Research Consortium News
May 15, 2019 - Research Consortium Creates a Board of Distinguished Advisors
The TPA NETWORK Research Consortium announced the establishment of a Board of Distinguished Advisors to help guide its management team. Made up of largely retired industry experts, the six Distinguished Advisors have an aggregate 200 years of industry-specific experience and have owned and/or operated six commercial/union TPAs; served on numerous industry professional society boards; won an Emmy for communications; headed research for three global drug companies; and guided the development of a successful (AI, blockchain) technology firm.
June 15, 2019 - Research Consortium Substantially Completes Initial Executive Staffing
The TPA NETWORK Research Consortium announced that it has substantially completed the recruitment of a stellar team of highly-experienced industry veterans to execute its mission to become the TPA industry's trusted source of guidance on new and emerging medical technologies, health innovations and ways of doing business. Individually, each member of the new management team has decades of mission-specific experience and expertise and, in the aggregate, the group has nearly 150 years of hands-on experience in a broad range of executive-level medical, plan administration, risk management, HEOR, technology and operating functions. These executives have owned and/or operated several commercial/union TPAs; served on industry professional society boards; held executive-level positions with major reinsurers; designed and managed foundational sustainability campaigns; conducted complex, large-scale HEOR and HTA assignments; and managed cutting-edge FHIR healthcare interoperability initiatives, etc.. The emerging research organization was also pleased to announce that it has dozens of highly qualified individuals looking to join the team...many of whom were attracted to its primary focus on doing social good on a large scale as an aspiring Certified B-Corporation...rather than maximizing the organization's "bottom line". The organization believes that this says a lot about the quality of the people this initiative continues to attract.
July 15, 2019 - Research Consortium Initiative Mentioned in Scientific Journal Nature Biotechnology
The TPA NETWORK Research Consortium announced that it's Genetic Benefits Risk Management study was mentioned in a feature article entitled "Your DNA Broker"that appears in the July, 2019 Nature Biotechnology, a highly-regarded peer-reviewed scientific journal that is published monthly. The article focused on the leading-edge companies that are pioneering the employment of genetics and genomics in real world clinical medical practice, drug development, academic/scientific research, etc. Other leading-edge companies featured in the article include Digital DNAtix, Embleema, EncrypGen, Genomes.io, LunaDNA, Nebula Genomics, Shivom, WuXi NextCODE and Zenome.io. The full article may be downloaded here.
October 15, 2019 - Research Consortium Executes More Than A Dozen Memorandums of Understanding
The TPA NETWORK Research Consortium announced that it has entered into Memorandums of Understanding with more than a dozenhealthcare-transforming organizations that will collaborative with, or participate in, its first research study focused on genetic benefits risk management. The study will involve the DNA-testing of 100,000 self-funded plan participants and focus on efficacy, cost-effectiveness, value, patient/provider satisfaction and medical outcomes. It is believed to be the largest genetics/genomic translational research study ever undertaken, incorporating a payor perspective and will be conducted by a subject-specific team of independent academic researchers, professors, scientists, pharmacists and physicians associated with many of the nation’s leading universities and research institutions. The MOUs are with leading genetic/genomic testing labs, AI-based medical technology firms, blockchain-secured DNA storage faciities, leading genetic medicine practices and Pharm D networks, end-to-end clinical trial platform companies, EMR/EHR record aggregators, precision prescribing software developers, health data marketplaces/exchanges/monetizors, etc.
December 1, 2019 - Research Consortium Launches Web Presence
The TPA NETWORK Research Consortium announced the launching of a new web presence with www.ResearchConsortium.org. The new websiterepresents an upgrade intended to reflect new advances in internet technology, aesthetics, and communications. Included in the new multi-page, scrolling design are pages that explain the medical research problems that the consortium intends to solve and details how its work will improve patient medical outcmes and advance medical research with the HERO Voluntary Healthcare Research Benefit.
February 1, 2020 - Research Consortium Initiates Search for Strategic Seed Investors
The TPA NETWORK Research Consortium announced the launching of a highly-targeted investor outreach campaign focused on attracting one or more seed investors. The campaign's initial focus is on venture angel investors, family offices, physician investment groups, high-net-worth benefactors and other well-heeled individuals and establishments having no interest in limiting or influencing the organizations' research. Responses to our initial solicitations have been promising. For more information about our organizational capitalization campaign, see our Investor Relations page here.
March 15, 2020 - Research Consortium to Suspend Capital Raise Efforts as COVID-19 Declared a Pandemic
The TPA NETWORK Research Consortium announced on March 15, 2020 that it has temporarily suspended its capital raising efforts in light of the World Health Organization's recent declaration that the COVID-19 outbreat has reach pandemic status. The initial focus of the campaign was focused on enlisting the support of stop-loss carriers, reinsurers and managing general underwriters who will also benefit from the payor-focused research the organization will conduct to help TPAs and their Plan Sponsor clients evaluate and assess new medical technologies and health innovations for inclusion under their ERISA-sponsored health plans. This campaign was a part of a comprehensive organizational capitalization program intended to also include sourcing financial support from impact investors; social enterprise funds; crowdfunding; venture philanthropists; charities; specialty endowments; public and private medical and healthcare foundations; research organizations; medical institutes; facilitating lenders and government entities such as the National Institutes of Health. For more about our organizational capitalization campaign, see our Investor Relations page here.
