Stigma over health issues
No one deserves any health issue. However I can say there are two types of ailments:The ones which just happen - whether a cancer diagnosis or a car accident. There is not much you can do to avoid them. You may have increased your risk by smoking or driving without a seatbelt but the stars aligned for you.The kind of ailment which is preceded with alcohol or other intoxicants and the statement along the lines of 'hey, watch this!'.The first category there is no blame. Should be no stigma. Nothing. The patient needs to accept that it happened, and learn to cope with the treatment and resulting lifestyle changes. Some ...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - November 7, 2013 Category: Cancer Tags: being a patient blame Source Type: blogs
Waiting for the end of Pinktober
At the beginning and end of September I asked all to take a pledge to avoid pinkification and wasting money on pink things that do not help cancer research. It is still not too late to take the pledge for 2013.I (state your name [and not the Animal House version]) promise that during the month of Pinktober, formerly known as October, I will not arbitrarily purchase pink items or donate to pink causes with out first researching how much actually goes to breast cancer research or screening services. I will first research them using services such as Charity Navigator (www.charitynavigator.org) to ensure they are legi...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - October 30, 2013 Category: Cancer Tags: activism cancer awareness cancer research donating Source Type: blogs
Vertex Cuts 15 Percent Of Its Workforce On Plunging Hep C Sales
How competitive is the market for hepatitis C treatments? In May 2011, Vertex Pharmaceuticals won FDA approval to sell its Incivek medication to treat people who have the most common strain. The drug became one of the fastest-selling medicines ever, generating more than $450 million in the fourth quarter that year, and helped Vertex become a hot stock on Wall Street.
Now, Vertex is cutting 370 jobs, or 15 percent of its workforce, thanks to plummeting Incivek sales. The drugmaker acknowledged today that the number of hepatitis C patients being treated with Incivek has dropped quickly as a new generation of medicines is a...
Source: Pharmalot - October 29, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: esilverman Source Type: blogs
The anatomy of a good doctor
I met Dr. Stulbarg when I was twenty-two, and had just moved in with my boyfriend Stephen. Stephen had cystic fibrosis, but he’d been unusually healthy until now, when his lung collapsed on the way to a party. Then, in the hospital, his lung collapsed a second time. We sat on his bed together, talking with Dr. Stulbarg about what would happen next.
Continue reading ...
Your patients are rating you online: How to respond. Manage your online reputation: A social media guide. Find out how. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - October 25, 2013 Category: Family Physicians Tags: Patient Patients Source Type: blogs
Breathe Deeply: Did Insmed Release Dodgy Data For Its Drug?
Deciphering trial data can be a fascinating pastime, especially when the findings indicate a medication is truly capable of making a difference for patients. Other times, however, this activity can cause consternation if the results suggest something may be awry. Such may be the case with Phase III data released the other day by Insmed for its Arikace antibiotic for cystic fibrosis sufferers.
The drugmaker released a poster presentation showing that its experimental medication demonstrated statistical non-inferiority compared with an existing Novartis (NVS) treatment, which is another way of saying that Arikace was equally...
Source: Pharmalot - October 22, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: esilverman Source Type: blogs
Mom: "Down Syndrome Research, Hope for My Daughter"
This year scientists announced a major breakthrough and a possible gene therapy for Down Syndrome. In cells taken from a person with Downs, they were able to silence the extra 21st chromosome. This may mean a targeted therapy to help fix the health and cognitive problems caused by have that extra bit of genetic material. Reactions were mixed. Some thought that people with Down Syndrome are perfect as God made them and we should do nothing to change them. I understand this reaction very well. We live in a society that kills 90% of people with Down Syndrome before they make it out of the womb. It is entirely natural to want ...
Source: Mary Meets Dolly - October 14, 2013 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Tags: Genetic Engineering Source Type: blogs
“You’re not as invincible as you think…”
For most of my young adult life, I lived in extremes—I was either overcommitted in school and extracurricular activities, or I was bedbound and hospitalized. I spent so much time trying to prove that illness didn’t define me that the quest for invincibility itself began to overwhelm my identity.
