient.

“A constant vigil of the personal hygiene of the patient, makes recovery faster and speedier,” she added.

She further added nursing would need to evolve over a period of time to respond to new demands and new techniques.

She called upon the nursing community to go beyond basic duty and embrace social responsibility.

President Patil conferred the National Florence Nightingale Awards to twenty-six nurses for their exemplary services. (ANI)

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Deloitte’s Charu Sehgal recognized as one of the top 20 women achievers in healthcare

April 23, 2009 By Leave a Comment

New Delhi, Apr 23 (ANI/Business Wire India): Modern Medicare, a leading magazine on healthcare business news, has felicitated Charu Sehgal, Senior Director, Strategy and Operations Division and Head, Healthcare Vertical, Deloitte India, as one of the top 20 women achievers of the Indian healthcare industry.

This recognition is bestowed on women professionals who have made a significant, positive contribution to the development of the healthcare sector in India.

Charu, with an experience of 20 years in management consulting is one of the few women who have made it to the top in the field of consulting.

In addition to working on strategic engagements for a large number of Indian and multinational clients in the healthcare sector, she has worked extensively and closely with health departments of the central and several state governments.

“I feel honoured and encouraged by this recognition. While women have come a long way in making their mark in every field, including healthcare, there are still very few women in senior positions. This is largely due to the fact that many opt out due to the constraints they face in handling high pressure jobs along with the role society expects of them as mothers. I feel, that in case the true potential of the female workforce is to be unleashed, employers need to view any legitimate support provided to the women employees in their role of bearing and rearing children, not as a favour to the woman, nor as a limitation of hiring them but as a responsibility towards society and future generations,” said Charu.

“Healthcare in India is at a point where, on the one hand there is growing global recognition for Indian competence in the healthcare arena, and on the other , there is a huge unmet demand for healthcare services from a large section of the population in rural India. We need to find innovative solutions that make quality healthcare available not just to the urban rich and medical tourists, but to every Indian”, added Charu. (ANI)

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Stress may trigger unexplained chest pain

February 11, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Feb 10 (ANI): A new study from University of Gothenburg, Sweden has found that stress, depression and a sedentary lifestyle might contribute to unexplained chest pain.

Each year, many people seek emergency treatment for unexplained chest, which is not linked to biomedical factors such as heart disease, or some other illness.

“Many suffer from recurring bouts of pain over several years, while the healthcare services are unable to find out what’s causing it,” said lead researcher and a registered nurse Annika Janson Fagring.

In her thesis, Fagring described the symptoms among patients with unexplained chest pain.

“The main difference between women and men with unexplained chest pain is that men were more likely to perceive their lives and jobs as being stressful, while women tended more to suffer from symptoms of depressions and anxiety,” said Fagring.

Moreover, compared with the reference group, both the men and the women with unexplained chest pain led a more sedentary lifestyle.

She also looked at the development of symptoms and the prognosis for patients with unexplained chest pain over a period of time, compared with patients suffering from angina and patients who had suffered a heart attack.

A register study revealed that from 1987 up until 2000, the number of patients with diagnosed unexplained chest pain increased, and then levelled out. The number of patients with angina increased up until 1994 and has since fallen, while the number of patients who have suffered heart attacks has fallen throughout the whole period examined.

In addition, there were fewer deaths among patients with unexplained chest pain a year after they became ill, compared with patients that became ill with angina or suffered heart attacks. (ANI)

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