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Scientists At Wake Forest Grow a Mini Liver From Human Cells–Regenerative Medicine

10/30/2010 10:42:00 PM  ,  

Wake Forest University School of Medicine is where they grow body parts.  Both image60 Minutes and Dr. Oz have paid a few visits to the facility and I’ll include the 60 minute video from last year that talks about the human bladders they have grown and implanted in humans, some pretty miraculous stuff going on there.  You can read the prior post at the link below for more details.

Regenerative Medicine – A Visit to Wake Forest Where They Grow Body Parts With Stem Cellsimage

The Center is growing more than 22 different types of human cells to include livers of course and they have over 100 projects in the works. Now they have also grown a penis for a rabbit too, and you can read more at the link below as it worked and he produced offspring.  This is work in progress to use for humans one day too.

Regenerative Medicine News – Fully Functional Rabbit Penis Created That Works

I have also done some interviews too with Cook Medical who works with another form of regenerative medicine with building scaffolds where the body regrows cells and portions of skin and organs too.

Biologic Graft Technology Online Resources from Cook Medical – Regenerative Medicine

Here’s the coverage from 60 Minutes from 2009 below.  It’s funny in the areas I cross on this blog too with some of the comments I get as about a year or so ago I had a scientist chime in here and talk briefly in the comments section about how he/she has created the beating heart cells in a dish and made the comment that it’s not that hard, well maybe for them, but certainly not a cakewalk or task for me or any other non scientist. 

One other item of interest is to watch the lab use normal printing cartridges to produce cells and body parts, it just pops right up, fascinating video.  Right now the human liver they produced is too small and there’s more work to be done but the fact that it has been grown is a miracle and someday we can hope for less dependence on organ transplants and grow them!  Watch the video below, fascinating.  MIT is also growing rat livers and you can follow some of their progress here.  After you see the video with the printer, check this link out below as it is related and see how 3D printing can kick out a prosthetic leg by design too.  BD

Need a Prosthetic Leg–3D Printing Will be Able to Generate One for You Soon for Around $5000

(CBS) Researchers at Wake Forest University's Institute for Regenerative Medicine have grown a miniature liver using human cells.
imageIt's only an inch in diameter - not big enough to work for a human.
But the hope is to someday grow bigger livers for people who need them, or to use them for testing new drugs.
To engineer the organs, the scientists used animal livers that were treated with a mild detergent to remove all cells, leaving only the collagen "skeleton."
They then replaced the original cells with two types of human cells: immature liver cells known as progenitors, and endothelial cells that line blood vessels.

Scientists Grow Mini Liver with Human Cells - CBS News

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Rally To Restore Sanity–A Big Success With Some Real Straight Talk About The Disruption and Distraction We Live With Today

10/30/2010 03:21:00 PM  ,  

I enjoyed watching the show and the under currents and statements they made were loud and clear.  I focus on this from a healthcare point of view and so much of what he said was true.  Yes, there was a bit of an attack on the press and yes some of this is very true, I see it all the time being a blogger and looking at what I imagechoose to publish here.  There’s a lot of nonsense out there with what I believe the “ratings” are pushing so again what is something “real” and what is a story focusing on better ratings.  We need the press by all means and as a blogger I am merely an extension and a forensic dot connector of sorts.

Overreaction is what drives so much of the insanity today.  I get press releases, news stories, which I appreciate by the way, but some are those that tend to signify a reason for panic or concern which I may feel doesn’t belong here and I sort them out.  I see on Twitter every day folks retweeting the OMG stories and that’s fine as they too may be trying to develop more readers that way, but it doesn’t toot the beak of the Medical Quack. 

I did my own take on some of this a few days ago as relates to healthcare technology, collaboration available with tools for free, and nobody bit.  I try to look at the big picture as best I can but in the innovation areas I see just gluts of new software out there that’s going nowhere, but because it is new everyone jumps on it.  Keep in mind that I am a former coder and used to write stuff like this too, so I think I can say that I am more than a casual observer here as it makes me nuts too. 

Innovation Without Collaboration Is Fouling Up The US Healthcare IT System–We Need Both As We Can’t Stand on Innovation Alone

A prime example is a new cell phone application that sends text messages, we have tons of those and personally in my own opinion, that would be very disruptive to how I live and refuse to use such a system  and I have a lot more going on with my smart phone that most may.  I also look at the privacy issues with many of them too, my opinion here, but on the web every single software application is marketed like it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread, and it is not if there is no real substantial value.   Watch Jon Stewart in his final address here, pretty inspirational.

Rally to Restore Sanity

Yes I realize I’m a little more political today than normal but damn I get tired of it too with the lack of participants in Congress with consumer general digital awareness (remember some could not use a password to lock up their wireless networks at home or at least ask) and yet these folks are who we rely on to make laws that encompass this fast moving world, it scares me to death at times.  This is a good book to read and the word “Proofiness” was coined by none other than Steven Colbert. 

“Proofiness–The Dark Side of Mathematical Deception”–Created by Those Algorithms–New Book Coming Out Soon

I have said the a million times here but if one sits in denial of the fact that algorithms and mathematical formulas have changed our our whole US economy, then you are sitting in a full case of big time denial.  It is what it is. 

