Much of the discussion at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco is centered around making investments in medical breakthroughs. On Tuesday, athenahealth CEO Jonathan Bush got more hands on.
A person familiar with the situation said the man had suffered an apparent heart attack outside of Walgreens on Mission and 1st streets and had been down for a few minutes when Bush saw him. In a fireside chat at the StartUp Health Festival, Bush was questioned about the incident.
He was apparently on his way to a meeting with Merck when he saw a group of people gathered around the man pictured above.
“It was a lot like the healthcare industry: a lot of people were standing around tweeting about it but no one was trying to do anything about this guy lying in the street. So I was like, “Turn him the fuck over!”
Bush, who once worked as an emergency medical technician in New Orleans, said he administered CPR to help resuscitate him. The man started breathing again and stopped and started again. The paramedics arrived five minutes later.
The condition of the man was not known when this post was published.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
We will update this story as soon as we get new information.
Photo: athenahealth
