This is sad and the US is country that is not able to identify and I guess see how intangibles contribute and add to and in some areas destroy manufacturing incentives to a degree. I have been saying this for about 3 years if you read here often enough and this study referenced in this article pretty much confirms what is happening in the US as more 
goes over seas, the less potential there is for job growth in the industry. We are too busy with analytics to finest detail to look at the over all big picture and we are just about “risk assessing” ourselves out of a lot of the medical device business, not to mention a few others. We are addicted to efficiencies and the avid chase for the algorithm fairies in some areas. I understand that a lot research of course is good and we need that for drug discovery, treatments, and so forth but it has fragmented out to an obsession of intelligence information on consumers and the scales are tipped to where certain industries, like insurance feel they just can’t get enough. Here’s a good example of not having enough data…and where the money and profits are in the billions.
Insurance Companies Are Buying Up Consumer Spending Data-Time is Here to License and Tax the Data Sellers-As Insurers Sell Tons of Data, Gets Flawed Data When Data Buyers Uses Out of Context Too
Every wonder why your insurance policies keep going up so high? Well this work does not come cheap to analyze and write models so we can be analyzed down to the inth degree by all means and I wonder how much of it gets written into the MLR, a lot I could bet as it will be considered a “wellness” type of expense when you look at reports. It’s not wellness at this point but rather working “risk” to squeeze out the last penny of profit. When using an insurance model everyone is not going to be perfect and yes there’s room for improvement but education is better and insurance companies are finding out that an algorithm doesn’t do it all so they create another one that fine picks yet one more area of risk and focus on it for a while:)
It’s amazing that this entire concept is not being used in a constructive manner but rather in an addictive “got to have” analytics environment as data scientists and others in the financial fields are swinging formulas right and left and searching for some tiny relationship that they could find or in some cases invent to create a report to substantiate it to make money, whether it is accurate or not. The government seems to suck a little too much in and lacks the talent to regulate such and so we are Data and Algo Duped. 
The link below has a great video that talks about how people drive themselves “off the cliff” as “data says”…and it could be complete fiction and they turn against their own common sense. This is addiction and models for money when this occurs and the technologists themselves are talking in the video about how this duping happens.
Big Data Revolution-Dangers of Using It To Drive Ourselves Off a Cliff -Debunking Myths of Algorithms Replacing Humans In Decision Making Processes in the Healthcare Business (Video)
In writing this blog I look at so many different Health IT start ups and so many are duplications and I see the money spent. Sure money needs to be spent but maybe a little wiser instead of swash buckling money all over the place at anything that breathes of C#, or java or whatever is being used. I also see many people not getting care either and gosh I just can’t help but think of all the medical services that could be given to people and the huge amount of money wasted on seeing what sticks to the wall sometimes, so I don’t get real excited with a lot of it as it is junk and is mixed in there with the stuff that is not junk.
Actually big business is pretty much ruling here with keeping their cost down, like hanging carrots out to get some cheap code and nobody ends up with jobs out of it as they want your to almost write for free for “their” data platform. This will eventually choke out when people get tired of writing for free basically. Recognition and awards don’t put food on the table. You can read at the link below how this works with companies and insurers to get “cheap code”. Remember they want all those analytics on risk to get down to the nitty gritty that they are addicted too. Again I am not including real scientific studies in here but rather the oxymoron stuff that falls into some of the data scientist areas. They need a new name for that as it is not science, it’s crunching numbers and running queries for money.
Verizon Latest to Enter “Code for Cash” Prize Format With $1 Million Top Pay Out for Writing Healthcare Apps That Use Their Platform, Is This the New “Corporate Business Model” To Yield Inexpensive Code?
GE and Start Up Health Launch Accelerator Program for Consumer Health Products–Companies Can Shop Their Own Investment Start Ups for Inexpensive Code
So anyway this is the deal with medical devices and the reality of what’s happening, they are leaving and the excise tax was kind of the last straw and again we have digital illiterates that can’t tap into that intangible consumer raping system of selling data and do anything about it. By instituting such and removing the tax from the device companies, you kill two birds with one stone. Consumers would be happy as well as device companies but those who make billions and keep their methodologies in “dark data pools” would have to come up to the table and expose what they sell and who they sell to. You have to license everyone who sells data to have a record and effectively regulate it. A quarterly excise tax, similar to the ones consumers pay when they buy a tire to go to their lesser paying job would work well. We keep seeing crappy laws that don’t include any IT Infrastructure to run and regulate them, so most of them are a waste.
So off go more jobs over seas and the US will continue to be the largest consuming market of devices, well that is until we can’t afford them any longer if we don’t have jobs that pay a salary that allows and employee to have health insurance to get them when needed. Device companies too are unique in the fact that so many report data today so they can take the jobs over seas and 
sit here in the US and join in the data selling game and some in the consumer area are designed to do just that, to profit off the data they sell. So again, the jobs leave and then there’s more potential data for sale, got it? I tried to suggest to the medical device business to offer the data selling revenue as a substitute to think like “Washington” does with a replacement for revenue but I don’t think they understand the full impact of the country relying on intangibles for the future of the US, it’s what Wall Street built and we have additional players this time. It was the next game after sum prime, again pay attention because there too you had the bankers bloating way beyond belief the value of software and analytics for profit.
