Carmichael: Health Guaranteed- New Book Addressing Healthcare in the US...

" Read it twice and call your congressman in the morning."...maybe what we have been waiting for...someone from the medical side of the realm to create an answer to the broken health care system in the US...an Oncologist...BD 

This Monday a modest little paperback will show up in bookstores offering a suggestion for health-care reform. It won't contain any wrenching human stories like those in last year's big health-care book, Jonathan Cohn's "Sick." It won't be accompanied by gonzo stunts à la Michael Moore's "Sicko." But "Healthcare, Guaranteed," by Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, may nonetheless be the most exciting book yet to come out of the country's medical crisis. What it offers is a radical yet straightforward proposal, one a layperson can understand. If the complexities of health-care policy give you a headache, this book is aspirin. Read it twice and call your congressman in the morning.

Emanuel, an oncologist who chairs the department of bioethics at the National Institutes of Health, advised the Clintons on their disastrously complex health-care plan of 1993.

While he likes Barack Obama's and Hillary Clinton's proposals more than John McCain's, he's underwhelmed by all of them. "I don't think anything they've put out so far is what they're going to end up advocating," he says. "They'll want another plan eventually. I want to be that second choice."

Carmichael: Health Care Made Simple | Newsweek Health Matters | Newsweek.com

Technorati Tags: Healthcare Guaranteed,Newsweek,Healthcare,Book,Congresss

Duke University -Learning Science with Team-Based Learning and a Tablet PC

Great story on using Tablet PCs in the biology teaching and learning environment..this instructor get's it...and on top of this, the university has an entire section devoted to  explain what a Tablet PC is....and it can be used to provide feedback on student electronic documents...experienced users can collect student responses during class...one other item to note is that they have also established a Tablet PC Faculty Loaner program...to get them in the hands of the instructors who need and want them...and they will train instructors on how to use a Tablet PC.  Further reading on the Case Study on enhanced Classroom presentations can be viewed here...Tablet PCs are finding their way in to many paperless environments, especially in health care...and if you happen to be a CSI-NY fan, you can see the actors using a Sahara Tablet from TabletKiosk almost every week, as the CSI shows are becoming "paperless" as well.... there's also an entire section of the blog devoted to tablets in the category area, or you can click here to review...and don't forget the archives...over 200 posts on Tablet PCs and a new 10 battery on the horizon...BD 

The Center for Instructional Technology can provide consulting for faculty who wish to learn more about classroom uses of Tablet PCs.

Alyssa teaches cell biology in a six-week summer academic enrichment program that offers freshman and sophomore college students intensive and personalized medical school preparation in the Summer Medical and Dental Summer Program at Duke. Her students have widely varying backgrounds and must quickly learn large amount of complex information, and to apply this information. To facilitate student learning, she uses Team Based Learning. Students are responsible for learning terms and facts outside of class, and come to class prepared for tests taken individually and then repeated as a team. The tests are immediately graded, so that Alyssa can use her tablet PC for just in time teaching to address student misconceptions revealed by the tests. The rest of class time concentrates on team-based critical thinking and problem solving skills that the students will need if they are to be successful in medical school.  Students also use a discussion board to explore ethical issues based on the concepts covered in the course.  She was able to immediately address  student requests for more explanation and context because she was able to sketch and label during class.  She could then distribute these notes after class to her students.  

Professor Karagoz also has students use her Tablet PC during group writing activities, in which they use Windows Journal to complete short exercises. At the completion of the task, the student work can be displayed to the rest of the class for peer review and discussion.

Instructional Technology Profiles » Blog Archive » Learning Science with Team-Based Learning and a Tablet PC

Technorati Tags: Duke Univeristy,Tablet PC,Tablet Computers,Science,Biology

US cancer researchers attack federal budget cuts

"However, the NCI director did not hold out much hope in the upcoming presidential elections, saying the slate of available candidates was "a disappointment." ....and yes I can agree with this statement...nothing personal against any candidate or their staff....but as long as we continue to elect "figure heads" who are not involved in the front line efforts, it doesn't appear to get there..perhaps the answer is to get more technologically savvy people in office...it's like any other job anywhere today, you need the skills beyond being a "figure head" to command the respect of the general public and coherently understand where the world is not only today with research and technology, but also where it is going...and furthermore the pace...some folks in office don't even use email...enough said right there...so if the comprehensive level is not there, then old  methodologies of simply cutting funds to save money bounce right back, as there is plenty of software technologies that will show folks how to count beans and save a dollar, but when it comes to projecting how healthcare, research and technology all come together for our future, we are definitely as a loss without have the "informed and active Congress person" at the helm...so we continue to suffer at the hand of out of date methodologies...and suffer we do...as expressed in this article....private funding more than ever is now helping research moreso than the government...and thank goodness it is there...otherwise the US will lose the status of of being a real leader in Biomedical Research...BD 

Consistent reductions in US federal budget allocations for cancer research that have been implemented since 2003 threaten to undermine recent gains in the fight against the disease, scientists said.

"Today the situation has changed quite dramatically," Davidson pointed out. "Advances in science and technologies can reduce the burden of cancer."The warning came from about 30,000 prominent US cancer researchers gathered in Chicago this weekend for the 44th annual conference of the American Society of Oncology (ASCO).

"I want to reinforce that today cancer research faces a very, very significant funding crisis," said Friday Doctor Nancy Davidson, a professor of oncology at Johns Hopkins University and current chairwoman of the society.  Scientists said most recent discoveries in genetic research needed to be translated into treatments for patients.

US cancer researchers attack federal budget cuts

Technorati Tags: Budget Cuts,Congress,Cancer Research,Oncology,Research

Five of the World's Most Technologically Advanced Hospitals

Nice article and very informative about the technology being used in these 5 hospitals, but somewhat surprised that El Camino hospital didn't make the list, anyway, in the Los Angeles area the Helford Clinical Research Hospital at the City of Hope was right up there on the list..."Today, approximately 30 to 40 percent of City of Hope patients are enrolled in active clinical trials – compared with the national average of one percent.  Integrated into City of Hope’s  scientific community and technological facilities, Helford Hospital enables close collaboration between physicians and clinical investigators. The hospital’s sophisticated communications and patient monitoring systems offer even greater opportunity for partnership between scientists and physicians, creating new avenues for advancing emerging therapies."...it is connected with digital paperless efficiencies...and robotics...and includes a Center for Biomedicine and Genetics...visit the site to see what other hospitals were in the rankings..the Children's Hospital of Montefiore in Bronx, NY, St. Olavs in Norway, Upper River Valley in Canada, and Legacy Salmon Creek in Clark County Washington are the other hospitals on the list....BD 

When a loved one is ill and in need of medical care, we expect nothing but the best from the hospital staff.  However, it may surprise you to learn that some hospitals are not as technologically advanced as others!  We tend to believe that as long as the patient makes it through the doors of the E.R, it's all basically the same, no matter which hospital is being visited.  In these times of ever-changing technology, this simply is not the case anymore.  If you are looking for the utmost in technologically advanced care, the following hospitals are the ones to see.

