| “It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver." -- Mahatma Gandhi
Today’s issue:
January 28, 2020  HEALTH-TECH RESEARCH  Improving the odds: Using data to lower premature baby rates According to the March of Dimes, 9.9% of babies in the United States are born prematurely, which can have profound implications on both healthcare costs and quality of life. What’s more, says Kevin Bramer, president and CEO of Lucina Health, “We’re the only country in the civilized world that’s actually getting worse on maternal and fetal mortality; we have on an annualized basis over 700 moms and over 33,000 babies die during childbirth.”
Bramer’s Louisville-based company is working to improve those statistics. It mines health plans’ data, looking for more than 3,000 data points that identify pregnant members early and 7,000 more data points—everything from drug abuse to mental-health issues to domestic violence—that could indicate a high-risk pregnancy.
(On January 13, Lucina Health's assets were acquired by United Women's Healthcare to support their mission of transforming women's healthcare.)
Louisville Future caught up with Kevin Bramer to learn more. This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and conciseness.
What’s the impact of premature birth?
Bramer: The [neonatal intensive care unit] can be up to $5,000 a day. So when you equate it financially, it can get quite expensive for a baby that ends up in the NICU for 30 or 60 or 90 days. But there are lifetime implications, such as neurological deformation, pulmonary dysfunction, cardiovascular dysfunction, etc., that even adults deal with sometimes.
Talk about non-medical risk factors.
Bramer: Up in Warsaw, IN, for example, they have a 17% mortality rate for African American moms. It’s not because they’re African American; it’s because of elements of social trauma, substance abuse, mental-health issues, and inability to get to the grocery store and the doctor’s office.
How successful is Lucina Health at identifying expectant moms?
Bramer: We find 86% of all moms in the first and second trimester—usually about 50+% of those moms in the first trimester. In many cases we know before the physician even knows and certainly before the health plan knows. Believe it or not, health plans sometimes don’t even know a mom is going through their system. Yes, claims are paid. Yes, office visits are held. But the company really doesn’t know that Mom is at certain risk and doesn’t do anything about it.
What do you do with your results?
Bramer: We flag those moms who are in the top 10% to 15%. That information becomes readily available to the care manager at the health plan so that they’re focusing all their attention on those moms who are at the highest risk.
Why locate your company in Louisville?
Bramer: I’m from Louisville and fortunately was able to start at Norton Healthcare and learn a lot from some really amazing clinicians and managers. Louisville offers a real opportunity for that kind of learning, because we have a strong healthcare market, especially with Humana, Kindred Healthcare, and the Louisville Healthcare CEO Council. We’ve got a wealth of talent in this market around data science and data analytics that is a bit untapped.
Any final words?
The reason we’re so passionate about this business is that it’s not just an investment. This is a mission-driven company that has a real passion around changing the world.
For more information, visit www.lucinahealth.com. Good news about immunotherapy and cancer Dr. Jason Chesney, director of University of Louisville’s James Graham Brown Cancer Center, has dedicated his career to making cancer a thing of the past.
Nine US patents for new cancer therapies list Chesney as an inventor, two of which are central to ongoing Phase I clinical trials of new drugs available currently to advanced cancer patients.
Chesney believes that for certain forms of cancer, immunotherapy can be very successful, stating, “I think that someday we won’t have to do surgery anymore,” he said. “It’s pretty remarkable what we’re seeing in melanoma.”
A combination of chemotherapy with immunotherapy has shown promising results among patients with triple negative advanced breast cancer.
Pfizer Inc. designates UofL its first Center of Excellence  Staff Phto The University of Louisville has been designated as the first Center of Excellence by Pfizer Vaccines and will be collaborating on research to related to vaccine-preventable diseases affecting adults, particularly the elderly, worldwide.
Pfizer selected UofL because its exceptional capabilities for “conducting population-based surveillance and clinical research that engages multiple health care facilities, health care personnel, industry and communities-at-large.” UofL president Neeli Benapudi said during the press conference, “This collaboration will provide increased visibility for the university on a global scale, making UofL attractive for high-caliber researchers and research grants.” Two of the research initiatives that have launched so far are:
For more information, visit https://www.ceridlouisville.org/research. Rehydrating freeze-dried blood In a series of experiments sponsored by NASA, U of L researchers are working on ways to ensure astronauts have access to medical care while they’re on long-range space missions.
The UofL researchers Michael Menze, Ph.D., associate professor of biology, and Jonathan Kopechek, Ph.D., assistant professor of bioengineering, are specifically looking at ways to rehydrate dried red blood cells in a weightless environment. The group completed over 50 weightless cycles during two flights aboard a ZERO-G aircraft. ZERO-G is a privately owned company that has modified a Boeing 727 jet to create a weightless environment.
The UofL team has developed several methods for drying blood so it can be stored for long periods of time without refrigeration. Then the blood can be rehydrated using sterile water. (Current methods for storing blood require constant refrigeration, which means the blood can only be stored for six weeks.)
Dr. Mentz worked with George Pantalos, who is a professor in the Department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery. Dr. Pantalos customized a glovebox enclosure for his research for these experiments. You can watch a video about the project here. A HAND UP FOR STARTUPS Access Ventures launches regional capital fund
Access Ventures, a Louisville venture capital firm, has announced Render Capital, a new fund that will provide capital for Louisville and Southern Indiana startups. Access and Render focus on inclusivity by providing access to capital to those who have historically been left out. Render Capital will invest $2.5 million in the local community in 2020.
Joining forces for Louisville entrepreneurs In a partnership that will allow startups access to programming and resources to help start-ups, LEAP (Louisville Entrepreneurship Acceleration Partnership) and Story, a collaborative community that provides spaces for people and companies to connect, hope to boost Louisville’s entrepreneurship.
Funded by the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development, LEAP is public-private partnership between University of Louisville, Louisville Healthcare CEO Council and XLerate Health.
Will Metcalf, chairman of the LEAP board and executive director of research development and strategic initiatives at the University of Louisville, said "this is a natural partnership, allowing both LEAP and Story to do even more for innovation in Louisville. We’re two organizations with complementary strengths and, together, we‘re even stronger.” THE SCRAPBOOK We publish Scrapbook each week because we believe the best way to envision our future is with a good understanding of where we've been. We hope you enjoy our fascinating "look back!"
This week we check out the McAlpine Locks and Dam at the Falls of the Ohio. The first picture is from the 1980s and the second is today. The hydroelectric plant is owned and operated by Louisville Gas & Electric, a subsidiary of PPL Corporation while the locks are operated by the Army Corps of Engineers.
You can watch a video from the Corps of Engineers about the McAlpine Locks and Dam.
 Top image courtesy William Alden III Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY-NC-SA)  Staff Photo
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