Productivity? In Healthcare?
By JOE FLOWER Obamacare is built on the assumption that healthcare can be more productive, that we can squeeze more health per dollar out to the system that is built to give it to us. Practically everything I write is based on the same idea — big time. I believe we could do healthcare better for half the money we pour into it now. There is a widely-cited theory that this is fundamentally impossible, popularized by William Baumol, a New York University economist, in a 2012 book, The Cost Disease: Why Computers Get Cheaper and Health Care Doesn’t. Baumol trades on the idea that healthcare is mostly the individual lab...
Source: The Health Care Blog - June 5, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Irvine Tags: THCB Uncategorized Source Type: blogs

IDEA Labs: Medical Students Take The Lead In Healthcare Innovation
The post below originally ran on the Better Health blog on May 5th. It’s no secret that doctors are disappointed with the way that the U.S. healthcare system is evolving. Most feel helpless about improving their work conditions or solving technical problems in patient care. Fortunately, one young medical student was undeterred by the mountain of disappointment carried by his senior clinician mentors and had the courage to tackle the problem head-on. Three years ago, Avik Som organized “Problem Day” at his medical school (Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, MO) and invited his professors to an unres...
Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - May 12, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Innovation Source Type: blogs

Designer viruses for killing tumor cells
A major goal of viral oncotherapy – the use of viruses to destroy tumors –  is to design viruses that kill tumor cells but not normal cells. Two adenoviruses provide perfect examples of how this specificity can be achieved. Adenovirus CG0070, designed to treat bladder cancer, and adenovirus Oncorine, for head and neck tumors, replicate only in tumor cells. The selectivity is caused by mutations introduced into the viral genomes. When adenovirus infects a cell, the first event is synthesis of mRNA that encodes the E1 proteins. These proteins are needed to start cellular DNA synthesis. Most cells in our bodies ...
Source: virology blog - May 8, 2015 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Basic virology Information adenovirus E1 region E1A E1b-55k GC0070 oncolysis Oncorine oncotherapy p53 Rb retinoblastoma viral Source Type: blogs

Athletes follow the Wheat Belly lifestyle
I recently discussed why and how, by following the Wheat Belly lifestyle, carb loading is no longer necessary to engage in exercise, even long distances. In fact, carb loading is a destructive process that, over time, accelerates joint destruction/arthritis, cataract formation, hypertension, heart disease, dementia, and other conditions (via excessive, repeated, and irreversible glycation of proteins; see the original Wheat Belly for further discussion). The process of converting from carb-loading, grain-eating athlete to that of no carb-loading, no grain-eating athlete requires 4 to 6 weeks, the amount of time necessary ...
Source: Wheat Belly Blog - May 5, 2015 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr. Davis Tags: Wheat Belly Lifestyle carb loading gluten grains jogging low-carb marathon running triathlon Source Type: blogs

IDEA Labs: Medical Students Take The Lead In Healthcare Innovation
People's Choice Winning Idea: NephroZip It’s no secret that doctors are disappointed with the way that the U.S. healthcare system is evolving. Most feel helpless about improving their work conditions or solving technical problems in patient care. Fortunately, one young medical student was undeterred by the mountain of disappointment carried by his senior clinician mentors and had the courage to tackle the problem head-on. Three years ago, Avik Som organized “Problem Day” at his medical school (Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, MO) and invited his professors to an unrestricted “open mic” v...
Source: Better Health - May 5, 2015 Category: American Health Authors: Dr. Val Jones Tags: Expert Interviews Research American Resident Project Collaboration DemoDay Engineers Healthcare Innovation IdeaLabs Medical Students Washington University School of Medicine Source Type: blogs

Drug Shortages Policy Update
Conclusion We will continue to monitor drug shortages, including their impact on the effectiveness of medical treatment in the United States and the government’s response. The upcoming Congressional hearing on the recent GAO report will provide additional insight into potential legislative and regulatory vehicles that may be employed to deal with the current crisis. Clarity and consistency over the definition of a drug shortage could be a topic, if the GAO report is any indication.       Related StoriesDrug Shortages Update  (Source: Policy and Medicine)
Source: Policy and Medicine - April 22, 2015 Category: American Health Authors: Thomas Sullivan Source Type: blogs

Mary figured out how to reverse diabetes . . . on her own
Mary shared her story of how she learned–on her own, at first–that foods that raise blood sugar, such as grains, cause you to “need” diabetes drugs. Not eating foods that raise blood sugar causes you to not need diabetes drugs. “I started going grain-free in December, 2014 as a last-ditch effort to get a handle on my diabetes. “My extreme reaction to metformin–stomach problems from diarrhea to esophageal spasms–made me give it up for good early last year. My blood sugars were out of control, but my doctor did not want to start me on insulin. My blood sugar numbers were regu...
Source: Wheat Belly Blog - April 16, 2015 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr. Davis Tags: Wheat Belly Success Stories blood sugar diabetes gluten grains Weight Loss Source Type: blogs

