- Time to phase out physician office visits? (healthcareitnews.com)
'We have this visit-based system that developed 100 years ago. That doesn’t make sense in a world of chronic conditions.'..It's time to stop thinking about healthcare in terms of the doctor's visit…Healthcare takes place in between the visits, and away from the doctor's office. And once the healthcare community realizes this, it can move beyond that time-honored tradition of delivering "epistrophic care" and do something useful for the patient…We have a shifting paradigm in healthcare..
- Quebec’s health care system leads way in ‘failure’: researcher (montrealgazette.com)
Despite our gleaming new hospital at the Glen offering state-of-the-art facilities, when Université de Montréal researcher Damien Contandriopoulos gives the closing address on the future of hospitals for the Hospital Conference at McGill University…he will paint a bleak portrait of health care in Quebec….new Montreal hospitals, even those which haven’t opened yet, would be fantastic answers to the problems of the health care system of 10 years ago,"… "There is a disconnect between what people expect and what hospitals have to offer,"…"People waiting in a corridor seems normal in a hospital — but it’s not normal." Quebec is lagging behind the rest of Canada in terms of the performance of its health care system.
- The drug price conundrum: a Q&A with Memorial Sloan Kettering’s Dr. Peter B. Bach (fortune.com)
Drug prices: where the free market and public interest collide...Dr. Peter B. Bach, director of the Center for Health Policy and Outcomes at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, has become an articulate advocate for creating a stronger connection between the costs of drugs and the value they deliver to patients. Fortune recently sat down with Dr. Bach to talk more about what is behind the drug price mayhem and what could be done to stem the rise.
- What have been the primary forces driving drug prices higher?
- So do you see these factors reversing or slowing at any point?
- What is the difference, then, when it comes to drug pricing and what’s happening with Turing versus the broader market of new, innovative drugs?
- Why is there a seeming lack of transparency when it comes to how companies decide on these drug prices?
- Do you see the role of government heading in that direction?
- Clinton proposes $250 monthly cap on prescription drug costs (news.yahoo.com)Hillary Clinton targets medicine costs in campaign pledge (drugstorenews.com)Here's Why Biotech Stocks Are Set for a Big Decline (thestreet.com)
U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton proposed on Tuesday a $250 monthly cap on out-of-pocket prescription drug costs and other measures to stop what she called "price gouging" by pharmaceutical companies….Clinton rolled out a plan to encourage the development and use of generic drugs and to end pharmaceutical companies' ability to write off consumer-directed advertising as a business expense….monthly cap would limit what insurance companies could ask patients to pay for drugs that treat chronic or serious medical conditions.
- Drugs Could Soon Come With a Money-Back Guarantee (bloomberg.com)
The government and private insurers have been trying for years to move away from the fee-for-service system that pays doctors and hospitals based on the volume of tests they perform and treatments they prescribe. They want to replace it with contracts that reward quality and better outcomes… changes in the reimbursement model are rippling out to manufacturers of drugs and devices…shift could help address a long-standing problem with medical advances:..benefits observed in carefully designed clinical trials don’t always materialize when a treatment is deployed in the real world…linking payment to performance, while appealing in theory, is tricky. "What metric are you going to select to measure performance?
- Which Big Pharma Will Grab the Lion’s Share of the Cancer Immunotherapy Market? (fool.com)
Cancer immunotherapy is one of the hottest areas of cancer research these days, and the market looks to be worth billions. Which big pharma do we think will be the biggest winner in the space?...the fight against cancer is the growing field of immunotherapy, which aims to harness the power of a patient's own immune system…Given the huge opportunity that exists for this new class of medicine, we asked our team of Motley Fool healthcare contributors to share with us the big pharma company they think has the best chance of grabbing a big piece of this emerging market.
- Demonstrating Quality in Specialty Pharmacy (specialtypharmacytimes.com)
Heather Bonome, PharmD, director of Pharmacy Segment at URAC, discusses the standards that illustrate quality in specialty pharmacy. (video)
- FIP president describes plan for profession at opening of 75th world pharmacy congress (fip.org)
75th International Pharmaceutical Federation World Congress of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences opened…in Düsseldorf,..the opening ceremony, FIP President Carmen Peña,…called on pharmacists and pharmaceutical scientists around the world to ensure that the profession of pharmacy remains relevant and able to respond effectively to the current and future needs of the world’s communities… A way forward is her "Two times two" plan, which she described at the ceremony. It means taking two actions at two levels — one action on professional development and another to promote and defend the profession's interests, each taken at individual and collective levels.
- Drug industry must address image problem over prices: Teva executive (reuters.com)
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd's research chief said...the drug industry must act responsibly when it comes to pricing medications, given the mounting anger over the high cost of therapies in the United States…True innovation needs to be rewarded, he said, citing strides against HIV, recent cures for hepatitis C, and those working to develop effective treatments for Alzheimer's disease…"But we need to be responsible too. Our goal is not to make money and disrupt the whole healthcare system,"…
- Has the era of the super successful pharma sales rep really come to an end? (biopharmadive.com)
There was a time when the success of a pharmaceutical sales representative depended on product knowledge, presentation, sales skills, reach and frequency, confidence and persistence. But that combination alone no longer yields the same results. It’s become increasingly difficult for reps to gain access to individual healthcare practices and institutions,…However, the "Death of a Pharma Salesman" paradigm is at odds with what many consider a new era in pharmaceutical sales—an entirely restructured professional reality…what’s happening now is not the death of an entire profession, but rather the decline of an outdated model.