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Dogs and cats are ok for visitation, but the horse went over the limit...too big to come and visit...BD
LIHUE, Hawaii - A man hoping to cheer up an ailing relative at Wilcox Memorial Hospital hadn't considered one of the visitation rules: No horses allowed. "That's not my horse," the patient said to hospital staff.
A Do-It-yourself home bi-polar kit...what a novel idea...still think this is somewhat better in the hands of the experts rather than rely totally on a test taken at home..there is a bit of a difference between a pregnancy and bi-polar home test! BD
Psynomics has sold only a few tests so far but is projecting sales of 1,800 tests in 2008 and 30,000 in the next five years.
In coming months, at least two other startups led by genetic researchers are set to release their own psychiatric genetic tests. One test claims to predict the risk of developing schizophrenia. The other is designed to forecast the likelihood that some medications for major depression could heighten suicidal thoughts in patients.
The Food and Drug Administration does not evaluate the tests for accuracy, though a panel is working on a set of standards for the growing industry.Then Kelsoe, a prominent psychiatric geneticist at the University of California, San Diego, did something provocative for the buttoned-down world of academic medical research: He began selling bipolar genetic tests straight to the public over the Internet last month for $399.
For now, worry persists that with the proliferation of tests, there is too little understanding of what to do with the results, or what they mean.
Decreases the risks of aging too...well that's good news here..wine is still up there on the list too...everything in moderation...this report is somewhat amazing in the fact that it can dilute the development of dementia too..."In moderation," Bamforth says, "it's part of a wholesome diet."BD
Alcohol, including beer, in moderation raises high-density lipoprotein or HDL, known as good cholesterol, says Dr. R. Curtis Ellison, chief of the section of preventive medicine and epidemiology and professor of medicine and public health at the Boston University School of Medicine. It also appears to have a favorable effect on the lining of blood vessels, making them less likely to form a clot or for a clot to rupture and plug an artery, and may help protect against Type 2 diabetes.
"People should realize that a little bit of alcohol on a regular basis decreases the risks of aging," says Ellison, who specializes in researching, among other things, the relationship between moderate alcohol consumption and chronic diseases. Men who reported drinking 120 to 365 days a year had a 20% lower cardiovascular death rate than those who drank one to 36 days a year. Overdoing it, however, can have the opposite effect. Men who knocked back five or more drinks when they did indulge had a 30% greater risk for death via heart disease.
A reader of this blog was kind enough to inform me that the Medical Quack was a runner up in the "Scrubby" awards this week, but there is a vote every week...I have also added Red Scrubs to the Blog Roll on this site...voting is done here...I have never owned a set of scrubs, much less red ones...at any rate please visit the site and cast a vote...thanks so much...BD 
"Hey Quack,
You've been noticed by redscrubs.com for this blog. Dr. Incognito has placed you on his honorable mention list of his weekly wrap-up. The scrubby award winner of each weekly wrap-up receives a free pair of red scrubs."
Who knows where all of this will bottom out with the various plans and issues...there's only one pool large enough in my small estimation that would be large enough to cover everyone and collect from everyone for a universal care solution and that would be sales tax...do it...done deal....distribute the funds...which may be a headache the government may not desire...but we're not getting anywhere very fast these days...in the meantime who can figure out what is covered, who qualifies, etc. The money for health care coverage will eventually run out, as well as funding to research...so does anybody have a better idea? BD
Republicans are more likely than Democrats to call the U.S. health care system the best in the world, according to a Harvard University School of Public Health and Harris Interactive poll released on Thursday, Reuters reports. According to the poll, 68% of Republicans said that they consider the U.S. health care system the best in the world, compared with 32% of Democrats and 40% of independents.
For the poll, researchers from March 5 through March 8 asked a nationally representative sample of 1,026 U.S. residents whether they consider the U.S. health care system the best in the world. The poll had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.
Republicans, Democrats Disagree On Quality Of U.S. Health Care System, Poll Finds
Another resource on this page in the right hand column...I try to keep on top of all the direct links 
to the retailers who offer the $4.00 prescriptions for anyone...insurance or no insurance...they are subject to change and cover anywhere from 300 or more generic drugs. If you receive a prescription from your physician for any on the list, you might want to take a look here for some substantial savings. The links provided here will save you some time in having to locate and navigate to each retails page and find the listings. Each link goes directly to the current listings on the individual sites.
If I have missed any, please let me know as I am attempting to keep this up to date and make it an easy process for locating information quickly! BD
A health care paradigm....is Moore's law alive and well with medical technology...last year his wife was also the target of medical errors in the hospital...which lead to their contribution to UC Davis for better nursing education....BD
Ken Moore, the couple’s son, said the donation grew out of his mother’s own poor care during a hospital stay. A nurse gave her a shot of insulin that was supposed to go to the patient in the next bed. “They nearly had two deaths out of one medical error. That was the start of her really being interested in nursing care,” Ken Moore said.
The point is that this blending of disciplines, along with the introduction of unlimited computing power, has created a Moore’s Law effect in science generally. It is most obvious today in basic science, but science in time becomes engineering, engineering becomes drugs and devices, and these become cures.
In the world of medical research the chief contribution of this decade has been breaching the wall between organic and inorganic chemistry.
Computing has made this possible. It can take a vast amount of computing power to create an enzyme from scratch. Thanks to distributed computing and the Internet, we have it.
A Moore’s Law for medical breakthroughs | ZDNet Healthcare | ZDNet.com
What is a SQL Injection attack...well tech folks know what it is...and the severe data damage that can occur...another good reason for 3rd party security solutions, especially if you are running a hospital network...MSDN resources here....and for those reading this blog that have no idea what all this is about, Channel 9 did a video which is also entertaining, 
but makes the point of what this type of data breach could lead to...the average layman can watch and get the idea here with a mock up of a SQL Injection attack and see how serious it could be with a scenario in Las Vegas where this type of attack was used....BD
There is an Eastern European website/blog offering a set of sites that have been 'hacked' and are being sold to anyone who wants to 'take-over' the site for $7 to $10. One of your sites is on the list. You may want to scan this site for possible SQL injection vulnerabilities/attacks. I did not want to pass along my credit card number to a hacking site, so I asked our security consulting firm, Third Brigade to check it out.
Users who visit one of these infected websites may unknowingly execute malicious code. This code attempts to exploit known vulnerabilities for which patches are available but may not have been applied to the victim's system. Once the code executes on the desktop, specific malware is downloaded which sends passwords and other sensitive information to the attacker......Step 7: The attacker has sensitive information and has complete control of the desktop
More fines for California hospitals....BD
An elderly heart patient being treated at Washington Hospital in Fremont last summer died after she was mistakenly given methadone and other medications typically used to treat drug addicts, state officials revealed Thursday.
