Daily Business Report: February 9, 2024
As pickleball’s popularity surges,
injuries are also on the rise
By Annie Pierce | UC San Diego
America’s fastest-growing sport with the silly name — pickleball — continues to lure new players onto courts in droves. But before hopping into the game, UC San Diego Health physical therapists recommend acing a pickleball pre-game routine to help keep injuries at bay.
“It’s a fun and addictive sport that you can pick up easily and immediately start playing,” said Aaron Cortez, DPT, physical therapist at UC San Diego Health who has seen an uptick in pickleball injuries among his patients. “Yet it’s a fast-moving game with sudden starts and stops — so it’s easy to get injured if you haven’t run or moved that quickly in years, or maybe even decades.”
“It’s crucial to prepare yourself for those explosive movements before stepping foot onto the court,” he said, adding that the sport is particularly popular among older adults.
Pickleball, a mash-up of ping-pong, tennis and badminton, has clinched the top spot as the fastest growing sport in the country for three years running, with 8.9 million players in the United States in 2023, according to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association, up from 4.8 million in 2022. That number is expected to surge beyond 20 million this year.
With celebrities from Tom Brady to Leonardo DiCaprio heightening the hype of the game, its unprecedented growth is also causing a steep surge in injuries. Pickleball injuries generated more than $350 million in medical costs in 2023, as reported by Bloomberg, citing research by UBS analysts.
The analysts estimated there would be more than 66,750 emergency department visits and 366,000 outpatient visits from pickleball in 2023, based on research from a Journal of Emergency Medicine study about pickleball and tennis-related injuries.
Top Photo: Aubri and Cody Steele playing pickleball. (Courtesy Aubri and Cody Steele)
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California plans to use AI to answer your tax questions
By Khari Johnson | CalMatters
A constant hum fills the air at California’s tax agency this time of year — phones ring and keyboards clack as hundreds of thousands of Californians and businesses seek tax guidance.
Call volume quadruples to up to 10,000 a day; average wait times soar from four minutes to 20. “Right from the get-go when the bell rings at 7:30 you (already) have a wait,” said call center chief Thor Dunn, adding that workers with other jobs are trained to hop on the phones during peak periods. “All hands on deck.”
So later this year — for next tax season — California’s 3,696-person Department of Tax and Fee Administration plans to use generative artificial intelligence to advise its approximately 375 call center agents on state tax code. The AI will then inform what they pass on to California business owners asking for tax guidance.
Trained with massive datasets often scraped from the web without consent from authors, generative artificial intelligence models can generate content like text, imagery, and audio. A large language model such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which ignited interest in generative AI following its release in fall 2022, essentially predicts the next word in a sequence of input text then outputs or generates text that reflects the training data.
What form would that take for you, the person calling in to the tax center? The tax department told CalMatters this technology will not be used without a call center employee there to review the answer, but a slide in its call for proposals seeking a vendor says any AI solution must “be able to provide responses to incoming voice calls, live chats, and other communications.”
Illustration by Adriana Heldiz, CalMatters; iStock
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Moonlight Veterinary Urgent Care opens in Encinitas
Well-known San Diego veterinarian Dr. Laura Halsey opens Tell Tail Moonlight Veterinary Urgent Care, 414 Encinitas Blvd. (92024) – a privately-owned and locally operated veterinary care in Encinitas. Halsey is the practice owner and medical director of the woman-owned and operated hospital, alongside Dr. Lindsey Hackett, DVM, Dr. Shannon Henry, DVM, and Dr. Sharon Paz, DVM. Hackett is also a medical director and Paz is also a Certified Veterinarian Sonographer.
Now open, the hospital is addressing the gap between general veterinary practice and 24-hour emergency specialty veterinary medicine.
Cubic to provide U.K. with Light Gun Simulation System
Cubic Defense announced a two-year contract award with the U.K. Ministry of Defense for the Light Gun Simulation System (LGSS). With Cubic’s system to be primarily used by the Royal School of Artillery, the contract’s flexibility also gives the British Army the ability to expand the scope to allow all units of the Royal Artillery, both regular and reserve, to use the LGSS in camp or in collective training.