Five of the World's Most Technologically Advanced Hospitals

Technorati Tags: Hospitals. Health IT,Healthcare

Can a new blood test enable personalized chemotherapy?

We have all heard of personalized medicine, but now the potential of personalized chemotherapy for some forms of cancer...the clinical studies showed that 58 percent were found to to be under-dosed...17 percent over-dosed...a new way to monitor instead of the standard BSA, based on height and weight...BD 

A new, simple and cost-effective 5-FU assay will be available later this year through a major reference laboratory. Access to a simple blood test will arm the oncologist with the power of medicine to individualize 5-FU dosing to ensure patients receive the maximum benefit from their treatment. This is good news for doctors who will have an evidence-based test to guide individualized dose and it’s good news for the patients who can gain confidence that their therapy is optimized.

The blood test developed by Saladax Biomedical, will give oncologists a powerful, cost-effective tool in the battle against colorectal cancer. It has the potential to not only improve their patients’ quality of life but to offer new assurance that they are receiving the best possible care. And that is good news, indeed.

Can a new blood test enable personalized chemotherapy? | Science Codex

Company that makes medical devices for kids enjoys its own growth spurt

One other growing area, medical devices for kids...this company creates orthopaedic devices for children and works closely with the Cleveland Clinic...and is exploring the development of biologic products created with the patient's own cells to help rejuvenate growth plates...help for children with broken bones and deformities...BD 

But because nobody made devices specifically for children, surgeons have been forced to refashion adult devices or even use veterinary products to fit kids.
   
    Deeter left DePuy, where he managed 300 surgeons and the custom implant business, to create OrthoPediatrics. It was an idea he had been pondering for 15 years, but the business and regulatory environment just weren’t right.
    The 2006 Pediatric Medical Device Act removed some of the last barriers, and Deeter and Downey were both in Washington, D.C., ready to get to work. “The day that became law, the next day we were at the FDA,” Downey said.

Company that makes medical devices for kids enjoys its own growth spurt

Hospital agrees to $1-million settlement for Patient Dumping

Over the last 2 years, there have been more than 50 cases of alleged patient dumping...the last being a hospital in Orange County, CA...also the van company hired will also pay a civil penalty....Kaiser settled their case last year....BD 

Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center on Friday settled allegations that it left a paraplegic man crawling around downtown Los Angeles' skid row in a hospital gown and with a colostomy bag by agreeing to pay $1 million and be monitored by a former U.S. attorney for up to five years.
The resolution of the lawsuit marks the biggest settlement so far in the Los Angeles city attorney's efforts to crack down on hospitals and other institutions that "dump" patients on skid row.

Empire Enterprises, whose driver was accused of leaving Olvera, was also a defendant in the suit. The van company agreed to end such actions and pay a $10,000 civil penalty, city attorney's officials said.
Olvera and the hospital have also reached a confidential financial settlement on his personal litigation, attorneys said.

Hospital agrees to $1-million settlement for dumping patient on skid row - Los Angeles Times

Technorati Tags: Patient Dumping,Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital

And now for something completely different...A Robotic Symphony...

We have all seen the Robo Doctors either at the hospital or on the web, but here's a new twist that I couldn't help but posting...Robots conducting an orchestra!  Watch the video it's a delight....and who knows will the robot be playing the cello next?  BD

 

Stand down oh gentle readers and defenders of the flesh, we're getting reports from Detroit that the baton wielding ASIMO did not direct the human race to its doom. Instead, Yo-Yo Ma is safe and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra concert went off without a hitch while netting the DSO a cool million for the musical education of Grosse Pointe's children.

Video: ASIMO burns as Yo-Yo Ma fiddles - Engadget

Taking computer chat to a whole new level - Wheelchairs

We have already seen cars that allow us to talk, and the next level is wheelchairs for the disabled that one will be able to speak commands to...nice and this will no doubt be a success and offer mobility and options to those who are confined to a wheelchair....BD 

Natural spoken dialogue technology has long been a dream for many. Advances by European researchers are making this a reality. The results of their work could soon be used to allow us to verbally interact with technology in our everyday lives, from the music systems in our cars to functions in the homes of wheelchair users.

Interactions between human and computer are currently inefficient, particularly when we try talking. Previously, users have had to rely on specific commands making natural interactions in everyday language impossible.  Additionally, the technology has been applied to making the lives of housebound or mobility-restricted people easier. The European researchers developed MIMUS – a spoken dialogue system for smart homes for wheelchair users.

Taking computer chat to a whole new level

A New Clinical Trial To Examine TORISEL Plus Avastin For First-Line Treatment Of Advanced Kidney Cancer

Big pharma continues to move in the direction of biotech investments and clinical research in cancer research...here with Wyeth, Roche and Genentech working together...BD 

Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, a division of Wyeth (NYSE: WYE), announced the initiation of the INTORACT (INvestigation of TORISEL and Avastin Combination Therapy) study, a worldwide randomized, open-label, phase 3b study comparing TORISEL(R) (temsirolimus) plus Avastin(R) (bevacizumab) versus Avastin plus interferon-alfa for first-line treatment of patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC). Wyeth Research is conducting the INTORACT study with the support and assistance of Roche and Genentech.

Wyeth Initiates INTORACT -- A New Clinical Trial To Examine TORISEL Plus Avastin For First-Line Treatment Of Advanced Kidney Cancer

Chocolate - Good for Diabetic Health - Study

More studies on healthy chocolate...more research is needed, but this looks to be promising...it's all about Cocoa Flavonols...and they are also found in tea, red wine, and some fruits and vegetables...related story here...and the study does not mean to start drinking a lot of hot chocolate as it contains sugar and sometimes fat...BD

(Ivanhoe Newswire) – Sipping a hot cut of cocoa might do more than just warm you up if you have diabetes. It could also be helping improve your blood vessel functioning.

German researchers have found a key ingredient in cocoa called flavanols makes it easier for the arteries to expand in the face of increased demand for blood. Since people with diabetes generally have problems with artery expansion, anything that helps open up the flow could reduce their risk for cardiovascular complications.

The study involved 41 type 2 diabetics who were randomly assigned to drink specially formulated cocoa with either high or low concentrations of flavonols over a 30-day period. The researchers are quick to note that the cocoa used in the study is not available in stores, so people shouldn’t rush out and begin drinking hot chocolate to achieve the same results.

Ivanhoe's Medical Breakthroughs - Cup of Cocoa Good for Diabetic Health

Technorati Tags: Chocolate,Diabetes

Blogging--It's Good for You and your Health...

