Is 'conscious capitalism' the future of venture capital? (Morning Read)

Highlights of the important and the interesting from the world of healthcare:

Is “conscious capitalism” the future of venture capital? It is if you ask Silicon Valley lawyer John Montgomery, who’s launching a column on the topic for peHUB. For those unfamiliar with the term, Montgomery lists three key principles of conscious capitalism: Recognizing that a company has a higher “meta-purpose” than just generating profits, delivering value to a wide swath of stakeholders beyond just the traditional management and shareholders and viewing the CEO as a “steward” who must work for the benefit of all those stakeholders.

Montgomery doesn’t really make a convincing case for why conscious capitalism is the future of the VC industry (merely saying that the current VC model is “broken” won’t cut it), but we’ll give him a pass for now and expect him to further develop the theme in future postings.

Health IT

Reducing Clinical and Staff Burnout with AI Automation

As technology advances, AI-powered tools will increasingly reduce the administrative burdens on healthcare providers.

By Dr. Michael Blackman, Chief Medical Officer at Greenway Health

Gates foundation gets out of healthcare: The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, with assets of $7.5 billion, has sold off nearly all its healthcare holdings. That includes numerous companies, such as Eli Lilly, Schering-Plough, Allos Therapeutics and Intermune. Exactly what that means is tough to say, but at the very least, it looks like the Foundation has little confidence in the financial performance of the industry in the coming years.

Ignorance and neglect: That’s what causes most catheter-related bloodstream infections, which lead to about 30,000 annual deaths in hospitals. Evidence suggests hospital workers could all but eliminate the infections by following a five-step checklist that is “stunningly basic.”

PhRMA’s new chief: It’s former Business Roundtable CEO John Castellani. For Castellani it looks like a step up in terms of lobbying muscle, if first-quarter expenditures are any indication. PhRMA spent $7 million on lobbying in the quarter, while the Roundtable ponied up just $2.3 million.

Big health “shakeup” in England: As it pursues likely ill-advised austerity measures advocated by newly elected conservative leaders, the British government is embarking on a “radical pro-market shakeup” of the country’s health system that would allow hospitals to exit public ownership.