“The LGSS is a full-task trainer that appends to the in-service Light Gun enabling units to prepare for operations and live firing in camp, in the field or the federated training environment,” said Mark Graper, vice president of Cubic Defense Global Solutions.
Cubic’s LGSS replicates all drills associated with firing a Light Gun by providing emulated ammunition, fuses and charges for all natures that require all the correct drills to be carried out when dry training.
Hippo Premium Packaging win Pac Global Packaging Award
Hippo Premium Packaging, a leading provider of innovative and sustainable packaging solutions, announced that it has been awarded a prestigious Pac Global Packaging Award for outstanding work with Maison Bloom, a trailblazing infused beverage company. The award recognizes Hippo’s commitment to excellence in packaging design and its significant contribution to the success of Maison Bloom. Hippo won the “Best in Class” award in the “Brand Marketing, New Brand, Beverage” category.
Abzena launches LabZient, new analytical platform
Abzena, the leading end-to-end integrated CDMO for complex biologics and bioconjugates, announced the launch of its new analytical platform, LabZient. The standardized and automated platform streamlines the assessment and validation of large molecules, which significantly reduces drug development timelines and resource costs. The company has research, development, and cGMP facilities across locations in San Diego, Bristol, Penn., and Cambridge, UK.
Cetera welcomes Rosso Financial Group
Cetera Financial Group, a financial advisor Wealth Hub, announced that Anthony Rosso and the Rosso Financial Group team have joined Cetera Wealth Management Group via Allied Wealth Pasrners. Rosso Financial Group, previously affiliated with Newbridge Securities, is based out of Sea Girt, N.J., and is committed to providing prudent investment advice, financial planning, insurance solutions and customized portfolio strategies to clients.
Omnilert’s visual gun detection system to be showcased in San Diego
Omnilert, a leader in active shooter solutions, announced its participation at 2024 National Conference on Education Feb. 15-17 at the San Diego Convention Center. The company will feature demos of its visual gun detection system and, as a silver sponsor of the School Safety and Security Learning Lab, will join other leaders to educate attendees in a self-guided experience.
EVOTEK promotes Teresa Annibale to senior VP
EVOTEK, the premier enabler of secure digital business, announced that seasoned executive Teresa Annibale has been promoted to senior vice president, global accounts. Located in Scottsdale, Ariz., Teresa will be taking on an expanded role at EVOTEK leading global strategic accounts to help clients deliver innovative solutions as they scale. Founded in 2014, EVOTEK assists enterprise customers with the changing IT landscape.
Volta Labs and Element Biosciences announce collaboration
Volta Labs, a genomics applications company, and Element Biosciences Inc., developer of pioneering technologies to empower science, announced a collaboration to optimize sequencing throughput with the launch of Volta’s Callisto Sample Prep System for Element’s AVITI. This collaboration expands the reach of Volta’s novel sample prep system, providing labs the flexibility to sequence smaller batches of reactions more frequently and at a lower cost.
Biocom California appoints Michael Boss to board of directors
Biocom California, the association representing the California life sciene industry, has appointed Michael Boss, senior vice president at Alexandria Real Estate Equities, to its board of governors. Boss is currently senior vice president in the San Diego region for Alexandria Real Estate Equities, where he is principally responsible for execution of the region’s real estate investments and capital markets activity. Prior to joining Alexandria, Boss spent nearly five years as the region head-Southwest for Nuveen Real Estate.
Bespoke Partners announces enhanced executive recruiting tool
Bespoke Partners, the largest retained executive search and leadership advisory service firm for software companies, announced an enhanced market specialization in executive recruiting for Growth Equity stage software and SaaS companies. The initiative builds on Bespoke’s market-leading success in recruiting C-suite leaders who drive capital-efficient growth and achieve the investment thesis for private equity firm sponsors.
County supervisors approve gun violence reduction work plan
The County Board of Supervisors approved a work plan to reduce gun violence activities in San Diego County. The Board voted to receive the Gun Violence Reduction Work Plan, using recommendations from the Gun Violence Community Needs Assessment Final Report authored by Health Assessment and Research for Communities. The plan includes 17 actions for the county to take to protect against and prevent firearm-related violence.