Not only does it have the potential to make one feel better, but think of the knowledge one gains in the process as well...according to the report blogging might also trigger  dopamine release, just like music and and other stimulants do for us...it can certainly offer some comfort in discussing common problems and diagnosis and treatments plans with health problems...there's comfort anywhere in not being alone, or feeling like you are alone...so open the process and start self medicating through a little bit of journalism...BD  

Self-medication may be the reason the blogosphere has taken off. Scientists (and writers) have long known about the therapeutic benefits of writing about personal experiences, thoughts and feelings. But besides serving as a stress-coping mechanism, expressive writing produces many physiological benefits. Research shows that it improves memory and sleep, boosts immune cell activity and reduces viral load in AIDS patients, and even speeds healing after surgery. A study in the February issue of the Oncologist reports that cancer patients who engaged in expressive writing just before treatment felt markedly better, mentally and physically, as compared with patients who did not.

Whatever the underlying causes may be, people coping with cancer diagnoses and other serious conditions are increasingly seeking—and finding—solace in the blogosphere. “Blogging undoubtedly affords similar benefits” to expressive writing, says Morgan, who wants to incorporate writing programs into supportive care for cancer patients.

Blogging--It's Good for You: Scientific American

Hat Tip:  Switched

Technorati Tags: Blogging,healthcare,cancer,oncology

One Note 2007 EMR Suite Updated - The Ablet Factory

From the Ablet Factory, and I feature the updates on the blog as changes are made...The Ablet Factory is great for the small practice on a budget but wants to begin using a tablet and some type of electronic medical records for charts in the office...you will need One Note from Microsoft Office to use the product...if your budget is tight and you need an affordable, yet good system to get started, visit the Ablet Factory....BD 

http://www.abletfactory.com/EMRSuite.html

Technorati Tags: TabletPC,Ablet Factory,Medical Records

Pharmacopeia Advances Strategic Plan to Focus Resources - Decreasing workforce by 15%

PRINCETON, N.J., May 30 -- Pharmacopeia (Nasdaq: PCOP - News), an innovator in the discovery and development of novel small molecule therapeutics, announced today that it is implementing the next step in its ongoing effort to focus its resources on the company's clinical and later-stage discovery programs. This effort includes an immediate workforce reduction of approximately 15 percent through attrition and termination of positions as well as a decrease in other expenses through improved operational efficiencies and increased financial discipline. The company's annual operating expenditures are expected to decrease by at least $10 million in 2009.

Pharmacopeia has established strategic alliances with major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, including Bristol-Myers Squibb, Celgene, Cephalon, GlaxoSmithKline, Schering-Plough, and Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. For more information please visit the company's website at http://www.pharmacopeia.com.

Pharmacopeia Advances Strategic Plan to Focus Resources on Development and Later-Stage Discovery Programs - FierceBiotech

Bikini-clad women make men impatient

And now for one of the strange studies of the day...I guess it states that men should go buy a a bra...not to wear, but carry it around with you...that is if the pursuit is looking for immediate gratification...be aware of the bikini effect when it comes to bank accounts and waistlines the study says...or just keep that bra in your pocket to stay out of the danger zones to avoid reward seeking behaviors and only touch the bra when seeking smaller monetary compensation...so when does that happen?  Anyway, strange study of the day here and worth a little humor for Friday...BD 

Images of sexy women tend to whet men's sexual appetite. But stimulating new research in the Journal of Consumer Research says there's more than meets the eye. A recent study shows that men who watched sexy videos or handled lingerie sought immediate gratification—even when they were making decisions about money, soda, and candy.

Authors Bram Van den Bergh, Siegfried DeWitte, and Luk Warlop (KULeuven, Belgium) found that the desire for immediate rewards increased in men who touched bras, looked at pictures of beautiful women, or watched video clips of young women in bikinis running through a park.

Bikini-clad women make men impatient

Schering-Plough and Merck have managed to fool an estimated 75% of U.S. physicians.

The stories and concerns over Vitorin and Zetia continue...but the number of prescriptions are beginning to dwindle...BD 

Today in an SEC filing, Schering-Plough revealed that total prescriptions for disaster meds Vytorin and Zetia have dropped by more than 20% from January to April 2008.
Total number of prescriptions were 3,205,000 in January and 2,492,000 in April.

That is the amazing fact--a drug that has not been proven to work, caused multiple congressional inquiries and major news coverage and it is still selling to the tune of billions of dollars!
Welcome to the world snake oil merchants and the people who help grease their machinery: Your friendly neighborhood doc, who continues to write all those scripts.

THE PHARMA LAW BLOG: Schering-Plough and Merck have managed to fool an estimated 75% of U.S. physicians.

Microsoft linking Silverlight, Ruby on Rails

Hard Hat Area:  Ruby on Rails, Iron Ruby, Light Ruby...Iron Ruby to work with Silverlight and Windows Presentation Foundation....if you are a developer, check out this latest offering, Ruby in the Clouds...net yet with Diamonds, but getting there...and for those working with Linux, there's the open source Moonlight project...BD 

San Francisco - Microsoft plans to demonstrate integration Friday between its new Silverlight browser plug-in technology for rich Internet applications and the Ruby on Rails Web framework.

Also at the event, Microsoft officials will demonstrate IronRuby, a version of the Ruby programming language for Microsoft's .Net platform, running a Ruby on Rails application.

"Running Rails shows that we are serious when we say that we are going to create a Ruby that runs real Ruby programs. And there isn???t a more real Ruby program than Rails," said a blog entry on Friday from Microsoft's John Lam, a program manager in the Dynamic Language Runtime team, who will present at the conference.

Microsoft linking Silverlight, Ruby on Rails - Yahoo! News

Governor's Proposed Cuts May Hurt Entire System, Not Just Medi-Cal

Would the impending Medi-Cal cuts lead to an entire meltdown of the health care system in California...the CMA feels this could very well happen...it is already difficult to find a physician who will take Medi-Cal...will this create another rush to the ER rooms of hospitals, some of which in California are hanging on by a few threads?   BD 

In a California Healthline Special Report, leaders of organizations representing doctors and hospitals, along with an advocate for low-income people discussed the potential impact of proposed cuts to the state's Medi-Cal system.

Gilliard said cuts to Medi-Cal will reduce preventive care for patients and will eventually shift more patients to the state's already-crowded hospital emergency departments.
Noting that California doctors already receive the lowest Medicaid reimbursement rates in the country, Frankenstein said that the governor's cuts will cause physicians to lose money by treating Medi-Cal patients.

"If these cuts take effect, you're going to see a complete meltdown of the health care system in California. This is not limited to people on Medi-Cal ... all of us in California could be affected by these cuts," she said (Kennedy, California Healthline, 5/29).

Governor's Proposed Cuts May Hurt Entire System, Not Just Medi-Cal, Experts Fear - California Healthline

Flip-Flops, High Heels, or Bare Foot....