Lack of Consumer Health IT Literacy Is Beginning to Show - Candidate for The Senate Received Benefits From Medicaid And Now States The Program Is Unconstitutional?

Health Insurers Sending Big Dollars to the GOP–The Folks Who Largely Lack General Consumer Digital Literacy And Health IT Literacy As Relates to the Power of Algorithmic Formulas

One last post that is also of interest after looking at the titles above, see how Wall Street is sending money to the folks that live in the 70s, as they are controllable in many ways with lacking knowledge and keep bring up stuff that makes no sense today.  Here’s a party that doesn’t know how to work with common day business formats and exposes the names of the lobbyists that created the GOP mission, and this is a fact below from Rachel Maddow with names, images, etc. and if you are having an issue understanding this, go look it up on Google as pdf are standard business practice documents and when I create one for someone else it’s a piece of cake to remove all my personal data, i.e. doing a brochure for a company or something of that realm.  To have individuals who can’t pass “go” here on the basics of business consumer IT knowledge is scarier than I need to think about as how can they make laws if they don’t get the basics of writing a mission properly.  How can such individuals make intelligent decisions? 

Again it is what it is as reported in this case.  I think we are starting to see some signs here of a wake up call as we read in the news that Nancy Pelosi took time out to visit Microsoft and President Obama is talking with Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, so he gets it big time and sees the distraction and disruption and has even made that comment himself on the level of disruptions and distractions that keep people from focusing on what is important. 

The Properties of an Adobe pdf Document -Rachel Maddow Rips the GOP on Lack of General Consumer IT Knowledge And Exposes the Input and Authors of the Content–Lobbyists

They better get themselves a bunch of Algo Men as used by Wall Street and Health Insurers for years!  The GAO is good an helpful but they are accounting and not the creators of those algorithms. 

More Congressional Testimonies About Health IT–Members of Congress Could Entertain Getting an “Algo Man” on Staff As Wall Street and Health Insurers Have Them–Don’t Leave Home Without One

THE SEC HAS FOUND OUT TOO THAT THOSE ALGOS ARE NOT PERFECT.  Algorithms are created that bring about “accurate” results and then there are those formulas written to create “desired” results and the 2 of them are not the same all the time, know this.

Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert did a great job today with knocking on some doors and we all need to think about what really is important and tune out the alarms of panic and OMG type of stories you see today as many of them are just that.  Remember too that we need to get smarter and get smarter leaders who are participants so we don’t have a Congress of Magpies that just repeat without full understanding what others are saying and doing.

I use the term Magpie Healthcare here quite a bit and perhaps now it’s time to add on Magpie Congress? <grin>.

One last link here too that has some great visuals that will give some insight as to how the non participants who sit in denial and live in the 70s tend to waste a lot of time too with asking for information, which also doesn’t work well for public profiles and opinions. 

Grassley Investigating Medicare Contractor Conflicts of Interest–Some Are Owned by Subsidiaries of Health Insurance Companies- Will That Do It? Get An “Algo Man” For Help

Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert you can almost bet have an Algo Man around and they group they have probably doubles as writers too, a very smart move.   These are brilliant guys and their depth goes way beyond just being comedians.  As a matter of fact when it comes to chasing algorithms, Jon’s Home state of New Jersey is getting wise to this too, so it’s rubbing off and so please be aware and don’t focus on what really doesn’t matter and read up everywhere you can today as we are all going to need it.

This was such a good showing today and we all not only were entertained but a full packed political message was sent by a couple that had balls enough to do what needed to be done.  BD  

 

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B. Braun Recalls Seven Lots of Heparin–Potential Contamination–FDA States Not a Signification Public Health Threat

10/30/2010 01:58:00 PM  ,  

W are back again to the concern of the raw material – pig intestines – from China with a substance added to stretch heparin and this article states it is due to the changes in the Chinese pig population?  What’s going on with those Chinese imagepigs?

Scientific Protein, is the company supplying the active ingredient and was the same company in the news a couple years ago.  The full press release and lot numbers can be found here. 

FDA Plans Recall Data Base – Nice Still Need Tags on the Products So We Can Find Them Immediately

We just love as citizens to have to take time and dig through all this stuff that is imagesurmounting every week.  I even wrote to the FDA a couple times but no answer so no enthusiasm or comments, so that’s what we have here.  Private industry already has produced over 2 billion bar code tags so again imagewe have some real deaf ears and perhaps some 70s folks still hanging on.  Sure would be nice to scan the recalls with our cell phones and have the FDA set up with a process soon.  BD 

B. Braun Medical Inc., of Irvine on Wednesday announced a recall of seven lots of the anticoagulant heparin because of concerns they may be contaminated with trace amounts of oversulfated chondroitin sulfate, or OSCS, the same substance implicated in the 2008 heparin crisis that killed or seriously sickened dozens of people. The company said in a statement that based on current information, the recalled lots did not pose a significant health risk, but they're being pulled from the market "with the support of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration." "There is not a significant public health threat," FDA spokeswoman Karen Riley said.

