Can genetic testing help determine the best medications for you?
The saying “if it seems too good to be true, it likely is” applies to so many things in life. As the director of the Clinical Pharmacogenomics Service at Boston Children’s Hospital, I spend a significant amount of time discussing what pharmacogenomics testing cannot tell us. I am sure you are wondering why I would take a negative approach instead of touting the miracles of pharmacogenomics testing, since after all, that is my job. Well, as with many things, it is complicated.
Pharmacogenomics can potentially guide drug choices
Pharmacogenomics is the study of gene expression on the ability to metabolize or break down...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - December 16, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Shannon Manzi, PharmD Tags: Drugs and Supplements Genes Health Managing your health care Source Type: blogs
When treating chronic pain, don ’t compromise your principles
One of the most difficult things I deal with as a physician is patients’ demands for pain medications. I treat patients with cystic fibrosis, a genetic disease present at birth with no cure, and its issues are indeed complex. There are legitimate causes for misery from the chronic coughing, abdominal pain, and joint pain recognized as common symptoms of the disease.
But the associated issues of depression, stress with family, and money make giving out narcotics problematic. There is also intense pressure on a physician in the CF community, as there is in many other practices, to retain your patients. Having a patient lea...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - September 17, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/michael-j-stephen" rel="tag" > Michael J. Stephen, MD < /a > Tags: Meds Medications Source Type: blogs
Things Other Than Transplant Surgeons
Hearing the Call: A Feature on How Physicians and Medical Educators Came to Understand Their Vocation By Sarah E. Stumbar Sometime during middle school, I became engrossed in a series of young adult novels about children dying of tragic diseases: heart failure (saved by a heart transplant!) leukemia, cystic fibrosis. I wanted to be a […] (Source: blog.bioethics.net)
Source: blog.bioethics.net - July 12, 2016 Category: Medical Ethics Authors: reflectivemeded Tags: Health Care Hearing the Call syndicated Source Type: blogs
PhRMA Members Invested $58.8 Billion in R&D in 2015
In 2015, PhRMA member companies invested $58.8 billion in research and development, up 10.3% from 2014. The new R&D data is based on findings from the 2016 PhRMA annual member survey released in the 2016 Biopharmaceutical Research Industry Profile and the corresponding industry chart pack, Biopharmaceuticals in Perspective, which highlighted the wide-reaching impact of PhRMA member companies on the economy and biopharmaceutical innovation.
In the United States, the biopharmaceutical industry is a driver of economic growth and global competitiveness, and is the most research-intensive sector of the economy. The biopharmac...
Source: Policy and Medicine - June 16, 2016 Category: American Health Authors: Thomas Sullivan - Policy & Medicine Writing Staff Source Type: blogs
How Patient Groups Have Begun To Influence The Value And Coverage Debate
In 2015, two issues related to medicine could be relied on to generate headlines: drug pricing and the proliferation of new value frameworks that claimed to define the value and even the price of drugs in seemingly easy-to-understand ways. In none of the high-profile skirmishes on pricing or frameworks was the voice or perspective of patients and patient groups very much in evidence. But that is beginning to change, in an evolution of a broader shift in the role that patients are playing in the research and development (R&D) enterprise.
A New Culture of Engagement
Patients and patient organizations are becoming ever mo...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - June 10, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: Margaret Anderson and Kristin Schneeman Tags: Costs and Spending Health Professionals Organization and Delivery Quality clinical research patient use of evidence venture philanthropy Source Type: blogs
The Economics of Medical Miracles
The Academy Health* blog presents an interesting quandary in health economics. We aren't quite there yet, but the day may come soon when it is possible to essentially cure genetic diseases like cystic fibrosis and sickle cell. That sounds great!The problem is that these are fairly rare diseases, and that the treatment would be administered only once. So, in order to recoup their research and development costs, the purveyors would have to charge enormous prices -- on the order of a million bucks a pop. That's going to make you think, "Oh, this is like those other moral dilemmas about the allocation of scarce resources. We c...
Source: Stayin' Alive - May 27, 2016 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Bipartisan Policy Center Holds Panel Discussion on Drug Pricing
Conclusion
As mentioned, there are several more educational forums to come from the Bipartisan Policy Center over the next several months. There will be one on May 10, 2016, on the way existing federal statutes and regulations impact pharmaceutical innovation, market competition, and costs. The final one is scheduled fro June 16, 2016, which will focus on how pharmaceuticals fit into value-based payment and whether or not there are models for financing breakthrough treatments. These topics are all timely and relevant, and we encourage our readers to stay abreast of discussions revolving around the hot topic of drug prici...