The hospital was one of 11 in California, including the Los Angeles hospital which treated the twin babies of actor Dennis Quaid, cited and fined for medical errors that injured or caused the death of patients in their care.The $25,000 maximum penalty issued to Washington Hospital came after the 87-year-old woman was given another patient's methadone and desipramine - medications frequently prescribed to treat drug addictions - as well as at least two other medicines not intended for her, state records show. The woman, who health officials have not identified, went into respiratory and cardiac distress and died on August 19.
Nice if you can keep up with what is needed to qualify...with so many plans and qualifications required...is there any doubt that tracking one more will add to the confusion...software with some business intelligence applications are a saving factor here to track and report...BD
San Ramon Regional Medical Center, a Tenet HealthCare Corp. hospital in the East Bay, is one of 23 California hospitals where Blue Cross of California will introduce a new pay-for-performance program. Blue Cross, which is part of WellPoint Inc., already has a program to reward physicians but this one will reward quality at hospitals.
The insurer's Quality-in-Sights Hospital Incentive Program measures hospital performances based on looking at certain benchmarks in areas including patient safety, outcome and patient satisfaction.
The Q-HIP measures will be based on measures reported to the California Hospital Assessment and Reporting Taskforce.
Blue Cross of California starts pay-for-performance program for hospitals - East Bay Business Times:
Trial to see if in fact his death was hastened by the use of drugs...BD
LOS ANGELES - A transplant surgeon accused of hastening the death of a man so his organs could be harvested has been ordered to trial on one count of felony dependent adult abuse, but two other felony charges involving administration of drugs to the dying man were dismissed.
The criminal case against Dr. Hootan Roozrokh of San Francisco is the first such action against a transplant doctor in the United States.
More recalls effecting treatments for early state Parkinson's disease...BD
UCB announced today that the company will be recalling Neupro® (rotigotine transdermal system) in the United States and certain batches in Europe. The recall decision resulted from ongoing monitoring of marketed product, which revealed a deviation from the approved product specification. As a result, there will be an out-of-stock situation with Neupro® in the United States in late April 2008. In the European Union and most other regions Neupro® supply is sufficient.Neupro® is indicated for the treatment of the signs and symptoms of early-stage idiopathic Parkinson's disease in the US and early and late stages of the disease in Europe and is distributed by Schwarz Pharma, a company of UCB Group.
I attended the launch today and it was every bit of what I had anticipated. Anybody that has known me long enough knows I get on my soap box and am at the top of the heap when it comes to organization. With this release there are choices and now I don't have to create and write custom Outlook scripts and forms any longer as CRM does it for you. What CRM does right is bring everything in to Outlook. The first thing one looks at is their email, so Outlook is the perfect choice and Dynamics CRM does it well. It can be hosted or can be local client/server.
I walk in to places every day and watch folks poke around their computers to find word documents, then a spreadsheet, and then return to Outlook...this process goes on all day long...when in fact with a CRM program each individual has a dashboard to use...not only that but you can bring inventory items into the realm...invoices, customer service, sales....and much more...gain marketing trend reports with just a few clicks...forecast better with real time data...
And the big one...what happens to sales information...when the sales representative leave so does the information for the most part...so why not make it easy for data entry and keep some of the information...and when a sales representative calls on an account....is it not wonderful to make all the customer service calls, equipment sales information and more available...will make for a much more productive sales call...and customers appreciate it. Some electronic health record information can also contribute to CRM and add value. I have posted about that topic in the past. One retailer, Best Buy uses CRM and does it to the maximum, I have seen my account once upon a time and there's even a record of the M&M's I bought at a store 5 years ago...so they are not short on data and they are about the best in the business at turning inventory and keeping related costs down...so is there something healthcare and others can learn...I think so...BD
The big key in the entire success of the software is getting users involved and that comes from top management down...like starting at the CEO level....as he/she too will benefit in having their own desktop complete with reports and only a few clicks away from seeing the status of business in real time whenever needed...and one more item....it can be up in running in as little as 30 minutes, again depending upon the network and integration necessary it could be a little more involved, but for the most part Dynamics integrates with MS Office and is up and ready to go...and to customize the way it works for you....not so bad...
and it goes to the PDA or Blackberry as well...automation makes for reducing stress and making the working environment a lot easier to deal with. Talk with myself or another MS partner for more information...BD
Microsoft officially launched its latest customer relationship management (CRM) product, Dynamics CRM 4.0, this week.
At a well-attended event this morning in Huntington Beach, Calif., Microsoft focused not on the new features or technical details of the release, but instead characterized the problems of sales teams and the use of CRM systems, which generally have been too complex for the end user. Ironically, the event consisted mostly of technology partners and potential CRM solution customers. A show of hands indicated that few attendees were actually in sales or marketing.
Another audience participant complained that her sales people are "technically challenged" and that "they believe their contacts are their intellectual property." Lush replied that "you have challenges with any salespeople," and that The Linc Group's salespeople "have very little computing background" but "the product is not hard to use." He added that the company also uses Windows Workflow technology to automate things like customer follow-up to make things easier for the sales team.
Dynamics CRM Partners
There were about 10 vendor-sponsor booths at the event, featuring products that extend the capabilities of Dynamics CRM. Cisco Systems offered a few products that integrate with Dynamics CRM 4.0, including the Cisco Unified CallConnector (both as part of the Cisco Unified Communications platform and as a hosted solution) and the Cisco Contact Center. Genesys, an Alcatel-Lucent company, provides switched and IP-based customer interaction communication solutions.
ENT News Online | News: Dynamics CRM 4.0 Launch Highlights 'Ease-of-Use'
Is everyone ready for "personalized medicine"...not...but it's moving fast and will change the way medicine is practiced....it will be in the genes...next issue to to get the real time clinical information available to every MD in a timely manner, the genes will be doing much of the selection process in the future to determine which drug (if there is choice of more than one) which will better match the comparison with the patient genes...there are over 1000 lab tests already in the biotech area and it's growing fast. BD
Genomas, a biomedical company advancing DNA-guided medicine and personalized healthcare, has announced the award of a Fast-Track Phase I-II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Grant totaling $1.2 million.
The grant, entitled "DNA Diagnostic System for Statin Safety and Efficacy," was awarded by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS).
Statins are the most prescribed drugs in the world. Drugs in this class include atorvastatin (Lipitor(R)), rosuvastatin (Crestor(R)), and simvastatin (Zocor(R) and generic formulations). Statin-induced neuro-myopathy (SINM) is the main clinically relevant safety risk of these drugs. In medical practice, SINM presents as a constellation of nerve and muscle side effects. Clinical symptoms of SINM include muscle aches (myalgia), cramps, weakness, and muscle injury (myositis, monitored in serum by elevation of certain enzymes). Statin usage is ultimately limited by these side effects which are disabling to 10% of patients, require alteration of therapy, burden healthcare with management costs, and reduce compliance.
