How Precision Medicine Can Save More Lives and Waste Less Money (Part 1 of 2)
We all have by now seen the hype around the Obama Administration’s high-profile Precision Medicine Initiative and the related Cancer Moonshot, both of which plan to cull behavioral and genomic data on huge numbers of people in a secure manner for health research. Major companies have rushed to take advantage of the funds and spotlight what these initiatives offer. I think they’re a good idea so long as they focus on behavioral and environmental factors. (Scandalously, the Moonshot avoids environmental factors, which are probably the strongest contributors to cancer) . What I see is an unadvised over-emphasis on...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - August 9, 2016 Category: Information Technology Authors: Andy Oram Tags: Genomic Health Record Healthcare Analytics Healthcare Reform Personalized Medicine Precision Medicine Behavioral Health Cancer Moonshot Environmental Factors Genetics Genomic Testing Genomics Source Type: blogs
Alzheimer's Care Resource Centers are a Useful Tool for Alzheimer's Caregivers
The Alzheimer's Disease Research Centers around the country are an important source of information and help for Alzheimer's caregivers and family caregivers.Alzheimer's Reading RoomI often receive emails from readers asking me how to find someone that is experienced in the diagnosis of dementia, or searching for help on other Alzheimer's care related problems. When this happens, the first thing I do is ask them their location.Alzheimer's CareThere are about 30 Alzheimer's Disease Research Centers (ADRC) around the country. When most people think ADRC they think research.However, most ADRCs have doctors in practice, practic...
Source: Alzheimer's Reading Room, The - August 6, 2016 Category: Neurology Tags: ADRC alzheimer's care Alzheimer's Disease Research Centers family caregiving help alzheimer's help with dementia help with dementia care memory care Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, July 18th 2016
In this study, a PET camera was used to examine individual differences in the D2 system in a group consisting of 181 healthy individuals between the age of 64 and 68. All participants also had to take part in an all-inclusive performance test of the long-term episodic memory, working memory and processing speed along with an MRI assessment (which was used to measure the size of various parts of the brain). Researchers could see that the D2 system was positively linked to episodic memory, but not to working memory or to processing speed by relating PET registrations to the cognitive data. Researchers could also see that the...
Source: Fight Aging! - July 17, 2016 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Recent Research on Aging and Regeneration in the Brain
In this study, a PET camera was used to examine individual differences in the D2 system in a group consisting of 181 healthy individuals between the age of 64 and 68. All participants also had to take part in an all-inclusive performance test of the long-term episodic memory, working memory and processing speed along with an MRI assessment (which was used to measure the size of various parts of the brain). Researchers could see that the D2 system was positively linked to episodic memory, but not to working memory or to processing speed by relating PET registrations to the cognitive data. Researchers could also see that the...
Source: Fight Aging! - July 15, 2016 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Taking a ride down the slippery slope
Did you know: we can now make sperm from embryonic stem cells (in mice). Not
only can we create this sperm, but we can use it to successfully fertilize an
egg and develop into a fully grown mouse.
And what is the role of bioethics in this scientific discovery,
according to the article? A brief
mention of theoretical ethical issues relegated to the end of the news article
that no one reads far enough to see, anyway.
Scientific advancements in
reproduction have occurred at an unbelievable rate. We not only have the ability to create sperm,
but we can also create an embryo using three geneti...
Source: blog.bioethics.net - May 16, 2016 Category: Medical Ethics Authors: Bioethics Today Tags: Genetics Health Care Reproductive Medicine assisted reproduction Bioethics and Public Policy eugenics Fertility syndicated Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, April 4th 2016
This study shows for the first time that increasing arterial stiffness is detrimental to the brain, and that increasing stiffness and brain injury begin in early middle life, before we commonly think of prevalent diseases such as atherosclerosis, coronary artery disease or stroke having an impact."
The study also noted that elevated arterial stiffness is the earliest manifestation of systolic hypertension. The large study involved approximately 1,900 diverse participants in the Framingham Heart Study, who underwent brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), as well as arterial tonometry. The tests measured the force of art...
Source: Fight Aging! - April 3, 2016 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Deriving an Anti-Amyloid Drug from Phage Biochemistry
This article covers the lengthy process of turning a serendipitous discovery, that a particular phage can dissolve the amyloids and other aggregates involved in neurodegenerative conditions, into a drug candidate. It demonstrates well why medical development takes a long time, more than a decade so far in this case even prior to entering the regulatory process. Each step in the process can take years to work through, funding is ever a problem, and there are frequent delays and dead ends.
In 2004, researchers were running an experiment on a group of mice that had been genetically engineered to develop Alzheimer's disease p...
