Addressing Tobacco And Secondhand Smoke Exposure In Maternal And Child Survival Programs
Ending preventable child and maternal deaths (EPCMD) by 2035 is one of US Agency for International Development’s (USAID) three global health priorities, along with creating an AIDS-Free Generation and protecting communities from infectious diseases. In June 2014 USAID launched the report Acting on the Call: Ending Preventable Maternal and Child Deaths, which provides an evidence-based approach to meeting this goal across USAID’s 24 EPCMD focus countries. One of the key elements of the EPCMD approach is alignment across interventions to meet the needs of affected populations; for this reason, Acting on the Call incorpor...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - November 24, 2015 Category: Health Management Authors: Karen Wilson, Jonathan Klein, Sally Cowal, Aaron Emmel and Emily Kaiser Tags: Equity and Disparities Featured Global Health Population Health Public Health CDC Children cigarettes Environmental Health second hand smoke tobacco USAID Women's Health Source Type: blogs
Meet Disruptive Woman to Watch: Elizabeth Gore
The United Nations is committed to the idea that the health and well-being of people throughout the world can be significantly improved through a vibrant expansion of entrepreneurship. In fact, it is one of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals that all of the world’s citizens should have free and equal work through job creation and entrepreneurship, with a goal of creating 600 million new employment opportunities worldwide by the year 2025. The task of translating that goal into action falls upon leaders like Elizabeth Gore.
Let’s strike the term “falls upon” and replace it with “is enthusiastically embra...
Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - October 29, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Innovation Source Type: blogs
Yet More Breakthroughs in Science and Technology
Here is yet another installment in the series on incremental change in science and technology. As ever, check out data on the improving state of the world at www.humanprogress.org.
Prawn Sex-Change Boosts Yields
Male prawns grow faster and get to be 60% larger than female prawns. As such, they are more economically valuable. By slicing the prawn genome, scientists from the Ben Gurion University found, it is possible to generate all-male populations of prawns. In trials, female prawns were injected with a molecule that silenced certain genes thus allowing for all-male prawn yields. This method eliminates the need f...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - October 23, 2015 Category: American Health Authors: Marian L. Tupy Source Type: blogs
Can we blame Martin Shkreli for succeeding in a system that we created?
Recently, public outrage over Daraprim’s price hike from $13.50 to $750 was loud and clear — so loud that its CEO Martin Shkreli had to rescind it. In the business world, he might be praised as a savvy investor. He saw a product that was drastically undervalued and priced it at a level that the market was willing to bear, reaping huge profits. This type of mentality is a trait many Fortune 500 companies seek: someone who can see opportunity and grab it. Yet the amount of backlash from this economically-driven decision was shocking.
Daraprim (or pyrimethamine as known by many physicians) is a rarely prescribed...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - October 14, 2015 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Peggy Bui, MD, MBA Tags: Meds Infectious disease Medications Source Type: blogs
The Nobel Prize versus traditional Chinese medicine
Last week, in response to the awarding of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to Chinese scientist Youyou Tu, who isolated Artemisinin and validated it as a useful treatment for malaria back in the 1970s, I pointed out that the discovery was a triumph of natural products pharmacology, not of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).… (Source: Respectful Insolence)
Source: Respectful Insolence - October 12, 2015 Category: Surgery Authors: Orac Tags: Complementary and alternative medicine Quackery Science acupuncture Mao Zedong science-based medicine traditional Chinese medicine Western medicine Youyou Tu Source Type: blogs
Is ProPublica the Paul Revere of Transparency?
By SAURABH JHA, MD
Recently, I was speaking with a “less is more” advocate. He used his superior knowledge of statistics – he had an MPH – to debunk randomized controlled trials. We discussed overdiagnosis, overtreatment, and the shakiness of medical sciences.
We spoke about measuring the quality of physicians. I remarked that quality metrics have as much evidence as Garcinia Cambogia – we had just laughed about Dr. Oz. I expected a chuckle. Instead, he became distinctly uncomfortable and, in a solemn tone, lectured me about the Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, “To Err is Human.”
The physician, a bulld...
Source: The Health Care Blog - October 11, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Irvine Tags: THCB Source Type: blogs
Another child with cancer endangered by alternative medicine
Yesterday, I wrote about the winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Youyou Tu, who, after screening 2,000 herbal treatments from traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) for anti-malaria activity, finally discovered Artemisinin. She isolated it from the plant in which it is found, using modern chemistry to isolate it, purify it, and later chemically… (Source: Respectful Insolence)
Source: Respectful Insolence - October 8, 2015 Category: Surgery Authors: Orac Tags: Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Politics Popular culture Quackery Science chemotherapy jaw law osteosarcoma surgery traditional Chinese medicine Source Type: blogs
The 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discoverer of Artemisinin: A triumph of natural product pharmacology, not traditional Chinese medicine
Earlier this week, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Youyou Tu for her discovery of the anti-malaria compound Artemisinin, as well as to William C. Campbell and Satoshi Ōmura for their discovery of a novel therapy for roundworm. Artemisinin, as some of you might know, is a compound derived from traditional… (Source: Respectful Insolence)
Source: Respectful Insolence - October 7, 2015 Category: Surgery Authors: Orac Tags: Biology Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Science Artemisinin five elements herbal medicine malaria medicinal chemistry Nobel Prize pharmacognosy traditional Chinese medicine Youyou Tu Source Type: blogs
Marcia Angell writes
By Marcia AngellIn 1953, a new drug was released by Burroughs Wellcome, a pharmaceutical company based in London. Pyrimethamine, as the compound was named, was originally intended to fight malaria after the microorganisms that cause the disease developed resistance to earlier therapies. The drug was used against malaria for several decades, often in combination with other compounds. It ’s mostly used now to treat toxoplasmosis, a parasitic infection that can be life-threatening in people whose immune systems are suppressed, for example, by HIV/AIDS or cancer.More than 40 years later, Burroughs Wellcome merged with the...
