This is what patient engagement really is
“Patient engagement.”
What is patient engagement? It sounds like a season of The Bachelor where a doctor dates hot patients. It wouldn’t surprise me if it was. After all, patient engagement is hot; it’s the new buzz phrase for health wonks. There was a even an entire day at the recent HIMSS conference dedicated to patient engagement. I think the next season of The Bachelor should feature a wonk at HIMSS looking for a wonkettes to love.
Here’s how the Internets define patient engagement:
The Get Well Network calls it: “A national health priority and a core strategy for performance improvement.”
Leon...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - May 2, 2013 Category: Family Physicians Tags: Physician Primary care Source Type: blogs
Fixing Pharma's Reputation: IMHO, the Train Has Left the Station
In an "open letter" to PhRMA CEO, John Castellani, Forbes Blogger and former president of Pfizer Global Research, John LaMattina, offers several suggestions for improving the reputation of the pharmaceutical industry. You can read the "letter" here.Unfortunately, IMHO, the "train has already left the station" as they say. In fact, the train has crashed!You might recall that LaMattina famously called for the end of DTC (direct-to-consumer) advertising in his book, Devalued and Distrusted (see "Bad, Devalued, Distrusted & Defensive Pharma: A Tale of Two Books").In his open letter, however, LaMattina focuses on the R&...
Source: Pharma Marketing Blog - April 21, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Tags: R and D Research Sales and Sales Reps Reputation Source Type: blogs
Prevention and Palliation: Together Forever
What do the following patients have in common?
A 45 year old man who has a 60 pack-year history develops lung cancer and is diagnosed at an advanced stage.*
A 33 year old woman with post-traumatic stress disorder who has been drinking since the age of ten and develops fulminant hepatic failure.
An 82 year old man ends up in the surgical intensive care unit after a self-inflicted gunshot wound three months after his wife of 60 years dies.
The mother of a 55 year old woman with morbid obesity, obstructive sleep apnea, and pulmonary hypertension laments that the park nearby isn't safe for people to use.
All four patients ...
Source: Pallimed: A Hospice and Palliative Medicine Blog - April 15, 2013 Category: Palliative Carer Workers Authors: Lyle Fettig, MD Source Type: blogs
DTC Down the Drain
"Direct-to-consumer advertising, as we've known it, at least, is not the be-all and end-all of marketing prescription drugs to patients anymore," says Matthew Arnold in a new MM&M report with the provocative title "DTC Drain" (find it here). Yes, and the spending trend shows it -- DTC ad spending decreased 12% in 2012 compared to 2011 (see "DTC Not As Dead As We Thought... But Digital Ad Spending Down One-Third!")I took MM&M's title a step further and increased the alliterative appeal by adding "Down" as in the following photo, which appeared in the MM&M report (sans the words):The tubs image, of cour...
Source: Pharma Marketing Blog - April 4, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Tags: Erectile Dysfunction Cialis Viagra DTC Advertising Source Type: blogs
Sex, Lies & DTC Advertising For Impotence Pills
Several years ago, the drugmakers that sell impotence pills convinced Congress that federal regulations were not required to ensure objectionable ads would not be seen by children. However, a new study charges that industry efforts to regulate direct-to-consumer advertising have been a “ruse” designed to deflect criticism and block Congress from intervening.
From 2006 to 2010, when DTC advertising for erectile dysfunction pills rose 62 percent, to $324.3 million, the study found a “consistent pattern” in which drugmakers failed to comply with so-called guiding principles that were propagated by the ...
Source: Pharmalot - February 20, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Ed Silverman Tags: Uncategorized Bayer Cialis Eli Lilly Erectile Dysfunction GlaxoSmithKline Impotence Leviitra Merck Pfizer Viagra Source Type: blogs
Pharma "failing to self-police DTC ads"
via pharmatimes.com The pharmaceutical industry's efforts to self-regulate its direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising are "an industry-sponsored ruse" intended to deflect criticism and collectively block new US federal regulation, a new study claims. Reporting in the Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, the researchers studied the US marketing campaigns for three erectile dysfunction (ED) drugs - Pfizer's Viagra (sildenafil citrate), Eli Lilly's Cialis (tadalafil) and Bayer HealthCare's Levitra (vardenafil), marketed in the US by Bayer Healthcare, GlaxoSmithKline and Merck & Co - from 2006 to 2010. All these companies...
Source: PharmaGossip - February 20, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: insider Source Type: blogs
ED Drug Advertisers "Cockblocked" PhRMA's DTC Guiding Principle #13
The pharmaceutical industry's efforts to self-regulate its direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising are "an industry-sponsored ruse," intended to deflect criticism and collectively block new Federal regulation, a study released today in the Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law found. The paper, "The Politics and Strategy of Industry Self-Regulation: The Pharmaceutical Industry's Principles for Ethical Direct-to-Consumer Advertising as a Deceptive Blocking Strategy," which you can find here, was written by Denis Arnold, Associate Professor of Management and Surtman Distinguished Scholar in Business Ethics in the Belk Coll...
