Massachusetts has the dubious distinction of spending the most money on healthcare per person of anywhere in the world. At the Mass Technology Leadership Council healthcare community meeting on Tuesday, April 24, "The Need for Technology Solutions for Providers Under Payment Reform", held at WilmerHale in Waltham, MA, keynote speaker Sarah Iselin, President of the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation, reviewed some of the startling facts and figures related to healthcare coverage and costs, such as this one.


CodeRyte, a healthcare industry leader in clinical Natural Language Processing (NLP) and computer-assisted coding, was acquired by 3M for an undisclosed amount last week. CodeRyte helps physicians and coders deliver fast, accurate, and complete coding information immediately through its advanced NLP technology. Its products include CodeAssist, CodeComplete, DataScout, and Health System Coding.

At the Microsoft New England Research and Development Center last Wednesday evening, software innovators came together for a series of presentations and conversation about the opportunity for technology and design to effect positive change in healthcare.

For Immediate Release
BETHESDA, Maryland (U.S.) - March 30, 2012 - CodeRyte, the leading and fastest growing Natural Language Processing (NLP) and computer-assisted coding supplier in healthcare, is partnering with Involution Studios for the user experience design of its ground breaking health system coding software. CodeRyte’s sophisticated NLP technology streamlines the coding process and identifies clinically relevant information about medical records. The highly innovative, end-to-end health system solution offers a full picture of patient care over the lifecycle of treatment. CodeRyte recently extended its long-term collaboration with Involution, so that the software design consultancy can remain on board through the product launch and beyond.

"Working with Involution as our design partner, we are completely re-imagining the Health System Coding product, and taking a fresh look at how it can be extended to get the most out of its substantial vision. Involution's experience in cutting edge technology and healthcare software design makes them the perfect choice for CodeRyte. Their team has been absolutely integral to our efforts to create a highly usable, useful, and robust experience," said George Moon, CodeRyte Vice President.

At Involution, as a part of our commitment to learning and growing as a company, we conduct semi-regular studio critiques. This kind of critique is important to our ongoing evolution as an organization and helps everyone, from leadership to staff, understand the broad vision and values of the studio. As a part of that ongoing discussion, we're drafting a set of principles that we believe apply to great companies, especially great design companies. Some of these principles are inspired by "Achieving Excellence in Your Design Practice" by Stuart Rose. While the book was first written in 1987 for architectural firms, the principles within it apply to modern design practices in the digital and software realms, as well. Here, then, are nine principles we believe are characteristic of great companies.

On Thursday, the US Senate passed the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act (73-26), which allows start-up companies for the first time to solicit early stage investments from the general public. The Senate version added some protections and requirements to the original bill previously passed by the House on March 8. For instance, in the Senate version, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will now have the authority to review and register Web sites that wish to act as start-up investment platforms. Start-ups can raise up to $1 million via this crowdfunding method, with individual investments limited to a range of $2,000 - $100,000, depending on annual income.

One of my all time favorite books on innovation and the ecosystems that support it is Richard Florida's "The Rise of the Creative Class". Using census and economic data, Florida examines the factors that make Creative Class jobs — in science, engineering, technology, architecture, and the arts — primary drivers for economic growth. He also identifies a number of Creative Class cities that have the right kind of assets — like a strong university system, technological infrastructure, and a tolerant culture — to attract talent and support this kind of economic activity. Boston, of course rates high in Florida's evaluation. And even though Florida published this book in 2002, I think the analysis holds true today: There's no question that Boston is a top-notch Creative Class city. What's most interesting, however, is how Boston, over the past few years, has gained recognition as a world class city for innovation.

A recent study published by The Economist ranked Boston as the 10th most competitive city in the world, out of 120 major cities examined. For the study, the Economist defined competitiveness as "the demonstrated ability to attract capital, businesses, talent and visitors." And last year, Boston ranked number one on the Innovation Cities Index.

A few hours ago GigaOm published an article declaring "Marketing is the next big money sector in technology". In the first paragraph, the author, Ajay Agarwal of Bain Capital Ventures, sets up the future of the industry this way: "For the first time in history, businesses can leverage big data for the benefit of driving marketing insights. We are at the very beginning of this wave, but this fundamental shift will create several multi-billion dollar winners. And a set of technology companies will emerge as the marketing equivalents of Salesforce and SAP."

Earlier this week, we released our Predicting Major League Baseball 2012 interactive information visualization with our picks for the playoffs this year. The visualization made its debut in the inaugural post on our recently launched channel on BostInno.

Yesterday, the Mass Technology Leadership Council — which represents a wide range of Massachusetts industries, including energy, robotics, software, life sciences and healthcare — held its annual meeting at the Hyatt Regency in Cambridge. The event featured a keynote on the Council's vision for 2012, a comparative research report from the Mass Technology Collaborative, a state of the US economy from The Parthenon Group's Chief Economist Roger Brinner, and a fireside chat, featuring a colorful and candid interview with Intuit Chairman Bill Campbell by Fast Company founder Bill Taylor.

One of the themes to come out of the MassTLC annual meeting was the idea that, in order to drive innovation in the Boston area, we should encourage risk taking in the funding of new companies. While not all new companies will survive infancy, the odds are in our favor that one of the wild business ideas of today will not only survive, but thrive in a spectacular fashion. After all, it's no secret that Facebook began here, but was unable to put down roots. Today, Facebook is a dominating worldwide presence, but at the beginning, it needed nurturing and support. Making seed funding available to early stage companies is paramount to the Boston region accelerating as a hub of innovation.