Source: PharmaGossip - October 4, 2015 Category: Pharmaceuticals Authors: insider Source Type: blogs
Marcia Angell writes
By Marcia AngellIn 1953, a new drug was released by Burroughs Wellcome, a pharmaceutical company based in London. Pyrimethamine, as the compound was named, was originally intended to fight malaria after the microorganisms that cause the disease developed resistance to earlier therapies. The drug was used against malaria for several decades, often in combination with other compounds. It’s mostly used now to treat toxoplasmosis, a parasitic infection that can be life-threatening in people whose immune systems are suppressed, for example, by HIV/AIDS or cancer.More than 40 years later, Burroughs Wellcome merged with the ...
Source: PharmaGossip - October 3, 2015 Category: Pharmaceuticals Authors: insider Source Type: blogs
That $750 Generic Pill Is a Pure Artifact of Regulation
As you probably know if you follow the news, a man named Martin Shkreli in charge of a startup firm called Turing Pharmaceuticals bought the rights to a drug called pyrimethamine (brand name Daraprim), used in the treatment of AIDS and malaria, and announced that he was jacking up its price from $13.60 to $750. Massive outrage resulted, which has echoed through social media for the past week.
Pyrimethamine is long since off patent. It is not difficult to manufacture, and sells cheaply in Europe. But under the distinctive food and drug laws of the United States you can’t just start turning out pills in your factory to com...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - September 29, 2015 Category: American Health Authors: Walter Olson Source Type: blogs
The Value And Limits Of Economic Evaluation In Policy Analysis
Health care resources, no matter how represented, are ultimately finite. Trade-offs occur as spending in one area means that those same resources are unavailable to fund another program. In spite of this, U.S. policymakers remain reluctant to engage in conversations that even hint at “rationing.” This reluctance is evidenced by the fact that the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Initiative (PCORI) is legislatively forbidden to include cost-effectiveness ratios in its comparative effectiveness evaluations.
Diametrically opposed to the U.S. system, most other countries embrace cost-effectiveness, whereby competing progr...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - September 1, 2015 Category: Health Management Authors: Victoria Phillips Tags: Costs and Spending Drugs and Medical Technology Equity and Disparities Global Health Health Policy Lab Medicaid and CHIP Payment Policy Population Health Quality Comparative Effectiveness cost-effectiveness health economics heart d Source Type: blogs
From Sub-Saharan Africa To Seattle: Opportunities To Improve Health
Editor’s note: This blog post originally appeared on Impatient Optimists.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is renowned for advocacy and investment in global health and development, in addition to other areas like U.S. education. As a MD/MBA student, I am very familiar with foundation initiatives to eradicate polio and malaria, among other infectious diseases. It is not uncommon in the classroom or the hospital for medical students and physicians to comment on the latest developments of these important efforts. So, naturally, when I got an internship with the foundation, everyone asked me: where in global heal...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - August 26, 2015 Category: Health Management Authors: Jarrad Aguirre Tags: Global Health GrantWatch Long-term Services and Supports Medicaid and CHIP Population Health Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation CMMI education infectious diseases Social Determinants of Health Washington State Source Type: blogs
Nature’s Medicine Cabinet
More than 70 percent of new drugs approved within the past 30 years originated from trees, sea creatures and other organisms that produce substances they need to survive. Since ancient times, people have been searching the Earth for natural products to use—from poison dart frog venom for hunting to herbs for healing wounds. Today, scientists are modifying them in the laboratory for our medicinal use. Here’s a peek at some of the products in nature’s medicine cabinet.
A protein called draculin found in the saliva of vampire bats is in the last phases of clinical testing as a clot-buster for stroke patients. Vampire b...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - August 14, 2015 Category: Research Authors: Srivalli Subbaramaiah Tags: Chemistry and Biochemistry Pharmacology Cool Creatures Diseases Medicines Natural Products Source Type: blogs
Another Kraft Worker
It’s an interesting idea to have a communal blog.
My name is Rob Penfold and like one of the other posters (Tobin), I also have a PhD in microbiology and genetics and funnily enough also worked in the malaria area.
I now work in a hospital library setting and hail from Down Under so perhaps can provide a different perspective.
Once, at the forensic library where I worked, we had a Crappy Craft day. My contribution was Krappy Koasters made out of Kraft cheese slices. This rather bemused the lucky recipient. This is my passport for being able to post to the Krafty Librarian blog. (Source: The Krafty Librarian)
Source: The Krafty Librarian - August 10, 2015 Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: Rob Penfold Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
