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Volume 17 • Issue 4 • $5.00 October 2020
THE REGION’S MONTHLY NEWSPAPER FOR HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS & PHYSICIANS

Oncology... Oncology... Oncology... Oncology...

Donation of $126 Million

Comes As 'Big Surprise'

BY LOIS THOMSON

"It came as a big surprise," said Dr. Stephen D. Nimer, in
what could be considered a classic understatement. Dr.
Nimer was referring to a $126 million anonymous donation
made on his behalf to the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer
Matt Gracey Center at the University of Miami. However, while the dona- Dr. Michael Abramoff
tion itself might have been a surprise, the reason behind it is
Rising pretty clear. Digital
Dr. Nimer said the donation – the largest single gift in the
history of the University of Miami – came from a family that
Reinsurance has been a supporter of his in the past, and a member decid- Diagnostics:
ed that the work he was doing at Sylvester was worthy of Dr. Stephen D. Nimer
Rates to Affect this very large bequest. "I've known the family for a couple Committed to
of decades but never imagined receiving a gift like this. My relationship with them was
Already based on my expertise as a physician and a scientist, which is in the area of leukemia and Ethical AI
stem cell transplantation. The assistance I provided to them and their friends was as a
physician in my own field and related fields of medicine."
Hardening He has been honored in the past, including last November when he received the Oscar Healthcare
de la Renta endowed professorship. "That was very special for me. Endowed chairs are
Malpractice an indication from the university that you are an accomplished scientist and educator; BY DANIEL CASCIATO
doctors don't usually receive endowed chairs without having done some research from
the university." Additionally, at Sloan Kettering, he was named the Alfred P. Sloan profes- Digital Diagnostics was founded by Dr.
Insurance sor; but he has never been honored like this. Michael Abramoff to use technology to
Dr. Nimer said the funds given were to be used at his discretion, that the donor "very improve patient access to high quality
Market much wanted me to spend money on things that were important to me. The gift was care, save all stakeholders real dollars,
given because of care I provided, so I want to make sure it has a clinical impact on our and directly improve patient outcomes.
community." He highlighted experimental therapeutics as being one of the most impor- They do this using artificial intelligence
BY VANESSA ORR that is FDA authorized to remove the
Continued on page 20 physician oversight from standard of
For the last year-and-a-half, a hard mar- care tests. This gives patients instanta-
ket has been unfolding in the medical pro- neous results and immediate referral to
fessional liability sector, which provides Public Awareness Saves Lives specialty care for treatment. In doing
malpractice insurance. And with a recent this, providers practice top of license,
announcement by Lloyd’s of London, it payers save significant medical expenses,
looks like the difficulties the sector has BY LOIS THOMSON and the patients have demonstrably bet-
been facing are about to get even worse. ter outcomes.
“Lloyd’s of London just announced that According to Nick Silverio, "public Their expanding platform enables the
in the first half of the year, they lost 400 awareness saves lives," and for that reason, deployment of specialty care sensors into
million pounds ($520.08 million), com- Silverio, founder of A Safe Haven for primary care and retail health. Using
pared to last year’s profit of 2.3 billion dur- Newborns, is delighted to have formed a their patented biomarker-driven devel-
ing the same period in 2019,” said Matt partnership with Century Ambulance opment process, they migrate specialty
Gracey, medical malpractice insurance spe- Service, Inc. Salome Lofty, Account care previously offered in person or as
cialist at Danna-Gracey, the largest inde- Executive, South Florida, of Century, telehealth to FDA authorized fully
pendent medical malpractice insurance agrees. autonomous AI diagnostics. Its first ever
agency in Florida. “The company is pre- Safe Haven's mission is to help save the autonomous AI was cleared by the FDA
dicting that it will have payouts of more lives of newborns who are in danger of in 2018 for diagnosing diabetic retinopa-
than 5 billion due to COVID, and they being abandoned by their mothers, and thy and diabetic macular edema. More
only have reinsurance for 2 billion of also to assist pregnant girls and women recently, Digital Diagnostics acquired
that.” in crisis. Silverio said there's an escalat- 3Derm who has FDA breakthrough sta-
Insurance companies buy reinsurance so ing crisis where mothers believe they tus for its autonomous AI focused on
that if they have a bad year, they will be have no support: they're not connected diagnosing skin cancers.
able to recover some of their losses from to their family or people who might care. Nick Silverio “What distinguishes our company
another insurance carrier. Sometimes they are connected, but they from the competition is our ever-
“Some companies buy higher limits of are young and feel ashamed, and are fearful of being ostracized from the family. They expanding platform of fully autonomous
reinsurance than others, based on the may panic at the last minute and leave babies in unsafe places that can often result in AI, and our ability to take existing sen-
sheer gamble of how well they think the death. "Safe Haven is a resource for those moms, we try to get them help in the com- sor-driven diagnostics from human cog-
year will go,” said Gracey. “Some very munity in which they live; quite often when we do they are able to keep their baby, and nition to AI-driven” said John Bertrand,
Continued on page 13 Continued on page 6 Continued on page 13