Physician Nutrition Summit

Our own Mark DeLegge, MD recently attended the Physician Nutrition Summit that addressed physician shortages in the practice of nutrition in the United States.  This was a follow-up conference from the inaugural meeting on this topic in 2009, which had 41 participants.  Both of these meetings were sponsored by Abbott Nutrition and organized by the American Society of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition.  The proceedings from that conference were published in the recent November 2010 supplement of the Journal of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition.  Dr. DeLegge was a lead or participating author in three of the summit’s articles in this supplement.

This recent meeting took place in December of 2010 in Chicago and brought back many of the original participants of last year’s summit in Orlando.  Numerous societal organizations were represented such as the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, the American Society of Bariatric Medicine, the American Gastroenterological Association, the American Dietetic Association and the American Medical Association.  Dr. DeLegge was one of four program chairs and led discussions focused on how to measure success of an intervention to solve the problem of physician shortage and what are the next steps to take to achieve this goal.  The group as a whole flushed out issues of the group’s overall mission, the governance structure and the appropriate partners the group needed to establish to achieve its goals of approving physician attraction to the field of nutrition.  In addition, the group was going to focus on measuring the problems of over-nutrition in the community and under-nutrition in the hospital as a mechanism of establishing the reason why more physicians are needed in nutrition support.  Plans were made for an annual meeting and intermittent conference calls to ensure all members remained organized to the success of the project.

For more information on the Physician Nutrition Summit:

Notes from the 2009 Summit in Orlando

Release of position papers for this year’s Summit in Chicago

What Are You Doing With YOUR Idea???

We here at DeLegge Medical have been using the 37signals suite of customer relationship management tools for the past few months. If you have not had a chance to check out their web-based CRM programs (www.37signals.com), we highly suggest you give them a look!

The founder of 37signals, Jason Fried, has written a great little book called Rework. One of the major messages in the book is the "start making something" factor. How many of you out there have an idea? A grand master plan that is bouncing around in you brain? Have you put anything into action yet? What's holding you back?

Fried states, "Think your idea's that valuable? Then go try to sell it and see what you get for it. Not much is probably the answer. Until you start making something, your brilliant idea is just that, an idea. And everyone's got one of those." The DeLegge Medical Technology Accelerator is designed to help you get to that next step: Making Something. We can assist with IP Protection, Prototype Development and Testing, Market Analysis and any other needs you have to get your idea out of your head and on the table.

Remember, "Ideas are cheap and plentiful. The original pitch idea is such a small part of a business that it's almost negligible. The REAL question is how well you execute. Contact us today at 877-971-6202 or Steven@DeLeggeMedical.com to get your idea off the ground and running today!

On the Road in Brussels

Dr. Mark H. DeLegge just returned from Brussels, Belgium where he attended and helped lead a multi-country conference on nutrition treatments of hospitalized patients. This event was coordinated through Baxter Healthcare and physicians from Poland, Slovakia, Czechoslovakia, England, France, Belgium, Sweden, Norway, Canada, Portugal, Spain, Bulgaria, Russia and the United States were represented.

A large emphasis of the conference was to examine different practices with regards to nutrition intervention in critically-ill, hospitalized patients. Different practices included early enteral nutrition, supplemental parenteral nutrition, high nitrogen prescribing and the validity of energy:nitrogen ratio in the treatment of hospitalized patients. There were reviews presented regarding these important concepts and a discussion of the variation in practices between countries, often based on historical practice.

Case presentations of actual complicated patients were presented, with input from the group and the leaders surrounding appropriate care and getting to a “best practice.” Dr. DeLegge presented information regarding current practices, new data which is helping to define our future practice and an examination of the gaps in research that need to be filled to allow us to improve our practice. A decision was made to continue this conference in future years.

A Great Time in the Upstate

What a great few days in the Upstate!

DeLegge Medical spent Wednesday and Thursday at the 6th Annual SC MedTech Entrepreneurship & Industry Conference at the Hyatt Regency in Greenville, S.C. We had an opportunity to meet with a number of great like-minded medical technology folks from around the state and presented our new Lowcountry Medical Technology Accelerator project to the attendees at the conference. It was a wonderful chance to catch up with fellow colleagues that we have not worked with recently and build some new connections with companies that are just starting up in the Palmetto State.

Special thanks to Matt Gevaert, Jennifer Noel and the rest of the planning committee for organizing such a successful event! We look forward to seeing everyone throughout the year and at next year's event as well.

SC MedTech Entrepreneurship & Industry Conference

DeLegge Medical will be at the 6th Annual SC MedTech Entrepreneurship & Industry Conference on Thursday, November 18 at the Hyatt Regency in Greenville, S.C.  Dr. Mark DeLegge will make a presentation at the conference on our new Lowcountry Medical Technology Accelerator.

The 2010 SC MedTech Entrepreneurship & Industry Conference is South Carolina's annual event focusing on the creation and growth of medical device and technology business opportunities. Now in its 6th year, this meeting has become the annual one-stop shop to meet and connect with biomedical, clinical and regulatory professionals including technical entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and academics.

2010 marks the first year the conference will be supported and managed by the South Carolina MedTech Industry Council. This newly formed, industry-led Council's mission is to foster a competitive business environment in South Carolina for medical device companies beginning at conceptualization. This conference will help to support the growth and success of the medtech industry in South Carolina by increasing the industry's effectiveness and by encouraging cooperation and the exchange of information.

If you are interested in the Lowcountry Medical Technology Accelerator and cannot make it to the SC MedTech Entrepreneurship & Industry Conference, please contact us at 877-971-6202 for more information.

SE BIO Investor Forum - Atlanta, GA

SeBIO was held this week in Atlanta’s Buckhead area. This meeting is intended to put developing medical technology in biotech, diagnostics and medical devices on stage in front of a significant number of venture capitalist groups. Often the technologies are in a very early stage or even loosely held concepts, creative but risky. The enthusiasm of inventors has not wavered even in times of very cautious financial treading. Inventors and entrepreneurs still bring in their prototypes and optimistically display their wares. But the venture gap is upon us.

The inventor in the Southeast is unaware in most cases that the Greek economy just scared a venture “turtle” back into its shell. More pressure and focus is put on the regulatory pathway and reimbursement than on a clever design. Awkwardly, the inventor becomes the CEO writing five-pound business plans and exploring Medicare and insurance issues. The game has indeed changed. For many medical technologies, it is back to the old days of the friends and family investors, grant writing and angel funding. The venture gap is upon us. For those with the courage to step into a developing medical technology, the rewards could certainly be great. It is after all, supply and demand. With global and US political and capital market, stability will come and the venture investors return back into the early stages of technology. Meanwhile, chin up inventors! Keep the passion for saving lives and improving health care alive until the funding returns.

ACG 2010 San Antonio

The 2010 ACG Annual Scientific Meeting and Postgraduate Course was held October 15-20 in San Antonio and the Hands-On Course was a success! Special thanks go to Martie Spath and Dr. David Greenwald for the time and efforts to provide a wonderful learning opportunity.The sponsors for the hands-on course should also be recognized for the collaborative effort put forth by all. Participation was excellent and the feedback from the attendees was well received.

There was also live audio/video feed that was broadcast throughout the Conference Center. We look forward to working with the ACG in the future and at their 2011 Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. on October 28-November 2!