Heparin: Irvine medical products company B. Braun recalls seven lots - latimes.com

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Merck (KGaA) Sells Women's Health Business to Teva for 285 million

10/30/2010 01:24:00 PM  ,  

Merck KGaA is a separate independent company from New Jersey Based Merck, imageso again watch and look for subsidiary actions here as ownership gets a little confusing at times.  Merck KGaA is known as EMD Chemicals in the US, and outside of the US Merck in New Jersey is known as MSD, so are your confused now?

“EMD Millipore” is a division of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany and that acquisition was made earlier this year.  Théramex is a Monaco-based pharmaceutical company.

Merck Buying Millipore in Massachusetts for $6 billion – Life Sciences and Chemicals Acquisitionimage

Teva is one of the biggest and most aggressive generic drug companies that also has their own drugs in development too and they are headquartered in Israel.  BD

German pharmaceutical major Merck KGaA (Merck) said that the company would sell its women's health unit Theramex to Israel's Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd for €285 million ($389 million), in accordance with its strategy focused on core areas imagesuch as neurodegenerative diseases, oncology, fertility, rheumatology, endocrinology and cardiometabolic care.

Under the terms, Merck will sell its 100-per cent interest in Theramex SAM of Monaco and Theramex SpA of Italy to Teva. In addition, Merck will be eligible to receive certain performance-based milestone payments, the company said in a statement.

Teva Pharma Ad Campaign

The acquisition will provide Teva with a strong platform to expand its global women's health business and the contraceptive market.

Teva will have the distribution rights of Theramex products in certain countries including Spain and Brazil; Merck Serono will continue distributing Theramex products in certain other countries.

Merck acquired Theramex a decade ago, and since then it has developed a strong brand image, offering a large portfolio of women's health therapeutics in 50 countries, in the areas of gynecology, osteoporosis, menopause, and contraceptives. The company employs over 300 people.

domain-b.com : Merck KGaA sells women's health business to Teva for €285 million

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I Think I'm A Clone Now (I Think I’m Alone Now) Stem Cell Humor (Video)

10/30/2010 12:22:00 PM  ,  

This is great, good graphics work here too.  Love the lyrics from Weird Al imageYankovic…I can be my own best friend…another one of me is always hanging around….part of some genetic plan…born in a petri dish one night….look at the way we go out walking together…I’m a carbon copy man…for every pair of genes there’s a hand me down…I can send myself for pizza…<grin>. 

Stem cell research of course is a very innovative area and we need it by all means too, but once in a while it’s fun to stop and laugh at ourselves too.  BD

I Think I’m a Clone Now

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Bristol-Myers Gets Notice From FDA To Clean Up Puerto Rico Manufacturing Plant–Sale of Belatacept Drug On Hold For Compliance

10/30/2010 11:07:00 AM  ,  

Belatacept is an important new drug to help in the rejection process with organ transplants.  The drug is actually made in New York but packaged in Puerto Rico.  If you have ever been to Puerto Rico, there are many drug factories that have been imagethere for years, it’s like pharma manufacturing row if you will. 

Abilify and rheumatoid arthritis treatment Orencia and tablets of Coumadin blood thinner are also made at the same factory.  The company is hoping to come back into compliance by the year end.  BD

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — U.S. regulators have told drugmaker Bristol–Myers Squibb Co. they won't approve an important new drug until the company fixes multiple deficiencies at its Puerto Rico manufacturing plant, the company's CEO disclosed Tuesday.

The problems were disclosed in an Aug. 30 warning letter sent to the company by the Food and Drug Administration. Among the issues raised was a complaint that the plant did not set procedures or have workers follow procedures to prevent contamination of drug products that were meant to be sterile.

Belatacept, an injected drug, is made at a factory in Syracuse, N.Y., but packaged in vials at the Manati factory, Bristol–Myers spokeswoman Jennifer Mauer said.

The factory already makes two other injected drugs, blockbuster schizophrenia treatment Abilify and rheumatoid arthritis treatment Orencia, plus tablets of Coumadin blood thinner.

Bristol-Myers: FDA wants factory's problems fixed

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Anaheim General Hospital Regains Medicare Approval Status in the OC

10/30/2010 10:44:00 AM  ,  

In December of 2008 this longstanding hospital in Orange County lost their Medicare status and this is good to see the improvements and come back by all means as this hospital is located in a strategic area of the OC where people need the facility as they offer a lot of charity care.  BD

Anaheim General Hospital loses accreditation – Orange County, CA

In a rare turnaround, Anaheim General Hospital has regained approval to imagebill Medicare and Medi-Cal. The hospital had not collected any payment for treating patients in the past year after a series of failed safety inspections cut off government funding.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services notified the hospital Saturday that it had been recertified after two unannounced inspections in April and July.

Anaheim General regains Medicare status | hospital, salerno, patients - Life - The Orange County Register

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Governor Schwarzenegger Announces The Opening of the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine at USC

10/29/2010 08:22:00 PM  ,  

The Governor speaks in a humorous but nice way on all the donations Eli and imageEdythe Broad have made and how he’s following them around as they have made big donations up north and at UCLA. 

There has been 3 billion dollars set aside for research and 1 billion in grants have been given and so much of money is from private funds.  UCLA and Stanford Regenerative Medicine Centers will be opening soon as well.  Click on the image below to see where the CIRM Grants are in and what they are doing.  I think my coverage on regenerative medicine will start growing now at the Medical Quack too.  BD

image

Here’s a video with a little history and the building of the facility in Berkeley. 