Healthcare Update Satellite – 04-15-2015
You’ve heard of a CAT scan? Get ready for the dog sniff. Dogs can identify bladder and prostate cancer with a 98% accuracy rate when smelling male urine samples. Not into the whole dog sniffing thing as a screen for prostate cancer? A $1 screening test using gold nanoparticles 10,000 times smaller than a freckle is more accurate than PSA screenings and gives results in minutes. When blood is mixed with the nanoparticles, tumor biomarkers cling to the surface and cause clumping. I’m guessing the test will cost consumers several hundred dollars. Doctors are using scorpion venom to create “tumor paint”...
Source: WhiteCoat's Call Room - April 16, 2015 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: WhiteCoat Tags: Healthcare Update Source Type: blogs

Public Citizen Urges FDA To Penalize Drug Makers Over Diabetes Ads, Criticizes the Agency’s “Dismal Record” on Issuing Warning Letters
Consumer advocacy group Public Citizen is calling on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to “stop the apparently violative off-label promotional statements” in various Type 2 Diabetes advertisements, which the group argues are being advertised as weight-loss drugs. “[N]one of the drugs is approved for weight loss and, despite the presence of disclaimers that the medications are not weight-loss drugs, the implication is clearly that weight loss is an additional potential benefit of the drugs,” Public Citizen states. This request comes in the midst of a “drastic reduction” in the past few years of direct-to-co...
Source: Policy and Medicine - April 3, 2015 Category: American Health Authors: Thomas Sullivan Source Type: blogs

The Bigger They Come, the Softer They Fall - the Size of Pharma Companies and How Vigorously they are Prosecuted
After we found lessons to be learned from even  relatively small legal cases involving medical device companies, we reviewed some relatively small cases involving pharmaceutical companies made public in 2014.  Again, we had an index case that linked to larger issuesMerck Settled Fraud Allegations for $31 MillionThis case got very little coverage in October, 2014.  A very short story by Reuters included these essentials,A subsidiary of Merck & Co has agreed to pay U.S. states $31 million to settle claims that it overcharged their Medicaid programs for an antidepressant it had sold at a discount to pharmac...
Source: Health Care Renewal - November 14, 2014 Category: Health Management Tags: adverse effects deception Eli Lilly fraud impunity kickbacks legal settlements Merck Takeda Teva US Department of Justice Source Type: blogs

Takeda, Lilly Have $9 Billion Punitive Damage Reduced to $37 Million in Actos Lawsuit
In April, we wrote that Asia's biggest pharmaceutical company, Takeda, and their marketing partner, Eli Lilly, faced $9 billion in punitive damages stemming from potential cancer risks from their diabetes drug, Actos. The companies recently moved for a new trial and a reduction of the damages. While Louisiana U.S. District Judge Rebecca Doherty denied them a new trial, she greatly reduced the damages. Her opinion is essentially a 100-page lashing of Takeda and Eli Lilly, but she ended up finding that “the punitive damages awards made by the jury must bow to the weight of the Due Process Clause.” She moved the punitive ...
Source: Policy and Medicine - November 4, 2014 Category: American Health Authors: Thomas Sullivan Source Type: blogs

The Art of Survivoring
A week from today I will be the keynote presenter at the “Ladies Night Out – Give Cancer the Boot” annual gala for the Springfield Regional Cancer Center (SRCC).  I am flattered and daunted by this opportunity to share my thoughts with an audience of 400 patients, survivors and their champions.  The date of the event falls on the 6th anniversary of my mastectomy – how fortunate I am to celebrate with kindred spirits! I will open with this claim:  The richest and most profound experiences happen when what we believe to be real and true about ourselves is turned upside down.  (If you’ve seen Brene Brown’s TED...
Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - October 17, 2014 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Cancer Source Type: blogs

Advanced prostate cancer
Researchers begin to unpick drug resistanceRelated items from OnMedicaPromising early results for new prostate cancer drugProstate cancer therapy raises colorectal cancer riskGPs told to ‘help men with bladder symptoms’Prostate cancer deaths down by a fifth in 20 yearsPersonalised screening may be way forward for prostate cancer (Source: OnMedica Blogs)
Source: OnMedica Blogs - September 11, 2014 Category: Journals (General) Source Type: blogs

Living with medical errors
I have a picture some place of when I went for knee surgery in 2001 of me home from the hospital with a big bandage on my right knee and the word "NO" scrawled in big letters on  my right knee. This was written by the surgeon after triple confirming with me.Then I have the memory of me after gall bladder surgery in 2008 where I heard the nurses talking about the excessive bruising on my abdomen after a laproscopic procedure. Basically I heard the doctor must have been really rough on me because of the size and speed at which the bruise arrived - and ho w long it hurt afterwards.In the past few years the state of Massa...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - September 1, 2014 Category: Cancer Tags: medical adventures procedures Source Type: blogs

4 things I learned in medical training that still apply today
Four adages I learned in medical training that I still speak of today: “Common things are common.” (The alternate version of this that might have more appeal to zoologists: “When you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras.”) This cautions physicians to remember that it is more likely that the patient has a common condition than a rare one. Although it is prudent to consider all the possible diagnoses that might match a given clinical presentation, one should not seek confirmation for an exotic condition first. Urinary tract infections are more common than bladder cancers. High blood pressure is more common than ...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - August 22, 2014 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Tags: Education Medical school Residency Source Type: blogs