Daily check up: Medicine and pharma on the Globe 100 list

Print | Comments () Posted by Chelsea Conaboy May 23, 2011 08:25 AM

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By Chelsea Conaboy, Globe Staff

The Globe 100: Nine medical device manufacturers made the Globe's annual ranking of publicly-held Massachusetts companies based on sales, profits and returns to shareholders. Covidien of Mansfield topped that group, with $10.6 billion in revenue and a 75 percent in profit margin. Harvard Bioscience based in Holliston was the leader among eight biotechnology companies on the list. It reported $108 million in revenue last year and a 108 percent increase in profit margin. Henri Termeer, retired chief executive officer of Genzyme Corp. in Cambridge, was recognized as an innovative leader in biotech and pharmaceuticals. Endocrinologist Scott Chappel, chief scientific officer at Tokai Pharmaceuticals, and Dr. Dennis Selkoe, a neurologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital, were also noted as innovators. And in medicine, Dr. Atul Guwande, a writer and surgeon at Brigham and Women's Hospital, was recognized for his influence in the national health care debate and for efforts to reduce deaths and complications from surgery through checklists. The work of Dr. Daniel Haber, director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, and Dr. John Frangioni, co-director of the Center for Molecular Imaging at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, was also highlighted.

A (good) death panel: Dr. Suzanne Koven of Massachusetts General Hospital writes in her column this morning about how medical students are taught more about rare diseases they never see than about a condition that every patient must eventually face: death. Though the issue is mired in politics, she said, doctors and other hospital staff can do a lot to help patients and their families face death.

Roxbury health center chosen in national program: Whittier Street Health Center is one of 24 health centers in the country that will be part of a program aimed at reducing the disparities in care for patients with HIV. Roxbury has among the highest rates of new HIV cases, reports Miriam Valverde for the Globe. The program will provide screening, testing and patient navigation tools to keep patients connected to care.

Ban on nonprofit board pay pinned to budget: A plan by Attorney General Martha Coakley to ban payment for people who sit on the boards of nonprofits, including health insurers, could take effect as soon as July 1 if the Senate approves an amendment to the state budget, Christine McConville of the Boston Herald reports. The issue was spotlighted two months ago when it was reported that board members who gave Blue Cross Blue Shield's departing chief an $11 million payout were being compensated as much as $90,000 per year.

A few good men, for therapy: Benedict Carey of the New York Times has an interesting look at how the shrinking number of male psychologists affects men who are looking for therapy. David Moultrup, a psychotherapist in Belmont, told Carey, the "male viewpoint has been so devalued in the course of empowering little girls for the past 40 or 50 years that it is now all but lost in talk therapy. Society needs to have the choice, and the choice is being taken away.”

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About white coat notes

White Coat Notes covers the latest from the health care industry, hospitals, doctors offices, labs, insurers, and the corridors of government. Chelsea Conaboy previously covered health care for The Philadelphia Inquirer. Write her at cconaboy@boston.com. Follow her on Twitter: @cconaboy.

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