MedMined

MedMined was a company that developed data mining and AI technology for detecting hospital-acquired infections.

The company was based on technology developed by Stephen Brossette at UAB as early as 1994. The business was incubated at UAB's Center for the Advancement of Developing Industries, and launched in 2000 with physician Patrick Hymel as chief medical officer and attorney G. T. LaBorde as chief operating officer.

An initial funding round with Jemison Investment Co., Huntsville's Southeastern Technology Fund, and a venture capital firm in Kansas allowed the company to graduate to its own offices at 400 Vestavia Parkway in Vestavia Hills.

MedMined's services were adopted by more than 185 hospitals, partly through an agreement with Blue Cross Blue Shield affiliates in six states. By 2005 its workforce had expanded to 85 people.

MedMined was acquired by Cardinal Health of Dublin, Ohio for more than $100 million in 2006. At the time of the announcement LaBorde stated that, "MedMined's offices are staying here. We'll be growing, not shrinking." The company's monitoring technology was marketed alongside patient identification systems created by Care Fusion, a McLean, Virginia company acquired that year by Cardinal Health; intravenous drug pumps developed by Alaris Medical Systems of San Diego, California, which it bought in 2004; and automated pharmaceutical dispensing cabinets developed by Pyxis, another San Diego-based company it had bought in 1996.

The market for such surveillance technology was boosted when Medicare issued a rule in 2009 making hospitals liable for the cost of treating hospital-acquired infections. In September of that year, Cardinal spun off its hospital technology business as CareFusion Corp., an independent public company with headquarters in San Diego. By then Hymel, Brossette and LaBorde had all left the company and begun working as consultants.

In 2015 CareFusion was acquired for $12.2 billion by Becton, Dickinson & Company of Franklin Lakes, New Jersey. BD MedMined still maintains the Vestavia Parkway office.

References

• Dugan, Kelli M. (July 13, 2006) "MedMined says it will buck trend, stay in area." Birmingham Business Journal