How big data will transform politics, education and just about everything else

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Big data requires big thinkers. And some of Seattle’s top minds — from University of Washington computer scientist Oren Etzioni to Context Relevant CEO Stephen Purpura to Amazon.com’s Charlie Bell — turned out this week as Madrona Venture Group hosted a round table discussion on the topic with authors Viktor Mayer-Schonberger and Kenneth Cukier. Madrona’s Matt McIlwain,… Read More…

Qliance raises $8M, opens new clinic on Expedia campus

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Qliance Medical, the Seattle health services startup backed by venture capitalist Nick Hanauer; Zillow Chairman Rich Barton; comedian Drew Carey; Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos; and others, has raised $8.6 million in venture capital financing, GeekWire has learned. Total funding in Qliance now stands at $27.6 million, with the 50-person company possibly raising a little more… Read More…

Geek of the Week: Dr. Rebecca Gardner is reprogramming blood cells to kill cancer

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Dr. Rebecca Gardner and her colleagues at Seattle Children’s Research Institute are altering the body’s infection-fighting blood cells to attack cancer in the same way those cells fight viruses. The researchers take a patient’s blood, reprogram the T-cells, and infuse the blood back into the body to find and destroy cancer. How’s that for a… Read More…

Expedia to open onsite health clinic in partnership with Qliance

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Employers pay a lot to recruit and retain skilled workers. Now, at Expedia they are going the extra step to make sure they stay healthy. The Bellevue online travel giant announced today that it plans to open a new health clinic early next year in partnership with Qliance, providing easy access to medical care on… Read More…

Healthcare marketing upstart Appature lands $6.1 million from Madrona and Ignition

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Appature has been undergoing what CEO Kabir Shahani describes as a “pretty dramatic growth curve” in the past year, growing monthly recurring revenues more than 12X since raising its last round of funding. Now, the Seattle maker of online marketing software is putting a little more fuel in the tank. Existing investors Madrona Venture Group… Read More…

Healthcare Reform: Why today’s Supreme Court ruling is great news for startups

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No matter which side of the aisle you sit on*, today’s ruling by the Supreme Court to uphold the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare, is a big deal for the healthcare industry, but it’s also a big deal for startups. It’s actually a very positive outcome for startups. No, I’m not talking about health-related startups,… Read More…

Health care via house calls and Webcams: Carena lands $14 million to make it a reality

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The next time your ear aches or stomach hurts, you might not drive to the doctor’s office or head to the ER. Instead, you could just fire up the laptop or tablet computer. Or, better yet, have a physician visit you in the nearly forgotten medical practice of the house call. That’s the promise of… Read More…

Tech Moves: Uber’s Broderick on the move; Qliance names COO; F5 execs get new gigs; etc.

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Michelle Broderick has been promoted to lead the global marketing efforts for Uber, the fast-growing private driver service backed by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, Menlo Ventures, Goldman Sachs and others. Broderick had served as general manager of the Seattle region, and the company is currently looking to hire her replacement. Broderick said she’ll remain in Seattle…. Read More…

New details on Caradigm, Microsoft’s joint venture with GE — and yes, that’s the name

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Microsoft and General Electric this morning confirmed that they’ve given the name “Caradigm” to their new health-technology joint venture, and announced the Microsoft and GE executives who will be making the switch to lead the new company. The name Caradigm had surfaced earlier in trademark filings, but the companies hadn’t previously confirmed it. So where… Read More…

Caradigm? Microsoft and GE signal potential name for health-care initiatives

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Microsoft and General Electric, which last month announced plans to form a new health-care technology company, have filed a series of trademark applications for the word “Caradigm” — laying claim to the name for a wide range of health-care products and services. The companies said at the time of their announcement that the joint venture… Read More…

HP to sell Vioguard’s self-sanitizing computer keyboard

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Less than a month after receiving FDA approval for its self-sanitizing keyboard, Vioguard today announced an agreement with Hewlett-Packard to market and sell the device through its HP’s healthcare technology group. The keyboard from the Kirkland-based startup can be retracted automatically into an enclosure to be bathed in germicidal ultraviolet light from two 25-watt fluorescent lamps. The… Read More…

Self-sanitizing keyboard wins FDA nod for healthcare use

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Vioguard, a company started by two Microsoft Hardware veterans and their business partners, says it has received U.S. Food & Drug Administration approval for use of its self-sanitizing computer keyboard in hospitals and other healthcare settings. The keyboard can be retracted automatically into an enclosure to be bathed in germicidal ultraviolet light from two 25-watt fluorescent lamps…. Read More…

Nick Hanauer-backed Qliance raises cash to expand clinics

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Qliance is looking to transform the way Americans receive their health care, certainly no easy task. And now the Seattle company has reeled in some extra cash to help tackle the problem. Qliance, which operates primary health care clinics in the Puget Sound area, has raised $3.1 million of a $10 million venture capital round,… Read More…

Hanauer-backed health care provider Qliance appoints CEO

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Qliance Medical Management, a Seattle company that operates primary health care clinics in the Puget Sound area, has appointed Erika Bliss as president and CEO. She replaces Norm Wu who co-founded the company in 2006. Wu plans to continue with Qliance as an adviser, focusing on strategic partnerships and other growth efforts. The company has… Read More…

Jeff Bezos-backed Qliance to expand health care clinics

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Qliance, an operator of health care clinics in which members pay monthly fees for primary and preventive care, is expanding operations in the Seattle area with a new clinic slated to open in Tacoma this October and an existing primary practice in Mill Creek now operating as an affiliate of the company. Backed by Amazon.com… Read More…

Seattle Children’s lands $2.3M Gates Foundation grant for innovative respiratory device

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Seattle Children’s Research Institute has secured a $2.3 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to finish developing the prototype for an innovative, low-cost respiratory device designed to support breathing in infants born prematurely. The device is intriguing in part because it’s expected to be significantly cheaper than conventional ventilators to produce, operate and maintain…. Read More…

Liberty Dialysis to sell for $1.7B

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Liberty Dialysis Holdings, a Mercer Island company that operates 260 dialysis clinics across the country, has entered into an agreement to be sold to Germany’s Fresenius Medical Care for $1.7 billion. Liberty Dialysis, which merged with Renal Advantage last year to become the third largest operator of dialysis facilities in the U.S., has annual sales of… Read More…

Wireless power for heart pumps: Medical breakthrough from UW researchers

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Here’s an innovation that might just make Dick Cheney smile. Researchers from the University of Washington and University of Pittsburgh Medical Center are testing a wireless power transmission system that can be used to recharge mechanical heart pumps without a cord sticking out of the patient’s belly. The former vice president is perhaps the most famous… Read More…

The future of health care, as imagined by a tech design firm

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The Industrial Designers Society of America handed out its annual IDEA product design awards this week, and one of the projects that was recognized came from an unlikely place: Seattle Children’s Hospital. The prototype patient information system created for the hospital by Seattle-based technology product design firm Artefact is designed to work on iPad, mobile devices… Read More…

Technical difficulties delay live online knee surgery

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Doctors need reliable equipment in the operating room. But one piece of technology — albeit a minor one — failed early this morning as doctors at the Swedish Orthopedic Institute were prepping to broadcast one of the first live online knee replacement surgeries. The online broadcasting channel that the hospital had set up at Ustream… Read More…