Source: Policy and Medicine - May 4, 2016 Category: American Health Authors: Thomas Sullivan - Policy & Medicine Writing Staff Source Type: blogs
What Risk Adjustment Does — The Perspective Of A Health Insurance Actuary Who Relies On It
For decades before the Affordable Care Act (ACA), American health insurers were very good at avoiding enrolling people who were likely to be high-cost in the individual (or “non-group”) health insurance market. When individuals applied for coverage, they were asked questions such as: “What illnesses do you have?” and “What medical treatment have you had in the last (choose one) three, five, or 10 years?” Any person that answered with a serious (or not so serious) condition was denied coverage. Others with less serious conditions may have been charged additional premiums for a pre-existing condition or had exclu...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - March 29, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: John Bertko Tags: Costs and Spending Featured Following the ACA Insurance and Coverage Medicare Covered California guaranteed-issue requirement Medicare Advantage risk corridors safety net and value Source Type: blogs
Specialised Services clinical commissioning policies and service specification: consultation
NHS England - This consultation seeks feedback and comments on four clinical commissioning policies and service specifications for cystic fibrosis, dermatomyositis, polymyositis and congenital abnormalities of the auditory nerves or cochleae. This consultation closes on 13 March 2016.
Consultation
Press release (Source: Health Management Specialist Library)
Source: Health Management Specialist Library - February 15, 2016 Category: UK Health Authors: The King's Fund Information & Knowledge Service Tags: Commissioning Consultations Source Type: blogs
A Year in Review: FDA 2015 New Drug Approvals
The approval of first-of-a-kind drugs rose last year to forty-one, resulting in the highest level of newly approved U.S. drugs in nineteen years. The total number of new drugs approved last year was even higher at sixty-nine. The rising figures reflect an industry-wide desire to research and develop drugs for rare and hard-to-treat diseases.
The newly approved drugs serve to advance medical care and the health of patients suffering from many ailments, including various forms of cancer, heart failure, and cystic fibrosis. Additionally, more than 40% of the new therapies were approved for treatment of rare or "orphan" dise...
Source: Policy and Medicine - January 13, 2016 Category: American Health Authors: Thomas Sullivan - Policy & Medicine Writing Staff Source Type: blogs
A day with a cystic fibrosis patient
In my first quarter of medical school, I learned about prenatal screening for cystic fibrosis (CF), a progressive multisystem disease caused by an autosomal recessive mutation in the CF transmembrane regulator gene. We also learned about bronchiectasis, a common pathology of CF that consists of the irreversible enlargement of airways, promoting continuous low-grade bacterial infection and causing deadly respiratory failure.
But despite my hours of studying and memorization, these clinical facts and scientific findings did not prepare me for the #CF1day experience to learn about the daily challenges of life as a CF patient....
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - December 21, 2015 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Paula Trepman Tags: Conditions Genetics Source Type: blogs
Viruses help form biofilms
Bacteria frequently grow in communities called biofilms, which are aggregates of cells and polymers. An example of a biofilm is the dental plaque on your teeth. Biofilms are medically important as they can allow bacteria to persist in host tissues and on catheters, and confer increased resistance to antibiotics and dessication. Therefore understanding how biofilms form is crucial for controlling microbial infections. An advance in our understanding of how biofilms form is the observation that filamentous phages help them assemble, and contribute to their fundamental properties.
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an important hum...
Source: virology blog - December 18, 2015 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Basic virology Information bacteria bacteriophage biofilm birefringence liquid crystal matrix microbe microbiology polymers Pseudomonas aeruginosa viral virus Source Type: blogs
Behind a handicap sticker is an untold story
I was attending a 50th birthday party for a friend of mine, when I struck up a conversation with someone I had never met. The conversation, of course, was with a woman who seemed genuinely interested in my quest to make air travel safer for those with food allergies. I told her how my family often receives dirty looks from other passengers when we pre-board a plane to wipe down the area for nut residue. I discussed how some people have laughed when asked not to open nut containers in the confined environment of an airplane. It is often hard to convey the seriousness of a life-threatening food allergy because it is a mostly...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - December 11, 2015 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Lianne Mandelbaum Tags: Patient Patients Source Type: blogs
Interesting Comments by George Church
George Church is an important figure in the development of modern genomics and genetic engineering. Like a number of luminaries in the medical life sciences, in recent years he has become much more openly supportive of efforts to treat the causes of aging and extend healthy human life spans. You might recall the keynote he gave at the SENS6 rejuvenation research conference, and note that Church is a member of the SENS Research Foundation advisory board. With that context, I'll point you to recent remarks made to a journalist:
A Harvard professor says he can cure aging, but is that a good idea?
I mentioned to Church that ...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 2, 2015 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Healthy Life Extension Community Source Type: blogs
David Tuller responds to the PACE investigators
David Tuller’s three-installment investigation of the PACE trial for chronic fatigue syndrome, “Trial By Error,” has received enormous attention. Although the PACE investigators declined David’s efforts to interview them, they have now requested the right to reply. Today, virology blog posts their response to David’s story, and below, his response to their response.
According to the communications department of Queen Mary University, the PACE investigators have been receiving abuse on social media as a result of David Tuller’s posts. When I published Mr. Tuller’s articles, my intent was to provide a...
Source: virology blog - October 30, 2015 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Commentary Information adaptive pacing therapy CFS chronic fatigue syndrome clinical trial cognitive behavior therapy Dave Tuller exercise graded exercise therapy mecfs myalgic encephalomyelitis outcome PACE trial recovery Source Type: blogs
