Wireless health start-up is first to 'graduate' from UCLA's on-campus technology incubator. - Telecommunications Weekly

MediSens Wireless, which in 2009 was one of the first startup companies selected for the UCLA on-campus technology incubator at the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI), has received funding from a strategic investor in the greater Los Angeles area. The young company, the first to 'graduate' from the incubator, will now set up its own base of operations in Northern California.

The technology incubator was established two years ago to nurture early-stage research and to help speed the commercial translation of technologies developed at UCLA. It was inspired by the success of Nano H2O, a California startup that licensed water purification technology developed by UCLA researchers and conducted proof-of-concept research at CNSI.

MediSens, which focuses on the development and manufacture of personal body-monitoring systems for medical and health applications, moved into the incubator to begin commercializing technology invented by Majid Sarrafzadeh, a professor of computer science and engineering at UCLA's Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science and co-director of the Wireless Health Institute at UCLA.

Sarrafzadeh and his team formed the startup when they created a 'smart shoe' - a shoe equipped with a device allowing it to monitored remotely, enabling health care professionals to keep track of patients with balance problems, such as those with diabetes or those starting a new medication regime. This technology will be used to develop body-monitoring systems with specific applications for diabetics with peripheral neuropathy - the loss of sensation in the foot - and those with health issues that affect their balance.

MediSens began clinical trials in 2010 on its novel Clinical Movement Assessment System (CMAS), a wireless monitoring technology for assessing muscle and neuromotor functions in the upper extremities. CMAS is designed for a wide variety of medical applications and could potentially benefit health care professionals and facilities specializing in the areas of physical medicine and rehabilitation, neurology, orthopedics, and physical and occupational therapy, among others.

It is anticipated that the system will provide clinical assessments of fine motor movement, muscle strength, hand-eye coordination and patient responses to treatment. Repeat assessments could lead to early warning and detection of deteriorating conditions.

Additionally, MediSens-patented technology is being implemented on a 'smart bedsheet' to monitor patients in bed in real-time, with quantifiably preventative objectives in mind.

According to Behrooz Yadegar, the CEO of MediSens, the company will move to Santa Clara in the Silicon Valley area, where it plans to double its staff - currently at five employees - within a year. At its new base of operations, the company plans to further product hardware and software development and begin marketing and development for its wireless technologies.

Keywords: University of California - Los Angeles.

UCLA PHYSICIAN APPOINTED DIRECTOR OF HRSA'S MATERNAL AND CHILD HEALTH BUREAU. - States News Service

LOS ANGELES, CA -- The following information was released by UCLA Health System:

Contact: Ali Taghavi (ataghavi@mednet.ucla.edu)

Phone: (310) 312-9078

Dr. Michael Lu, associate professor of obstetrics, gynecology, and public health at UCLA, and lead investigator of the National Children's Study in the Los Angeles-Ventura County Study Center was recently appointed director for the Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).

The Maternal and Child Health Bureau is the only governmental program responsible for ensuring the health and well-being of the entire population of women, infants, and children. The Bureau administers programs that serve nearly 40 million pregnant women, infants, children, and children with special healthcare needs each year. About 60 percent of U.S. women who give birth receive services through HRSA-supported programs. The largest of the Bureau's programs, the Maternal and Child Health Services Block Grant, provides funding to every state in support of state and local efforts to improve the health of all mothers, children, and their families. Other vital missions include Universal Newborn Hearing Screening, Traumatic Brain Injury, Healthy Start, Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting, Family to Family Health Information Centers, Emergency Medical Services for Children, and Combating Autism Act Initiative. As Director of MCHB, Lu will oversee a staff of over 160 and an annual budget of $1.2 billion.

'I am looking forward to the opportunities to really do something about improving maternal and child health in our nation,' said Lu. 'The U.S ranks near the bottom among developed nations by most standard measures of maternal and child health. For example, we are now number 41 - not number 1, but number 41, in the world in our newborn death rate. We can do better.'

Before his appointment, Lu taught obstetrics and gynecology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and maternal and child health at the UCLA School of Public Health. He also led the NCS research at the LAVSC. The NCS is the largest, long-term observational study of children's health ever conducted in the United States and launched in L.A. County earlier this year. The NCS is a completely confidential research program that does not involve medications or treatments and that will examine the effects of environmental influences on the health and development of more than 100,000 children across the country from before birth until age 21. The goal of the study is to improve the health and well-being of children and contribute to a better understanding of the role that various factors, such as water, air quality and diet, have on health and disease.