What's on our feet today...interesting studies showing that some of today's footwear can cause discomfort and issues...still love my flip flops though...BD 

People who favor flip-flops as their primary footwear option during warm summer months may experience lower leg pain and a change in their stride, according to research presented today at the 55th Annual Meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) in Indianapolis.
A new study supports the notion that women should use caution when descending stairs in heels, this time from a biomechanical perspective. An analysis of the motion at the ankle joint shows that walking in high heels down stairs may cause an unstable gait pattern that could lead to an injury of the leg or foot."Walking barefoot has its advantages, such as giving the intrinsic muscles of the foot more work and therefore making them stronger," said Wendy Miletello, Ph.D., who was involved in the study. "Stronger feet mean more stability for the entire body."

Flip-Flops, Heels Examined For Performance, Impact

The Efficient MD -Eavesdrop on Doctors and Medical Students on Twitter

 One MD discusses using Twitter....several others are beginning to use the platform and I have signed up but have not added the Medical Quack yet...perhaps soon...John Mack in the pharma area has moved on to Twitter as well, but as of this morning the network was experiencing some issues...Twitter stated it was due to the rapid increase of clients...well time will tell the story as to how efficient Twitter will be... BD 

Let's take a step back. Regarding Twitter, chances are you've either

1. Heard of it
2. Use it
3. Loathe it
4. All of the above

Twitter is an instant messaging service, a microblog, a social networking phenomenon, a chatroom, the best crowdsourcing utility ever invented, or a colossal waste of time — depending on who you ask.
Regardless of how you feel about it, Twitter matters. Some argue that news is broken on Twitter faster than on any other medium. The conversations on Twitter are often hilarious, informal, and informative, all at once. And the number of people who can potentially see what you write — instantly — is staggering.

The Efficient MD - Lifehacks for Healthcare: Eavesdrop on Doctors and Medical Students on Twitter

Hat Tip:  Kevin MD (Also on Twitter)   Link

Ten Dumb Things About Medicare

Here's the first 2...visit the site and read the rest...some good points made here..BD 

Reimbursement - At least in my field, it is nearly impossible to run a practice off of what it pays.  Most physicians who are on Medicare offset its bad reimbursement with private insurance or procedures that are outside of Medicare.

Prevention is discouraged - A person cannot come in if they are well.  They have to develop a disease before being seen.  They tried to fix this with the “Welcome to Medicare Physical,” but the rules were so laborious, it is nearly impossible to take advantage of this.

Ten Dumb Things About Medicare | Musings of a Distractible Mind

Hat Tip:  Kevin, MD

Zynx Offers Decision Support for Chemo

Real Time Peer to Peer information...allows the clinician to drill down quickly to study and read the desired results...used by 1400 hospitals currently...other areas enable evidence based order sets to be incorporated into EHR programs as well...and for those still on paper, there's a print solution...BD

Zynx Health will integrate evidence-based chemotherapy care guidelines from the National Comprehensive Care Network into its OncologyCare decision support software. Fort Washington, Pa.-based NCCN is an alliance of 21 cancer centers that develops resources to help oncology care.

Los Angeles-based Zynx will integrate the network's Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology into its software. The application addresses cancer detection, prevention and risk reduction; workup and diagnosis; and treatment and supportive care.

Zynx solutions provide organizations with the tools to standardize care around evidence-based practice. ZynxOrder™ and ZynxCare™ help clinicians make evidence actionable in the form of order sets, plans of care, reminders, and alerts which can be easily customized to include local guidelines, evidence, or community best practices.

Zynx Offers Decision Support for Chemo

UK Drops NHS Contractor Fujitsu - Cerner Continues

Cerner, as a subcontractor will continue with other areas inclduing the Choose and Book portion of the network, the national scheduling information part of the system.  BD 

The National Health Service in England has terminated the contract of Japan-based Fujitsu Services as the prime contractor for providing information technology applications in the South of England region.

Cerner Corp., Kansas City, Mo., has served as a subcontractor to Fujitsu and provides its Millennium product as the core electronic health records system. The National Health Service terminated Fujitsu after protracted renegotiations of its contract failed. The 10-year deal was to expire in 2014.

Vendor teams in five regions across England are designing and implementing electronic health records systems, picture archiving and communication systems, and a range of supporting applications under England’s Connecting for Health initiative.

UK Drops NHS Contractor

Scripps gets $20M to speed research to patients - San Diego

The focus to to bring biomedical research benefits and information to patients...and of course working more with understanding genomics...BD 

In a statement announcing the award, Scripps said Thursday that STSI is the only Southern California winner of the grant to date in Southern California.
The science institute seeks to meld the clinical expertise of Scripps Health and its hospitals with the biomedical prowess of The Scripps Research Institute. The institute is putting special emphasis on the fields of genomics, stem cells and wireless technology, Eric Topol, director of the institute, said.
Topol is a noted cardiologist and influential reseacher. He was hired by Scripps in 2006 to head its program in genomics, the study of genes and their function.

Scripps gets $20M to speed research to patients : North County Times - Californian

US soldiers in high-tuberculosis areas face new epidemic: false positives

Retesting is occurring as up to 30 to 100 percent of the tests show negative...we experience the same thing with some virus detection software on computers, is looks and acts like a problem, but in essence when further diagnosed...it is not..so it appears overall this is good news for many who were thought to have TB....BD 

U.S. Army service members are increasingly deployed in regions of the world where tuberculosis (TB) is rampant, such as Iraq and Afghanistan, and the military now faces a growing medical problem. But it is not TB itself that is on the rise—instead, the problem lies with the growing number of “pseudoepidemics,” or clusters of false-positives for TB that are the result of universal testing with a notoriously inaccurate tuberculin skin test (TST) and inconsistent procedures for interpreting those tests in low-risk populations.

These false positives tests have become more than a mere institutional inconvenience or a momentary medical scare for Soldiers being tested. They are a real financial and medical burden because they inappropriately diverting limited funds and resources.

US soldiers in high-tuberculosis areas face new epidemic: false positives

Body's baking soda used to catch cancer early - MRI

New technique in the works from GE with clinical trials, measuring levels of baking soda that live naturally in the body...MRI can pick up on the abnormal PH levels and this could pinpoint where the disease is present...BD 

A chemical commonly called baking soda which is found naturally in the body could be used to detect cancer with magnetic resonance imaging, reveals a Cancer Research UK study published in Nature.

Traditionally magnetic resonance imaging - or MRI - detects water and fat in the human body. By boosting MRI sensitivity more than 20,000 times - using a scanning technique developed by GE Healthcare - researchers can now image the molecules that cancer cells use to make energy and to grow.

This level of precision could be used to detect tumours and to find out if cancer treatments are working effectively at an earlier stage.