The Governor will join Eli and Edythe Broad to celebrate the opening of the Eli and Edythe Broad CIRM Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at USC. Watch the live webcast at 10:30 a.m.

Watching Gov. @Schwarzenegger celebrate opening of Eli & Edythe Broad Center for Stem Cell Research - live at http://tweetcast.in/1395

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Senator Tom Coburn States Government Has Spent Over a Billion Plus on the Deceased For HealthCare and Related Supplies

10/29/2010 07:26:00 PM  , , ,  

Here’s definitely an area for budget cuts where nobody will complain or get hurt.  The reality here though is the fact that IT infrastructure of the imagegovernment is in sad shape but they are working on the solutions and this has a lot to do with perhaps outsourcing data and IT work when perhaps some should have been developed in house.  Some even were reported to have received stimulus money according to this article. 

Shoot people even make money selling information services on dead doctors too. As a matter of fact with companies that don’t check their data against the Social Security Death Index data base can lead to a fishing ground for crooks as they determine these records are not up to date, get that MD NPI number and start billing fraudulently. 

Dead Doctors and Inaccurate MD Listings On the Web Can Be a Real Hunting Ground of Information to Mine For Crooks Relative to Fraudulent Medical Billing

These folks were sold on the stock exchange until recently bought by a private equity firm and they can’t get it right. 

HealthGrades And Other MD Rating and Referral Sites List “Dead Doctors” on Their MD Information Pages And Even Include the Insurance Plans the “Dead Doctors” Honor

In addition on the hospital side of HealthGrades Skeptical Scalpel, a surgeon and blogger was kind enough to research and add some input here at his blog.image

Hospital Ratings Revisited

Here’s the big story from a year ago on the original findings with Medicare and the use of dead doctors NIPI numbers for fraudulent billing. 

Probe finds dead doctors used in Medicare Scam

What I also thought was interesting was the Wall Street Journal talking about making MD Medicare payments available on the web where they reference companies that could work the data and put it into a format to where the public could use, but heck if HealthGrades can’t get it right and they make millions selling their subscriptions, what kind of a nightmare would we see here as there are tons of errors and if an MD had a bad billing clerk it would make errors appear to be false positives for fraud in some instances.

Medicare Data Base–It Is Not Ready for Prime Time To Expose to the Web Due to Errors Factors and Consumer Credibility In It’s Present State Relating to Physician Records

Here’s a guy in jail for fraud and yet he still shows a 5 Star rating.  They city of Buffalo in New York paid out over 2 million with insurance premiums on their dead employees and nobody asked questions or wondered why none of those folks had gone to see a doctor for mammograms or any other preventive care, like the HMO and insurance companies say they check on.  Doctors all the time have to tell the insurance companies too that the patient has pass away, so go figure there. 

One thing for sure, we know somebody is posing as a dead person imposter through all of this and collecting big time.  We could save money in healthcare if we get our data correct and stop paying the dead, I agree on this one.  BD 

In the last 10 years, spanning two terms of George W. Bush’s administration and the first two years of Barack Obama’s presidency, the federal government has dished out more than $1 billion to the deceased, according to a new report by Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn, who serves as the ranking Republican on an investigative Senate subcommittee.

The payments span the gamut, including $18 million to nearly 72,000 dead people from the economic stimulus funds from the Social Security Administration; an additional $40 million to deceased Social Security beneficiaries; nearly $4 million from the Health and Human Services Administration to pay heating and cooling costs; more than $1 billion in farming subsidies from the Agriculture Department to nearly 173,000 dead farmers (since the 1990s); $15 million from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to nearly 5,000 households with one dead person; and $92 million out of Medicare for medical supplies prescribed by dead doctors and $8.2 million for supplies sought by dead patients.

Oftentimes, federal agencies lack proper records to track whether a beneficiary is dead or alive, and other times the claims are being made fraudulently. And sometimes the money sits in an unused checking account for years; other times the money ends up with someone who has a pulse.

Report: Feds paid dead $1 billion-plus - Manu Raju - POLITICO.com

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Sandoz Recalls in the US of all Vials of Methotrexate Injection–Glass Flakes in the Drug- Deaf FDA & Drug Company Ears As Related to Using Bar Coding For Recalls

10/29/2010 06:30:00 PM  ,  

Well my campaign for 2D bar coding is still alive and well but the FDA and the drug and device companies still seem pretty deaf.  The drug injection are used to treat severe psoriasis, and rheumatoid arthritis and a few other conditions.  I started campaign about a year ago and it has a permanent spot on the Medical Quack as it is the right thing to do with the right technology.  We can shop and do all kinds of other things here but we can’t get into saving lives it seems. 

FDA Plans Recall Data Base – Nice Still Need Tags on the Products So We Can Find Them Immediatelyimage

We just love as citizens to have to take time and dig through all this stuff that is surmounting every week.  I even wrote to the FDA a couple times but no answer so no enthusiasm or comments, so that’s what we have here.  Private industry already has produced over 2 billion bar code tags so again we have some real deaf ears and perhaps some 70s folks still hanging on. 

