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HEALTHCARE
NEWS
Mark Zuckerberg to sell $13B in Facebook stock to
help cure major diseases
By Julie Spitzer
M
ark Zuckerberg is selling $13
billion in Facebook stock to fund
a new goal: curing, preventing
or managing all diseases "in our children's
lifetime," CNBC reported.
Mr. Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan,
MD, run the philanthropic investment group
the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. eir re-
search center, the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub,
funds ambitious young scientists with big
goals, such as Markita Landry, PhD, a chemi-
cal engineer who runs a lab at UC Berkeley
and seeks to develop technology that could
measure the chemistry of the brain.
"As scientists, we tend to think about moving
in increments of weeks or months, but Mark
prompted me to talk about the potential
impact in years or even decades," Dr. Landry
explained.
Last year, Mr. Zuckerberg vowed to sell up
to 75 million shares of Facebook to fund the
initiative. Just this year, he has sold 29 million
shares, adding more than $5.3 billion to CZI.
One of CZI's mission statements is to sup-
port "scientific research to cure, prevent and
manage all diseases in our children's lifetime."
In 2016, Mr. Zuckerberg said "we have a real
shot at preventing, curing or managing" most
diseases in the next 100 years, namely heart
disease, cancer, stroke, and neurodegenerative
and infectious diseases, CNBC reported.
Although some have been sketpictical about
the project's ambitious ideas, CZI employees
say the mission statement guides their work.
Aer all, CZI seeks to take "multiple big
shots on goal, rather than making a single
bet on a person or a disease," said Marc
Malandro, PhD, CZI science team's vice
president of operations.
"I agree that it would be a tough sell if we
were a research institution thinking that we
alone are going to cure, prevent and manage
all disease," said Dr. Malandro. "But what
we're talking about doing is developing data,
enabling scientists, funding scientists and
helping drive culture change around open
science."
Dr. Chan understands CZI's goals may seem
far-fetched, but said the initiative aims to
"focus on empowering scientists with tools
to unlock their work and the field — that
goal could be within our reach."
"We believe that greater collaboration across
science and technology is key to giving
more people an equal shot at living healthy
and prosperous lives," Dr. Chan told CNBC.
"We're proud to play a role in making that
happen." n
Amazon-JPMorgan-Berkshire venture
hires consulting firm: 3 things to know
By Ayla Ellison
T
he healthcare venture formed by Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway
and JPMorgan Chase has tapped Monitor Group, a global con-
sulting firm based in Boston, to help develop its strategy for low-
ering healthcare spending by improving care of chronically ill patients,
a source familiar with the arrangement told STAT.
Here are three things to know:
1. The healthcare venture, announced by the trio of companies on
Jan. 30, aims to lower healthcare costs for their combined 1.2 million
employees. To bend the cost curve, the company, led by Atul Gawande,
MD, must make it easier for chronically ill employees to access care and
select cost-effective providers, according to the report.
2. Monitor Group, the business consulting division of Deloitte, helps
companies identify services and technologies that will help them con-
nect with their customers. The consulting giant could help Dr. Gawande
bring down long-term healthcare costs for Amazon, JPMorgan and
Berkshire Hathaway by identifying the interventions most likely to get
buy-in from the companies' chronically ill workers, and by evaluating
the most promising technology solutions, a source told STAT. Monitor
Group executives and Dr. Gawande declined to discuss the details of
their collaboration, according to the report.
3. In addition to working with Monitor Group, the healthcare venture
recently hired Jack Stoddard to fill its COO position. Mr. Stoddard most
recently served as Comcast's general manager for digital health. n
Cyberattack forces
Indiana hospital to
cancel elective surgeries,
divert ambulances
By Julie Spitzer
L
utheran Hospital in Fort Wayne, Ind.,
canceled all remaining elective sur-
geries around 4:30 p.m. Sept. 18, after
its IT team discovered a computer virus,
wane.com reported.
The Lutheran Health Network IT staff
stopped the virus in the afternoon, but
phones and computers were "taken down"
as a precaution, according to the report.
In addition to canceling its remaining elec-
tive cases for the day, the hospital diverted
incoming ambulances elsewhere. All
canceled surgeries will be rescheduled, the
spokesperson told wane.com.
The attack affected all Lutheran Health Net-
work facilities, but Lutheran Hospital was
the only facility put on ambulance diver-
sion. n