Lu received his bachelor's degrees from Stanford University, master's degrees from UC Berkeley, medical degree from UC San Francisco, and residency training in obstetrics and gynecology from UC Irvine. He is widely recognized for his research, teaching and clinical care. He served on two Institute of Medicine Committees, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Select Panel on Preconception Care, and most recently he chaired the HHS Secretary's Advisory Committee on Infant Mortality. He has received numerous awards for his teaching, including Excellence in Teaching Awards from the Association of Professors of Gynecology and Obstetrics. Lu sees patients at the faculty group practice in obstetrics and gynecology at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, and has been selected as one of the Best Doctors in America since 2005.

UCLA ALZHEIMER'S AND DEMENTIA CARE PROGRAM RECEIVES $3.2M HEALTH CARE INNOVATION AWARD. - States News Service

LOS ANGELES, CA -- The following information was released by UCLA Health System:

Contact: Roxanne Moster

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced today that UCLA's new Alzheimer's and Dementia Care program has been awarded $3,208,540 as part of the agency's Health Care Innovation awards program.

The awards, made by possible through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, support innovative projects nationwide aimed at saving money, delivering high-quality medical care and enhancing the health care workforce. The 26 awardees announced today are expected to help reduce health care spending costs by $254 million over the next three years.

'We can't wait to support innovative projects that will save money and make our health care system stronger,' Sebelius said. 'It's yet another way we are supporting local communities now in their efforts to provide better care and lower cost.'

The new projects include collaborations among leading hospitals, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, technology innovators, community-based organizations, patient advocacy groups and other organizations located in urban and rural areas. The Health and Human Services awards initiative allows applicants to come up with their best ideas to test how the quality and affordability of health care can be improved quickly and efficiently. The awarded projects will begin work this year to address health care issues in their local communities.

UCLA's Alzheimer's and Dementia Care program, which launched in March, provides comprehensive care, as well as resources and support, to patients and their caregivers.

'UCLA already provides outstanding geriatrics, neurology, psychiatry and primary care clinical services,' said Dr. David Reuben, chief of UCLA's geriatrics division and leader of the program. 'With the launch of this new program, we now have a comprehensive, coordinated dementia care program that spans across UCLA clinical centers and reaches into the community to meet the needs of these patients and their families. We are honored to receive this award, which will help us further our mission of caring for this ever-growing population.'

The Health Care Innovation award will allow UCLA to expand the new program to provide efficient patient- and family-centered care for approximately 1,000 Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries with Alzheimer's disease or other forms of dementia in Los Angeles County. By training and deploying professional and non-professional workers and unpaid volunteers, expanding a dementia registry, conducting patient-needs assessments, and creating individualized dementia care plans, the program will reduce and shorten hospital stays, reduce emergency room visits and improve patient health, caregiver health and quality of care, with an estimated savings of approximately $6.9 million.

Over the three-year award period, the UCLA Alzheimer's and Dementia Care program will train an estimated 2,500 workers. These workers will include nurse practitioners, who will be trained as dementia care managers; they, in turn, will help train primary care providers and patient caregivers in dementia care.

The awardees were chosen for their innovative solutions to the health care challenges facing their communities and for their focus on creating a well-trained health care workforce equipped to meet the need for new jobs in the 21st-century health system. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that the health care and social assistance sector will gain the most jobs between now and 2020.

The 26 Health Care Innovation awards announced today total $122.6 million. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation within the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services at HHS administers the awards through cooperative agreements.

For more information on the awards announced today, visit http://bit.ly/JnrxE4.

WIRELESS HEALTH STARTUP IS FIRST TO 'GRADUATE' FROM UCLA'S ON-CAMPUS TECHNOLOGY INCUBATOR. - States News Service

LOS ANGELES, CA -- The following information was released by UCLA Health System:

Contact: Jenifer Marcus

MediSens Wireless, which in 2009 was one of the first startup companies selected for the UCLA on-campus technology incubator at the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI), has received funding from a strategic investor in the greater Los Angeles area. The young company, the first to 'graduate' from the incubator, will now set up its own base of operations in Northern California.

The technology incubator was established two years ago to nurture early-stage research and to help speed the commercial translation of technologies developed at UCLA. It was inspired by the success of Nano H2O, a California startup that licensed water purification technology developed by UCLA researchers and conducted proof-of-concept research at CNSI.

MediSens, which focuses on the development and manufacture of personal body-monitoring systems for medical and health applications, moved into the incubator to begin commercializing technology invented by Majid Sarrafzadeh, a professor of computer science and engineering at UCLA's Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science and co-director of the Wireless Health Institute at UCLA.