Source: Pharma Marketing Blog - February 16, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Tags: PhRMA Guidelines PhRMA Intern Erectile Dysfunction Cialis Viagra DTC Advertising Levitra Source Type: blogs
Healthcare insurance but no healthcare access
California doesn’t have enough doctors to provide healthcare to newly “insured” patients under the UnAffordable Care Act.
California state senator Ed Hernandez asks “”What good is it if they [state citizens] are going to have a health insurance card but no access to doctors?”
Wait. Health care insurance doesn’t mean that patients will have access to health care? Where have I heard that being said for more than 3 years?
The government is going to give patients their medical “insurance,” but access to physicians is limited by government policies, payment cuts, and administrative red tape &#...
Source: WhiteCoat's Call Room - February 14, 2013 Category: Emergency Medicine Doctors Authors: WhiteCoat Tags: Access to Care Policy Source Type: blogs
Time to Refill Your Prescription For Zxygjfb
The brand names of drugs are famously odd. But they seem to be getting odder. That's the conclusion of a longtime reader, who sent this along:
I was recently perusing through the recent drug approval list and was struck by how strange the trade names have become. Perhaps it is a request from the FDA so that there are fewer prescription errors, but some of these are really bizarre and don't quite roll off the tongue. USAN names I can understand, but trade names, to me anyway, used to be much more polished (Viagra, Lipitor etc). Could it have to do with the fact that most of these are for cancer? I have a list below compar...
Source: In the Pipeline - January 28, 2013 Category: Chemists Tags: Business and Markets Source Type: blogs
Overselling the microbiome: University Bern press release uses slight of hand to make mouse study seem to be about people
Interesting new paper came out recently on "Sex Differences in the Gut Microbiome Drive Hormone-Dependent Regulation of Autoimmunity." It is alas in Science so it is not available openly.
Anyway there are some news stories about the article where you can get the gist of it. Best one is probably the blog post by Christine Gorman: Transplanted Bacteria Turn Up Testosterone to Protect Mice against Diabetes. The story is pretty interesting.
For those who do not know I have been a bit obsessed about the connection between diabetes and the microbiome for a while. See my Ted talk for example where ...
Source: The Tree of Life - January 19, 2013 Category: Medical Scientists Authors: Jonathan Eisen Source Type: blogs
Brand names make it to the OED!
I first created this post in 2007, and apart from the home page, it has been the most viewed page on my blog (over 6,000 views). So here it is again, with a link to the latest OED update.
It’s fascinating to peruse the new words added to the OED. (Here is the latest update, December 2010.) Brand names often enter the language as generic terms, and I’ve listed a few of them below. (I wonder who they have in mind with the word “flip-flopper”. And what on earth is a cotylosaur? I thought “chicklet” meant a little piece of gum, but I was disappointed to discover that it means a small chick o...
Source: ANNE T-V's BLOG - January 18, 2011 Category: Professors and Educators Authors: annietv600 Tags: Friday Fun Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Dangers of body piercing
Punching a hole in your tongue, nipples, or worse your genitals, is a serious decision. Before you decide to have a body piercing, consider the risks of infection, allergic reactions, nerve damage, teeth damage, bleeding, and bacterial and viral infections.DANGERS OF BODY PIERCINGFashion has no boundaries. We will go to to all limits to keep up with the latest fashion. For the past 20 years, celebrities, singers, and sport stars, all have had some body piercing. Popular body parts are the: eyebrows, lips, tongue, nose, ear, and even genitalia. EAR P...
Source: Dr. Needles Medical Blogs - July 21, 2010 Category: Physicians With Health Advice Tags: DANGERS OF BODY PIERCING Source Type: blogs
WayBack Wednesday: Say Yes to NO (Nitric Oxide)
Back in 2006, nitric oxide (NO) was all the buzz. I've since discovered that it's been utilized to treat everything from vascular eye disease to erectile dysfunction (yes, it's the stuff in Viagra!). Today, a look back at my original post discove... (Source: Diabetes Mine)
Source: Diabetes Mine - September 16, 2009 Category: Endocrinology Authors: Amy Tenderich Source Type: blogs
obesity. viagra. heart attack. thrombolytics.
Last night in the ER.......was very busy. And "busy" in a good way. Lots of codes and respiratory distress. Not so much "weak and dizzy" and "TMD (todo me duele)". The kind of night that reminds you why you chose emergency medicine as a specialty, and not primary care.Anyhoo, there was this one guy...A 36 yo morbidly obese Samoan man with a past medical history of diabetes, hypertension, and has lots of 'bad habits', was brought in by paramedics complaining of chest pain which started 10 minutes prior to the 911 call. He was sitting on the sofa watching reruns on TV when he suddenly felt a tightening in his chest. He got u...
Source: EM Physician - Backstage Pass - December 31, 2007 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Taylor Source Type: blogs