April 14, 2020 - Research Consortium Announces Intent to Create Employer Face Mask Guide
The TPA NETWORK Research Consortium announced today that it will create The Definitive Employer Guide to Purchasing Face Masks for Your Valued Employees. As organizations begin to open up for commerce in the midst of a once-in-a-lifetime global pandemic it is incumbent upon them to take all measures available to prepare and equip their workforces and workplaces in ways to manage this new type of exposure. This includes providing their employees with face masks, as prescribed by the CDC and various state, city and municipal entities.
Today, because information is everywhere, buyers are more determined than ever to make sure they find the right solution, select the right product or service and obtain the best deal. They conduct extensive web searches, read numerous articles and scour endless websites and internet ads often to find information that is far too technical, incorrect or so plentiful that it creates confusion. The guide will eliminate the need for employers to wade through the plethora of information and data required to become knowledgeable enough to make such an important decision as selecting the right face mask to protect their valued employees, clients and customers. The document is expected to become available by mid-June.
July 13, 2020 - Research Consortium Announces Availability of Comprehensive Face Mask Guide for Employers
The TPA NETWORK Research Consortium announced today the availability of a comprehensive guide to assist employers with their management of the insurance, liability and risk exposure challenges attendant to their need to provide face masks to their employees. It was written by Richard Nicholas, a forty-year veteran of the healthcare industry, and author of many influential white papers of interest to health plan sponsors, insurers and administrators
Aptly entitled The Definitive Employer Guide to Purchasing Face Masks for Your Valued Employees this piece covers everything from viral transmission to antimicrobial filtration technologies to proper mask design to methods by which to mitigate new employer regulatory compliance requirements. Available here free, at 70+ pages (and having 175+ cited sources), it is the most comprehensive discussion of this topic. Having a concise three-page Summary Discussion, and able to be easily skimmed, employers who read the document will feel confident about formulating their face mask policy and making an informed buying decision that is right for them.
Health insurers, TPAs and benefit consultants are invited to distribute the guide to their clients as a means by which to advance a greater understanding of COVID-19, its transmission and ways that a face mask may be used to reduce community spread and possibly protect the wearer. To request permission to co-brand the guide email the author at Richard@ResearchConsortium.org
July 20, 2020 - Research Consortium Announces a New Type of Protective Face Mask for Employers
The TPA NETWORK Research Consortium announced today that its founder, Richard Nicholas, invented and filed a patent application for, a new type of face mask that is not only intended to help curb community spread but to also provide a meaningful degree of protection for the wearer.
The Stay Safer PRN95+ Protective Face Mask™ was the result of months of research Nicholas conducted for a guide he wrote to help employers evaluate face masks: The Definitive Employer Guide to Purchasing Face Masks for Your Valued Employees. His research led him to conclude that that there was no face mask intended to provide any meaningful degree of protection for the wearer, so he sought to invent one. Discovering that many viruses (including COVID-19) are encapsuled in a protein membrane that carries a negative charge, Nicholas looked for ways to introduce a positive electric charge that would electrocute them. To do this, he leveraged some well-established technology and science. His face mask incorporates both a decades-old chemical antimicrobial agent developed by Dow Chemical, and a triboelectric air filter that is loosely based on the science that N95-type respirators rely upon (static electricity). More than serving as a just a physical barrier for in- and outbound infected particles, this mask is intended to provide the wearer with some degree of protection by actually killing most pathogens; sanitizing the inhaled and exhaled air; and making the mask's surfaces safe. Killing the bad microbes prevents a bio-burden build-up so the face mask wearer doesn't get infected by, or transport, a mask rife with infected particles. The face mask was designed in conjunction with Privy Label, a high-tech, private-label clothing design firm that specializes in curated designs for targeted audiences. It will be made of 100% natural fabrics in the United States, with domestically-sourced materials, by a network of ten apparel manufacturers. While Nicholas touts the unique features of his mask, he notes that no face mask or antimicrobial agent can claim to be effective specifically against COVID-19 as no commercial entity has been provided with the virus for testing.
Nicholas, a forty-year healthcare industry veteran, believes that large, sophisticated employers will be especially interested in the mask as a way to meet OSHA's "general duty" requirement to furnish their employees with a safe and hazard-free workplace. He also believes that health insurers, HMOs. Medicare Advantage plans and health plan administrators will furnish his mask to their employer-clients and members. All profits from the sale of the face mask will go to support the Research Consortium, an emerging industry-wide research initiative that he founded. It focuses on helping health plan sponsors evaluate new medical technologies and health innovations …by conducting payor-focused translational research to facilitate more, smarter and less costly clinical trials. To seethe entire original press release click here.