Microsoft Tag Bar Codes–Who’s Been Scanning the Medical Quack–The Bing Heat Map Tells All And Could Help Find Stolen or Expired Drugs and Devices With This Methodology

A couple drug companies are looking at it though they have told me, which is great but it will need collaboration as well as innovation to get this moving but think of the value for the consumer, doctors, hospitals and anyone else.  Just picture below a bottle or box of drugs or a medical devices that could be scanned this way to find out if the product has been recalled and too whether or not it is legit.  One technology that does a lot. 

Here’s the list to go through the difficult process of finding lot numbers, etc., sure would be a lot nice to scan.  BD 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – October 27, 2010 –  Sandoz Inc. announced today it has initiated a voluntary recall in the US of all 50mg/2mL and 250mg/10mL vials of Sandoz and Parenta brand Methotrexate Injection, USP product (“methotrexate”) to the imageconsumer/user level. Consistent with its commitment to quality and patient safety, Sandoz is initiating this voluntary recall of all 24 lots of the affected product following the finding of small glass flakes by Sandoz quality control in a limited number of vials in four lots. The flakes are the result of delamination of the glass used to manufacture the vials of these two dosage presentations.
Due to particle size, there is the potential to develop adverse reactions in areas where the particles lodge. While it is unlikely, parenteral injection of drug from the affected lots could lead to serious adverse events, resulting in disability and death. Additionally, neurologic damage could result from intrathecal administration. Potential adverse events after intravenous administration include local damage to blood vessels in the lung, localized swelling, and granuloma formation. Intramuscular administration could result in foreign-body inflammatory response, with local pain, swelling and possible long term granuloma formation. Intra-arterial administration could result in damage to blood vessels in the distal extremities or organs. To date, Sandoz has not received any adverse event reports or product complaints attributable to particles from any lot of methotrexate, including the lots where flakes have been found.
Methotrexate is an antimetabolite used in the treatment of neoplastic diseases, severe psoriasis, and rheumatoid arthritis, including polyarticular juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. The affected products are only the 50mg/2mL and 250mg/10mL presentations of methotrexate. The product lot numbers, label type and expiration dates are listed below as well as on the Sandoz US website at www.us.sandoz.com.

Recalls, Market Withdrawals, & Safety Alerts > Sandoz initiates voluntary recall in the US of all 50mg/2mL and 250mg/10mL vials of Methotrexate Injection, USP due to the presence of glass particulates

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Hospitalist Chats With ER Physician and Cardiologist–Humor (Videos)

10/29/2010 05:43:00 PM  ,  

These are funny and the Happy Hospitalist has few more over there and we are all being entertained today with the Xtranormal video series, these guys are good.  I imagejust picked a couple here that are perhaps what would appeal to all.  Hey some of this stuff is pretty real when you think about the traveling cardiologist and the demands on a hospitalist too as he’s the admitting guy at the hospital and has to work with the other doctors so his pages and calls can be many. 

In a humorous way we are looking at the passing of the baton, oh I mean patient here with all the information they are communicating back and forth and there’s a lot of it and as patients maybe we fill like a baton sometimes.   BD 

Hospitalist and Cardiologist
Hospitalist and ER Doctor

Hospitalist vs Cardiologist Xtranormal Medical Video Production

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FDA approves Avanir To Treat Involuntary Crying and Laughing

10/29/2010 05:08:00 PM  ,  

When you first think of this you almost have to maybe chuckle a bit but the drug is real and used to treat a disorder to where those with neurological disorders can’t imagecontrol their facial expressions also known as PBA.  Anymore today though many of us may be crying more with current economic conditions. 

Zenvia is a combination of quinidine, a generic drug that prevents heart arrhythmia, and dextromethorphan, a cough suppressant.  BD

U.S. health regulators Friday approved Avanir Pharmaceuticals Inc's Zenvia, a treatment for a neurological disorder in which patients cannot control outbursts of crying or laughter.

Food and Drug Administration spokeswoman Sandy Walsh said the agency had approved the long-delayed drug.

Zenvia is the first drug approved for the treatment of the little known, but not that rare, condition called pseudobulbar affect (PBA), which is also known as involuntary emotional expression disorder.

Avanir suffered a major blow four years ago, when the FDA rejected Zenvia and asked for new trials due to safety concerns. The FDA was uneasy about the heart rhythm impact of quinidine, a component of the drug used to increase the amount of the active ingredient, dextromethorphan, in the body.

U.S. FDA approves Avanir involuntary emotion drug - Health - msnbc.com

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Microsoft Buying 3D-chip Company Canesta–Natural User Interface For PC And Will Take EHRs/PHRs to a New Level Of Interactions

10/29/2010 04:06:00 PM  , , ,  

If you have not heard about the new technology coming out for Xbox 360 it is Kinect and we are looking at the same with computers and according to what I read here, Microsoft will now have the intellectual property and the chip to make this come to life on PCs.  The first thing that of course comes to mind here with being in Health IT is medical record programs and this is almost an MD’s dream come true, fewer clicks and a better way to interact.  Dr. Crounse over at Microsoft has also touched on this with the Natural User Interface potential in healthcare too. 