Almost all cancers have a lower pH than the surrounding tissue. Normally, the human body has a system of balancing chemicals with a low pH, acids, and chemicals with a high pH, alkalis, to maintain a constant, healthy pH level. In cancer, this balancing system is disturbed, and the tissue becomes more acidic.

Body's baking soda used to catch cancer early

GE Healthcare IT Announces Kryptiq E-Prescribing

This is already offered under the GE portal for secure messaging and document management...now GE will exclusively sell Script Messenger, integrated with GE Centricity software and Kryptiiq will no longer sell E-prescribing services to other ambulatory EHR companies...Kryptiq is also a Microsoft Health Vault Partner with services other than E-Prescribing...BD 

BARRINGTON, IL May 29 , 2008 – GE Healthcare IT , a unit of General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) and Kryptiq, a leading provider of healthcare information technology solutions, today announced a joint agreementfor GE toexclusively distribute Kryptiq’s  eScriptMessenger (eSM) in conjunction with GE's Centricity Electronic Medical Record (EMR) and Centricity Practice Solution. The offeringaims to provide a proven ePrescribing solution benefiting physicians with speed and ease in managing prescription activities—addressing a critical need to improve patient safety and care quality.

“As the Kryptiq ePrescribing solution is already readily accepted by several thousand of our Centricity EMR customers, we are excited to build on this existing alliance to meet the evolving needs of our customers with one point of purchase,” said James M. Corrigan, Vice President and General Manager, GE Healthcare IT. “Our guiding principle is to provide the best user experience and building on this relationship will allow even more customers to connect ePrescribing seamlessly into current workflows.”

Kryptiq Press Releases

Fox News worker sues over bedbugs in NY office

Bed Bugs go to work too...someone else using the workstation is the culprit it appears from the article...now there are bigger issues with a lawsuit....BD 

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Fox News employee who says she suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder after being bitten by bedbugs at work filed a lawsuit on Thursday against the owner of the Manhattan office tower where she worked.

She said she believed a colleague who used her workstation on weekends, and who no longer works for Fox News, brought the infestation to the office. Clark's home was never infested.

Jane Clark, 37, a 12-year veteran of Fox Ne ws, a unit of News Corp, said she complained to human resources after being bitten three times between October 2007 and April 2008. She said she was ridiculed and the office was not treated for months.

Fox News worker sues over bedbugs in NY office - Yahoo! News

Surgeons Oppose Plan to Pay More for Primary Care

Surgeons have a mind set of their own and is somewhat of a "poke" inside health care, but this time they don't want to be on the losing end of compensation...money has to come from somewhere...so thus the letter to not "rob Peter to pay Paul"...once more the system needs a fix...nothing new has been created since Medicare...time for something new it appears...a new source of revenue and a pool with enough contributors...small federal sales tax I ask...could work with a little planning...and everybody contributes..BD 

A couple of months back, the group that advises Congress on Medicare funding suggested raising payments for primary care in a “budget neutral” way. Translation: Somebody else’s payments would be reduced. Surgeons aren’t too happy about that. Go figure.

The American College of Surgeons recently fired off a letter to MedPac, the advisory group, and copied several senators and congressmen who control Medicare’s purse strings.This has become something of a regular routine in Washington — Congress intervenes at the 11th hour to block sweeping cuts in reimbursements, but only with temporary measures. So a little while later, the 11th hour rolls around again.

Health Blog : Surgeons Oppose Plan to Pay More for Primary Care

Online sites pump up organ donor registrations

This is good news all the way around...BD 

The number of Americans registering to be organ donors is on the rise, thanks in part to a surge in states establishing online registration sites to augment donor designation on driver's licenses.

Donor registration has increased 10% from 63 million to nearly 70 million since the start of 2006, according to Donate Life America, a non-profit alliance of national and state organ donation organizations. Online registration is playing an important role in that growth, says board chairwoman Sara Pace Jones.

Online sites pump up organ donor registrations - USATODAY.com

Technorati Tags: Organ Donors,Kidney Donor,Donate Life America,Organs

Grassley's War on Cancer Patients

Good insight and commentary here from the "inside" track...are members of Congress helping or stalling the progression of the FDA...will the Biotechs be able to develop and withstand some of the stringencies and additional methodologies to bring new products to market to save lives?  Nice to hear from someone who has been on the inside track...BD 

The news did not make it to the front pages, but on Feb. 28 a powerful member of the U.S. Senate launched an attack on the Food and Drug Administration, the drug companies and the desperate cancer patients they treat.

The senator is demanding a full-scale review of each and every product ever approved, and is asking for a rejudgment by GAO "to ensure that drugs approved on surrogate endpoints are both safe and effective."  Companies may decide it is not financially viable to even bother developing new drugs, and the pipeline for new products to treat cancer could slow even more. Mr. Grassley's legacy could be thousands of additional cancer deaths.

Charles Grassley (R., Iowa), ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, requested that the Government Accountability Office launch an inquiry into whether the FDA behaved appropriately in granting the "accelerated approval" of Avastin, a drug for treating women with metastatic breast cancer. Mr. Grassley's action will have a catastrophic effect on America's ability to develop new drugs.

Dr. Thornton is a former medical officer in the Office of Oncology Products at the Food and Drug Administration. He volunteers as president of the Sarcoma Foundation of America.

Grassley's War on Cancer Patients - WSJ.com

Technorati Tags: Cancer,FDA,HealthCare,Drugs,Biotech

Market Grows for Surgical Robots

The DaVinci system and other robotics slated to grow at more than 25% in the upcoming years...I post many articles here as they become available and announced...stay tuned....BD 

The U.S. market for image-guided and robot-assisted surgery systems reached $813 million in 2007, according to a new report from Frost & Sullivan, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based research firm.

The report estimates revenue will grow more than 25% annually through 2014 as the systems improve the accuracy of planning and performing complex procedures.

For more information on the report, “U.S. Image-guided and Robot-assisted Surgery Markets,” visit medicaldevices.frost.com.

Market Grows for Surgical Robots

FDA's foot dragging hurts Canada's biotech firms

The entire world somewhat looks to the US FDA approval process...which is one of the best accredited, but again due to lack of technology, it's catch up time...companies are waiting in the ranks to release products that are stated to be hung up in the process...and how long will the biotech companies wait...smaller biotechs can't afford the wait...but the push from the larger entities should be forthcoming...BD

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canadian biotechnology companies have joined a chorus of their global counterparts to rail against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's tardiness in approving new drugs.

Products by companies such as Labopharm Inc (DDS.TO: Quote, Profile, Research) and Cardiome Pharma Corp (COM.TO: Quote, Profile, Research) have been delayed in the key U.S. market for months, chipping into their revenue and waylaying their plans.

"It could come to a very big head. You will see tremendous influence brought to bear on the governing bodies and the politicians overseeing how the FDA gets funded," Bapty said.

