Author: Peter

Department of Health and Human Services has no plans to curtail use of enterprise social network Yammer, despite a scathing report detailing serious security risks associated with that platform at the Department of Veterans Affairs…VA’s Office of Inspector General issued a report calling Microsoft-owned Yammer "unapproved," … we found that it had vulnerable security features, recurring website malfunctions, and users engaged in a misuse of time and resources,"..

Two NIH institutes join forces to educate teens about the risks of using drugs and alcohol…An annual, week-long observance that brings together teens and scientific experts to shatter persistent myths about substance use and addiction will feature information about alcohol in addition to drug use. Now called National Drug and Alcohol Facts Week, the observance will be held Jan. 25-31, 2016, and is sponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, both part of the National Institutes of Health. The institutes often work together on research and prevention initiatives.

Treatment has complementary actions that help control blood glucose. A new type 2 diabetes treatment for adult patients, empagliflozin and metformin (Synjardy), was approved by the FDA…(from Boehringer Ingelheim and Eli Lilly)… is indicated as an adjunct to diet and exercise to improve glycemic control in adults with T2D. The 2 medicines…have complementary actions that help control blood glucose,…Empagliflozin removes excess glucose through urine by blocking glucose reabsorption in the kidney, while metformin lowers glucose production by the liver and absorption in the intestine,…

A 12-hospital health system is notifying hundreds of its current and former patients that their protected health information has been compromised after discovering an employee was involved in identity theft…Merit Health system based in Jackson, Miss., only learned of the breach after local law enforcement notified them that one of their employees…was under investigation for identity theft,..The employee was allegedly swiping patient files for more than a year undetected,..swiped records containing patient names, Social Security numbers, medical diagnoses data, health plan data and also payment information.

…. proponents of e-prescribing have achieved their goal of electronic prescribing of controlled substances becoming legal nationwide, as Vermont has become the last holdout to change its rules… years of protests from law enforcement over concerns that drug diversion would increase, the federal Drug Enforcement Agency in 2010,legalized e-prescribing of Schedule II-V drugs,

Big Pharma, out today on PC, Mac and Linux, is a fascinating look at the complicated and often dark world of drug development. Right now there's a counter on the game's official website (it counts profits made, comas caused, patents infringed and clinical trials buried) that starkly illustrates the factors that come into play when profit and competition is involved in the business of curing disease.

“Biosimilars will do for the biotech market, primarily made up of very expensive injectable drugs, what generic drugs did for traditional oral solid pills a decade ago: lower the cost for safe, effective treatments that improve and save lives,”… “They will revolutionize the category of spending that is among the fastest-growing and most worrisome for payers who want to continue providing sustainable, high-quality benefits for their members.”

...evolutionary underpinnings of diabetes are actually quite strong: Animals go through cycles in which their metabolism changes. Animals become obese and insulin-resistant when food availability is very low, and their metabolism kicks into gear when the environment is flush with food…all aligns with Circadian rhythms, Rhode Island-based biotech VeroScience asserts, which is why it’s developing its line of therapeutics around the waxing and waning of mammal metabolic function. In short, it’s studying how the biology behind the hibernation patterns of a bear,.. might be harnessed to spark new therapeutic modalities.

Pfizer has no problem keeping sales for Viagra flying high in China,… But the company has gotten in hot water for its efforts, as Chinese marketing authorities slapped Pfizer with a fine for paying local drugstores to promote its blockbuster ED med. Pfizer inked deals with four Shanghai pharmacies to display the drug… violating China's drug management rules...

'Throwing out the prescription pad' is key to preventing fraud and abuse..With e-prescribing of controlled substances now legal nationwide, providers and pharmacies are empowered with a new technological tool in the fight against prescription painkillers… there's some progress yet to be made on this front. NLR(National Law Review) points to statistics that show that while… one-third of pharmacies were equipped to handle eRx of controlled substances as of the end of 2013, just 1 percent of prescribers were able to do so.