Brainsway Deep TMS (transcranial magnetic stimulation)Gets FDA Approval for the Treatment of Depression

The treatment is for patients who fail to respond to therapeutics during a depression episode.  I wrote about the clinical trial back in 2008 when it received the approval to begin from the FDA.  Well if it works for a patient then there’s less pills to take.   The device already has the European CE mark from a few months ago.

Brainsway gets FDA nod for device trial – Another Device for Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

This video is interesting to listen to a man in the UK who received the treatment and he’s getting his treatment right on the video, oh the one sound is a little strange, sounds like a jack hammer.  He says it is working for him.  With depression rising due to a lot of economic conditions maybe we will all be getting our brains zapped regularly:)  BD



Brainsway, a publicly traded Israeli company, has an exclusive license for the technology from the National Institutes of Health, where its two Israeli scientific co-founders developed it. Their device is already approved in Europe for clinical depression, bi-polar disorder, schizophrenia (negative symptoms), Parkinson’s diseases and PTSD. Clinical trials are underway to test how well brain-zapping electromagnets could work to treat a huge range of ailments including cocaine addiction, Tourette's syndrome, Alzheimer's, stroke rehabilitation, multiple sclerosis, even ADHD.

http://www.fastcompany.com/3004658/fda-approves-magnetic-helmet-treating-depression

Blue Cross Intelligence Buys Intelimedix, A Company That Specializes in Serving Employers and Health Insurers, More Analytic Algorithms to Search Out Fraud, Billing Errors, Preventable Conditions….

In reading the website and other items on the web it appears the latest efforts here were focusing on building a solution for Blue Cross Intelligence so guess who bought them.  Recently it was announced that the firm that manages the Blue Cross venture was moving to San Francisco to start up an incubator so is this a sign of perhaps where some of the funding may have come from?  Despite showing promise, Blue Health Intelligence has proven to be a costly endeavor, with $31 million in revenue and $43.6 million in expenses in 2010.

Blue Cross Venture - Blue Health Intelligence Proving to Be Very Costly And Received Another 9 Billion From Undisclosed Source–Subsidiary Watch

Remember a while back where I said start ups and accelerators are a good place for insurers to shop for cheap code, well Blue Cross has their start up area where start ups can get started writing that “cheap code”. Intelimedix is a bit more than that though and has been around for abut 7 or 8 years but when you read their history, it’s been a long engagement with Blue Cross to even hiring their current CEO from there. 

 

Sandbox VC Firm that Manages Blue Cross/Blue Shield VC Funds Is Moving to San Francisco–An Incubator for Some New Coders To Write Algorithms for Profit?

Everyone runs their business intelligence today to maximize profits and perhaps this is the winning addition for Blue Cross Intelligence.  One day down the road as more of these auditing 3rd parties arise, are we going to see a DOS (denial of service) with the IT pipelines being over run with 3rd party bots to analyze (grin) and end up with “claim stuffing as this type of business with promising the best algorithms ”:)  Who’s going to start selling that one with “speed” emphasized just the markets do?  You know it will happen as this evolves as that will be a marketing point when all have their auditing algorithms at equal levels.  BD

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From the website:
”With locations in the U.S. and Europe, Intelimedix offers off-the-shelf analytic and data mining applications as well as customized solutions. In addition, Intelimedix has developed solutions specifically for Blue Health Intelligence (BHI^®), a national data warehouse developed by participating Blue Cross Blue Shield Plans to share critical health information with employers, consumers and providers. From our strategic partnership with a consortium of Blue Cross and Blue Shield licensees, and broad healthcare experience, we leverage our unique collaborative position to deliver solutions that have immediate impact on and bring savings to your organization.”

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Blue Health Intelligence, the database/analytics services division of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, has acquired analytics vendor Intelimedix for an undisclosed sum.

BHI’s database holds medical and pharmacy claims data from more than 110 million individuals to identify ways to raise quality standards and manage costs. The database has enough information to reflect medical utilization in every ZIP code in the nation, according to the company.

