Posts from — May 2008

Many people in the healthcare industry do not know the company DCC. What they should know however is that it is a very successful €5 billion business services and distribution company based in Ireland. While a small part of overall revenues, their healthcare business has revenues approaching €300 million making it very significant in the space in which it operates.

The healthcare business boasts year on year revenue growth in excess of 20% and an impressive average annual operating profit of 17% over the last 5 years. Their three business groupings within heathcare are Mobility and Rehab (which operates primarily in Europe and Australia with the Days Healthcare, Physio-Med and Metron brands), Fannin (Ireland’s leading distributor as well as a UK operation) and the Health and Beauty sector(outsourced solutions - largely nutraceuticals).
Jim Flavin CEO - founder and primary driver behind the company, has just announced his resignation over a long ongoing and hotly contested dispute concerning the sale of shares in Fyffes, a company that Jim Flavin was a board member of way back in 2000.

DCC has appointed Tommy Breen Chief executive and Michael Buckley, non-executive Chairman with immediate effect.

There is considerable speculation as to what their future strategy will be. As recent as May 19, Flavin had announced in the preliminary year end results that

As previously announced, an important part of my responsibilities as Executive Chairman is to lead a reappraisal of our overall strategic direction so that DCC is best positioned for sustainable long-term growth. This process is ongoing and I plan to put recommendations before the Board by the end of the current financial year.

There is much speculation in the investment community about what this means including an estimate that breaking up the businesses could yield in excess of a billion euros for shareholders.

In the heady days of Medicare cost cuts, national competitive bidding, healthcare industry protests, the political healthcare reform proposals of Clinton, Obama, McCain – as well as the Michael Moore take on all these things – here is a cost cutting solution from the prosperous central European country – the Czech Republic.

Formally free doctor visits for patients are now $1.85, the same for prescriptions, and a hospital stay is about $3.60 per day. (Comparison for US readers – a gallon of gas costs upwards of $8).

There is an annual cap of $300 for the patient fee. Of course the indigent are treated for free anyway (why wouldn’t they be).

The result is that prescriptions have fallen 40%, the public insurer (read Medicare equivalent) has saved $100 million and providers have increased revenues by $62 million in the first three months of the new program.

Health care fees trouble Eastern Europe

Both events are conveniently located in Paris this year.

May 27 - 30, 2008

Hopitalexpo-Intermedica is a combined meeting of the FFH (French Hospital Federation) which represents 2000 major hospitals in France and Intermedica which is composed of the major national trade organizations.

June 11 - 13, 2008

Autonomic is a trade and consumer meeting which focuses more on the growing homecare sector.

Contact Frank Barlin at Sibaya Healthcare.

Guest blogger Arnon Krongrad, MD

What do these people have in common: 1) a 39-y old stay-at-home mom in Florida, 2) a web master in Melbourne Australia, 3) a gay Broadway producer, 4) the Clinical Director of Psycho-Oncology at the Winship Cancer Center at Emory University, and 5) a dentist in Ottawa? They are all new members of the New Prostate Cancer InfoLink social network.

Prostate cancer is a global problem with no apparent global solution. It is also a chronic and multi-faceted clinical challenge. Be it matters of early detection or treatment selection or management of clinical complications and loss of partner intimacy, there is more to consider than any one doctor or specialist can. Moreover, with the numbing quantity of online information, there is more than any single site can efficiently deliver. Patients drown in useless information while seeking the bit that relates to them.

To address what we perceived a poorly constructed online delivery, we recently resurrected what in 1995 was launched as the world’s first prostate cancer web site, the Prostate Cancer InfoLink. We kept its best parts, including the simple articles and interactive “Ask Arthur,” and launched the new version with modern tools: blog, syndication, and social network.

The New Prostate Cancer InfoLink sites bring friendly interactive mechanisms for helping the individual man and his partners and friends. For example, the “Ask Arthur” has been expanded to be Ask Arthur, Ask Amy, and Ask Arnon, which represents 50 man-years of prostate cancer experience. The social network has uniquely brought together urologists, radiation oncologists, psychiatrists, writers and more. Discussion has been thoughtful and in many cases supremely well informed.

We’re new in existence and new in concept. Please have a look. And if you run a web site or blog, please post links to:

http://prostatecancerinfolink.net articles, blog, and online support

http://prostatecancerinfolink.ning.com social network

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Guest blogger Arnon Krongrad, MD, is Founder and Medical Director of the Krongrad Institute for Minimally Invasive Prostate Cancer Surgery and co-Founder of the New Prostate Cancer InfoLink.