Genomas awarded $1.2 million to develop DNA-guided system for management of statin therapy
Spray and Go...bandages and wound sealant...no more stitches...60 seconds to dry...use for skin grafts and burn patients...BD
DEERFIELD, Ill., March 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Baxter Healthcare Corporation announced today the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of ARTISS (Fibrin Sealant (Human)), the first and only slow-setting fibrin sealant indicated for use in adhering skin grafts in adult and pediatric burn patients. ARTISS was developed using Baxter's proven fibrin sealant technology platform and is the newest agent in the company's expanding BioSurgery portfolio. ARTISS allows for the delayed setting and controlled manipulation of skin grafts for approximately 60 seconds, relative to rapid-setting fibrin sealants, which set in five to 10 seconds. Skin grafts can be fixed without the use of staples or sutures, which may help reduce post-operative complications and patient anxiety about pain during staple removal. Baxter will launch ARTISS at the American Burn Association (ABA) 40th Annual Meeting held April 29 -- May 2, 2008 in Chicago.
ARTISS is a biologically active sealant consisting of human fibrinogen and low concentration human thrombin. It will be available in two forms: a pre- filled syringe (frozen) formulation and a lyophilized form. Both dosage forms, once prepared and ready to use, can be sprayed, thus enabling application in a thin and even layer.
Baxter Announces FDA Approval of ARTISS Slow-Setting Fibrin Sealant in Treatment of Burn Patients
This is good.....used by the DOD...if you are not aware of what Rootkits are and what they can do, read this post from last year....if the situation is bad enough, the FBI might let you know...infected computers have even been found on computers on networks at hospitals....another good reason to make sure your Windows Updates are up to date...BD
REDMOND, Wash. — March 20, 2008 — Today Microsoft Corp. announced it has acquired Maryland-based Komoku Inc., a provider of advanced rootkit security detection solutions. Microsoft expects to add Komoku’s functionality into upcoming versions of the Forefront line of enterprise security products and Windows Live OneCare, Microsoft’s all-in-one PC care solution.
“Komoku has been a leader in the area of rootkit detection, doing work for ultra security-conscious customers such as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Defense (DOD),” said Ryan Hamlin, general manager, Access and Security Division, Server and Tools Business at Microsoft. “Komoku’s cutting-edge expertise and technology will benefit our customers by adding to the robust protection of our anti-malware solutions and help maintain our leading position in anti-malware research and development.” Founded in 2004, Komoku offers advanced rootkit detection. Rootkits are malicious software programs that are designed to take control of a computer’s operating system at the administrator, or root, level, where they can often hide from detection by standard anti-malware software
Uses Ultrasonic Light tagging to isolate and monitor an area of the tissue the size of a sugar cube under the skin....monitors the oxygen in a portion of the brain...can be used in the operating room, nuero critical care, trauma units, etc....it can also monitor other organs as well...looking in to your brain with light....BD
Ornim, Inc. is developing innovative solutions for non-invasive monitoring of vitalsigns of vital organs. Its breakthrough technology enables localized and quantitative measurements of physiological parameters within specific tissue regions. Ornim’s first application, Targeted Oximetry™, enables monitoring of oxygen saturation in deep tissues, in particular in the brain.
The Ornim CerOx is simple and easy to use. It consists of a stand alone bedside unit that contains both electronics and optics required for measurement. This Monitor Unit provides a user friendly graphical display of current and historical patient data from two sensors simultaneously. The Monitor Unit is connected via electronic and optic cables to the sensors. The sensors are coupled to the skin using a single use adhesive.
Hat Tip and more information: http://www.medgadget.com/archives/2008/03/ornim_oxygen_saturation_system_fda_approved.html
You may not be able to buy happiness, but the way you spend your money can make you happier, researchers say.
According to a new set of studies, people who spend money on others, either by donating to a charity or buying gifts, are markedly happier than those who do not."We wanted to know whether we could find the overall relationship between how people spend money and how happy they were," Dunn said. "We found people who reported spending more on others reported greater happiness.Dunn, who wasn't surprised by the studies' outcomes, said that she believes that her hypothesis could extend beyond just giving money to others, but giving time to others as well.
ABC News: Want to Be Happy? Spend Money on Others
A happy marriage is good for your blood pressure, but a stressed one can be worse than being single, a preliminary study suggests. Study volunteers wore devices that recorded their blood pressure at random times over 24 hours. Married participants also filled out questionnaires about their marriage.
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/HeartDiseaseCenter/wireStory?id=4487359
Has it reached this point with production and numbers that even bathroom time can be cut down and scrutinized? BD
DENVER - Union officials in Colorado say a Qwest supervisor tried to cut down on lengthy bathroom breaks by telling workmen to use disposable urinal bags in the field.
The manager distributed the bags to 25 male field technicians, telling them not to waste time leaving a job site to search for a public bathroom, the Rocky Mountain News reported Thursday.Qwest and other companies have for years offered portable urinal bags to workers who could find themselves in the field far from a bathroom.
Investors felt mislead...what's the answer...I guess go to court...one more reason healthcare profits should have some type of regulation on profits allowed...but nobody complains when things are good and claims are paid...BD
WellPoint Inc., the parent company of Blue Cross of California, is facing a shareholder lawsuit following a revision of its earnings guidance after market close March 10.
Stock price for WellPoint (NYSE: WLP) dropped from $65.92 per share at market close March 10 to $47.26 per share March 11, on a volume of more than 54 million shares traded, many times the stock's average daily trading volume.
The suit was filed March 18 in federal district court in Indiana by lawyers at the firm of Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins LLP, the firm said.
It seeks to represent all persons who purchased stock between Jan. 23, when the company announced its Q4 and full year 2007 results, and March 10, when WellPoint revised its earnings guidance.The stock was trading at $47.10 per share at the close of market March 18, compared with almost $80 per share at this time a year ago.
WellPoint hit with shareholder suit - East Bay Business Times:
A case of having the wrong email address...several times...BD
And only realized their error when angry Palace staff asked them to stop. The highly confidential information was sent to the royal household by a blundering NHS worker.
The female member of staff - who has not been named - typed in the wrong email address. She should have sent the record to a medic within Norfolk Primary Care Trust. But instead, she emailed the Palace.
Bosses at the Trust were left red faced when the Buckingham Palace press office emailed them to flag up the major blunder. A worker in the Palace press office got in touch and begged them to stop sending over confidential patient information.
Sad story, and it happens more than we think with wrong body parts undergoing surgery...the importance of double checking everything beforehand...and hopefully eliminating non relevant information beforehand to not add to the confusion...BD
"This has been a tragic event and Park Nicollet has accepted full responsibility," said Dr. Samuel Carlson, chief medical officer for Park Nicollet Health Services.Carlson declined to name the surgeon who performed the procedure.
Although the surgery was performed last Tuesday, it wasn’t until the next day that pathology reports confirmed the wrong kidney had been taken from the patient, whose identity is not being revealed due to patient confidentiality.
Carlson said standard protocols were followed in the Methodist Hospital operating room to prevent such an occurrence, but new safety protocols have been added. Surgeons now will have to double-check MRIs and CAT scans before starting surgeries, he told the TV station.