Sarrafzadeh and his team formed the startup when they created a 'smart shoe' u a shoe equipped with a device allowing it to monitored remotely, enabling health care professionals to keep track of patients with balance problems, such as those with diabetes or those starting a new medication regime. This technology will be used to develop body-monitoring systems with specific applications for diabetics with peripheral neuropathy u the loss of sensation in the foot u and those with health issues that affect their balance.

MediSens began clinical trials in 2010 on its novel Clinical Movement Assessment System (CMAS), a wireless monitoring technology for assessing muscle and neuromotor functions in the upper extremities. CMAS is designed for a wide variety of medical applications and could potentially benefit health care professionals and facilities specializing in the areas of physical medicine and rehabilitation, neurology, orthopedics, and physical and occupational therapy, among others.

It is anticipated that the system will provide clinical assessments of fine motor movement, muscle strength, hand-eye coordination and patient responses to treatment. Repeat assessments could lead to early warning and detection of deteriorating conditions.

Additionally, MediSens-patented technology is being implemented on a 'smart bedsheet' to monitor patients in bed in real-time, with quantifiably preventative objectives in mind.

According to Behrooz Yadegar, the CEO of MediSens, the company will move to Santa Clara in the Silicon Valley area, where it plans to double its staff u currently at five employees u within a year. At its new base of operations, the company plans to further product hardware and software development and begin marketing and development for its wireless technologies.

MediSens Wireless was the first spinoff from the Wireless Health Institute, which Sarrafzadeh helped create. UCLA's Wireless Health Community is made up of experts from many disciplines across campus, including engineering, law, management, medicine, nursing, public health, and theater, film and television.

UCLA School of Nursing Releases Cycling Male Reproductive Health Study. - Health & Beauty Close-Up

A new study conducted by UCLA School of Nursing researchers has found that serious leisure male cyclists may experience hormonal imbalances that could affect their reproductive health.

According to a release, the study, Reproductive Hormones and Interleukin-6 in Serious Leisure Male Athletes, was published in the European Journal of Applied Physiology.

Studies have shown that while moderate exercise can lead to enhanced cardiovascular and metabolic function and reduced body fat, ultra-endurance levels of exercise can also adversely affect the neuroendocrine system and reproductive health. Although most research studying the effects of exercise on reproductive health has focused on female athletes, there are few studies that have looked at male endurance-trained athletes.

The UCLA study explored the associations between exercise intensity and circulating levels of reproductive hormones in serious leisure male athletes (triathletes and cyclists) and recreational athletes. UCLA researchers studied 107 healthy male athletes ages 18 to 60 and divided them into three groups: 16 were triathletes, 46 were cyclists and 45 were recreational athletes.

Participants completed the International Physical Assessment Questionnaire to obtain an objective estimate of time spent participating in different levels of physical activity and inactivity during the previous seven days. Blood samples were then collected from each participant to measure total testosterone, estradiol, cortisol, interleukin-6 and other hormones.

'Plasma estradiol and testosterone levels were significantly elevated in serious leisure male cyclists, a finding not previously reported in any type of male athlete,' said Leah Fitzgerald, assistant professor at the School of Nursing and principal investigator and senior author of the study.

Plasma estradiol concentrations were more than two times higher in the cyclists than in the triathlete and recreational athletes, and total testosterone levels were about 50 percent higher in cyclists than in the recreational athletes.

'These effects were accompanied by little or no compensatory shift in circulating reproductive hormone levels,' said Fitzgerald.

Estradiol is a form of estrogen and, in males, is produced as an active metabolic product of testosterone. Possible conditions associated with elevated estrogen in males include gynecomastia, a condition that may result in the loss of male pubic hair and enlarged breast tissue.

'Although preliminary, these findings warrant further investigation to determine if specific types of exercise may be associated with altered sex hormone levels in men that could affect general health and reproductive well-being,' said Fitzgerald.

One of the interesting findings of the study related to the use of chamois cream. Some cyclists apply chamois cream to their perineum area to help prevent chaffing and bacterial infections related to bicycle saddle sores. However, many such commercial creams contain a variety of ingredients including lubricants, polymers and oils; and some also contain parabens, which are anti-microbial preservatives and weak estrogen agonists.

In the study 48.5 percent of cyclists compared to 10 percent of triathletes reported using a paraben-containing chamois cream. The study found an association between an increase in estrogen levels and increasing years of chamois cream use, particularly for male cyclists using the cream for more than four years. At this time, however, no direct cause and effect has been found.

The study was funded by the UCLA School of Nursing, UCLA General Clinical Research Center and Kaiser Foundation. Other authors of the study included Wendie Robbins, also of the School of Nursing, and James Kesner, Division of Applied Research and Technology, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

Report information:

nursing.ucla.edu.

