The recent flurry of activity around the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has many people confused about where it stands, and what the employer's obligations are. The following summarizes the activity so far.

Legislative Repeal Activity

A popular meme suggests that the Senate voted to eliminate virtually all of the provisions of the ACA, including the ability to obtain insurance in spite of pre-existing conditions, the requirement to cover adult children up to the age of 26, etc. This is not the case.

It seems the current conventional wisdom is that founders should act like modern ascetics and shun all thoughts of remuneration and to take even a penny (or cent) from the company is a major red flag. But what about the rent/mortgage and things like food?

The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) program has awarded a total of nearly $12 million in first-year funding to 11 organizations that will operate MEP centers in Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Carolina and Wyoming. MEP centers in all 50 states and Puerto Rico support small and medium-size manufacturers and are dedicated to enhancing the productivity and technological performance of U.S. manufacturing.

Andy Molinsky, professor of organizational behavior at Brandeis International Business School, discusses practical techniques for getting outside of your comfort zone, and how that can develop new capabilities and experiences that can help your career. His new book is Reach: A New Strategy to Help You Step Outside your Comfort Zone, Rise to the Challenge and Build Confidence.

Twenty years ago, a manufacturing worker might have operated a machine on a factory floor. Today, that worker would need to understand not only how to operate the machine, but also how to program and maintain it. Similarly, many health care workers, such as medical coders and health information managers, now need to know IT as well as the basics of medicine.

When it comes to transformation programs, internal alignment forms the foundation for strategic success. Naturally, aligning an organisation to its strategic priorities requires serious upfront investment in terms of time. But without this time, it’s a case of ‘fail to prepare – prepare to fail’. Implementing strategy successfully enables economies to grow, businesses to succeed, and people to progress in their careers. Yet more than 70% of significant change initiatives fail.

Giving feedback may be one of the most difficult challenges a manager faces. On the one hand, you have to be honest; on the other hand, you don’t want to alienate your employee. You tread a fine line between maintaining cordiality and successfully getting your point across.

A positive workplace culture is essential for employee engagement and productivity. Empathy at work creates psychological safety, which research by Amy Edmondson of Harvard demonstrates is created when managers are inclusive and humble and encourage their staff to speak up or ask for help.

Cuddles, kisses, and caring conversations. These are key ingredients of our close relationships. Scientists are finding that our links to others can have powerful effects on our health. Whether with romantic partners, family, friends, neighbors, or others, social connections can influence our biology and well-being.

Wide-ranging research suggests that strong social ties are linked to a longer life. In contrast, loneliness and social isolation are linked to poorer health, depression, and increased risk of early death.

Image: https://newsinhealth.nih.gov

Hydras, tiny creatures that sprout and thrive in fresh water, have an amazing ability to regrow when sliced and diced into pieces. Now, research into their regenerative capabilities is offering new clues about human tissue regrowth. Here’s what Kinneret Keren of Technion-Israel Institute of Technology told me about the work, published in Cell Reports.

Image: HYDRA HAPPENINGS. (TECHNION-ISRAEL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY)

Unlimited vacation and ping-pong tables won't solve every workplace problem, but employee perks and benefits still can help with the mood at an office.

Jobs site Glassdoor released a list of 20 companies that are offering unique perks. The list — not ranked by quality — was based on the hundreds of thousands of benefits reviews shared by employees on the site.

France’s government auditor has taken a sharp swipe at efforts to develop a science super-campus near Paris that, by 2020, was supposed to rival the world's top campus universities, such as the US Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

More than €5.3 billion (US$5.7 billion) in public spending has been earmarked for the Paris-Saclay science cluster, the Court of Auditors estimates in an annual report published on 8 February — but the original vision of creating a large integrated research university there is “at a standstill”.

Image: EODD, Université Paris-Saclay

As the Arctic slipped into the half-darkness of autumn last year, it seemed to enter the Twilight Zone. In the span of a few months, all manner of strange things happened. The cap of sea ice covering the Arctic Ocean started to shrink when it should have been growing. Temperatures at the North Pole soared more than 20 °C above normal at times. And polar bears prowling the shorelines of Hudson Bay had a record number of run-ins with people while waiting for the water to freeze over.

