Tales of Hoffman

Jobs leaves Gap's board. Apparently

Jobs leaves Gap's board. Apparently he was upset by the lack of black turtlenecks in the new winter line... ;-)

Martha Stewart Resigns from NYSE

Martha Stewart Resigns from NYSE Board....oh no, who will make this year's ticker-tape Christmas bows?

Richard Winters is wondering whether

Richard Winters is wondering whether anyone is really using that fancy new 4D ultrasound system you see advertised by General Electric. I'm surprised he hasn't heard about the perceptive business people who are starting up "Fetal Photo" shops all around the country.

It seems that some people are shelling out the bucks to get one of these fancy new machines, and for a mere $150, you can get a video and snapshots of your baby before its birthday. In 1994, the FDA issued a ruling explicitly forbidding the use of ultrasound machines for this purpose. They felt that parents would mistakenly think that there was something diagnostic about this little visit when, in reality, the people running these businesses have no training to make any type of diagnoses.

I say let people get their ever-so-creepy, pre-birth shots of their baby as long as they acknowledge that this is not a health care service in any way (I'm guessing they already know that by virtue of the fact that their insurance company is not picking up that $150 tab). Used to be that the best way to embarrass little Johnny when he brings home his girlfriend years later was to show those nude photos of him on a bearskin rug. Now, through the miracle of modern technology, you can show him in utero, too.

DVRs--are they hot or not?.

DVRs--are they hot or not?. This article, from CNet, laments that DVRs -- digital video recorders, like my Tivo -- are not experiencing the sharp growth that was first predicted for them. First off, those predictions were made in the middle of the "boom" when everything was predicted to go through a period of sharp growth (oh, how innocent we were...). Secondly, although Tivo did a pretty good job early on to build up name recognition, I have not seen any marketing at all in the last year from them. It woudl help if they got out there and explained what this thing does, but the best way for this category to grow is the way it's growing, slowly and organically. Having a Tivo has absolutely changed the way I watch TV and through talking about it and showing it to folks at my home, I've probably sold 6 or 7 myself. This market will be big, but it will grow through word of mouth and integration of the technology into your regular, everyday, cable box.

Drug Industry Is Told to

Drug Industry Is Told to Stop Gifts to Doctors. (From the NY Times) Apparently, the voluntary PhRMA guidelines from earlier this year were not enough for the federal government. According to the article:

The inspector general said that compliance with the industry code was desirable, but "will not necessarily protect a manufacturer from prosecution or liability for illegal conduct."

Now, I've always wondered about those arrangements between PBMs and drug manufacturers that involved money changing hands for preferential treatment on formularies, but we need to be careful that we don't go too far here. Alot of perfectly fine programs, many of them truly educational and non-biased in nature, are supported by grants from Pharmaceutical manufacturers and I'd hate to see this move have a chilling effect on the creation of new programs.

And yes, I do have a financial interest in that last statement by virtue of what I do for a living, but working at Medscape has actually brought me close enough to the process to know that not every program funded by Pharma and directed at physicians is propaganda for a drug, and most importantly, I've never met a doc who couldn't tell the difference between a useful program and a biased one.