From Washington DC to San Diego: We have been in crisis for decades. Every year it gets worse and now we are reaching another tipping point. There are conferences, summits, and meetings everywhere. The World Health Care Congresss, now in its third year, has the smartest, best, highest-level experts coming in to address the issue. There are lots of proposals on the table.

But two things will always be true:
1. It starts with you personally.
2. You and your business are the most important.

Businesses like Biosite will play a key role in our future. Cheaper-faster-better technologies will actually lower our health care costs and these diagnostic aids will eventually come to our desktops (see "The future").

We'll be our own best detectives in knowing what is going on with our bodies. We will take back our healthcare and take full charge of being healthy.

The early insights by founders of Biosite, Dr. Gunars Valkirs, Kim Blickenstaff (Chairman & CEO) and Dr. Ken Buechler, opened the way to develop devices that are now used virtually every second of a day to aid hundreds of thousands of emergency medical technicians, nurses, doctors and patients to diagnose medical conditions faster and more accurately. In this episode of the the show, you will see their little device, Biosite Triage® for rapid diagnostic testing, in action.

When they had the idea, everyone told them, "You're crazy. No way! It'll never work."

They began their business in 1988. Today, it is a global organization with annual revenues over $250 million. And it is all based on a product line that never ever existed before they created it.

We are looking at the first phase of the Biosite Triage® rapid diagnostic tests. First, they invaded the emergency rooms and the emergency vehicles. Now, they are moving into doctors offices. It shouldn't be too long before a version is available for the home.

Tests with devices like theirs will change the way we see ourselves forever.

You'll put a drop of blood (or urine) inside what looks like a fat credit card. Taken inside their little machine and as many as 1000 basic tests, all answers to key questions about a person's most basic medical conditions, are read out in 15 minutes or less.¹ (Go to "The Future")

Their creativity and courage is extraordinary. Ten out of ten MBAs from Harvard and other fine schools said, "It's stupid. Impossible." Yet, these three founders of Biosite nurtured their dream. They could see ways to improve the deep diagnosis of critical health conditions with rapid, accurate diagnostics. They knew the technology could be made. They were on the front edge of very sophisticated protein anaylsis. Why not put the two together?

They persevered.

The firm's first product, The Triage Drugs of Abuse Panel, was cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1992. They didn't stop there. They now test for congestive heart failure, heart attack, and a long check list of diseases with very strange names. Beyond their unstoppable energy and passion for continued research and exploration is the belief that their success to date does not begin to scratch the surface of the potential of diagnostics.

Look out world. These people will introduce our bodies to ourself.

CONTACT:
Nicole Beckstrand
Sr. Corporate Communications Specialist
Biosite Incorporated
9975 Summers Ridge Road
San Diego, CA 92121

Tel: 858.805.4808
Email: nbeckstrand@biosite.com
URL: http://www.biosite.com

• GO FURTHER: Spend some time with the ten key points of the case study guide (just above in the green box) and each of the related transcript segments.

• 2006 World Health Care Congress:
  April 17, 2006 - April 19, 2006 in DC
  Either attend, send someone from your business, or at least send someone from your local Chamber of Commerce. Please take all their information and start a local action group for all your people to take charge of their healthcare.

• US Chamber and NFIB Summits:
  May 2007 and August 2006.
  Send someone from your local
  Chamber of Commerce and NFIB.
  Start local action groups.

• SELECTION: Biosite was on a list of business recommended to us by the City of San Diego. To be selected as the study for a show, a business must come up on many lists as being " ... loved by their community and respected within their industry."

• PRESS RELEASE: Summary for the media.

• #1 PROBLEM FOR SMALL BUSINESS: Surveys by both the US Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Businesses puts healthcare costs at the top of most of our lists. more

• ORGANIZATIONS, ASSOCIATIONS & PUBLICATIONS. Individually and corporately, the founders of Biosite are very active within their professional trade assoications. Here are just a few:
  • Dr. Gunars Valkirs has been a contributor and advisor for Cambridge Healthtech Institute and the United States Department of Health and Human Services, and he is a Director of Nautilus Biotech.
  • Dr. Ken Buechler has been active with International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine, the Canadian Stroke Network, and Informagen (Internet-based ASP bioinfomatics tools, biotechnology databases and genomics, proteomics and biopharmaceutical industries). He is a member of the American Chemical Society, the Biochemical Society, the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine, and the American Association of Clinical Chemists.
  • Kim Blickenstaff serves on the Boards of GeneOhm Sciences, SenoRx Inc., MediSpectra Inc., and Dexcom.

• FIRST PRINCIPLES: Starting a business is the road to economic independence for most of us average people. Read a little more to see why incorporating a business keeps the passion of the American revolution alive!

• CASES BY BUSINESS TYPE. Click on the heading to find all the business types and then click on your type of business to check out those case studies.

• SUPPORT PUBLIC TELEVISION:
  Become a member of your local station. If you are already, great. If not and your business is doing well, consider joining the Producers' Club ($1000).

• JOIN, JOIN, JOIN: Your professional associations in your industry are your key to continuing education, market research, collaborations, strategic partnerships, capital and so much more ... often you'll find that you enjoy like-minded people and many will become friends for life.

1. They have a philosophical paradigm. With the patient at the center, these founders just knew that testing and diagnosis could be done faster and better, and at much lower cost. The driver is "better." They just knew they could improve healthcare and lower costs.

So, we all should love them just for their primary philosophical focus.

2. They are driven by product innovation. What is disease? When and why do our body's systems go awry? At Biosite these people began with the very basic idea that if they could analyze multiple proteins at the same time, they could speed the diagnosis and thus the treatment of a disease.

...but a 1000 tests in 15 minutes! Anybody in their right mind would say, "Dream on, dream on."

They did. And, with the Multi-Marker Index System™ they continue to push the limits of conventional testing and analysis. Today, their products provide healthcare professionals with cost-effective tools. Sometime in the future, the rest of us might get the feedback, but even more quickly!

3. They are diven by vision and courage. Innovation requires a vision! Then it requires a bit of risk-taking. These guys invest in research and development far beyond industry standards. They are driven by vision. They see deeper and further inside the unknown. They're sensitive to their dreams. But ultimately, they are just plain courageous.

They have assumed the risk. They could have cashed out, but chose instead to stay private longer and create a sustainable pipeline of diagnostic tests. They have now emerged as leaders of a new industry.

4. They have unfettered talent. The initial bond between Blickenstaff, Buechler and Valkirs was established in the research lab. Today, that professional and personal relationship has evolved into a shared leadership philosophy that attracts people with equal passion and unmatched talent. Their style encourages risk-taking and employees thrive in an environment where the intensity of purpose finds a comfortable balance with humor, a bit of simple self-deprecation, and regular praise for successes large and small.

We have a lot to learn from these three explorers into the unknown.

• THE FUTURE: Extend this Triage technology out just a few years and one can see how this "card" used to hold the sample (blood or urine) could become a PCMCIA card or even USB device that once inserted into our laptops and home computers, does the analysis, then provides results in non-technical language. What would happen if one could immediately see the impact spinach or a fat, greasy hamburger has on the body? The obese and overweight could quickly learn what to eat and how to eat. The results of using alcohol and every other kind of drug should be equally revealed. These devices measure activity at the protein level. Not much escapes protein interactions. Even parts of our sexual histories are written at the protein level. Extend this technology even further into nano-analysis and there'd be even more detail.