Update on Google's interest in heatlhcare...data mining quickly to get the relative information to the health care provider...and for now an excusive arrangement...BD
Internet giant Google has tapped a medical software developer in San Diego to provide a key element of its test project that lets people create comprehensive medical records on the Web. The software has been embedded in Google Health, an online system being tried out by patients and doctors affiliated with the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. SafeMed's role in Google Health could provide a boost to the privately held company, which has fewer than 50 employees and moved into its new office in Mira Mesa at the beginning of the year.
SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Business -- SafeMed gets the call
Not a physician and does not have an MBA...culture change from what has been precedence in the past...BD
UC Irvine on Wednesday appointed to head its medical center a registered nurse who spent 12 years as one of the hospital's top administrators during a period in which it suffered a series of scandals, including one in which more than 30 patients on the
liver transplant list died as the hospital turned down scores of organs that were then successfully transplanted elsewhere.
"After an exhaustive national search, we concluded that the best candidate was already in our midst," said Dr. David N. Bailey, vice chancellor for health affairs, in a news release.
Maureen Zehntner has held the post of interim chief executive since 2005, but it is her association with the medical program's troubled past that has led some to criticize the university for choosing one of its old guard at a time when it is trying to wipe clean its stained reputation.
Home testing with physician direction on anti-coagulation management....BD
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) today expanded Medicare coverage for home blood testing of prothrombin time (PT) International Normalized Ratio (INR) to include beneficiaries who are using the drug warfarin, an anticoagulant (blood thinner) medication, for chronic atrial fibrillation or venous thromboembolism.
Medicare's prior policy only provided home test coverage for Medicare patients with mechanical heart valves who are on warfarin. Patients use PT/INR blood testing to determine how well their anticoagulant medicine is working to prevent blood clots. PT measures the speed of blood coagulation, while INR provides a way to standardize such measurement. Tests can be performed at home, as long as the patient works with his or her health care provider as part of an anticoagulation management program.
Medicare Expands Coverage For Home Blood Testing Of Prothrombin Time International Normalized Ratio
Lyme disease is the blight of countryside users but it may be prevented with a single injection, according to research published in the Journal of Medical Microbiology.
The US saw nearly 20,000 cases of Lyme disease in 2006 and there are up to 2,000 cases a year in the UK, a figure that is increasing steadily. Now scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Fort Collins, Colorado, USA, have developed an injection that protects against two severe diseases transmitted by tick bites: Lyme disease and Anaplasmosis. A single dose of doxycycline given orally is only 20-30% effective at preventing these diseases in mice. The researchers found that a new formulation of doxycycline hyclate that is programmed to release the drug over a 20 day period is 100% effective.
Some folks in the UK that chose medical tourism ended up back at the NHS....BD
A growing number of Britons are choosing to travel abroad for surgery, attracted by big cost savings, but 18 per cent of them concede the experience was problematic.
More than a quarter said they did not receive the necessary follow-up care and 8 per cent were forced to turn to the National Health Service for emergency help when they got home.
"Unprepared patients may find themselves on NHS waiting lists for vital physiotherapy or seeing a doctor who's reluctant to follow up unknown work," said Stephen Cannon, an orthopaedic consultant and Which? expert.
Around 80,000 Britons were "medical tourists" in 2006 and that figure rose to an estimated 100,000 last year, according to the TreatmentAbroad.com Web site.
'Medical tourists' tell tales of woe - New Zealand's source for travel news on Stuff.co.nz
When reading this blog, there are several areas for reference in the right hand column...and sometimes I just take for granted that folks notice and see the links...well wrong was I...until I received an email telling me bring to the attention of others...so I'll be making an attempt every week or so to highlight some of the resources on the page in the right hand column...for today there's a listing of 5 CME credits available...need to add up a few credits and don't have time to scour the web...hopefully these might lend a helping hand...scroll down half way to find the links...BD
46 percent of companies expected to drop clinical trials...ok...so where do they go next...hmmm...China? BD
LONDON (Reuters) - Pharmaceutical companies have lost confidence in investing in Britain following a decision by the government to scrap a 50-year-old drug pricing mechanism, according to a survey released on Thursday.
Three-quarters of more than 100 drugmakers with British operations said they had little confidence in the current UK market environment and 83 percent expect the position to deteriorate in the coming 12 months. The clash comes at a difficult time for the global drugs industry, which faces a marked slowdown in sales growth and is already cutting jobs. Barker estimated some 8,000 jobs had gone or been announced to go in Britain in the last two or three years, out of a total workforce of around 70,000.
Confidence dives as UK scraps drug pricing scheme - Yahoo! News
And she can't get a solid answer on why the union became promoters of Lipitor... marketing techniques of big pharma never cease to amaze...the recent Viagra commercials still top the bill though as the worst with the boys in the band....will there be another union in support of Lipitor in the future...I guess we'll have to wait and see....BD
A couple of weeks ago Dr. Alicia Fernandez, an associate professor of clinical medicine at UC San Francisco, received a very unusual letter from The International Association of EMTS and Paramedics, an affiliate of The National Association of Government Employees (IAEP/SEIU).
The letter began by noting that Fernandez is part of the union’s approved physician network, and then launched into what can only be described as a shameless sales pitch for Lipitor, Pfizer’s blockbuster cholesterol-lowering drug. Then, the endorsement: “Lipitor is available to our members through their prescription plan. IAEP leadership stands behind LIPITOR as the lipid-lowering agent of choice when it is prescribed by a physician. [my emphasis] This confidence in LIPITOR is based on its proven efficacy and is supported by its vast clinical experience of more than 15 years…"
“I’ve never seen anything like this. I’ve never seen Labor endorse a drug product,” she told me. “This is incredible.” Unfortunately, Fernandez adds, this is not the first time that she has seen a drug company use a progressive organization to promote its product.
Health Beat: Pfizer Enlists a Labor Union (SEIU) to Promote the “Cholesterol Con”
I guess now it will be our turn to have our own pill, something besides an anti-depressant...who knows...at least attention is being directed to the opposite sex here...a good thing...BD
Medicine is finally opening the bedroom door to women. When the male erectile
dysfunction drug Viagra was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1998, many middle-aged men experienced a new lease on life, or at least on life in the bedroom. "We have an opportunity at Stanford to develop a program in an area that is frequently overlooked by practitioners in California and throughout the country," said Berek. "We can and will be a leader in this very important area.". Now the new Female Sexual Medicine Program at Stanford Hospital & Clinics has put that attitude aside.
Although many groups began calling for a "female Viagra," they met skepticism. Long after the term "female sexual dysfunction" was coined in 1997, some doubted its existence; a 2006 article in PLoS-Medicine flagged the dysfunction as an example of disease mongering by pharmaceutical companies.
Women's sexual disorders get medical attention in new Stanford program
Is better management and technology an answer in part? BD
Cambridge - Cambridge Health Alliance officials blame funding cuts under a new state mandate for universal health insurance for an estimated $18 million debt.