FDA's footdragging hurts Canada's biotech firms | Reuters

Wacky World of Generics...Timing is Everything...

Who's on first, the story of the generic pipeline...sometimes generic drugs also get a "stay" of time like the big pharma folks, but of course it's only for 6 months or so and not years...so the race begins to be the first...but sometimes second can pay off as well...before the rest of the generic manufacturers jump in the market...called "generic on generic petitioning" to the FDA....BD 

So it should come as little surprise that after years of being in the crosshairs of citizen petitions filed by brand firms, generic companies are starting to pull the trigger on some petitions themselves.
Some things haven’t changed, though: the targets of petitions are still generic companies and the beneficiaries are still brand firms, since delays always help them.
The most recent example of generic-on-generic petitioning resolved by FDA is Cobalt’s failed attempt to become the only generic of acarbose (Bayer’s diabetes treatment Precose). Cobalt had made regulatory arguments that it deserved 180-day exclusivity and scientific arguments that other ANDAs needed additional tests. FDA rejected them both, and Cobalt has now launched alongside a generic from Roxane.

The IN VIVO Blog

Ear Scope GXL - High-End Endoscope

Now you can see what is in your ears while cleaning too....interesting device as it can go beyond just use for the ears...BD   

The Ear Scope GXL is the high-end EarScope model from Coden, designed to let you see inside your ears as you clean them with bright (dimmable) LED lighting. Using the reusable Ear Spoon you can gently clean every nook and and cranny of your ears with ease, as opposed to cotton cleaners that actually push the dirt back in. The sticky light guides are shaped like cotton cleaners and can pull out dirt or wax without scraping.
Using the regular light guide, The EarScope GXL is also useful on other parts of the body, or even for industrial uses, such as peering inside dark areas like engines, machines, boreholes, etc. It's several tools in one!

Wellness - Ear Scope GXL - High-End Endoscope - Japan Trend Shop

Hat Tip:  Medlaunches

Prison for Man With H.I.V. Who Spit on a Police Officer

Luckily none of the officers contracted HIV, but it shows how society has changed and how we look at the science behind the virus...BD 

DALLAS — A homeless man who spit in the mouth and eye of a police officer and then taunted him, saying he was H.I.V. positive, was sentenced to 35 years in prison on Wednesday for harassing a public servant with a deadly weapon: his saliva.

Because of the deadly weapon finding, the man, Willie Campbell, 42, of Dallas, will not be eligible for parole until he has served half his sentence.In May 2006, a passer-by reported an unconscious man, Mr. Campbell, sprawled outside a downtown Dallas building. Mr. Campbell tried to fight paramedics and kicked the police officer who arrested him for public intoxication, prosecutors said.

The police reported that Mr. Campbell spat at an officer and said he had H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, as they struggled to move him to a squad car

Prison for Man With H.I.V. Who Spit on a Police Officer - New York Times

Pfizer Counterattacks on Smoking-Cessation Drug Chantix

Pfizer to combat the bad press from the FAA...and more...BD 

A week after Pfizer’s smoking-cessation drug Chantix got knocked around for side effects, the company is coming back with a PR blitz backing the drug.

Full-page ads in five major newspapers lay out Pfizer’s take on the drug’s upside — “There are few things that provide greater health benefits than quitting smoking” — and include fairly prominent mentions of symptoms including suicidal thoughts and actions that have been reported in some patients taking the drug. (In the Health Blog’s editions of the morning papers, the ad runs on page A11 of the WSJ, and A9 of the NYT.)

Health Blog : Pfizer Counterattacks on Smoking-Cessation Drug Chantix

Electronic records improve the quality of health care but high cost still a barrier

One hospital allocates a portion of their computer servers memory to another hospital or to a private practice MD...the cost of renting space is much less than a full on investment...this is becoming more available today for physicians and how it works varies from hospital to hospital...BD 

Large hospitals are partnering with smaller hospitals and physicians to bring down the cost of using electronic medical records. It is a quiet change, but one that holds the promise of dramatically improving efficiency and the quality of health care for patients.

“We’re trying to bring together more physicians in the community,” explained Jim Dobbins, director of electronic medical records at Decatur Memorial Hospital, a 317-bed acute care hospital, in Decatur, Ill. “The purpose is to assure that the highest quality of health care is given to people in the community.”

Electronic records improve the quality of health care but high cost still a barrier

Human Genome Project Head to Step Down

Geneticist Francis Collins moves on after mapping the human genome and seeing a pet project legislation barring genetic discrimination become law.

Collins, a geneticist, criticized federal funding shortfalls, which he said were "cumbersome" and  must be addressed if the U.S. wants to continue to be a world leader in scientific research and development. But he insisted that lack of financial support did not play into his decision to step down. "My time at NHGRI has been the most remarkable of my life," he said, after confessing that he was initially loath to join the NIH in 1993. At the time he was a professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan and an investigator for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Ann Arbor.

Collins said he is keeping his options open for the future. Among those he's mulling: writing projects in the area of personalized medicine. He also hinted that he might become a consultant to lawmakers designing health and science policy

Human Genome Project Head to Step Down: Scientific American

Hospital replaces Microsoft Exchange for Linux-based clone

PostPath Server, which is Linux and is pretty much a clone of Exchange..licensing had to be in the picture for savings here..and it works pretty much like Exchange according to the article...for the computers, they still use Microsoft Outlook clients...so there was no training required from the user end...they ran the trial for 6 months before migrating...and the article states they have more storage room than what was available on the version of Exchange they were using..the hospital still uses Microsoft products to a pretty large degree, this was one area where the Server was changed...Linux and Windows coexisting and working together...BD 

May 28, 2008 (Network World) Taking a page from the doctors at Moses Taylor Hospital, IT staffers at the facility in Scranton, Pa., last year diagnosed their messaging system and came up with an effective treatment that has turned out to be a lifesaver.

The patient in this case was an aging Microsoft Exchange 5.5 environment that couldn't support increased message loads and was going to cost a bundle to upgrade.

After conducting an evaluation of alternatives, the hospital decided not to upgrade to a newer version of Exchange. Instead, it went with a Linux-based Exchange clone that it felt could meet the needs of its 700 users without forcing them and IT to learn a whole new system.

Hospital dumps Microsoft Exchange for Linux-based clone

Centinela Hospital's cuts create anxiety in South L.A.

Hospitals owned by Prime are not bound to the normal contracts, thus they have the option of billing higher rates and charges...some services have also been suspended...chemotherapy for one...it does have the most active emergency room in Southern California...13 operating rooms have been closed..but according to the article if Prime had not come in, it may not be open today...it appears the emergency room is the big area of treatment for patients...but after that you may be on your own if the hospital does not provide the additional therapy or procedures needed....BD 

Centinela Hospital Medical Center in Inglewood has been a key healthcare provider to nearby residents for nearly a century. Now some patients and activists in South Los Angeles worry that recent cuts and other changes are diminishing its role in the community.
Since taking over the hospital late last year, its new owner has shuttered departments, laid off 13% of its 1,700 staffers and canceled most private insurance contracts, hospital officials say. As a result, many residents say they've had to seek treatment elsewhere.

