by Stephen Parente, director

On May 28, Douglas Holtz-Eakin spoke on the prospects for health care reform in 2009. Holtz-Eakin is the president of DHE Consulting, LLC and most recently served as director of domestic and economic policy for the John McCain presidential campaign. He was also a recent senior fellow at the Peter G. Peterson Institute for International Economics, the director of the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies and the Paul A. Volcker Chair in International Economics at the Council on Foreign Relations. Prior to that, Holtz-Eakin served as the sixth director of the Congressional Budget office where he was appointed for a four-year term in 2003.

Holtz-Eakin discussed the prospects for comprehensive, bi-partisan health care reform. He outlined a potential proposal, a political strategy for implementation, and the likely impact of its adoption. The plan that Holtz-Eakin discussed addresses dysfunctions in the existing health care delivery system; expands access to affordable private health insurance in an incremental and fiscally responsible manner; and improves market-based options for consumer access to information on health care quality. He detailed his plan with four principles and their matching reforms. The Manhattan Institute has published his plan in a paper, “Forging a new plan for health care: principles and priorities for sustainable reform.”

View his paper as well as a streaming video of his presentation »

The 8th Annual Health Information Technology Institute, “Stimulating Change in Healthcare IT,” was held at the Carlson School on May 20. This year’s conference explored how the economic stimulus for healthcare IT will impact the industry. Attendees learned about changes and innovations that are already happening. The first keynote speaker was Brian Osberg, assistant commissioner of healthcare at the Minnesota Department of Human Services. Osberg discussed the Minnesota’s HIT strategy, the role of HIT in the State’s healthcare reform agenda, and the structure and process going forward to implement HIT strategies.

The second keynote was Howard Burde, Esquire of Howard Burde Health Law, LLC. Burde spoke on “Opportunities, Obligations, and Risks under the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act.” He gave specifics on how the stimulus package money can be accessed, the new rules for “covered entities and business associates,” and the risks for all health care industry participants.

Conference participants included IT professionals, hospital and health plan executives, nurses, physicians, and members of academia. They left the program with a better understanding of the measures used to determine incentive payments, the ability to identify possible technical solutions for patient education using IT resources, and deeper knowledge used in determining incentives for IT.

For more information on the Minnesota Chapter of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, go to: http://www.himss-mn.org

* the historical development, importance, and future direction of the medical device industry;
* FDA issues, policies and strategies, public and private sector insurance coverage and reimbursement;
* interaction between public policies and private sector actions; intellectual property (IP) and liability issues concerning medical technology;
* key issues relating to the start-up and management of new medical technology firms.

With the help of industry executives, especially Dale Olseth, Professors Robert Connor and Susan Foote created the medical device industry course in 2000. Ten years later, it continues to actively engage students - the future generation of industry leaders, with executives - the current generation of industry leaders.

MBA student Andrea Seven said, "If you currently work in the med device industry or are interested in transitioning to it, I would recommend this course. Professor Connor provides students with a very unique overview of the industry, including the topics of regulatory, venture capital, reimbursement, patents ... and all other topics that touch the life of a device. Students are given direct access to over 20 guest faculty lecturers (almost every class) including the Twin Cities' leading experts. It’s a fantastic opportunity to learn from and ask questions of the best!"

Industry leaders from the following organizations have been engaged in the course: Acorn Cardiovascular, Atritech, Berman Medical, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Boston Scientific, Celleration, CHF Solutions, CVRx, Devicix, EnteroMedics, Epitek, Lifecore Biomedical, Lundberg & Woessner, Medica Health Plans, Medtronic, UM Office of Technology Commercialization, Piper Jaffray, Princeton Reimbursement Group, QRS Diagnostic, Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi, SightLine Partners, Silicon Valley Bank, St. Jude Medical, SurModics, Thomas McNerney & Partners, United Health Group, Urologix, Venturi Group, and Vital Images. 

