Finally, some good news on health care. Patrick Balthrop, President and CEO of Luminex Corporation spoke at Rob Adam’s entrepreneur class on November 16 about the convergence of health care and technology. Luminex’s strategy for product development and differentiation is that a new product must improve health care outcome AND reduce costs.

Balthrop said that while we have a long way to go to improve health care delivery, we’ve made considerable progress over the years – mostly driven by investments in R&D. We’re now at a pivotal moment where we can make significant changes to society and also solve some problem issues with public health care policies by investing in the right health care technology.

A major problem with our current health care system, said Balthrop, is that it is procedure based. A health care professional gets paid for procedures done. They have financial incentives to provide a service or procedure. These incentives sometimes conflict with doing what’s right for the patient, which may be doing nothing. If a physician advises the patient to wait on surgery, many will go to another doctor who will operate.

Balthrop gave a brief review of health care innovation, starting with Charles Darwin through the modern era’s human genome and proteome DNA mapping projects. Our system is currently prescribes the same prescription for the same diagnosis. But proteome mapping research shows that humans metabolize medicine differently, making medicine that is effective for one patient perhaps toxic or ineffective for another.

Balthrop believes the concept of personalized medicine, based on DNA mapping, is the future. There are over 15,000 proteins that metabolize medicine and we only understand about 4000 of them now. As we learn more, the efficacy of medicine based on targeted DNA profiles will increase.

Consumers will become familiar and comfortable with DNA mapping, given passage of GINA legislation 18 months ago that prohibits insurance companies and employers from discriminating based on genetic information.

Luminex Corporation is an Austin-based company that manufactures and markets innovative biological testing technologies with applications throughout the life science and diagnostic industries. In January 2009, Luminex was named as one of Forbes’ top 25 fastest growing technology companies.

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Professor William Kinney reflects on the vital interplay between higher education and public policy in the field of accounting.

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Keith Brown, professor of Finance at the McCombs School of Business, presented his research on the investment performance of mutual fund managers. Brown and his fellow researchers found that while a mutual fund’s investment style (small cap vs. large cap and value vs.growth continuum) influences the returns it generates, little is known about how a manager’s execution of the style decision affects portfolio performance. The research shows that when mutual fund managers maintain a consistent investment style it leads to a higher risk-adjusted profitability.

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Keith Brown, professor of Finance at the McCombs School of Business, presented his research on the investment performance of mutual fund managers. Brown and his fellow researchers found that while a mutual fund’s investment style (small cap vs. large cap and value vs. growth continuum) influences the returns it generates, little is known about how a manager’s execution of the style decision affects portfolio performance. The research shows that when mutual fund managers maintain a consistent investment style it leads to a higher risk-adjusted profitability.