Robert F. Kennedy Medical Center in Hawthorne closed in 2004. Last year, Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital near Watts shut down. Brotman Medical Center in Culver City recently filed for bankruptcy protection. Other area hospitals such as Downey Regional Medical Center have said they aren't certain how much longer they can remain open.

Hospital's cuts sow anxiety in South L.A. - Los Angeles Times

Favrille Closes upon Drug Trial Failure...

As a small Bio Tech company, they may only get one chance to make it as this story tells...and the creditors will soon be a the doors...the San Diego company announced that its trials for a non Hodgkin's Lymphoma treatment failed to work...BD 

It's tough to see all of your company's work go down the drain, but it's great for your competitors. Now that Favrille and Genitope are virtually defunct, that leaves only a few firms left in the running.

"We are clearly very disappointed with the data from this trial, particularly on behalf of the patients and their families," said John P. Longenecker, chief executive of Favrille. "Based on these results, we are discontinuing development of Specifid and are currently evaluating steps to conserve cash and recognize value on our assets. We wish to thank all of our employees and the patients, clinical investigators and trial coordinators for their support and dedication."

Favrille Clears Space For Competition - Forbes.com

From Blockbuster Medicine to Personalized Medicine

This is a good article from Medscape and well worth reading...you will need to set up a log on account to read the entire article...basically it explains the changes that are taking place today and what is in store for the future..it will be a big change for big pharma not only in R and D, but marketing as well...many big Pharma companies are currently investing in Biotech companies....BD 

One of the biggest challenges for the biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies in the 21st century will be to develop and deliver drugs that fit the individual patient's biology and pathophysiology. This change from blockbuster medicine to personalized medicine will, to a large extent, influence the way that drugs are going to be developed, marketed and prescribed in the future. These changes could mean an end to the blockbuster philosophy in 'big pharma' and thereby impose major changes in company structures. The implementation of personalized medicine will be a stepwise process, where the division of patients into biological subgroups will be the first important step. Today, this is already the situation for several cancer diseases, for example, breast cancer. In the years to come, we will see more and more drugs being prescribed based on the results from pharmacodiagnostic testing. Within cancer medicine, which has been at the forefront of this field, it is expected that in 10-15 years time very few drugs will be prescribed without such a test.

Will all future drug treatments be individualized? Probably not, as there needs to be a clear rationale within a given therapeutic area that must be explained by an unmet medical need of today. The use of simple analgesics, such as acetylsalicylic acid, will probably not be subject to pharmacodiagnostic testing in the near future, but these will be the drugs that are likely to be used within oncology, cardiovascular and infection medicine.

It is often the perception that personalized medicine is something that will arrive in the future. Personalized medicine has arrived, and within certain disease areas it has already been implemented into medical practice, although still to a limited extent. In the years to come we will see an increased use of personalized medicine, and when this concept really takes off, it will have huge consequences for the way that drugs are being developed, marketed and prescribed. Personalized medicine will impose changes in both pharmaceutical companies and the healthcare system, but these changes will not prove to be wasted; they will, without doubt, improve future drug therapy to the benefit of the individual patient and society in general.

From Blockbuster Medicine to Personalized Medicine

Technorati Tags: DNA,Personalized Medicine,Genomics

Connecticut Sues McKesson on Racketeering Charges

Charges include violating anti-trust laws as well as racketeering....BD 

BOSTON (Reuters) May 28 - The state of Connecticut sued McKesson Corp on Wednesday on charges that the drug wholesaler violated anti-racketeering laws by conspiring to artificially inflate the wholesale prices used to determine payments by private and public insurance plans.T he suit cites First DataBank as a co-conspirator.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Boston, alleges that McKesson and publishing company First DataBank conspired to expand to 25 percent from 20 percent the difference between the price retailers paid for prescription drugs, known as the wholesale acquisition cost, or WAC, and average wholesale price, or AWP.

This is not the first time McKesson has been sued over the pricing issue. The New England Carpenters Health Benefits Fund sued McKesson and First DataBank in Boston over this issue in 2005. In August, that suit was granted class-action status

Connecticut Sues McKesson on Racketeering Charges

HMO must pay for child's cancer treatment

This time it took the state's supreme court to make a ruling..BD 

MADISON, Wis. - A health maintenance organization was wrong to refuse to pay for specialized chemotherapy treatment for a cancer-stricken child, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.
In a 3-2 decision, the court ordered Touchpoint Health Plan Inc. to retroactively reinstate coverage for the family of Parker Summers of Appleton.
Touchpoint administered the health benefits for Kimberly-Clark Corp., where Summers' father was employed.
Parker Summers was diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor in 2002. After it was removed, doctors decided the best treatment would be high-dose chemotherapy.

Wisconsin court: HMO must pay for child's cancer treatment -- -- chicagotribune.com

Sneaky Attempt to Impose Medicaid Regulation

 UPDATE:  A couple other sites have also picked up on the attempt made by Leavitt...judge found ample reason to overturn the rushed through rule...violation of Congressional intent...when I see something like this at the high level of the administration I have to ask "why"....is this being treated like a "cat and mouse" game...and it appears somewhat juvenile in nature....especially when patient care is at stake...has Mr. Leavitt forgotten about morality and improving health care in the process of getting to the finish line first and furthermore it certainly doesn't show much respect for members of Congress...BD 

  A federal district judge has slapped down a sneaky attempt by the Bush administration to impose an onerous Medicaid regulation despite the clear intent of Congress that it be deferred. Once again, the administration has been caught in a flagrant attempt to ignore the will of Congress and unilaterally chart its own path.

Meanwhile, the secretary of health and human services has unilaterally deferred implementation of two of the most controversial rules until Aug. 1 in an attempt to negotiate some compromises with Congress. That leaves the other five rules either in effect or vulnerable to enactment unless Congress moves quickly to impose a moratorium.

Editorial - End Runs on Medicaid - Editorial - NYTimes.com

http://www.news-medical.net/?id=38709

Bill would let pharmacies sell patient medical records - CA

From another standpoint...more paper to throw away...right now I have a garbage can right next to my mail box to get rid of all the other crap that I get...so this would just add more to the task...and kill of a few more trees...back to the other side of the coin, it is a law to fight marketing...and not to improve patient care nor information...don't they get it, the world is going PAPERLESS!!!  Stop the madness....and keep our privacy, or what we have left of it in tact.  This reminds me of the viral marketing of Medicare Part D...same principle...just a bigger crowd...BD 

Doctors have had the option to opt out from their end of the coin in a related article...but still the data is stored and retrieved...and available at a certain level...with all their prescribing information available....same level of intrusion as what is told in the paragraph above...just working it from the patient end of things...some information when it comes to privacy and living a life as a human is better left not shared....BD 

Pharmacies in California would be allowed to sell confidential patient prescription information to third-party marketing firms working for drug companies under a bill expected to be voted on Thursday by the state Senate.

