What Is Digital Therapeutics; Examples of an App That Is Gaining Attention
I had never heard the term digital therapeutics until I encountered a recent article that used the term (see:Digital Therapeutics: The Future of Health Care Will Be App-Based). Below is an excerpt from it:Last month, healthcare startupOmada Health secured a $50 million C round led by major insurer Cigna, which brings the 5-year-old company ’s total funding to over $127 million.That kind of nine-figure investment isn ’t unusual for a company with the next blockbuster drug or game changing medical device, but Omada’s core product is a diabetes-preventing mobile app! Omada is a leader in one of the hottest new sectors o...
Source: Lab Soft News - December 21, 2017 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Source Type: blogs
The Implementer ’ s Dilemma
By DAVID SHAYWITZ, MD
One word: implementation.
Increasingly, I’m convinced that the underappreciated challenges of implementation describe the ever-expanding gap between the promise of emerging technologies (sensors, AI) and their comparatively limited use in clinical care and pharmaceutical research. (Updated disclosure: I am now a VC, associated with a pharma company; views expressed, as always, are my own.)
Technology Promises Disruption Of Healthcare…
Let’s start with some context. Healthcare, it is universally agreed, is “broken,” and in particular, many of the advances and conveniences we now take for ...
Source: The Health Care Blog - December 12, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Irvine Tags: Uncategorized Daimler Benz AG David Shaywitz Innovation Source Type: blogs
The Pharmaceuticalization of Americans: Blood Pressure
News headlines are filled with the new advice from the American Heart Association, the American College of Cardiology, and other health organizations: 50% of all Americans now have hypertension, given the new target blood pressure of 130/80 or lower, and more Americans therefore require treatment of their blood pressure.
CNN reports, for instance:
“One in three Americans had previously been diagnosed with the condition, but now 14% more Americans will be diagnosed with high blood pressure. The new guidelines will classify 103.3 million people as having high blood pressure, while the previous guidelines placed only 72...
Source: Wheat Belly Blog - November 14, 2017 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr. Davis Tags: Wheat-Free Lifestyle gluten gluten-free grain-free grains hypertension Inflammation low-carb undoctored Weight Loss wheat belly Source Type: blogs
A Pill to Replace Needles: Interview with Mir Imran, Chairman and CEO of Rani Therapeutics
Operating within InCube Labs, a multi-disciplinary life sciences R&D lab based in Silicon Valley, Rani Therapeutics is developing a novel approach for the oral delivery of large-molecule drugs such as basal insulin, which is currently delivered via injections. By replacing painful injections with a painless, easy-to-take pill, the technology has the potential to drastically improve the lives of millions of patients suffering from diabetes, osteoporosis, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and many other chronic conditions.
The idea is that the pill allows biological drugs, such as proteins, that would otherwise b...
Source: Medgadget - July 5, 2017 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Exclusive Medicine Oncology Pediatrics Source Type: blogs
Defining " Patient Centricity "
Patient Centricity used to be a buzzword in that it was often mentioned but seldom practiced by pharma companies.A lot of progress has been made in the past years to achieve patient centricity, but not all drug companies have had much success. Unfortunately, that has had a negative impact on the industry ’s reputation.Timothy White, Head of Global Customer Interaction Management at Lundbeck, once said people on the commercial side of the pharma business have an “unhealthy obsession with ‘buzzwords’.”Worse than that, noted White, marketers cannot articulate the usefulness of the buzzwords they use.Two years ago I ...
Source: Pharma Marketing Blog - June 2, 2017 Category: Pharmaceuticals Tags: Drug prices Lobbying patient centricity Reputation Source Type: blogs
Pharma Engagements with Patients and Doctors at ASCO
The stakeholder group in healthcare that has been the most reluctant to adopt and to engage on social media is arguably pharma. Cultural and regulatory concerns have long delayed their entry. Today, much has changed and each year we’re seeing more and smarter behavior by pharma on social media. Their presence is welcome, patients have long asked for pharma to become part of the conversations and listen to what they have to share. But this is a learning process for…Continued (Source: Connecting the dots in healthcare social media – Symplur)
Source: Connecting the dots in healthcare social media – Symplur - June 1, 2017 Category: Information Technology Authors: Audun Utengen Tags: Connecting the dots in healthcare social media AbbVie ASCO Astellas AstraZeneca Bristol-Myers Squibb Eli Lilly Genentech Merck Novartis Pharma Social Media Roche Sanofi Source Type: blogs
Pharmaceutical Product Hopping: A Proposed Framework For Antitrust Analysis
Skyrocketing drug prices are in the news. Overnight price increases have riveted the attention of the public, media, and politicians of all stripes. But one reason for high prices has flown under the radar. When drug companies reformulate their product, switching from one version of a drug to another, the price doesn’t dramatically increase. Instead, it stays at a high level for longer than it otherwise would have without the switch. Although more difficult to discern than a price spike, this practice, when undertaken to prevent generic market entry, can result in the unjustified continuation of monopoly pricing, burdeni...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - June 1, 2017 Category: Health Management Authors: Michael Carrier and Steve Shadowen Tags: Costs and Spending Drugs and Medical Innovation antitrust drug reformulations Hatch-Waxman Act prescription drug prices product hopping Source Type: blogs
Did Big Pharma BUY Big Media?