Tampa, Fla.-based Intelimedix specializes in serving employers and health insurers, supporting analysis of such issues as unnecessary care, fraudulent and abusive billing, overpayments from billing and coding errors, pharmacy fraud, and preventable conditions. Combining the technologies will enable expansion of analysis on a range of issues to help clients manage financial and medical risk, according to the vendors.

http://www.insurancenetworking.com/news/blues-analytics-arm-buys-intelimedix-31640-1.html

F1000Research A New “Open Science” Publishing Program For Life Scientists Out of Beta, Open for Business With Allowing Immediate Publications, Peer Reviews And Sharing of Data

It was just a couple weeks ago I posted about Cureus which as more related to doctors and patients and now we have a new program that is for Life Sciences publications
.

Curēus, New Open-Source Medical Journal Created by Stanford Neurosurgeon John Adler,Scientific Research More Readily Available, Peer To Peer Reviews

Author guidelines for publishing are located here whereby you ask to identify 5 potential referees and they want the “raw” data (a good thing) along with the software details used to process and if this is not possible due to locations of data and ownership, etc. then a link to the respective area must be provided.  Of course anything containing “patient” information must also be stated as a reason for non-submittal.  BD

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Press Release:

F1000Research is F1000's new Open Science publishing program for life scientists, offering researchers for the first time: immediate publication; transparent and fast peer review post-publication; and full data deposition and sharing.
After receiving extensive support from the scientific community during its six-month beta testing phase, F1000Research now marks its official launch with a new custom-built site, and takes on a stronger identity with its burnt orange branding. "We have been delighted by the response we have received since our beta launch last July, especially from authors and referees", said Dr Rebecca Lawrence, Publisher of F1000Research. "Many of those who have already published with us are now submitting further papers", she added.
F1000Research's unique combination of immediate publication followed by very fast and transparent full peer review makes it extremely attractive, especially for authors who need to publish quickly to support grant applications or who want to prevent having their work being scooped by others.
Submissions have come from around the globe and report on research supported by some of the world's largest and most respected funding bodies, including the NIH, Wellcome Trust, WHO, NIHR, CORDIS, CNRS, NERC, and the Canadian Institutes for Health.
Some 200 of the most eminent names in biology and medicine have joined F1000Research's international Advisory Panel (see the full listing at http://f1000research.com/advisory-panel) and more than 1000 global experts sit on the Editorial Board (see http://f1000research.com/editorial-board).
To find out more about F1000Research, please contact Eleanor Howell on +44 (0)20 7631 9129 or email press@f1000.com.

For more information, visit http://f1000research.com/.

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About F1000Research
F1000Research is a new Open Science publishing program for life scientists. Open Science publishing in F1000Research guarantees:
1. No delay: Research findings, analyses of scientific developments, opinions, comments and all other article types are published without delay.
2. Inclusion of all data: Reports of findings of new research are always accompanied by the complete datasets on which they are based, provided in a form permitting both confirmation and reuse of the data by other researchers.
3. No restriction of access: All research findings are published without any restriction of access - full Open Access.
4. Post-publication peer review: Thorough and innovative refereeing of all research articles is carried out rapidly and efficiently following immediate publication.
5. Open refereeing: All refereeing and commentary is open and transparent, published with the names and affiliations of the referees.
F1000Research accepts all scientifically sound articles. In addition to traditional articles, F1000Research accepts articles ranging from single findings, datasets, short articles, case reports, protocols, replications, and null or negative results to opinion pieces and reviews.
More information can be found in our online information pack:
http://f1000.com/resources/F1000Research_Online_Information_Pack.pdf.

United HealthCare Issues Another Study, This One Telling Government To Aggressively Manage Medical Care For Seniors-An Area Where A Large Chunk of Their Revenue Comes From Today, Managing Care

If you listen to the last shareholder reports they have said that more money is coming into the till these days from managing care rather than the sale of policies so guess what, they want more action it might sound like and they are tossing around a number of $500 billion to be saved to create a sense of urgency.  They put out more reports and studies than any other insurance carrier and have been doing that for years, as well as making a lot of money selling data too. 

Big deal, same thing we all have as goals to cut costs and improve care.  Technology will kick in for some savings but its’ not the entire answer.  Here’s one place where they have already cut money with the AAFP showing them a report to where doctors are paid less than Medicare in some parts of the US.  Complex contracts by the time all the algorithms are applied with complex models end up with a net payment of less than Medicare, so let’s cut more they say. 

