The Indiana Health Information Exchange Inc. is now ready to go national after its for-profit subsidiary
licenses medical records and information software from Indianapolis-based Regenstrief Institute Inc.
The IHIE was spawned from Regenstrief in 2004 to make medical records available on an as-needed basis to hospitals and doctors
around Indiana, and now serves 94 hospitals in Indiana and 25,000 physicians in 17 states. Those services are known as the
Indiana Network for Patient Care and DOCS4DOCS. The IHIE is now looking to raise about $20 million over three years to take the services around the country,
where federal incentives are spurring hospitals and doctors to exchange medical records digitally. “Health care is an
information business,” said Dr. Bill Tierney, CEO of Regenstrief. He added, “This new level of partnership with
IHIE and its new for-profit subsidiary allows us to impact the lives of Americans living far beyond Indiana’s borders.”
Indianapolis-based StepStone Angels has formed a chapter of angel investors in Bloomington. The group was
kickstarted by Ron Walker and Dana Palazzo of Bloomington Economic Development Corp. and will be led by Tony Armstrong,
CEO of Indiana University Research & Technology Corp. An initial meeting in February drew investors from Bloomington and
Jasper. StepStone, formed in 2009, also has chapters in Anderson, Indianapolis, Lafayette and Warsaw. The group encourages
presentations from life sciences and technology companies seeking $100,000 or more.
The top awards in local architecture this year all went to health care facilities. The Indianapolis chapter of the American
Institute of Architects gave its excellence awards April 18 to Indianapolis-based Axis Architecture + Interiors
for designing People’s Health Network clinic on the near-east side. Also receiving an excellence award was Indianapolis-based
BSA LifeStructures for the expansion and renovation of Franciscan St. Francis Health’s Indianapolis
hospital. And a third excellence award winner was krM Architecture+ of Anderson for its design of a health
care simulation lab at Ivy Tech Community College.
Kerry Dinneen has been promoted to vice president of major gifts from major gifts officer for Eskenazi Health
Foundation, the fundraising arm of the Eskenazi Health hospital and health system. She previously worked in employee relations
and human resources at Cummins Inc. and as director of human resources for the International Group. Dinneen holds a bachelor’s
degree in history and cultural studies from Princeton University and a master’s in public and private management from
Yale University.
OurHealth, an Indianapolis-based operator of employer-based health clinics, has hired Robert Renihan as
operations manager. He previously worked for Novia CareClinics as a practice administrator and at WFHB Firehouse Broadcasting
as an audio engineer. Renihan holds a bachelor’s degree in telecommunications from Indiana University.
Attorney Robert Markette Jr. has joined the Indianapolis office of law firm Hall Render Killian Heath &
Lyman. He focuses on representing home health, hospice and private duty health care providers. Markette holds a bachelor’s
degree from Hanover College and a law degree from Indiana University Maurer School of Law.
-Rick Borges Real Estate Service Inc. has leased 1,086 square feet at 27 S Park Blvd., Greenwood. The landlord, South Park Group LLC, was represented by Brian Dell of Summit Realty Group. The tenant represented itself.
Eli Lilly and Co. wants the city of Indianapolis to give it $30.6 million in tax breaks on a $400 million
project that includes a new manufacturing facility and improvements to existing operations downtown. The Metropolitan Development
Commission will weigh two Lilly requests for 10-year tax abatements at its meeting at 1 p.m. Wednesday. Over the
last several months, the pharmaceuticals giant has rolled out plans for a manufacturing plant southwest of downtown where
the firm will manufacture cartridges for insulin. Construction is already under way for the 164,000-square-foot plant on South
Harding Street, adjoining Lilly’s existing manufacturing complex known as Lilly Technology Center. Lilly’s investment
in the project is estimated at $320 million. In addition, it is planning a new inspection facility that will add another 30,000
square feet to the project, plus renovations to existing buildings on the Lilly Technology Center campus and the Lilly Corporate
Center. As a result of the project, the firm said it will be able to retain 175 Indianapolis employees who will earn an average
of $30.96 per hour, according to the abatement requests. Over the 10-year period of the two abatements, Lilly still would
pay $22.2 million in taxes on the new construction, renovations and equipment.
Matrix-Bio Inc., a Fort Wayne-based diagnostics company, has signed a licensing and marketing agreement
for a breast cancer test with New Jersey-based giant Quest Diagnostics. Under the agreement, Quest will have the rights to
use metabolic breast cancer biomarkers developed by Matrix-Bio to create a new lab test to detect the recurrence of breast
cancer. Quest will co-fund clinical studies with Matrix-Bio and, if those are successful, market the test as a lab service
in the United States and other countries. Quest also has the option to pursue an appropriate regulatory pathway for an in
vitro diagnostic version of the test. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Two Purdue University professors have received a $3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health
to understand why some children grow out of stuttering. They will use their findings to develop a speech therapy screening
tool to identify which preschool children are not likely to recover from stuttering and should receive therapy immediately.