Healthcare is at the top of the list of societal problems in the U.S.
Healthcare interactions are unsatisfying to most people, costs are out of control and cost every American nearly $10,000 per person per year while bleeding 17.5% of GDP, more than any other nation on earth for a system that ranks low or last in quality compared to other developed countries. For a problem as big as healthcare, big enough to cripple the entire economy in addition to bankrupting more and more Americans, you would think that media reporting would be filled with debate, criticisms, and in-depth coverage about the problems in healthcare.
But...
Source: Wheat Belly Blog - May 2, 2017 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr. Davis Tags: Undoctored abc bias big pharma cbs cnn drug industry fox gluten grains health healthcare illness media nbc pharmaceutical tv wheat Source Type: blogs
" A Radical Idea for Health-Care Reform: Listen to the Doctors " - Oops, I Mean Listen to the Corporate Executives, Directors, and Lobbyists
It has been the season for health care reform in the US since at least the Nixon administration. We have endlessly discussed the unholy triad of health care dysfunction: rising costs, declining access, and stagnant quality.These days, with all the furor over whether Obamacare should be repealed and replaced, let alone, or improved, it is still the season for health care reform. Last weekan article by David Ignatius in the Washington Postentitled " A Radical Idea for Health Care Reform: Listen to the Doctors, " appeared. Since onHealth Care Renewal we are all about trying to uphold physicians ' profe...
Source: Health Care Renewal - April 7, 2017 Category: Health Management Tags: boards of directors conflicts of interest deception disinformation health care reform propaganda Source Type: blogs
Health should be FREE
Imagine that you receive a notice in the mail stating “In order to maintain your freedom of speech, you will be billed $10,000 per year.”
You would be—understandably—outraged. Freedom of speech in America is precious, something Americans have fought wars to defend. We view free speech as a basic right, no big check to write in order to maintain it. It should be free and available to everyone regardless of religion, color, political leanings, or income.
I believe that same principle should apply to health.
Being healthy means living free of common chronic health conditions such as high cholesterol, high blood sugars...
Source: Wheat Belly Blog - March 31, 2017 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr. Davis Tags: Undoctored crowd wisdom health free Healthcare System predatory wheat belly Source Type: blogs
R & D Costs For Pharmaceutical Companies Do Not Explain Elevated US Drug Prices
That pharmaceutical companies charge much more for their drugs in the United States than they do in other Western countries has contributed to public and political distrust of their pricing practices. When these higher US prices (which are sometimes cited as being two to five times the prices in Europe) are challenged, the pharmaceutical industry often explains that the higher prices they charge in the US provide them with the funds they need to conduct their high-risk research.
This claim—that premiums earned from charging US patients and taxpayers more for medications than other Western countries funds companies’...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - March 7, 2017 Category: Health Management Authors: Nancy Yu, Zachary Helms and Peter Bach Tags: Costs and Spending Drugs and Medical Innovation Payment Policy Big Pharma drug pricing Source Type: blogs
Towards PCSK9 Gene Therapy to Reduce Cardiovascular Disease Risk
The popular science article I'll point out today is indicative of the movement towards enhancement gene therapies that is taking place across the research community. More slowly in some parts than in others, but there is movement nonetheless. The enabling technologies for mammalian gene therapy have fallen greatly in cost and increased greatly in reliability over the past decade, culminating with the comparatively recent advent of CRISPR gene editing approaches. It is is thus perfectly feasible to discuss development of human gene therapies at this time, as the only remaining aspect to be brought up to the desired level of...
Source: Fight Aging! - February 8, 2017 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
AZ Diabetes Linkup: On Uniting Community Without Reinventing the Wheel
In case you weren't aware, AstraZeneca has joined the ranks of Pharma companies hosting forums for patient leaders, bringing in about a dozen advocates from the Diabetes Online Community (DOC) recently for their second annual "Diabetes Linkup" ev... (Source: Diabetes Mine)
Source: Diabetes Mine - November 18, 2016 Category: Endocrinology Authors: Mike Hoskins Source Type: blogs
Ticagrelor No Better Than Clopidogrel In Peripheral Artery Disease
AstraZeneca announces top-line results from EUCLID trial ahead of the AHA. Ticagrelor is no better than clopidogrel in patients who have peripheral artery disease, a large new study will show. On Tuesday morning AstraZeneca announced the top line results of the EUCLID (Examining Use of Ticagrelor in PAD) trial. The full results will be presented...Click here to continue reading... (Source: CardioBrief)
Source: CardioBrief - October 4, 2016 Category: Cardiology Authors: Larry Husten Tags: MI/ACS People, Places & Events clopidogrel EUCLID peripheral artery disease ticagrelor Source Type: blogs