The AAFP Confronts United Healthcare On Reimbursements, Some Are Below Medicare Rates In Parts of the US–Payment Algorithms/Formulas Calculated Deep Within IT Infrastructures Do the Job

Again all these projected numbers may be good today until tomorrow’s left curve hits, thus again these create a sense of urgency for folks to maybe cooperate in the direction they desire. A couple weeks ago we heard this other report that basically was done to create subliminal thought that the sedentary and obese were at the heart of the US Economy problems.  One person losing 100 pounds is not going to have that impact and yes items as such do need to remain a focus for sure but stop the reports where don’t have the data or models to see exactly what they are talking about.

Media and Press Releases In Healthcare That Go Nowhere–Marketing to Sell You Analytics With Using Fear and Misplaced Guilt Overtones As a Theme

In this article the one spokesman from United says “We’ve got a sense of what works and what doesn’t work”. Why do they have all those lawsuits over the 15 years where they short paid doctors and hospitals, is this part of it?

 

AMA Announces Doctors And Patients Can Expect To See the UnitedHealthCare/Ingenix Class Action Settlement Checks In the Mail Soon - Out of Network Short Payments–Attack of the Killer Algorithms Chapter 19

 

Everyone has good things to contribute everywhere in the world but these folks are known for taking care of shareholders with the CEO that says they will flourish money wise, so keep everything in context. They want to take over and make as much money as they can.  They are pretty aggressive with suing the DOD saying their algorithms were better than Blue Cross and they certainly are much larger to include owning a bank with 1 billion on deposit for one.  Are they so big they just wear everybody down?  With this award they put a Blue Cross subsidiary out of business.  They hired Steve Larson who pretty much wrote the healthcare bill and he works for United as a VP at the Optima side. 

Update: UnitedHealthcare Sues Department of Defense Over Tri-Care Contracts–They Said They Would Do This – Is This A Case Of My Algorithms Are Better Than Yours?

Is this their next move after the Tri-Care Contract that is worth a few billion to manage?  They just made this big purchase in Brazil. 

 

United Healthcare Negotiated to Buy 90 Percent of the Largest Managed Care Provider in Brazil, Where Insurers Can Own Hospitals and Physician’s Practices

Last year they got into the low income housing business so maybe this is where we will all end up wearing our cheap United Healthcare hearing aides and connected to every device possible so they can collect all the data to sell:)  In some areas right now if you purchase a policy you get a free hearing aid, like in Florida, one of the areas identified where doctors are paid less than Medicare rates.  How is this legal too I wonder?  I thought Medicare reimbursement was supposed to be lower than any commercial insurer.

 

United Healthcare Gets in The Low Income Housing Business With Partnership to Finance Housing Projects in New Mexico

Sebelius and Obama better be ready for some serious Algo Duping here so that Untied makes their profits…as they appear to want to run Medicare now too.  We have no clue on how they assign risk and what models they use but if you read the link below there’s some additional information that tweaking “risk” one way or another, up or down is the Achilles heel of the US economy and these guys are right in there, so please folks in the executive spots in the government, don’t get duped when the world of fictional and fantasy models and reports generated from such clash with the real world. The company is the King of the Algorithmic models to make money so be aware. BD

Hiding, Falsifying, And Accelerating Risk Has Become the Achilles Heel of the US Economy As the “Real” World” Clashes With the Values Created From a World of “Fictional Values” Of Formulas and Math

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The U.S. could save more than $500 billion in Medicare and Medicaid spending over the next ten years, by more aggressively coordinating medical care for seniors and the poor, according to new research from health insurer UnitedHealth Group.

The report is aimed squarely at Washington, as leaders on Capital Hill wrangle over debt reduction options ahead of automatic budget cuts due to take effect in two months.

"It's either going to be a debate that's purely focused on cutting people's benefits, or it's going to be a debate that's focused on further cuts to doctors and hospitals," said Simon Stevens, UnitedHealth executive vice president, who chairs the insurer's Center for Health Reform & Modernization.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/100365131

“I’m Sorry Your Google Plus Name Does Not Comply With Google “Names Policies”…Barbara “Duck Algorithm” & Was Using My Real Name All Along…Killer Algorithms Chapter 52

This is just too funny so tweeted a bit of this but what happened?  I have not been back to Google Plus for a couple of months and then a couple days ago I decided it was time for me to go back over and participate on their platform a little more.  Well I got over there and I was met with a screen that said your account is under suspension, as your name does not meet our names policies.  As you all are probably aware all the social networks are working to get your “real” names listed.  Why do they want this?  To sell data for one reason or another, mostly to those who want to target you for advertising. 