In the past I have done several interviews with Cook Medical, the largest private device company in the US and who has been very vocal about the tax increase. Sadly they too will go overseas, and so will new jobs. If you want a refresh, here it is. Again we have lost our value for tangibles and the digital illiterates are driving the rest of us off the cliff in this insane and over done search for intelligence and data on US citizens. How much do they really need to write a policy one might ask? As kind of a sick satire point here, even the IRS went over the cliff with HIPAA, no IT Infrastructure to run it so off they went as well as the other government agencies we read about in the news all the time with data addiction and yes I predicted that too in a satire post about 3 years ago with it being the next 12 step program on the horizon.
I try to be productive when I blog and not just whine and moan like so much of what’s out there. As the old saying goes if you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem. The tax amounted to a projected $20 million dollar expense for Cook, so again they can do a lot with $20 million over seas.
Cook Medical Cancels Plans for Factory Expansions–We Need Companies That Create Tangible Products As They Create Jobs–Tax The Data Sellers/Brokers Who Make Billions With Data Mining “Killer Algorithms” And Give the Device Companies a Break
Class II devices is where the report states the big outsourcing profits will be. License and tax the intangibles who make billions upon billions in profits for just running code and it is getting more flawed by the day. Data selling is one of the big reasons we have so much flawed data as they don’t care, just give me the money they say and they walk away, while consumers have to spend time on their own dime to fix and repair, they get free labor for all their flawed data too, us.
Algorithms for profit are running the world if we let them and the question is who’s going to be the keeper of what is allowed to run on servers 24/7 and make life impacting decisions about all of us…when does a utility become a menace? I think some already have and it’s disrupting the manufacturing balance and jobs we need so badly in the US. This video below from Christopher Steiner tells the story well so give it some thought as you watch more jobs leave the US and you have those algorithms on steroids on your phone getting the insurance industry every time speck of information about you that they can find, again is all of this really necessary to underwrite and pay claims and how far will we let insurers and bankers drive us off the cliff?
Algorithms Are Taking Over the World…Automate This (Video)
The government right now with healthcare reform built in the medical device tax as a source of revenue and even as just a few years have gone by, it’s no 
longer a revenue solution, that is if we want jobs in the US. The insurance companies don’t care where jobs and devices come from at all, just shareholders and thus we have this push come to shove. It sit here myself and listen to government and other individuals drive themselves off the cliff all the time as the marketing and getting believers in some of the algo fairies out there is big. We still are conditioned to think if it’s on the computer screen it must be right..wrong. And then we listen to the same folks to tell the IT Infrastructure and developers to “hurry up”. We had some good comments on Twitter about that with others besides me taking case with it, again being nonsense.
I said the device industry should have been giving Congress another alternative to gain tax money but maybe they can’t see intangible income that makes banks and companies just filthy rich with data selling. The banks and companies of course don’t want consumers to wake up to this fact as then they have a problem with potentially validating math models and computer code to show accuracy. Right now it’s a free ride as even the regulating agencies either don’t pay attention or it is over their heads too.
Medical Device Companies Not Putting Up a Real Smart Battle to Reverse Device Taxes–Need to Offer Alternative Solutions for Missed Revenue, Taxing & Licensing Data Sellers Would Do It
When I started my series called the Attack of the Killer Algorithms I explained this and I saw how nobody got it. Even the protesters with the Occupy movement didn’t understand it but it was enough that they knew something wasn’t working and it was the algorithms and models at times yanking opportunities right out from underneath them with government and businesses driving themselves off the cliff. I really can’t emphasize enough how much this happens and the fear or non interest of those to question and the Occupy group was doing just that, asking questions and making their feelings known. Watch the videos when you have time in the footer of this blog and you will see a different learning story watch them and a few more here where Algo Duping is discussed. BD
The widening government deficits in developed countries, as evidenced by the euro crisis in Europe and the fiscal cliff challenge in the United States, is exerting enormous financial pressure on the healthcare system. As governments begin to reform their healthcare spending patterns to reduce healthcare budget deficits, medical device manufacturers are feeling the need to explore new efficiencies in product design, development, manufacturing and marketing, to drive bottom line growth. Reduced government healthcare spending, reduced public insurance coverage and cutbacks in hospital reimbursements, make for an extremely tough business environment where survival hinges upon redefining traditional value streams.
The emerging structural changes in the healthcare system are benefiting outsourcing, which is gaining importance given its ability to provide cost and competitive advantages. Continuous achievement of productivity gains is currently a competitive requirement, which can be fulfilled by the outsourcing strategy.
As stated by the new market research report on Medical Device Outsourcing, the US represents the largest market worldwide. Asia-Pacific is forecast to be the fastest growing market with a CAGR of 15.1 percent over the analysis period. Cheaper production of devices coupled with adherence to stringent international quality standards marks the emergence of Asia as the most desirable production hub. Outsourcing services offered for Class II devices continues to remain the largest segment. OEMs leveraging the most of specialized outsourcing services are expected to be those operating in a business environment where cost-containment and product differentiation represents perennial needs. Medical Device Outsourcing Services in the field of cardiology is projected to witness the strongest growth over the analysis period.
http://www.healthcareglobal.com/healthcare_technology/medical-device-outsourcing-market-booms
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