But Boston Medical Center, which received much of the same funding for uninsured patients as the Cambridge Health Alliance before last year’s health insurance reform, isn’t reporting similar financial problems.
The revelation that BMC is projected to post a small revenue gain by the end of its fiscal year is only further fueling critics’ accusations of poor budget planning by the leadership at the Cambridge Health Alliance.
Same reasons for both, not going to the doctor and later diagnosis as an outcome...BD
About 750 working-age Ohioans died in 2006 because they lacked health insurance and could not afford medications or preventative care, according to a report released yesterday. Because they often skip checkups, screenings, and other measures that could diagnose cancer or other diseases and increase their chances of survival, two working-age Ohioans without health insurance die daily, according to Families USA, a nonprofit organization that advocates affordable health care for all.
toledoblade.com -- Ohio deaths tied to insurance lack
An estimated 210 working-age West Virginians die prematurely each year because they don't have health insurance, according to a report released Tuesday. People without insurance are more likely to be diagnosed with diseases, such as cancer, at advanced stages, said Families USA, a national health-care consumer group. About 16.5 percent, or 172,000 West Virginians ages 25 to 64 don't have health insurance.
Ouch!! Good story from Engadget about RFIDs on credit cards....well in healthcare we need to go a bit further than this....same technology would not be HIPAA compliant! Watch and listen to the video..he could walk in to an entire coffee shop and make out with tons of information...scary...but a word to the wise...and to think it was done with an $8.00 item purchased from EBay...gives a bit more credibility to storing records online perhaps...and then...who do you trust? Imagine sitting in the lobby of your physician's office and someone coming in and doing a blanket rip of insurance cards...they would have all the insurance and policy information along with your name for some potential identify theft action...USB stick with encryption is looking better too....BD
http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/rfid-credit-cards-easily-hacked-with-8-reader/
Here's another new entry into the "online vault" concept...and this could include storing medical records in the form of documents...but unlike some of the others...standard fees that the banking industry is known for will apply...BD
SAN FRANCISCO - Recognizing not all banking customers want a safe deposit box, Wells Fargo & Co. plans to sell online vaults as a secure and convenient alternative for storing vital records. Called "vSafe," the service is perfect for storing digital versions of birth certificates, wills, driver's licenses, passports, family photos and other important documents, Smith said.
All documents put in vSafe will be encrypted, using the same measures that the bank deploys to protect other Internet accounts. Always on the lookout for new sources of service fees, Wells Fargo will charge nearly $180 per year for its biggest online safe. The planned monthly fees will be: $4.95 for 1 gigabyte of storage: $9.95 for three gigabytes; and $14.95 for six gigabytes.
Aetna Health Care has a page dedicated to genetics with information and statistics...rapidly growing field for physicians and patients alike...moving rapidly...and so is the cost...stands to change much of the way medicine is practiced and very soon....BD
You Should Know:
Genetic technologies have a rapidly expanding role in medical care. Scientific advancements in genetic medicine are enabling better means to diagnose disease, to predict risk, and to direct and personalize treatment.
72 percent of physicians not specializing in genetics rate their knowledge of genetics as fair to poor. There is a shortage of well-trained genetic medicine clinicians with fewer than 2,000 certified genetic counselors in United States
Fewer than 7 percent of Americans are scientifically literate. Per-prescription costs of biologic drugs increased 29 percent from 2001 to 2003 compared to 16 percent for conventional drugs during the same time period.
1,000 conditions for which genetic tests are available. and growing with a 10 percent increase in the availability of new genetic tests every year
Genetic technologies are generally expensive, and their costs tend to rise more rapidly than their conventional counterparts. A rapid increase in the availability of new biologic medications. Since 2000, biologics represent 25 percent of all new FDA-approved drugs.
The number one story being read is about the recent merge in technologies between Allscripts and Misys...one thing it says for sure is how large of a task this is to create a new entity, look for investors and create a winning solution.....
Software as a Service solutions...it stands to be one big task to bring in not only information resources, but all the most important item....security...there's a big task ahead...BD
Couldn't have said it better myself....supporting the infrastructure...and deciding who's going to be the "keeper" of the health care data...who do and will you trust? BD
Staying on the cutting edge of healthcare technology is easy. It's supporting the infrastructure that's a challenge.
Patients and caregivers are demanding more cutting-edge healthcare technology than ever before, but the support and administration tasks required for this new care model are challenging some hospitals. Across the board, patients, doctors, nurses, hospital staff and administrators are in favor of any technology that can reduce costs, improve efficiency and increase quality of care, said Mark Jacobs, director of Technology Services, Operations and Security at WellSpan Health, including mobile and tablet PCs, self-service kiosks for patient check-in, co-payment collection, automated consent signature gathering and EHRs (electronic health records).
While mobility and self-service are becoming "must-haves," many patients and caregivers are still wary of the value of EHRs. Heftler said patients want them, but they neither understand the value nor trust that the information contained in the EHR will remain safe and secure.
"What we hear over and over again is who's going to be keeper of the data? How are we going to know the data will always be available? How can I make sure that the access is only authorized to certain people?" she said, adding that it's also a tricky feat for providers to access, modify and save that data safely, securely and while maintaining compliance.
Good move to help, but it doesn't help the overall situation and what happened...goes to show we still need to express ourselves as humans and discuss and talk about issues with others...anyone in the same scenario would feel the same...we are still humans...technology and how the data streams across networks and creates financial decisions in a split second is still something we are working on to come of age and chances are we may never get there, and the wreckage of human lives as we know it today continues...everything is not preventable in life, but it appears the best we can do is educate ourselves on the items in life that have a direct effect on our everyday life...
More than ever there is a huge need to educate oneself...and it continues to rise...obviously we can't all retain everything in our human brain that we might have a need to be informed about, and this is where technology can help in being able to access the information where and when we need it...including the counselors...they may not have the solutions for everyone affected, but can surely offer an ear to listen...bottled up emotions are nothing new...there's just so much more of this to go around today...as life as we once knew it continues to change and the air of uncertainties continue to emerge and impact so many areas of our lives...BD
Facing the loss of their life savings and very possibly their jobs, employees at investment bank Bear Stearns are turning to trained professionals -- not for financial advice but for psychological counseling.The company, which collapsed suddenly last week when real estate clients withdrew $17 billion in two days, will provide psychological counselors, called employee assistance professionals, to help workers handle the news that their plans and perhaps their dreams have abruptly and dramatically changed.
Many of the company's employees could lose their jobs and all of them have seen the value of their stock holdings and options evaporate overnight. "People could be feeling extreme helplessness or hopelessness. It is not just the employee who might be worried or irritable, but his spouse or family as well," Maynard said.