Source: Fight Aging! - March 31, 2016 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
New Health Care Symposium: Dubious Health Care Merger Justifications—The Sumo Wrestler And ‘Government Made Me Do It’ Defenses
Editor’s note: This post is part of a Health Affairs Blog symposium stemming from “The New Health Care Industry: Integration, Consolidation, Competition in the Wake of the Affordable Care Act,” a conference held recently at Yale Law School’s Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy. Links to all posts in the symposium will be added to Abbe Gluck’s introductory post as they appear, and you can access a full list of symposium pieces here or by clicking on the “Yale Health Care Industry Symposium” tag at the bottom of any symposium post.
Market power is pervasive in the health care sector. Most hosp...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - February 24, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: Thomas Greaney Tags: Costs and Spending Health Professionals Hospitals Insurance and Coverage Medicare Payment Policy Population Health Quality insurance mergers market consolidation Supreme Court Yale Health Care Industry Symposium Source Type: blogs
Short-selling Private Practice
By KAREN SIBERT, MD
Today is a remarkable day for me. I’m officially leaving private practice after almost 18 years, to return to academic medicine with a faculty position in a highly regarded California department of anesthesiology.
Why would I do that?
There are many positive reasons. I believe in the teaching mission of academic medicine: to train the anesthesiologists of the future, and the scientists who will advance medical care. I enjoy teaching. The years I’ve spent at the head of the operating room table, anesthetizing patients every day, have given me a great deal of hands-on experience (and at least some ...
Source: The Health Care Blog - February 3, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Simon Nath Tags: THCB Karen Sibert Source Type: blogs
New Sterols Clear Amyloid Protein Aggregates in Cataracts
Some types of cataract involve the formation of amyloid deposits in the lens of the eye made up of damaged crystallin. Researchers have made progress of late in finding sterols that clear this form of amyloid. This is of general interest as there are many types of amyloid that form in tissues in increasing amounts with advancing age, some of which are clearly linked to the pathology of specific age-related conditions. Progress towards effective means of clearance for any one amyloid might turn out to be the starting point for the development of a broader technology platform for therapies, so it is worth paying attention. H...
Source: Fight Aging! - November 6, 2015 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
The Moral Imperative for Bioethics: Get Out of the Way
As a companion piece to last week's post on the miserable, parasitic institution of modern bioethics, here are a few apropos comments from Steven Pinker:
Have you had a friend or relative who died prematurely or endured years of suffering from a physical or psychiatric disease, such as cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer's, Huntington's, Parkinson's, or schizophrenia? Of course you have: the cost of disease is felt by every living human. The Global Burden of Disease Project has tried to quantify it by estimating the number of years lost to premature death or compromised by disability. In 2010 it was 2.5 billion, which means ...
Source: Fight Aging! - August 17, 2015 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Targeting an Improvement in Protein Quality Control
A range of research efforts aim at finding ways to improve or enhance the activity of cellular maintenance mechanisms involved in ensuring quality control. Proteins are the building blocks of cell machinery but constantly become damaged or misfolded, which can then cause harm through incorrect function. Thus cells work hard to clear out, break down, and recycle these problem molecules, but all of these mechanisms decline with aging; based on what we know to date, this happens because the repair machinery itself is vulnerable to forms of damage or can be negatively impacted by reactions to damage taking place in other proce...
Source: Fight Aging! - July 30, 2015 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Caring for Loved Ones with Alzheimer’s Disease: Families Struggle for Resources to Cope
Candace Y.A. Montague, a health reporter for Capital Community News authored the article below. It originally ran here.
It started off with small, inexplicable acts like leaving raw chicken in the microwave or putting bread in the freezer. But Angela Byrd knew that something wasn’t right about her 67-year-old mother Shirley. It escalated to car accidents where Shirley would hit another car and argue that it wasn’t her fault. Then one day Byrd got a call from her grandmother explaining that Shirley was lost in Takoma Park, Northwest. She had no recollection of how she got there. The Byrds live on Alabama Avenue ...
Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - July 10, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Aging Caregiving Chronic Conditions Alzheimer's disease Source Type: blogs
Scientists Convert Human Skin Cells Directly Into Brain Cells
Using a finely tuned cocktail of small molecules, researchers from Washington University in St. Louishave successfully converted adult skin cells into the major type of brain cell affected in the fatal neurodegenerative disorder Huntington ’s disease. For the first time, this was achieved without the need to go through a stem cell intermediate, avoiding the production of other types of cell. Importantly, when the researchers transplanted these cells into the brains of mice, they survived and showed similar properties to native cells . While it is still in the early days, these preliminary results could suggest ...
Source: Oncopathology - April 26, 2015 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: Research Source Type: blogs
