Silicon Valley venture pioneer Bill Draper will get a lifetime achievement award from the National Venture Capital Association next month.

The honor is one of several that Valley firms and VCs are up for at the group's annual leadership gala at the Rosewood Sand Hill in Menlo Park on March 8.
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All three finalists for the Excellence in Healthcare Innovation Award are from outside of the Bay Area — Annie Lamont of New York-based Oak HC/FT, Jack Lasersohn of the The Vertical Group in New Jersey and Mark Levin of Third Rock Ventures in Boston.

Read More: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2017/02/23/bill-draper-vc-association-awards-ross-jaffe-award.html OR ​https://nvcaleadershipgala.wordpress.com/ 

Digital diabetes management company Omada Health has brought on federal policy veteran Lucia Savage as their new Chief Privacy and Regulatory Officer. Savage, who previously worked as Chief Privacy Officer at the Office of the National Coordinator for IT, will lead Omada’s legal and compliance team. In her new role, Savage will lead Omada’s regulatory strategy and ensure the privacy and security of the platform users’ personal health information. She will also work to advance Omada’s integration with EHRs and other patient record systems, in the aim to bring the company further into clinical processes.

Read More: http://www.mobihealthnews.com/content/former-onc-privacy-officer-joins-omada-health-instagrams-product-head-lends-expertise-strava

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Feb. 13, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- OncoMed Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:OMED), a clinical-stage company focused on discovering and developing novel anti-cancer stem cell and immuno-oncology therapeutics, today announced it has enrolled and dosed the first patient in a Phase 1b clinical trial of its anti-DLL4/VEGF bispecific antibody (OMP-305B83) in combination with paclitaxel in patients with platinum-resistant ovarian cancer.  OncoMed's anti-DLL4/VEGF bispecific antibody is designed to have anti-angiogenic, anti-cancer stem cell and immuno-modulatory activity.

The Phase 1b multicenter, open-label, dose-escalation and expansion trial is designed to assess the safety, preliminary efficacy, immunogenicity, pharmacokinetics and biomarker effects of the anti-DLL4/VEGF bispecific antibody plus paclitaxel.  OncoMed expects to enroll approximately 30 patients with platinum-resistant ovarian cancer (including fallopian tube or primary peritoneal cancers) who have previously received bevacizumab (Avastin®, anti-VEGF) and/or have failed at least two prior therapies. The Phase 1b trial of anti-DLL4/VEGF antibody in patients with ovarian cancer is being conducted at five clinical sites in the United States.

Read More: ​http://investor.shareholder.com/oncomed/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=1011562

Today’s medical therapy is tough competition, but new devices for use in CAS might tip the balance toward endovascular therapy, experts say.

HOLLYWOOD, FL—What with no distinct advantage for carotid artery stenting (CAS) over carotid endarterectomy (CEA)—and today’s availability of more aggressive medical therapy—it is unclear which approach to revascularization holds an edge, experts said last week at the International Symposium on Endovascular Therapy (ISET) 2017. But it may be that tweaking certain aspects of CAS devices tips the scales.

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“I believe the outlook of CAS is bright because of three advances that are currently on the horizon that may decrease strokes.” These include better embolic protection devices with cessation or reversal of flow (eg, Medtronic’s Mo.Ma device), cervical access to avoid the aortic arch and reverse flow (eg, Silk Road Medical’s ENROUTE system), and membrane or mesh-covered stents to stop delayed strokes, Veith said.

Read More: https://www.tctmd.com/news/gains-carotid-stenting-technology-could-increase-treatments-appeal

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. — Foot-dragging by CMS and disagreements among professional societies are the most common reasons cited for why reimbursement for carotid stenting is limited in the United States, but there are more factors in play, a panel of experts said during a roundtable at the International Symposium on Endovascular Therapy.

Turf wars between vascular surgeons, neurologists and interventional cardiologists and radiologists have played a role in restricting reimbursement for carotid stenting in patients with carotid stenosis, according to Barry T. Katzen, MD, chief medical executive, Miami Cardiac and Vascular Institute, clinical professor of radiology and surgery at Florida International University Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine, Miami, and founder of ISET.

However, Katzen said, this may be changing.

“What drove a lot of the turf issues earlier was a question of shifting from vascular surgery to somebody else,” he said. “The most recent trials have been done in a space that’s multidisciplinary and everybody’s engaged to one extent or another. Has there been enough of a change in the culture to present a different face to CMS?”

Vascular surgeons have traditionally expressed concern that carotid stenting confers risk for stroke, but many have embraced newer technologies designed to address those concerns, particularly the transcarotid artery revascularization procedure (Enroute Transcarotid Stent and Enroute Transcarotid Neuroprotection System, Silk Road Medical), said Thomas G.Brott, MD, professor of neurology and director for research at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida.
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“I think that’s changed the playing field,” Brott said.

Read More: http://www.healio.com/cardiac-vascular-intervention/cerebrovascular/news/online/%7Bf0ef067f-9ac5-44c4-8f34-c543c3fa0c41%7D/experts-debate-reimbursement-accreditation-for-carotid-stenting

Omada Health is among the first digital health companies to receive reimbursement from the U.S. federal government for its online diabetes prevention program. Omada is aimed at the roughly 86 million Americans with prediabetes. The government support is a big step forward for chronic disease prevention: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has always reimbursed for screening diabetes, but not for companies and providers that help prevent the progression of the disease altogether. CMS's decision is also a big deal for other digital therapeutic startups, which essentially take established offline programs and bring them online to make them accessible for more patients.

Read More: ​https://www.fastcompany.com/company/omada-health

Sean Duffy admits he’s been a health geek since he was a teenager. His obsession drew him to study neuroscience at Columbia University and it continued to pull at him even after he went to work at Google. In 2009, he decided to pursue a joint MD/MBA degree at Harvard. Between his first and second year, he served as health wellness domain specialist at the design firm IDEO. He realized during that summer the healthcare technology world was missing a vital element: design.

Sean decided to change that. During his internship at IDEO, Sean’s assignment was to identify an intervention with strong clinical backing, and worked in a face-to-face setting. The NIH’s Diabetes Prevention Program Study intervention was chosen to translate, enhance and move into the digital space. All of which led Sean to found Omada Health, a pioneer in the field of digital therapeutics that operates at the intersection of science, technology and design. He set out on a mission to design highly engaging, effective ways to inspire lasting behavior change in those at risk of chronic disease.

Read More: ​https://www.nvp.com/blog/using-technology-design-tackle-chronic-disease/

Using wireless devices that can track patients’ weight and diet, Utah's largest health system is trying to prevent the onset of diabetes among patients at a higher risk for the disease.

Intermountain Healthcare in Salt Lake City has partnered with digital therapeutics company Omada Health to identify patients with prediabetes and provide them with tools to track their weight and diet, according to AMA Wire. The program builds on previous efforts by the health system to enroll patients in classes that emphasize lifestyle changes.

The new partnership, which incorporates wireless scales and an online personal health coach, gives physicians more information about a patient’s habits while providing real-time resources for those with prediabetes. A study published last year that was sponsored by Omada showed digital tools can help achieve weight loss and reduce the risk of diabetes.

Read More: http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/it/intermountain-uses-digital-tools-to-intervene-patients-prediabetes

Remedy Pharmaceuticals, a privately-held, clinical stage pharmaceutical company focused on developing and bringing lifesaving treatments to people affected by acute central nervous system (CNS) edema, has released its 2016 year-in-review report.

Read More: http://www.remedypharmaceuticals.com/uploads/7/1/7/3/71731607/remedy2016report.pdf