Price is right...below $500.00.....supports video conferencing as well....and we have rural areas here in the US as well.....BD
According to MIT’s Technology in Review, Intel has announced plans to sell a specialized Wi-Fi platform later this year that can send data from a city to outlying rural areas tens of miles away, connecting sparsely populated villages to the Internet.
The technology is called the rural connectivity platform (RCP) and has data rates up to about 6.5 megabits per second, which is good enough for video conferencing and telemedicine.Intel has installed and tested RCP in India, Panama, Vietnam, and South Africa. Later this year, the company will sell the device in India, with a target price below $500.
The point-to-point technology requires two nodes, providing backhaul infrastructure for less than $1,000.
Intel's Wi-Fi RCP Transmits 60 Miles - WIRELESS AND MOBILE NEWS
The same old solution, free credit checks...wonder why the delay since it was reported missing last November? BD
(March 10, 2008) - - Blue-Cross Blue-Shield of Western New York says it is notifying tens of thousands of its members about identity theft concerns after one of it's company laptops went missing.
Blue-Cross says a laptop hard-drive containing vital information about an estimated 40,000 of its members has been missing since last November.
No doubt mine is....and I have not even been on any real battlefields...BD
Individuals who experience military combat obviously endure extreme stress, and this exposure leaves many diagnosed with the psychiatric condition of post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. PTSD is associated with several abnormalities in brain structure and function. However, as researcher Roger Pitman explains, "Although it is tempting to conclude that these abnormalities were caused by the traumatic event, it is also possible that they were pre-existing risk factors that increased the risk of developing PTSD upon the traumatic event's occurrence." Drs. Kasai and Yamasue along with their colleagues sought to examine this association in a new study published in the March 15th issue of Biological Psychiatry.
More information on developments with Human Genome research...BD
(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Vascular eye disease is the leading cause of blindness in the United States, but a protein called Robo4 could reverse or even prevent it.
The two most common vascular eye diseases are age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy -- both caused primarily by abnormal blood vessel growth and leakage. When researchers activated the Robo4 protein in mice with simulated models of both diseases, they were able to prevent and even reverse the damage.
More information available at the National Human Genome Research Institute....BD
Ivanhoe's Medical Breakthroughs - Treating Macular Degeneration
While at the HIMMS convention this year I was able to see a demonstration on how the system works...a lot of research and development in the software as well...BD
The Military Health System (MHS) is about to deploy a program worldwide through which doctors and dentists can share a common electronic health record.
AHLTA Dental is a component of AHLTA, the military’s EHR system. It will build on the foundation created by the medical component of AHLTA. A single, unified clinical data repository will support medical and dental providers throughout MHS.AHLTA-Dental will enable dentists to record patient encounters electronically and use graphical charting tools to record a patient’s oral conditions, disease and treatment needs. The application also supports the charting of complete dental treatments, including teeth cleanings and periodontal, endodontic and prosthodontic evaluations and treatments.
More breakthroughs in surgery without incisions...not too long ago there was a gall bladder removed without incisions....BD
Scientists are moving closer to developing the techniques and the technology that could someday allow surgeons to perform many operations without cutting the skin. Sound far-fetched? Not according to researchers at the University of California, San Diego, who removed a patient's appendix a few days ago by pulling it out through his mouth.
For patients with type 1 diabetes, increased levels of uric acid in the blood may be an early sign of diabetic kidney disease - appearing before any significant change in urine albumin level, the standard screening test, reports a study in the May 2008 issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.
The researchers measured serum uric acid concentration in 675 patients with type 1 diabetes. On screening tests, 311 patients had small amounts of the protein albumin in the urine. This result - called microalbuminuria - is generally regarded as a harbinger of kidney function loss in diabetic kidney disease (nephropathy). The other 364 patients had normal urine albumin levels.
Early Clues To Diabetic Kidney Disease May Be Provided By Uric Acid In The Blood
Brain scans used...the fMRI.......for identifying potential terrorist activists...BD
There is evidence that brain imaging technology is being used to interrogate suspected terrorists despite concerns that it may not be reliable, and that it might inadvertently promote abuse of detainees, according to a Penn State researcher. He says the risk that such technology could license further abuse of detainees remains ever present, given President Bush's March 8 veto of legislation that would have prohibited the CIA from conducting aggressive interrogations.
Unlike a polygraph, an fMRI uses powerful magnetic fields to detect tiny changes in blood oxygen levels in the brain. Since active neurons take up more oxygen than inactive ones, these tiny changes are believed to be signatures of cognitive processes.
Good points made by this article...it is a retraining process not only for patients but physicians as well as the entire diagnosis process is changing from how it has evolved over the years...in short like everything else there's more knowledge readily available, more to consider in the decision making process, etc. and then we have privacy issues to consider as well...and the physicians generally do not have enough clinical research information for judging potential outcomes...and then of course, will the insurance carrier cover the expense? BD
Although advances in Genomic medicine for common adult chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer hold promise for improved prevention, diagnosis and treatment, health professionals and the public are not prepared to effectively integrate these new tools into practice, according to a study released by researchers from the Department of Veterans Affairs and the RAND Corporation.
Physicians and patients are optimistic about the health benefits that genetic testing might provide, but neither group is well informed about genetics and there are likely too few experts available to meet growing demands for genetic testing, according to the study in the March 19 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association."Primary care clinicians are on the front lines of patient care and they are going to need to be prepared to incorporate genetics into their practices," Scheuner said. "Training and educating the healthcare workforce about the role of genetics in their clinical practice and increasing the size of the genetics specialty workforce are potential solutions to barriers we identified."
Health Professionals, Public Unprepared For Genomic Medicine
More consolidation efforts and buy outs in health care...BD
March 18 (Reuters) - Inverness Medical Innovations Inc (IMA.A: Quote, Profile, Research) said it would close two facilities in San Francisco and a manufacturing plant in Colorado resulting in some job cuts as it seeks to reduce costs and improve margins. The maker of home pregnancy tests and fertility-monitoring kits expects to cut about 56 positions, or 80 percent of the workforce at its manufacturing plant in Louisville, Colorado, which produces the BioStar OIA product lines.
UPDATE 1-Inverness Medical to close facilities, cut jobs | Industries | Healthcare | Reuters
March 18 (Reuters) - Biotech company Kosan Biosciences Inc (KOSN.O: Quote, Profile, Research) said it will cut its workforce by 37 percent to focus resources on its lead clinical programs. Kosan, which has about 90 employees, expects restructuring charges of about $700,000 in the first quarter and said the restructuring will result in most research programs being placed on hold. The company also cut its 2008 estimate for cash used in operating activities to $37 to $47 million from $40 to $50 million.
http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssHealthcareNews/idUSWNAS540620080318
TOKYO, March 19 (Reuters) - Takeda Pharmaceutical Co (4502.T: Quote, Profile, Research), Japan's largest drug maker, plans to buy out Abbott Laboratories Inc (ABT.N: Quote, Profile, Research) stake in their 50-50 U.S. joint venture for 500 billion yen ($5 billion), a source close to the deal said on Wednesday.
http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssHealthcareNews/idUSTFA000303820080319
In a development that consumer groups say raises privacy issues, a growing number of hospitals are mining patients' personal financial information to figure out how likely they are to pay their bills.