I joined Google Plus when they were still in beta so not a new comer at all and I use my real name. So what is it about Barbara Duck that doesn’t meet policy…must be that “duck” thing.  It happens once in a while where a couple of company mail servers had to make an exception to my email address domain “ducknet”.  It certainly can’t be Barbara as there are a few million of those out there.  So here I was, suspended.  The prior screen elaborated more on the “names” policy and there was nothing to indicate any user conduct violations, as I’m actually pretty boring at times:)

At the appeal screen Google asks you where on the web they could verify that this is who you really are so I have my blog hosted on Google’s Blogger platform and supplied that link as it has been there for over 4 years:)  The appeal screen also says you can scan a copy of your driver’s license to verify it is you but not going there of course as I also get a check from Google Ad Sense each month too and use many of their other services.  Now the dangerous part here and why I am bringing this up is to focus not only on the humor but to also make a point that during the time I was “suspended” and one of these crappy data mining services would have referenced me during that time, the person or entity seeing this who combines credible with non credible data (social networks) could have formed a not great impression of me.  If I were looking at credit, a car or whatever, that supplemental information that the scrapers provide could have sunk me and it can happen to you too.  This is why I recommend licensing the data sellers so as consumers we know who they are and what kind of data they sell and to who. 

The profits made on selling data is in the billions and my same example I use all the time is Walgreen who made short of $800 million selling data only, so there’s whole lot of data moving around out there with huge profits by banks, companies, social networks you name it and after licensing, this is why we should tax them on a quarterly basis too.  I had to fix this on my own dime and so do you and it takes time and sometimes takes a long time to fix so until that is done as a consumer you are SOL.  During the presidential campaign “Barbara Duck” was good enough and must have not violated the Obama “Names policy”:)


Right now there are all kinds of privacy laws in the works but they will all fail unless a regulation arm is added and nobody’s doing it so again we need that to address data selling and making some money off of their huge profits in the billions.  This is part of the reason so many companies have so much in the bank, they sell data, data for nothing and the profits for free.

Privacy Relative to Tracking Apps and Data Mining Legislation Will Fail If There is No Regulation Path Created–License and Excise Tax Data Miners & Sellers Otherwise It’s “Laws With No Balls”

What if I would have had somebody like FICO who sells overstates analytics which we assume comes from social networks too as they won’t tell us what goes into the analytics process other than a credit report to created this whacked out non relational analytics service to tell if you are going to be a patient and take your medicine!  What if someone like them, and companies do it by the groves and would have seen my “suspended account”…well that old deadbeat won’t take her meds..as those folks score you and I would have lost points if it were a contributing item.  I use them an an example as I have never seen flagrant “Algo Duping” as bad as theirs and even consumers that are non tech caught that one and wrote it up all over places like the Daily Koz. 

FICO Analytics Press Release Marketing Credit Scoring Algorithms to Predict Medication Adherence–Update (Opinion)

Anyway in this instance Google said I was correct in that Duck does meet their “Names Policy” and at this point I wonder how the Beavers and Crows and others are doing out there with this new parameter that I am assuming was added as Google is changing their algorithms all the time to keep the dirt out but sometimes like this time, the dirt was a real human duck!  So here’s the answer from Google, I am for real now and don’t have a “fake” name and my real name suffices so I don’t have to make up a fake name to be compliant:)  Maybe Google has some additional code to write to connect a few more of their entities so in the future they can have an “algorithm” do the work.  BD

Jadwal TV 8,9,10,11 Januari 2013

Jadwal TV 8,9,10,11 Januari 2013, Jadwal siaran langsung bola di TV swasta RCTI dan Trans TV, untuk tanggal 8,9,10,11 Januari 2013.




Jadwal TV 8,9,10,11 Januari 2013
Berikut adalah jadwal tayangan siaran langsung televisi nasional untuk tanggal 8,9,10,11 Januari 2013.