Microsoft Health Tech Today—The Future of Natural User Interface (NUI)

What is of interest here too is the fact that Microsoft has bought the competitor and their chip is used in the Xbox 360. Quanta, a Taiwanese company that manufactures laptops for many of the major brands, has also invested in Canesta and expects to build laptops this year with 3-D camera modules and this technology can be used with manufacturing to give robots eyes…interesting stuff out there.  This is kind of a change for Microsoft to have ownership of it’s own chip technology versus the dependence on companies such as Intel and NVidia.  There’s no question here on Microsoft’s commitment to 3D and imaging to continuously improve the user experience.  BD 

Canesta

Now I have been working with a Lenovo touch screen portable desktop and I love this one by all means and to have 3D available one day would be wonderful.  I use it as a computer and put a USB TV tuner in it and it does the Media Player thing quite well.  By the way stay tuned here as at some point in time there will be a contest to give one of these away here at the Quack too.

I can write on the surface with the TIP interface too so really no keyboard required for web searching and accessing information too.  BD 

Lenovo ThinkCentre M90z All In One Desktop Discussion

The New York Times reports that Microsoft is buying Canesta, a Silicon Valley company that makes chips for 3D and gesture-recognition technology.

The acquisition would give Microsoft access to chips for incorporating its motion-sensor technology, currently debuting in Kinect for Xbox 360, into other products. CEO Steve Ballmer and other executives have imagerepeatedly said they expect gesture recognition to not stop at video gaming and entertainment.

Canesta's chips enable a digital camera to determine the distance between it and an object, hence allowing devices to perceive the world in three dimensions, according to the small company's website. The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based firm of about 70 employees also touts a long list of U.S. patents in which Microsoft is bound to have interest.

Microsoft's Kinect, interestingly, uses a depth-mapping chip from PrimeSense, a Canesta competitor. In 2009, the software giant also acquired 3DV, which had similar technology.

Report: Microsoft to buy 3D-chip company Canesta

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Grassley Investigating Medicare Contractor Conflicts of Interest–Some Are Owned by Subsidiaries of Health Insurance Companies- Will That Do It? Get An “Algo Man” For Help

10/29/2010 03:08:00 PM  ,  

Here’s a screenshot below from a prior post that gives one a Wellpoint email address if your have “Congressional concerns” and I don’t know about you, but if I had issues I think I would send my issues direct to Congress as a citizen, right?  Again, I come back to the same statement I have made for a year now, watch what is going on with subsidiary actions as later in the post there one is mentioned and we should not forget United too as they have tons of subsidiaries and provide auditing services and sometimes the lines get crossed on who’s watching who and don’t cut off too much here as the transaction profits could dwindle.  This has been going on for years and subsidiaries can do things and use data that perhaps would be out of line for a corporation as a whole to do, it’s very gray out there folks and nobody seems to be doing an adequate job of minding this shop and this is why members of Congress better get themselves some high powered Algo Men, just like what is used on Wall Street where the algorithms rule. 

When it comes to awarding contracts, well what choices does HHS have in some areas as they are somewhat confined to who has the data and the IT systems.  Not comprehending this and asking for more of the same is not getting us anywhere.  How does Grassley want HHS to get Medicare contractors inline here, it’s almost impossible to get any great amount of cooperation?  He’s not alone with this confusion as it comes down to knowing how all the algorithmic processes work today and this is a waste of time confronting the battle in this manner and makes only for news articles to show someone is looking, and at what and how we don’t really know.

Grassley Asking About Fraud and Waste from HHS-Where’s the Incentive for Contractors to Fight Fraud They Lose Transaction Income From Processing Claims-Legit or Fraud Its Income

If I am not mistaken here I see shades of non participation here and some 70s values creeping back in again, which will kill us today.  Grassley is not along as Gingrich doesn’t get it either.  You need to understand business marketing and strategies today too, as they have changed a lot recently, evidenced by the big profits on Wall Street.

Newt Gingrich Gets Healthcare Value Bass Ackwards–It’s All About Those Algorithms

It is not the fault of HHS as they are simply working with the cards that were dealt many years ago that are still on the table today, the folks who have the data and they would look like fools to give contracts to those who don’t have the data you think?  In essence their hands are tied due to this fact and the 70s folks can’t see this as non participants. 

THESE GUYS HAVE THE DATA AND HEALTH INFRASTRUCTURE SO LOOK HERE FOR CONFLICT OF INTEREST AND COME UP WITH A BETTER IDEA.

“To support its efforts, CMS recently awarded a $5.5 million five-year contract to National Government Services Inc., a large Medicare contractor in 20 states, to assist in preparing and processing incentive payments beginning in fiscal 2011.

The services will help ensure the proper accounting of the payments to eligible physicians and hospitals under the HITECH Act, according to CMS.”

Medicare Contractor Gets Deal to Monitor Physician Incentive Payments–Same Folks Earlier This Week Admonished For Not Doing Enough for Fraud Prevention?

Instead of moving forward, we get the non participants and those lacking the literacy of how algorithms work with everything having a system not seeing value in cloud technology that stands to make things run more efficient and save one heck of a lot of money, duh?