Some hospitals are peering into patients' credit reports, which contain information on people's lines of credit, debts and payment histories. Other hospitals are contracting with outside services that predict a patient's income and whether he or she is likely to walk away from a medical bill. Hospitals often use these services when patients are uninsured or have big out-of-pocket costs despite having health insurance.
Consumer advocates say the practice creates the potential for hospitals to misuse the information by denying or cutting back on patients' care if they can't pay. Hospitals say that doesn't happen. Hospitals often ask patients for permission to access their financial records, but such authorization is sometimes buried in the fine print.
In my personal opinion, they are there fighting for us, so we owe the support to our soldiers and should make this available for any soldier who requests a scan or is in obvious dire needs of one based on his tour of duty and incidents...the process and administration is up to the VA and the Pentagon...BD
For more than two years, the Pentagon delayed screening troops returning from Iraq for mild brain injuries because officials feared veterans would blame vague ailments on the little-understood wound caused by exposure to bomb blasts, says the military's director of medical assessments.
Air Force Col. Kenneth Cox said in an interview that the Pentagon wanted to avoid another controversy such as the so-called Gulf War syndrome. About 10,000 veterans blamed medical conditions from cancer to eczema on their service. That uncertainty, Cox said, means "some individuals will seek a diagnosis from provider to provider to provider." It also makes treating veterans "much more difficult and much more costly," he said. "That's baloney," says Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., founder of the Congressional Brain Injury Task Force. "There was no need to delay this."
Good move for privacy....medical treatment should not be treated like news for the front copy of the National Enquirer or any of the other tabloids....nobody wants to have photographs posted on the web when they are at their worst...this ban applies to the psychiatric areas of the hospital...BD
UCLA's neuropsychiatric hospital has banned all cellphones and laptop computers after a patient posted group photos of other patients on a social networking website, officials confirmed Monday.
Dr. Thomas Strouse, medical director of the Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital, said in a statement that the decision was part of "UCLA Health System's ongoing efforts to enhance patient privacy and confidentiality in compliance with California's patient rights law."
Sounds like bald is beautiful...cost is a big factor as well....BD
The American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery (AACS) is pleased to announce the results of its 2007 Procedural Data. This information is collected by polling the Academy's U.S.-based members.
Findings conclude that sclerotherapy, the standard treatment for spider and varicose veins, is now the number two most performed cosmetic surgical procedure, due in large part to men. Sclerotherapy has seen a 226.3% increase in males over the past five years. A drastic comparison to the 3.5% increase in females since 2002.The top three most performed cosmetic surgical procedures in 2007 include: liposuction, sclerotherapy and blepharoplasty; while the most popular non-surgical cosmetic procedures were Botox(R) injections, microdermabrasion and chemical peels.
To be generic or not to be...Zantac....maybe a need to move some old stock on the shelves? BD
The big pharmacy chain has agreed to pay $37 million to settle what is believed to be the first case involving prescription switching by a retailer. According to a multi-state lawsuit, CVS allegedly charged the government up to 400 percent more for Medicaid patients by illegally changing generic Zantac scripts from tablets to higher-priced capsules. The federal complaint and settlement agreement, which involves 24 states, says CVS made huge profits by evading federal and state price ceilings when it unlawfully switched to the capsules.
The generic form of Zantac, which is an antacid, typically comes in tablets. The federal government set maximum prices that Medicaid would pay for tablets, while infrequently prescribed capsules had no maximum prices. So when CVS switched patient scripts, the change wound up costing taxpayers up to 400 percent more, according to court documents.
Don't go swimming with the snails....People become infected with Schistosoma when they wade, swim or bathe in fresh water inhabited by snails, which serve as the worms' intermediate hosts....genomic advances for a new approach to eliminate...BD
A research team supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Roadmap and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has identified chemical compounds that hold promise as potential therapies for schistosomiasis, a parasitic disease that afflicts more than 200 million people worldwide. The findings were reported in the advance online publication of the journal Nature Medicine. The microscopic worms enter the human body by boring through the skin and migrate into the blood vessels that supply the intestinal and urinary systems. After the worms mature and reproduce, their eggs are eliminated in human urine and feces. If human waste contaminated by worm eggs finds its way into fresh water, the cycle begins again.
Schistosomiasis, also known as bilharzia or snail fever, affects an estimated 207 million people, most of whom live in developing nations in tropical areas. About 20 million of those people are seriously disabled due to severe anemia, diarrhea, internal bleeding and/or organ damage. In addition, another 280,000 die of the disease each year.
New trend...forget the gym and get a Wii? Wii and BMI...tied together...prescriptions for a Wii any time soon and become a "family affair"....there's still one lacking component and that is the social portion of going to a gym...we all still need to communicate and function like humans..the bottom line, so time will tell the story one where exactly a Wii fits in to our lifestyles...in the meantime, "get up and boogy"...BD
Wii Fit, which hits American store shelves May 19, is a combination workout video and electronic exercise log that charts players' progress on a series of exercises, as well as weight and body mass index (BMI); think Brain Age for your body. "One of my bigger concerns is that it teaches that physical activity is not a part of your everyday routine," Rao said. "I can't see children sustaining this for very long. At best it will be a novelty for a few hours or a few days, even."
After a player's Wii Fit age is determined, he or she gets a stamp, much like Brain Age, and then moves on to a variety of exercises divided into four categories: strength training, aerobics, yoga and balance games. The game also allows players to set goals and keep track of their total daily minutes working out. Any workout time away from the Wii — at the gym, for example — can be recorded on Wii Fit.
Some pretty high numbers....18%....and what's the cure...we know the solution is care and management with family....BD
About 14 million, or roughly 18 percent, of the USA's 79 million baby boomers can expect to develop Alzheimer's or some other form of dementia in their lifetime, a
newly released report shows. According to the Alzheimer's Association, 70% of people with Alzheimer's and other dementias live at home, where friends and family members pitch in to help them, often at great cost.
Americans are developing Alzheimer's at an accelerating rate, says Stephen McConnell, vice president of public policy for the Alzheimer's Association.
We knew this was coming...do you ever feel like just another commodity out there today? " It's also extremely difficult for patients to sue for malpractice in most Asian countries. "But over time, for policyholders and payers alike, the price may be hard to resist. "In addition, alliances between foreign hospitals and U.S. insurers typically are approved by the Joint Commission International, part of the same not-for-profit organization that accredits U.S. hospitals."...and the hospitals are being approved by the Joint Commission....BD
For years, Americans have been traveling abroad to save money on elective procedures or dental work. David Boucher, 49, doesn't fit the usual profile for such medical tourists. An assistant vice-president of health-care services at Blue Cross & Blue Shield of South Carolina, he has ample health benefits. But Boucher recently chose to have a colonoscopy at Bumrungrad International Hospital in Bangkok, mainly to make a point about the expanding options available to Blue Cross customers. And his company happily picked up the $640 tab—a bargain by U.S. standards.
