Dr. Marcel Daniels is scheduled to be a magazine centerfold next month, but not to show off the results of his physical workout regime.
The veteran Long Beach plastic surgeon’s wit and wisdom on growing a medical practice will be featured in the second issue of Big Medicine, a magazine targeting medical doctors, who typically don’t get enough business training during their years of medical school, residencies and fellowships.
“I remember that as a young doctor I was poorly prepared for the real world of business, said Daniels, a clinical professor at UC Irvine who in addition to his practice mentors medical residents at Long Beach Memorial Hospital. “But with all the changes in the managed care, now health care reform, you have to be more creative, think outside the traditional business model these days.”
Doctors, both within and outside the aesthetic field, now have to hustle to develop new business, such as elective procedures or products sold in their offices, that isn’t dependent on third-party insurance, Daniels said. Even so, the changed economy has reduced his potential patient base.
“My busiest years were 2003 to 2005, at the height of the overheated housing market, when people were using their houses to finance ‘mommy makeovers,’” he said.
Big Medicine is the brainchild of media and public relations professional Angela O’Mara, whose Irvine-based Professional Image Inc. has a large client base in both Los Angeles and Orange counties. The agency for many years sponsored an annual daylong Beverly Hills media seminar during which aesthetic medicine specialists provided educational backgrounders on the latest surgical techniques and product trends.
With the recession, the company’s physician clients began struggling as patients cut back on youth-enhancing procedures and products, leading it to change its strategy. O’Mara said about 70 percent of circulation in her quarterly publication is coming from Los Angeles County.
“Doctors have been suffering and they don’t know how health care reform is going to affect them,” O’Mara said. “I realized that after 25 years in the industry that I had a knowledge base and contacts to really put out a magazine that could fill a niche.”
Hard Case
Pelican Products Inc., a Torrance maker of specialty storage cases that last year branched out into the medical market, has added to its offerings in that segment.
Pelican, better known for its bomb-proof storage cases for everything from laptops to oil drilling equipment, this month said that it acquired Minnesota Thermal Science of Plymouth, Minn., which makes reusable temperature storage containers to safely store and transport blood in extreme weather conditions. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Pelican, a portfolio company of San Francisco private-equity firm Behrman Capital, last summer launched a line of Pelican BioPharma cold-storage containers designed to transport vaccines and other pharmaceuticals. The products combine the company’s hard-shell plastic containers with interior panels similar to reusable freezer packs used in lunch bags. MTS becomes part of the BioPharma division, which targets the pharmaceutical and life science industries.
“BioPharma now offers an unmatched range of the most advanced temperature-controlled packaging solutions, and we are already planning an accelerated product development program that will further enhance our solution set and associated cold chain services,” Pelican Chief Executive Lyndon Faulkner said in a statement.
CEO Resigns
CompuMed Inc. announced that Chief Executive Maurizio Vecchione resigned as chief executive to go to work for a Bill Gates initiative. The Century City company, which makes products for patient diagnosis and management of heart conditions and osteoporosis, said that President Scott Rombach has replaced Vecchione.
Rombach, who came from PeopleSoft Inc., a Pleasanton business software company acquired by Oracle in 2005, joined CompuMed in October. Vecchione, who will remain a board member, has become vice president at Global Good, a technology initiative of Gates in the Seattle area to aid developing countries.
“Scott’s expertise in driving global enterprise transactions and developing strategic partnerships is a tremendous asset to CompuMed,” Vecchione said in a statement. “He has a unique skill set and is the right individual to take the company to the next level.”
Staff reporter Deborah Crowe can be reached [email protected] or at (323) 549-5225, ext. 232.