Jadwal TV 8,9,10,11 Januari 2013
Jadwal TV Selasa, 8 Januari 2013Indonesia Super League:15.30 WIB - Persegres GU vs Persiram

Presidential Inaugural Ball–Ticketmaster Algorithms Blow It–Tickets on Sale Before Announced Sales Date– Any Companies, Markets, Etc. Know What They Are Doing Anymore With Models and Algorithms? Attack of the Killer Algorithms Chapter 51

Here we go again and it was that “computer glitch” attack or better yet those Algorithms. If you read this entire article, well guess what, does Knight Capital ring a bell, same kind of stuff as they were “testing” their email system and yes we have a lot of disappointed people here for sure as those who did go online got tickets ahead of the announced time.  Not a good time to be testing but like the Knight situation some algorithms were running the show here that messed up so who did the programming?  I wouldn’t want to be that person.  Wait it gets worse, they don’t fix it and cancel the tickets to make it fair so those people who waited and received the algorithmically corrupted emails were out of luck completely.  This is why I made this the next entry in the Attack of the Killer Algorithms. 

What do I keep saying about flawed data?  Here’s a bunch of it that denied access to those who were following the rules and they got screwed. 


Sounds like things are even getting too complex at Ticketmaster so guess how it is elsewhere?  Same stuff with pushing and rushing and the programming and algorithms go ballistic once again.  If want to read the other chapters with some really primo examples of every day life occurrences, here’s the link to the links and some great vides that will explain how technology dupes you. 

Attack of the Killer Algorithms–Digest & Links for All Chapters–on How Math and Crafty Formulas Today Running on Servers 24/7 Make Life Impacting Decisions About You

I had my own Killer Algorithm experience too with Google, out of the blue with my Google Plus Account told me that my name, Barbara Duck as it is all over the web and all throughout Google products did not meet the Google “name policies” and my account was suspended.  I had not even been on the social network in a couple of months.  If you were on Twitter yesterday you saw the whole thing play out.  I guess it was a Duck Algorithm:)  Here’s what I saw and tried to re-enter my name, but to no avail and being I have been established with Google and with many places on the web I was not going to scan my driver’s license and send it:)  So see how this stuff works…it was the algorithms and one day I’m impersonating a duck, according to those algos.  If you look at the image there it is. 

Now if any one of those shady data sellers were looking to profile me while this was in place, well guess what, I’m screwed and this is why you can’t take credible data and combine it with noncredible data as look what happens.  We do need those who sell data to be licensed (so we know who they are) and excise taxed as they make billions in profits.  You can’t address privacy without adding a model to identify and then excise tax these folks as they will screw you with “flawed data”, just like the folks wanting to attend the inauguration and won’t even make it right when their algorithms mess up.

Privacy Relative to Tracking Apps and Data Mining Legislation Will Fail If There is No Regulation Path Created–License and Excise Tax Data Miners & Sellers Otherwise It’s “Laws With No Balls”

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Now that you have seen what Ticketmaster algorithms did, see what happens on Wall Street (video below) and how the technology takes advantage of you from a former Quant that worked there, you are AlgoDuped and they do it because they can and they too are not making right either, so they seem to have something in common here with not caring, no ethics and using “brains and math” no matter if affects people.  Sad state of affairs and the Attack of the Killer Algorithms just keep going and going and going and nobody is “really” responsible other than giving a little lip service.  Just be glad these were tickets and not stocks this time and remember insurers are bought and sold on the market and have their fair share of Quants who build algorithms and models too. BD 

Watch The FRONTLINE Interview: Cathy O'Neil on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.

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Inaugural planners announced last month that a limited number of ball tickets – they would not say how many – would be available to the public for $60 apiece, and they asked people who were interested to sign up on the official inaugural Web site.

The committee was also selling tickets to the inaugural parade for $25 apiece.

The committee said tickets would become available this morning on a first-come, first-served basis.

But on Sunday evening, Ticketmaster, which was handling the sales, “experienced a technical error that inadvertently caused an e-mail to go out ahead of schedule,’’ said Addie Whisenant, a spokeswoman for the inaugural committee. Would-be purchasers were notified that tickets were available for sale.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/07/after-ticketmaster-glitch-inaugural-ball-and-parade-tickets-sell-out-early/