Senate Cuts Cloud Services From Budget That Would Allow for Data Center and IT Infrastructure Consolidation–Back to the 8 Track Tapes Next?

A few weeks ago staff members were treated to all kinds of stuff at a health fair and in my tiny opinion, it would have been better spent looking for some Algo Men.

Senate Staffers Get Free Participation in a Health Fair To Include Massages, Food Tastings, Use of MP3 on the Taxpayer’s Tab

I hope he finds what he’s looking for as I found several areas on the web in the news and some simple Google searches and gee this wastes so much time and again, he would be wise to get some high powered smart thinking Algo Men.  BD

Senate Finance Committee ranking member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has asked the CMS to list any identified conflicts of interest among the agency's contractors and highlight any steps that CMS has taken to prevent those conflicts.

Grassley then cited a decision by the Government Accountability Office earlier this year in which the GAO upheld a protest by company C2Solutions to a CMS decision to give the company AdvanceMed a contract to detect and investigate potential fraud because of its conflict of interest. In that instance, the contract would have positioned AdvanceMed to evaluate the work of its own parent company, Computer Sciences Corp.

Grassley sees potential for conflicts in contractor programs - Healthcare business news from Modern Healthcare

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Portable Breast Scanner Developed And Patented–Perhaps Breast Screenings Will Be Done in the Home One Day

10/29/2010 11:47:00 AM  , ,  

Now this is earth shattering when you look at the images on how it works so will going to a scanning facility stand to change dramatically in the future?  I certainly like the idea of not getting squashed as any woman will probably whole heartedly agree with me on that account.  image

Any tumors would show up on the screen in red.  It looks like there’s a little bit more design needed to make this ready for prime time.  Who knows in the future scanning could be done in in convenience of one’s home.  This is says something for exposure to radiation as the technology uses similar technology that is found in a cell phone so on that account it certainly would look to be a winner for sure as we all want less exposure to radiation today in healthcare where ever we can get it.  BD 

As Breast Cancer Awareness month draws to a close, some promising news has emerged from the University of Manchester's School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. Professor Zhipeng Wu has developed a portable breast scanner that offers concerned patients real-time video images that clearly show the presence of a tumor. The lunchbox-sized scanner uses similar radio frequency technology as mobile phones but at a fraction of the power, and lends itself to being used in doctor's surgeries for instant screening or even continued monitoring at home.

Wu says that "although there is still research to be done, the system has great potential to bring a new way for breast cancer diagnosis." The patented innovation has been submitted to the IET Innovation Awards, the winners of which will be announced next month.

The new development starts to produce an image as soon as the breast enters the cup, with any tumor or abnormality showing up in red.

All images courtesy University of Manchester

http://www.gizmag.com/radio-frequency-real-time-breast-scanner-developed/16772/

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HealthVault Coming To China With Joint Healthcare Effort in Wuxi–iSoftStone Developing HealthVault Platform

10/29/2010 11:18:00 AM  , , ,  

HealthVault from Microsoft takes one more international step with the development of the platform in China.  We have seen some of this in the US with companies imageworking with the “platform” and when connecting you will normally see “powered by HealthVault” somewhere on the portal or within the format.  Back in January Siemens and HealthVault  announced the development of the platform for their country. 

Microsoft HealthVault and Siemens Bringing PHR Platform to Germany – And a Look at a German HER

In addition if you look in the right hand side of the Medical Quack you can see an interview I did with Curtis Schroeder from Bumrungrad International Hospital over a imageyear ago on how they have also worked with HealthVault for areas of medical tourism and having a record travelers can take with them and use information here in the US and overseas.  At that same convention I spoke with a German professor too and we actually got quite “geeky” about comparing US medical records and how they are done in Germany being we have both written code for them.  Attending that convention was one of the most fascinating learning experiences I have had with the ability to see how others are doing both medical records and healthcare with conversations I had with stem cell companies in China and hearing about some of the advance surgical techniques used in Israel too. 

Interview with Curtis Schroeder, CEO Bumrungrad International Hospital and Nate McLemore, Health Solutions at Microsoft – International Personal Health Records with HealthVault

iSoftStone Information Technology is a pretty large company in China with over image8000 employees so once the development has taken place citizens in China will also have the opportunity to create and use their own PHR.  The Medical Quack has an entire section here, link at the top of the site with over 300 posts on PHRs, since I began following the trail in 2007 and there’s a lot of HealthVault information included.  BD  

Press Release:

REDMOND, Wash., and WUXI, China — Oct. 29, 2010 — Microsoft Corp. and iSoftStone Information Technology (Group) Co. Ltd. have signed an agreement that enables iSoftStone to introduce Microsoft HealthVault technology to the Chinese market. HealthVault, a personal health application platform, enables individuals to store and manage their health information in a personal, online account. Initially focused on Wuxi, in the province of Jiangsu, the vision of the Microsoft-iSoftStone relationship is to enable citizens to connect to various health systems and services run by government organizations, physicians, hospitals, pharmacies and even fitness facilities for a comprehensive view of their personal health information. iSoftStone will be the exclusive operator of HealthVault in Wuxi and will develop and offer the HealthVault-based services to developers, application providers and device manufacturers to provide citizens with tools that will help foster dynamic, trusted and personalized healthcare.