The legislation would allow pharmaceutical firms to send mailings directly to patients. Supporters of the proposal say the intent is to remind patients to take their medicine and order refills. But consumer privacy advocates are outraged."By opening this Pandora's box, consumers could wind up receiving mailings designed to look as if they came from the pharmacy yet conflict with what their pharmacist or doctor has recommended. Such a scenario would be a threat to their health."

The California Medical Association opposes the legislation, contending that it could jeopardize patient safety and hurt doctor-patient relationships. The mailings are particularly problematic for patients with sensitive medical issues such as mental illnesses, says the association.

Bill would let pharmacies sell medical records

Technorati Tags: Scripts,Marketing,Drug Information,Pharmacies,Information Overload,Privacy,Patient

Microsoft Increases Grant Funding for HealthVault

As I posted earlier last month, the HealthVault Solutions meeting is coming up next month...Microsoft is dolling out grant money for development of programs to work with the HealthVault...upping the amount to 4.5 million...thus far there are over 200 proposals on the table for the grants...good time to look into developing an application to interact and integrate with the HealthVault....BD 

Microsoft Corp. has increased the amount of grant funding it will offer to support research and development of applications that use its HealthVault platform for patient records.

The Redmond, Wash.-based company will now offer $4.5 million in funding for the program, up from the $3 million it originally promised when it began soliciting grant proposals last February. The increase is the result of strong interest in the program, company executives say. Microsoft received almost 200 proposals for the grants, which will be distributed in increments of up to $500,000 each.

The proposals included a range of online systems designed to address health issues, such as childhood obesity, medication reconciliation, mobile health gathering and dissemination, and diabetes management. The company will announce the winners at its HealthVault Solutions Conference, June 9-10 in Bellevue, Wash.

Microsoft Increases Grant Funding

"Specialty" Pharma Companies Band Together

When small companies can't be heard, they band together like this group of Specialty drug companies so they can be heard in Washington...BD

What do these seven companies have in common? Celgene, Cephalon, Cubist, Endo, Millennium, Purdue and Sepracor.
A: Enough to form their own Washington, DC lobbying coalition.
Today's issue of "The Pink Sheet" reports that the companies are all founding members of America's Specialty Medicines Companies (ASMC).
Their first order of business: enacting legislation resolving once and for all what "specialty pharma" even means.

And it certainly is an intriguing mix of members. Sepracor and Cephalon make a lot of money in the primary care market (thanks to Lunesta and Provigil), though both also sell more specialized medicines.

The IN VIVO Blog: An Association of One's Own: "Specialty" Companies Band Together

How the new Stark rules affect you - Medical Economics

I have had some questions lately about the Stark laws, so this is a good article form Medical Economics that will present quite a few answers...check it out if you have any questions regarding the Stark regulations...BD 

An update to the regulations prohibiting physician self-referrals—the so-called Stark rules—is never going to be front-page news or the latest buzz within the blogosphere.

In certain quarters, though, the new Stark rules, which except for certain arrangements and organizations took effect on Dec. 4, have been as hotly debated as the presidential race, and with good reason. For physicians and others in healthcare, the new regs—along with some revisions in the 2008 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule—contain some good news, some bad news, and some it's-all-a-matter-of-how-you-look-at-it news. Let's turn to the good news first.

How the new Stark rules affect you - You'll applaud some changes, but have trouble with others. - Medical Economics

Facebook, Twitter, new marketing tools for Pharma

Interesting article...I don't think blogs are dead news yet by any means, but John Mack makes some very interesting points about how it is expanding...I use Facebook to expand upon my blog...and myself have not explored Twitter enough to really evaluate and make any substantial statements...but Facebook does offer some extended cov erage for a blog and is an excellent area to create fund raiser sites to generate money for non profits...as has been done by Paul Levy at Beth Israel Deaconess in Boston...for some reason I just don't see the value of knowing where your pharmaceutical rep is by checking in on Twitter just yet...but who knows, maybe that might change some day (grin)...but big companies such as Intel have been using Facebook and others for marketing programs for quite a while now...BD 

It's a brave new pharma-marketing world out there, with more and more hospitals and docs barring drug reps and companies turning to electronic detailing to get their messages across. But the online sales pitch has just begun. Networking tools like Facebook and Twitter will soon be de rigeur, replacing blogs as the must-use online tools. Or so says the Pharma  Marketing Blog, whose author has been experimenting with a handful of connection-making sites and even Google Maps. The logic is tough to argue with, especially with examples like the one from a Dell exec who says the company's Twitter activity brought in a half-million in new business last year.

Coincidentally, there's an item in an internal-communications trade pub about Pfizer's new RSS feed and its plans for a "FaceBook" site. The article looks at these two initiatives from an internal point of view, but how long can it be before the drugs giant uses similar means to reach its customers?

Facebook, Twitter, ect., new marketing tools - FiercePharma

New And Improved Drugs? Pharma and the "Me Too" Concept

At Kaiser Permanente they do not include Invega on the list of drugs, as the active ingredient of Invega is derived from that of Risperdal...which is soon to go off patent protection and also manufactured by J and J, so they have 2 drugs...same active ingredient...so what is the catch...try to move patients from the one going off patent protection to the new and better improved Invega?  This is just one example, there are others out there as well, thus we have the more confusing tiered drugs listed in formularies...in other words how much will the insurer cover...and is there any real truth to the "new and improved formula" or is this just plain old marketing?  BD 

New York psychiatrist Jeffrey Lieberman has heard Johnson & Johnson's (JNJ) sales pitch for the new anti-schizophrenia drug Invega, but he's not too impressed.

Problem is, Invega isn't much different than one of J&J's best-selling drugs, the antipsychotic Risperdal. In late June, Risperdal is scheduled to lose its U.S. patent protection, clearing the way for competing generic copies that are cheaper than Invega, which could further diminish Invega sales, already characterized as a disappointment by J&J.

Drug companies have used follow-on drugs to try to offset some of the revenue lost when older, top-selling drugs lose patent protection and become exposed to generic knockoffs. The goal is to convince patients, doctors and drug plans to switch to the newer drug that carries a brand-name price and patent protection for years.

Some insurers aren't putting certain follow-on drugs on their lists of preferred drugs, or they're requiring members to pay higher out-of-pocket costs for these drugs than for other branded and generics.

New And Improved Drugs? No Thanks, Pharma Cos Are Being Told