Digital technology, despite its seeming ubiquity, has only begun to penetrate industries. As it continues its advance, the implications for revenues, profits, and opportunities will be dramatic.

As new markets emerge, profit pools shift, and digital technologies pervade more of everyday life, it’s easy to assume that the economy’s digitization is already far advanced. According to our latest research, however, the forces of digital have yet to become fully mainstream. On average, industries are less than 40 percent digitized, despite the relatively deep penetration of these technologies in media, retail, and high tech.

At the conclusion of “The Internet of Cities Forum” in Taipei, Taiwan today, the Intelligent Community Forum announced its list of the Top7 Intelligent Communities of the Year to an audience of national and municipal leaders from Taiwan, Canada, Estonia, the Netherlands and Vietnam.  The 15th annual Top7 list includes communities from four nations, with Australia, Canada and Taiwan each contributing two, and Russia contributing a seventh community in a first-time achievement for that nation. 

How does current political instability affect innovation?

We have spent a lot of time analyzing what we call the ‘big shift’, the fourth industrial revolution. We believe that this ‘big shift’ creates big opportunities, but at the same time creates mounting performance pressure on us, as individuals and institutions. One of the natural reactions to mounting pressure is fear. We get very anxious about our situation, about our ability to continue thriving and succeeding.

Image: http://www.satprnews.com

The world’s unicorns, VC-backed startups worth more than $1 billion, have been getting a lot of press lately. At the moment, Google News lists about 16 million results for Uber and 7 million results for Snapchat. By contrast, there are fewer than 3.5 million stories about Walmart, 2.6 million about General Motors, and fewer than 700,000 focused on Exxon. Unicorns are to business journalists what Kim Kardashian is to Instagram users.

Wisconsin tech-based economy is a vital work in progress. Advancing the public discussion around Wisconsin’s high-growth economy is core to the Tech Council’s 2017 white papers, “Investing in Wisconsin’s Future.”

Improving access to capital for Wisconsin entrepreneurs, building the supply of human capital, enhancing the startup and business climate, and improving tech development, delivery and transfer are four major themes of the Wisconsin Technology Council’s 2017 “white papers” report.

Canada is targeting innovation to drive economic prosperity through several recently announced investments. These investments are intended to unlock the potential of Canadian universities and entrepreneurs as well as capital for startups. The provincial government of Ontario has also unveiled several tech-based economic development efforts. In addition to these newly announced efforts, the Trudeau administration released a series of economic development-related policy recommendations to support economic growth across the country.

Washington, DC (January 31, 2017) – The Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) issued the following statement regarding President Trump’s comments today supporting biopharmaceutical innovation:

"We look forward to working with President Trump and his team to enact policies that ensure better access to and affordability of today’s medicines and the vision the President laid out in his inaugural address ‘….to free the earth from the miseries of disease, and to harness the energies, industries and technologies of tomorrow.’ The ideas the President laid out in his meeting today--policies that would cut unnecessary regulation, enforce fair trade, increase competition, support small companies' ability to attract capital and strengthen and promote market-based solutions--are ideas that BIO has been advocating for and working to build consensus on with others in the healthcare system.  They will go a long way toward ensuring that patients have affordable access to today's innovative medicines and that our companies have the policy and regulatory environment they need to bring a new generation of breakthrough medicines to our children and grandchildren.

Led by a team of seasoned veterans, RetroSense Therapeutics was founded in 2009 to develop a new gene therapeutic approach to vision restoration. Its flagship innovation, RST-001 is a novel gene therapy for the potential treatment of Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP). Its innovations are addressing some of the leading causes of blindness in the world. The approach was invented in Detroit at Wayne State University, and the company chose to grow in Ann Arbor.

Recently, RetroSense secured FDA clearance to begin human clinical studies of its therapy. Last year, the company raised a $7M Series B, including investment from outside of Michigan.

Most notably, RetroSense was acquired by Allergan, a leading global pharmaceutical company. Allergan bought virtually all of RetroSense’s assets for $60 million cash up front with additional, undisclosed funding to follow based on the company achieving key development and commercialization milestones.