To accelerate solution development and market adoption, iSoftStone is launching a digital health innovation center in Wuxi, with support from Microsoft. This facility will include a HealthVault datacenter, a test lab for HealthVault software and device developers, and training facilities for solution providers that build on the HealthVault platform. Microsoft and iSoftStone will be responsible for the localization of HealthVault and will lead efforts to identify health and wellness scenarios for which they will recruit or build solutions in-market.

“iSoftStone is very committed to working with world-class partners like Microsoft to advance the healthcare industry in China,” said TW Liu, chairman and chief executive officer of iSoftStone. “It also is a great example of how we are uniquely positioned to be the partner of choice for global companies, working both as an IT outsourcing vendor and also as a go-to-market partner to help customers grow their business in the China market.”

“We are very pleased to be working with iSoftStone as our first HealthVault partner in China, particularly as the company brings deep, proven market experience and a strong operating platform that can accelerate the delivery of citizen-centric health solutions in Wuxi,” said Mark Johnston, director of International Market Development for Microsoft’s Health Solutions Group. “With HealthVault, citizens have access to their health information and are empowered to become active partners in their health and wellness, working with their healthcare providers toward a better quality of care for themselves and their families.”

Microsoft launched HealthVault in the United States in 2007 and currently has more than 150 organizations connected to the platform, including medical device manufacturers, pharmacies and hospitals. This agreement with iSoftStone marks the fifth country worldwide where the platform will be available, and is the first of its kind in China. With the addition of the HealthVault platform, iSoftStone is accelerating its healthcare initiative to help drive innovation in the China healthcare industry.

About iSoftStoneimage

Founded in 2001, iSoftStone is a leading China-based IT services provider serving both Greater China and global clients. iSoftStone provides an integrated suite of IT services and solutions including Consulting & Solutions, IT Services and BPO services. iSoftStone was certified CMMI Level 5 in 2006, and is certified ISO9001 and ISO27001, and focuses on key client industry verticals including technology, communications, banking, financial services and insurance and energy, transportation and public sector. For more information, please visit www.isoftstone.com.

About Microsoft in Health

Microsoft is committed to improving health around the world through software innovation. Over the past 13 years, Microsoft has steadily increased its investments in health, with a focus on addressing the challenges of health providers, health and social services organizations, payers, consumers and life sciences companies worldwide. Microsoft closely collaborates with a broad ecosystem of partners and develops its own powerful health solutions, such as Amalga and HealthVault. Together, Microsoft and its industry partners are working to deliver health solutions for the way people aspire to work and live.

iSoftStone Signs Agreement With Microsoft to Develop Citizen Health Solutions in China Using HealthVault: Digital health innovation center is first step of a joint healthcare effort in Wuxi, China.

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Going to CES This Year–Health Insurance Carrier United HealthGroup Enters Sponsorship Arena

10/29/2010 10:22:00 AM  , , ,  

Normally we go and see all the new electronics coming out and this year we have seen a huge blast of new devices in healthcare that not only are for consumers and imagetheir own use, but they also are now working with medical records systems that record and report data.  This is the changing face of mobile healthcare.  If you read here often enough there’s plenty of posts at the Medical Quack. 

There will be a healthcare summit which costs some money to attend with United being one of the sponsors and who knows maybe they will be selling health insurance there too? 

We always expect to see devices and each year at imageCES the number is growing and when you look through the list of exhibitors, there’s plenty this year. United may have a stronger reason than others to participate with their purchase of China Gate via Ingenix, via I3 (subsidiary daisy chain and pay attention to these) to promote and distribute more Chinese drugs globally and in the US.  Is this part of their overall solution to help keep the cost of healthcare down?  It makes one wonder when you look at how the face of companies and marketing is changing today on such a rapid pace. 

UnitedHealth subsidiary (Ingenix Subsidiary I3) Acquires ChinaGate – Working to Sell Chinese Products Globally

From the China Gate website:

“We are familiar with the Chinese regulatory system and are well connected with most of the top urban class A  hospitals and clinical trial centers that are GCP certified by the China State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA). Moreover, since we worked many years in multi-national pharmaceutical companies ,we are well versed in ICH, European and United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requirements on Good Clinical Practice (GCP). “

Many US companies, such as Medtronic already have strong Chinese ties with facilities and contracts issued to companies in China, and at CES we see product from all over the world so perhaps a bit stronger interest here with subsidiary actions outside the normal realm of just providing health insurance.  We are on our way to have healthcare or something related on every street corner <grin>.  You can read here where China is experiencing growth and is banking on sales globally to move forward with building their own technologies here so we need to keep up for sure in the US.  BD

image

UnitedHealth Group is a leading health care company, serving more than 75 million people worldwide. Our family of companies touches nearly every aspect of health care, helping people live healthier lives. As a leader in the health benefits and services industry, our six imagebusinesses - UnitedHealthcare, Ovations, AmeriChoice, OptumHealth, Ingenix, and Prescription Solutions - offer exceptional service, broad capabilities and enduring value in creating a modern health care system. Our products and services empower individuals, expand consumer choice and strengthen patient-provider relationships across the health care spectrum.

http://digitalhealthsummit.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=115&Itemid=30

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