UCLA Anderson Forecast Survey Shows Burden of Health-Care Costs Will Continue to Fall on Employees; Employers Who Altered Plans in Last Year Passed on Higher Costs to Employees. - Ascribe Higher Education News Service

Byline: UCLA

LOS ANGELES, June 19 (AScribe Newswire) -- A health-care survey conducted by the UCLA Anderson Forecast of 460 companies across the United States indicates that as health-care premiums continue to rise, employers will increasingly shift the burden of costs to their employees. The results were further explored at the quarterly UCLA Anderson Forecast Conference June 19.

Eighty-five percent of those polled in the survey have seen their health-care premiums rise by at least as much as 10 percent over the past plan year, according to Dr. Christopher Thornberg, senior economist with the UCLA Anderson Forecast. Twenty-five percent of survey respondents saw their premiums rise by more than 20 percent.

'What's interesting about these results is that companies believe that the current health-care premium increases are just the beginning of a longer trend,' Thornberg said. 'Specifically, 80 percent of the companies surveyed anticipate that premiums will continue to rise by another 10 percent, while one-quarter believe that increases next year will be more than 20 percent.'

Of those companies who responded to the survey:

- 27 percent reduced the level of benefits coverage.

- 41 percent increased premiums on coverage for dependents.

- 65.5 percent raised employee contributions to personal premiums.

- 75.5 percent raised co-payments or deductibles.

The difference between the situation now, compared to that in the late 1980s and early 1990s, is that many employers are now simply passing on the increased health-care costs to their employees, Thornberg said.

Thornberg noted that companies that altered their plans this year are more likely to transfer rising health-care costs to their employees in the future. Forty-two percent of respondents from companies that did alter their plans believe it is likely that the company will revise its plan again in the future if premiums continue to rise.

The surveys were completed by human-resources managers representing a variety of large and small businesses. Specifically, companies were asked how much their premiums rose over the past year, how the company responded to the change and what they felt the outlook was for the company's health-care benefits.

The informal survey was administered in preparation for the June conference, titled 'What Every Business Needs to Know About the Current Health-Care Crisis,' which featured a variety of participants, including doctors, health-care executives, management consultants, hospital and health-care administrators, and county and state government officials.

Keynote presentations were made by Dr. Thomas Garthwaite, director of the County of Los Angeles Department of Health Services and former undersecretary for health, U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs; and Leonard Schaeffer, chairman and CEO, WellPoint Health Networks.

Through several insightful panel sessions, the conference addressed key issues affecting the current health-care crisis including why medical costs are rising, what can be done about it and how to understand the tough health-care choices that businesses and government will need to make.

For more information on the health-care survey results, call (000)-000-0000 or visit www.uclaforecast.com.

The lead sponsor for the June forecast conference was Deloitte & Touche, and co-sponsors were HealthNet, K&R Law Group, Tenet Health Systems and WellPoint.

UCLA expert blames American values for health care crisis. - Pharma Marketletter

'To heal our ailing health care system, we need to stop thinking like Americans.' That is the message of two articles by the University of California at Los Angeles, USA's Marc Nuwer, an expert on national health care reform, published in Neurology, the journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

'Americans prize individual choice and resist limiting care,' says Dr Nuwer, a professor of clinical neurology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. 'We believe that if doctors can treat very ill patients aggressively and keep every moment of people in the last stages of life under medical care, then they should. We choose to hold these values. Consequently, we choose to have a more expensive system than Europe or Canada,' he said.

Consider these statistics:

- the USA boasts the world's most expensive health care system, yet only one-sixth of Americans are insured. Medical expenditures exceed $2,000.0 billion annually, making health care the economy's largest sector, four times bigger than national defense;

- by 2015, the US government is projected to spend $4,000.0 billion on health care, or 20% of the nation's gross domestic product;

- an aging US population will boost spending. Half of Medicare costs support very sick people in their last stages of life, and experts estimate that Medicare funds will be exhausted by 2018;

- 31% of US health care funds go toward administration. 'We push a lot of paper. We spend twice as much as Canada, which has a more streamlined health care system that demands doctors complete less paperwork,' Dr Nuwer says; and

- 10% of US expenses are spent on 'defensive medicine' - pricey tests ordered by doctors afraid of missing anything, however unlikely. 'Doctors don't want to be accused in court of a delayed diagnosis, so they bend over backwards to find something - even if it's a rare possibility - in order to cover themselves,' he adds.

Reforming the health care system in the USA, with the goal of providing universal, affordable, high-quality care will require rethinking the nation's overall values and paying greater attention to care-related expenditures, according to Dr Nuwer.