Professors Anne Smith and Christine Weber-Fox will use the five-year grant to follow 100 children who stutter. Their research,
which began with Smith in 1988, has been funded by the NIH's National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders
for more than 25 years and has received more than $13 million in grant awards.
Ball State University's School of Nursing is partnering with Indianapolis-based hospital system Community
Health Network to create the Nursing Academy, an accelerated degree program designed to increase the number of registered
nurses in Indiana. The Nursing Academy will kick off this fall by offering students classes at Ball State, online and via
video conferencing. Its students also will work at Community’s eight hospitals. The Community Health Network Foundation
will fund scholarships for the 24 students representing the academy's inaugural class. The academy hopes to ramp up to
enroll 48 students each year.
Dr. Bryan H. Schmitt, a pathologist, has joined Wishard-Eskenazi Health. Schmitt graduated from Cornell
College in Mount Vernon, Iowa. He earned his medical degree at Des Moines University, College of Osteopathic Medicine.
Kelli Searles has been appointed regional vice president of marketing for Franciscan St. Francis Health.
She was previously director of marketing and community relations. Searles holds bachelor’s degrees in journalism and
psychology at Ball State University.
Keith Lauter has been appointed chief financial officer of the Franciscan St. Francis Health hospital system. He succeeds Jay Brehm, who was appointed senior vice president of strategic planning and business development for Franciscan Alliance, the parent of Franciscan St. Francis, which is based in Mishawaka. Since 2004, Lauter has served as the CFO of Franciscan St. Elizabeth hospitals in Lafayette and Crawfordsville. Lauter holds a bachelor's in accounting from Ball State University and an MBA from Indiana Wesleyan University.
Dr. John Edwards has joined Indiana Blood and Marrow Transplantation at Franciscan St. Francis Health in Indianapolis. The group of four doctors cares for patients undergoing stem cell transplants and patients with blood cancers. Edwards previously worked as medical director at CTI Clinical Trial and Consulting Services in Cincinnati. Before that, he served stints as president of Lifeforce Cryobanks, a Florida-based cord blood bank, and as medical director of the Florida Hospital Cancer Institute Blood and Marrow Transplant Program. Edwards earned his medical degree from the University of Florida.
After six years of unsuccessfully recommending measures that could have made it easier for a suitor to acquire Eli Lilly and Co., the drugmaker’s board has given up this year. The board decided not to place two measures before shareholders again during Lilly’s May 6 annual meeting—one to require annual election of directors and another to remove an 80-percent super-majority requirement to approve a takeover of the company. In a proxy statement filed in March, the board said it opted against another vote because “we have concluded that the proposals would not be successful in 2013.”
Indiana University Health set
a goal this year to cut expenses 20 percent to 25 percent over the next four years. That’s $1 billion to
$1.2 billion annually, based on IU Health’s expenses last year. Even though President Obama’s 2010 health reform
law likely will expand health insurance coverage to an extra 500,000 Hoosiers over the next few years, IU Health officials
expect the amount the hospital system receives per patient to fall as the federal government, employers and patients all push
back on sky-high health care costs. Most other hospitals are in the same boat. Community Health Network—whose Indianapolis
market share is second only to IU Health’s—started trying to cut its expenses back in 2009, even before the health
reform law passed. It set a goal to trim $300 million—about 20 percent of expenses—by 2015. Community is more
than one-third of the way toward its goal, progress it achieved by streamlining its supply chain and leaving many vacant positions
unfilled. It is now focusing on cutting waste out of its internal processes.
The city of Indianapolis is poised to pay Citizens Energy Group $6.5 million to buy a 19-acre parcel of real estate it’s
targeting as the centerpiece of a life sciences corridor called 16 Tech. The site at 1220 Waterway Blvd.
would accommodate about 1 million square feet of space for a single tenant or multiple users, said Deron Kintner, executive
director of the Indianapolis Bond Bank. He is promoting the property as an ideal location for the proposed life-sciences-focused
research institute supported by Gov. Mike Pence and Eli Lilly and Co. CEO John Lechleiter. Real estate developers
and brokers say the city’s purchase of the Citizens property could help cement 16 Tech as an attractive option for life
sciences and research firms looking to locate or expand in Indianapolis.
WellPoint Inc.’s top brass all enjoyed double-digit bumps in 2012 compensation, according to a proxy released
April 2, even though the company’s stock price fell and it admittedly did not meet its financial goals. The Indianapolis-based
health insurer’s board approved higher salaries and larger potential stock awards heading into 2012 after most of its
top executives saw their pay hold steady or decline in 2011. The company’s performance merited its executives' receiving
only 83 percent of their target stock awards. But because the board had already established larger pools of stock to award
to executives, the value of those awards still rose over previous years. Bonus amounts fell in 2012 compared with the previous
year. Former CEO Angela Braly received compensation of $20.6 million last year after she was allowed to stay on as an employee
until year's end so that additional stock awards kicked in. WellPoint spokeswoman Kristin Binns said WellPoint achieved
important goals in 2012.
Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business will launch a new MBA program for midcareer physicians in an attempt to help doctors
figure out how to curb the health care industry’s soaring costs. According to Bloomberg News, about 30 students will
join the program in its first year. Their first course will discuss the policy changes coming to health care as a result of
President Obama’s 2010 health reform law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Unlike most MD-MBA programs,
which target medical students, the Business of Medicine MBA is only for currently practicing doctors who are around 40 to
55 years old and are taking on greater accountability for patient outcomes and costs.
Eli Lilly and Co. plans to double the size of a manufacturing plant already under construction
southwest of downtown, investing another $180 million on insulin production and related products. The Indianapolis-based pharmaceutical
giant announced in November that it would spend $140 million to construct an 80,000-square-foot plant for filling cartridges
for insulin-injecting pens. The plant, on South Harding Street, adjoins the existing manufacturing complex known as Lilly
Technology Center. The new $180 million investment would add 84,000 square feet to the project, allowing Lilly to add another
cartridge-filling line, the firm announced Tuesday. The space also would be used to increase Lilly’s manufacturing capacity
for the active ingredient in insulin. About 175 workers will staff the plant once it’s in full operation. The jobs will
be filled by existing and new employees, according to Lilly spokesman Ed Sagebiel. In addition, Lilly is planning several
other projects for its Indianapolis operations totaling $80 million, including a $40 million product-inspection center. The
firm has submitted a request to city officials for a tax abatement on the full $400 million investment, between the two phases
of the new plant and ancillary projects, Sagebiel said. Lilly’s request calls for a 10-year abatement that would save
the firm $30 million. Construction of the production area for insulin’s active ingredient could be complete by December
and in operation by March 2014, according to the company. Work on the additional cartridge filling line could be finished
by 2016.
Johnson & Johnson won approval for the first in a new family of diabetes drugs, giving
the New Jersey-based drugmaker an edge over Eli Lilly and Co. and other rivals developing similar medicines.
On Friday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration cleared the drug, known as canagliflozin, to treat adults with Type 2 diabetes.
It will be sold under the brand name Invokana and may generate as much as $800 million in annual sales, Tony Butler, an analyst
at Barclays Plc in New York, told Bloomberg News. The drug is part of a class called SGLT2 inhibitors, which expel sugar in
the urine after the kidneys filter it out of the blood. Similar drugs are being developed by Indianapolis-based Lilly, Boehringer
Ingelheim GmbH, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and AstraZeneca plc.
Medical claims will rise more than 67 percent—the third-highest rate in the nation—for Indiana residents buying
individual health insurance policies under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, according to a study by the Society of Actuaries. The projected increase is partly
due to sicker people joining the insurance pool. The study says most states will see increases, and assumes every state will
expand its Medicaid program, but that's uncertain in Indiana. The Obama administration says the study ignores subsidies
to help with premiums. Middle-class households can buy subsidized insurance in new marketplaces Oct. 1. The report doesn't
cover employer plans.
Dow AgroSciences LLC will formally open a 175,000-square-foot building on April 10, which will be home to
200 researchers working on plant biotechnology. Dow AgroSciences first announced the $340 million expansion in March 2010, saying it would lead to an additional
577 high-paying jobs over the following five years. The company, which is a subsidiary of Michigan-based Dow Chemical Co.,
said most of the positions would pay $65,000 to $95,000 annually. Dow AgroSciences had sales last year of $6.4 billion, and
produced earnings before taxes, interest, depreciation and amortization of $977 million.
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Laura-the festivals and tastings are free. What does is strengthen the sense of community with activities. What are those empty lots doing for the Village? it's sad you can't see the good that this progress can do for the area. No one is requiring anyone to shop there. I guess you'd rather see a Dollar store move in or no, we'd rather see the property stand empty b/c change is out of the question.
Read down to the part about Brizzi. Someone needs to subpoena his "purchases" of Red RockPictures and Cellstar and his corresponding bank records, I mean c'mon, I'd like to see his alcohol usage records, too. http://diana-vice.blogspot.com/2011_01_01_archive.html
Wonder if my neighborhood can advertise our "retention" pond and act like it is a beach too?
a new record at the '11 salebration until they realized that it was a futile effort to get their crapwagon moter and crapwagon car up speed. And then they just quietly slunk off into the night and never spoke of it again. Nothing to see here folks.
millions for putting a company's bumper sticker on one of its Lolas. But you gotta take what you can get.