While at Carlson he successfully completed his MBA as a Carlson Scholar (graduating in the top 10% of his class of 382 people), led two student groups, was selected to study abroad on the 3M Vienna Seminar via a Carlson Family Foundation scholarship, earned a Medical Industry Specialization, gained critical experience as a consultant for Fortune 500 companies, published three journal articles in his field, and ran his own investment property business. Upon graduation from Carlson in May of 2009, Anil’s involvement in these activities was recognized: he was selected as the Part Time MBA Student of the Year. This honor is bestowed upon one or two individuals from each year’s graduating class for outstanding overall achievement.  While attending Carlson, Anil’s interest in MILI’s Medical Industry Specialization grew and he became heavily involved in its coursework as well as its student association (MILIsa). Anil’s best experiences during the specialization were participating in the Medical Technology Evaluation course with Dr. Stephen Parente, where he was able to work for three clients - The Mayo Clinic, UnitedHealth Group, and Medtronic -- to develop medical technologies while learning how to critically evaluate the medical industry’s major stakeholders’ perspectives regarding innovative products and services. During the course, six projects were selected for development, one of which was Anil’s idea. Anil also participated in Carlson’s yearlong New Product Design and Business Development course, where he was the team leader of a cross-functional group that was tasked with developing a new medical device for Medtronic’s cardiovascular division. He worked with another MBA, an MHA, two biomedical engineers, and a mechanical engineer to develop a device that will be launched in 2010. When asked about these courses, Anil said, “There is absolutely no substitute for this kind of hands-on learning and real-world experience; more classes at Carlson could benefit greatly by being taught in this way.”

Anil also joined MILIsa at a time when the founders were still creating the group. He ultimately was elected the group’s first vice president. Together the leaders were able to grow membership from five officers to 220+ members and growing. They also set up a website that offered online chatting capabilities and podcasts of their programming. The programming this year included a town hall-style meeting with medical device entrepreneur Michael Berman, a bi-weekly lunch series featuring a variety of entrepreneurs/leaders in the medical industry, and an open-to-the-public, non-partisan, pre-election Healthcare Policy Panel to inform voters of the candidates’ positions and their effects on key stakeholders in the medical industry. MILIsa currently reaches out to students within and beyond Carlson’s walls for their membership, i.e. students of the Academic Health Center and engineering schools. MILIsa’s mission is best exemplified by the Medtronic Interdisciplinary Healthcare Case Competition that debuted on April 16, 2009 at Carlson, which Anil personally pitched to a senior executive at Medtronic. MILIsa envisions that this competition will not only unite students from disparate programs at the University of Minnesota to learn together, as it did this year, but will quickly grow to include students from other U.S. schools as early as next year. The competition will allow the nation to witness what MILI participants already know:  that Carlson is the premier place to get an MBA with a Medical Industry Specialization.

In addition to his professional accomplishments, Anil was married in December of 2007 to his best friend, Laura, and is now the proud father of Arabella Grace Asrani, who was born on May 27, 2009. This summer, Anil will also begin his career at Devicix, a medical device design firm located in Eden Prairie, MN, as the Director of Strategic Marketing. Regarding his new career, Anil said, “I just wouldn’t feel confident entering an entirely new field, like the medical device industry, without the comprehensive training and analysis that I was exposed to during my Medical Industry Specialization.”

Throughout the 2008-09 academic year, MILISA provided a robust array of programming for students interested in the industry. Programming included a variety of executive speaking engagements, the Healthcare Policy Discussion Panel preceding the presidential election, networking events and the extremely successful, first annual Medtronic Interdisciplinary Healthcare Case Competition (MEDIHCC). In addition, the organization provides programming for students by collaborating with other organizations including Life Science Alley, Carlson’s’ Ventures Plus, SPH – Division of Health Policy and Management, the University of St. Thomas, and the Design of Medical Devices Conference. 

MILISA recently held its second officer election during which five new officers were elected for the 2009-10 academic year.

The MILISA officers look forward to further engagement with the University and the business community through a variety of medical industry related events that will help to prepare its members for leadership roles in the medical industry.