Blue Cross and other insurers would like to see more policyholders traveling abroad for medical care. Since the start of the year, Boucher has signed alliances with seven overseas hospitals and hopes to add five more by yearend, including them all in coverage for his company's 1.5 million members. As health-care costs continue to rise in the U.S., "medical travel is going to be part of the solution," he says.
Getting covered employees to leave the U.S. won't be that hard, says Edelheit. An insurance company could waive all deductibles and co-pays, offer to cover travel costs for the patient and family members, even throw in a cash incentive, and still save tens of thousands of dollars.
More mergers in healthcare...BD
West Des Moines-based MediNotes Corp., maker of electronic health records management products, said Monday that it purchased Bond Technologies, a Tampa, Fla., medical management software company. No purchase price was disclosed.
"The merger positions MediNotes to become an even stronger force in our industry," said MediNotes CEO Donald Schoen.
MediNotes will rename Bond's leading product, Bond Clinician, to MediNotes Clinician. MediNotes said it would continue development of MediNotes Clinician, which includes e-prescribing, patient portals, patient kiosk and image management, as well as its own product, MediNotes.
MediNotes purchases Florida company | DesMoinesRegister.com | The Des Moines Register
Watch the video release here.....if you have followed EMR/EHR companies over the years we all know that Misys has grown by purchasing other companies and merging technologies...they both talk about connecting with Google and the Microsoft Health Vault...Misys customers will have a choice with new Allscripts items available...question is how long will both be able to function before consolidation of technologies takes place...big merger...but Misys has been here many times before...more market share for the fragmented healthcare system...more to the cloud and to the web...BD
The complex deal under which Misys Healthcare is acquiring 54% of Allscripts, which Allscripts executives will run, is all about Software as a Service, or Saas. With SaaS, the software you use is hosted on a remote server, and you access it through a Web browser, with your data saved remotely as well.
The combined companies will target doctors’ offices with a SaaS product and starts with one-third of the U.S. market. SaaS is a new acronym for what was called the ASP market a decade ago.
Doctors' decisions control 80% of the cost of health care. Hospitals have started to fund the purchase of technology for physicians. Hospital boards are finding that if physicians operate electronically, hospitals can be more efficient.
Misys-Allscripts deal is all about SaaS | ZDNet Healthcare | ZDNet.com
"As one of our analysts in Kansas said, 'The reasons we don't have the hangover now is we missed the party,'" Perez said....and here in California some tens of thousands of prisoners may have an early release...why...to expensive to care for them...goes back to is anybody going to pay the bill? I'm not a big proponent of tax increases, but where else does the money come from...insurers could donate some but even their large stockpiles isn't enough to handle the issues forever...BD
Nearly two dozen states are grappling with deep cuts and tax proposals to close shortfalls totaling more than $34 billion. That includes California, where lawmakers have made emergency cuts and authorized billions in bond sales to halve a deficit once projected at $16 billion through June 2009. Another dozen states are bracing for falling revenue.
In California alone, lawmakers already have cut more than $1 billion in payments to physicians caring for 6.5 million people who rely on the state for health care. The move will push untold numbers from doctors' offices to overcrowded clinics and emergency rooms. Arizona must cut about $1.2 billion, or 11 percent of state spending. Florida already has cut $1 billion and is looking to shave another $2 billion from its $70-billion budget.
As the article states, when you bring in additional genetics information, the disease gets a lot more complicated...like everything in life...more information to manage for the right solution...BD
Merck is using a new technique that it believes could turn genetic information into new drugs, a key bottleneck for the pharmaceutical industry as it struggles to invent new medicines.
The techniques, described in the current version of the journal Nature, are an example of a technique biologists have been touting for years: treating all 25,000 genes as a complicated network. Each gene is seen not as a single switch, but as part of a vast and complex circuit board. Scientists call this "systems biology."
"There's a heck of a lot that's going on between the change in DNA and the onset of the disease," says Eric Schadt, the Merck researcher.This is telling us the disease is a lot more complex than we imagined." He says his new technique, which could identify changes in this genetic circuit board that would stop obesity without causing harm, is "a path forward for how to leverage the amazing rate of discovery in genomics."
When it comes to taking Cerezyme, its maker doesn’t always take “no” for an answer. Dr. Peter A. Kouides, a hematologist at Rochester General Hospital, said he once had a patient with Gaucher disease who declined to be treated with Cerezyme, a drug made by Genzyme. For years, he said, Genzyme’s representatives “were always bugging us about why we weren’t treating this guy.”
“If I decide not to treat someone, that’s too bad for Genzyme,” said one of them, Dr. Barry E. Rosenbloom, who runs the big Gaucher center in the Los Angeles area. Dr. Rosenbloom said his center gets $150,000 a year from Genzyme to pay for one full-time person and one half-time person, in part to contribute data to a patient registry.
Drug Maker Stays Close to Doctors and Patients - New York Times
Good article about novelists using tablets...they get it...makes it so much easier to write a novel with using a tablet....and used Microsoft One Note to put his notes together...on of my favorites with MS Office..voice dictation is becoming even easier for me to use as well with the Sahara Tablet as I can dictate without using a headset in a reasonably quiet area...nice...BD
.....” Powers wrote in an e-mail message — or rather, dictated, since he uses the voice recognition software built into the Tablet PC operating system to compose everything, including his novels. Computer programs allow
novelists “to build up dense and interconnected views of the world they are recreating,” he added.
Powers also poured the background research into hyperlinked notebooks using Microsoft OneNote, a program more commonly used by businesses, which allows you to combine text documents, e-mail, images, spreadsheets and video and audio material into one searchable document. He then mapped out possible changing interactions between characters. “These notebook sections gradually grew into the kernels of individual dramatic scenes, which I could then work up in parallel,” Powers said. “The combination of software programs (each of which links seamlessly into the other) allowed for simultaneous top-down and bottom-up composition.”
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Math–This Could be a Subject for Michael Moore to Explore and Document In a Movie
Screenings Too–Killer Algorithms Part 12–Medical Billing Codes Style
Assessing Consumer Credit Scores–Attack of the Killer Algorithms Chapter 21 With Flawed Data
Duping” Society Combined With A World of Rogue Algorithms & Flawed Data Continues In Markets As Seen With Knight Capital This Week-Attack of the Killer Algorithms Chapter 36
Study Fraud With EHR Technologies, Namely Medical Records/Billing Software Used by Hospitals– HHS And SEC Continue Getting Their Non-Algorithmic Fannies Kicked–Attack of the Killer Algorithms Chapter 46
SilverScript Senior Drug Program Sanctioned by Medicare Until the Payment And Billing Algorithms are Cleaned Up-Killer Algorithms Chapter 53
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