I am a lifelong patient with multiple chronic illnesses, including primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD), a rare genetic lung disease, so I’ve had to co-exist with symptoms and setbacks for as long as I could remember. As a college writing instructor, I interact with young adults every day, and I see firsthand the sense of invinci...
Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - October 8, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Advocacy Choice Cost Coverage Policy Patients Politics Publc Health Young Adults Source Type: blogs
Forcing the decision of putting a value on a patients life
Pharmaceutical companies are forcing the decision of what is the value of a patient's life by putting the huge prices on new medications. There is a new cystic fibrosis drug out, ivacaftor, from Vertex Pharmaceuticals. It costs a paltry $294,000 per year. Doctors are even pushing back to the company about the high cost.If you are one of the patients with CF who would benefit from this new medication it probably is a life saver. But then you look at the price tag it puts on your life and wonder how you can afford it.My question to Vertex is how do you justify this cost. I am sure their reply will be somewhere along the line...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - October 8, 2013 Category: Cancer Tags: medication costs Source Type: blogs
FDA: The Growing Use of Freedom of Information Act Requests for FDA Data by Life Science Stock Traders
The Wall Street Journal reported on the use of FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests by investment firms with the intent to learn more about companies regulated by FDA. The story covers a wide scope of information requests with a focus on investment firms attempting to learn about possible adverse event reports and issues arising from FDA inspections.
Using FOIA requests
When SAC Capital Advisors LP was weighing an investment in Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc., the hedge-fund firm contacted a source it knew would provide nonpublic information without blinking: the federal government.
An investment manager for ...
Source: Policy and Medicine - October 3, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Thomas Sullivan Source Type: blogs
The Arguing Over PTC124 and Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy
This article at Nature Biotechnology does an excellent job explaining the details.
Premature "stop" codons in the DNA of DMD patients, particularly in the dystrophin gene, are widely thought to be one of the underlying problems in the disease. (The same mechanism is believed to operate in many other genetic-mutation-driven conditions as well. Ataluren is supposed to promote "read-through" of these to allow the needed protein to be produced anyway. That's not a crazy idea at all - there's been a lot of thought about ways to do that, and several aminoglycoside antibiotics have been shown to work through that mechanism. Of t...
Source: In the Pipeline - September 18, 2013 Category: Chemists Tags: Business and Markets Source Type: blogs
23andMe Genetic Testing: What's the Deal?
Curious about what the future might hold for your health?
After reading a great post on DNA testing by Charlotte at The Great Fitness Experiment, I became curious about 23andMe, a direct-to-consumer genetic testing outfit that's been getting quite a bit of buzz.
As a former hypochondriac, and as someone with a family medical history that doesn't inspire much optimism for a long and healthy life, I knew this was a bit of a psychological gamble. Did I really want to know how screwed I might be genetically? Mightn't I be better off thinking happy thoughts, trying to be reasonably conscientious about diet and exercise, and h...
Source: Cranky Fitness - September 16, 2013 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Crabby McSlacker Source Type: blogs
The Beautiful Disruption: How Open Health Care Data Puts Patients in Charge
Health care is on the verge of a beautiful disruption.
Technology is driving a liberation of data that will fundamentally change our relationship with our patients.
In this brief blog, we’ll:
look at technology’s effects on grocery stores (and why we should care),
highlight some innovative companies that are disrupting health care, and
put it all together to recognize how patients will command more control over health care decisions and spending.
But first—grocery stores.
Grocery Store Technology
Once upon a time, grocery store employees spent an evening each month counting the cereal boxes left upon the ...
Source: richard[WINTERS]md - August 11, 2013 Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: Richard Winters MD Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
The Beautiful Disruption: How Open Health Care Data Puts Patients in Charge
Health care is on the verge of a beautiful disruption.
Technology is driving a liberation of data that will fundamentally change our relationship with our patients. In this brief blog, we will:
look at technology’s effects on grocery stores (and why we should care),
highlight some innovative companies that are disrupting health care, and
put it all together to recognize how patients will command more control over health care decisions and spending.
But first—grocery stores.
Grocery Store Technology
Once upon a time, grocery store employees spent an evening each month counting the cereal boxes left upon the shelf...
Source: richard[WINTERS]md - August 11, 2013 Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: Richard Winters MD Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
