Category:

Dartmouth College researchers claim to have developed a "magic wand" they say will prevent hackers from stealing personal data. They've named the digital tool Wanda...The focus of the work is to secure data at home on patients' computers, laptops, tablets, mobile phones and medical devices...Wireless and mobile health technologies have great potential to improve quality and access to care, reduce costs and improve health...But these new technologies, whether in the form of software for smartphones or specialized devices to be worn, carried or applied as needed, also pose risks if they're not designed or configured with security and privacy in mind...one of the main challenges is that most people don't know how to set up and maintain a secure network in their home. That...can lead to compromised or stolen data or potentially allow hackers access to devices such as heart rate monitors or dialysis machines. That's where Wanda comes in...A small device that has two antennas separated by one-half wavelength and uses radio strength as a communication channel...The digital tool makes it easy for people to add a new device to their home – or clinic – Wi-Fi network...Users need only pull the wand from a USB port on the Wi-Fi access point, carry it close to the new device and point it at the device, like a magic wand. The wand securely beams the Wi-Fi network information to the device while preventing anyone nearby from capturing or tampering with the information...

You may not know the name of one of the most talented and innovative forces in healthcare but there is a high probability that you have seen one of his video parodies about health. This is because Zubin Damania, M.D., goes under the alter ego ZDogg MD...He is creator of ZDogg MD and the Founder and CEO of Turntable Health, a direct primary care clinic in Downtown Las Vegas...He has been called the Weird Al of healthcare and uses humor and pop culture to education populations about important health issues... So by creating this outlet for humor, satire, and creativity, I sort of found that unique part of my voice that had been suppressed, and I was able to feel like I was reaching people and effecting real change that I couldn’t do in the hospital...As a hospitalist in practice for 10 years, I was deep in the trenches of medicine, deep in the daily paradox of joy and horror...So I speak the language of that world, a language that emerges from the shared experience of healthcare people. Very often this tribe feels voiceless, so my goal has always been to find a new way of expressing not just our dissatisfaction, but our vision for how to make things better...Payment models and primary care are at the top of my list...Fix that base of the pyramid and other stuff will fall in place. Fixing that culture is crucial...

Countries battling the Zika virus should consider new ways to curb disease-carrying mosquitoes, including testing the release of genetically modified insects and bacteria that stop their eggs hatching...Given the magnitude of the Zika crisis, WHO encourages affected countries and their partners to boost the use of both old and new approaches to mosquito control as the most immediate line of defence...WHO also highlighted the potential of releasing sterile irradiated male mosquitoes, a technique that has been developed at the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency...Fighting the infection at source by eliminating the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes responsible for transmission is moving up the public health agenda, especially as the same insects also spread dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever...An alternative approach uses Wolbachia bacteria, which do not infect humans but cause the eggs of females that mate with infected males to fail to hatch. Mosquitoes carrying Wolbachia have been shown to reduce mosquitoes' ability to transmit dengue...

U.S.-based health insurers Cigna Corp and Aetna Inc have struck deals with Novartis AG for a performance-based price for the Swiss drugmaker's new heart drug, Entresto...The agreements are among the few performance-based deals that have been made public by drugmakers and managed-care companies, which say they have been having more discussions about linking price to health outcomes in order to cut unneeded drug spending...Under the agreement, Cigna said its payments to Novartis will be linked to how well the drug improves the relative health of Cigna customers...Entresto (sacubitril/valsartan) is approved for the treatment of chronic heart failure...Cigna said payments will be based on a reduction in the proportion of customers who are admitted to hospital for heart failure...Aetna...said it signed a value-based agreement with Novartis that is based on the drug replicating results that it achieved during clinical trials. In trials, Entresto cut hospitalizations and the rate of cardiovascular death related to heart failure...Epstein (David Epstein, head of pharmaceuticals, Novartis)...said that under the deals, Novartis had agreed to a base price and a modest rebate, which would fluctuate based on hospitalizations and savings to the plan...

...online market giant Alibaba Group launched a pilot medical service last month in China that promises a patient can visit a doctor online and get his prescription filled the same way with home delivery and payment to boot...part of Alibaba's health business, aims to tap into a market that iResearch said had an estimated revenue stream of 16 billion yuan ($2.4 billion) last year…We want to build a health care product sales platform that links manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers to offer various medical products and services to customers…The pilot saw patient Hu Tianshun enter medical data via an online form and then a video chat with a doctor in another city was held…adding the doctor made a diagnosis and places a online prescription order with an Alibaba's online shops...Hu got his drugs the next day, and completed the transaction by paying the deliveryman…

McKesson AccessHealth...expanded its suite of reimbursement and performance enhancement tools and relationships...While the shift to preferred networks and new reimbursement models is challenging for many independents, there are also opportunities for incentives...There is a tremendous chance for innovative pharmacies to leverage their strengths, improve their overall pharmacy performance and maximize their reimbursement by interacting with their patients and providing care...more than one-third of Medicare D claims through AccessHealth contracts will include performance-based reimbursement incentives...those pharmacies or pharmacy networks who display top performance will be charged a smaller...Direct and Indirect Remuneration, amount than those who underperform. This...presents independent pharmacies with an...opportunity to reduce their DIR charges, thereby maximizing their potential reimbursement. The new suite of tools include:

• AccessHealth Pharmacy Performance Guidebook...offers detailed instructions on how to develop action plans to improve patient behavior and boost outcomes using such tools as medication therapy management case completion, refill reminder programs, medication synchronization and behavioral coaching;
• AccessHealth DIR Estimator Tool...allows a pharmacy to enter information specific to them and estimate accrual and incentive amounts that may impact DIR payments in order to plan accordingly;
• AccessHealth Webinar Series...designed to help independent pharmacies prepare for new reimbursement rates as well as identify opportunities to leverage the movement toward pay-for-performance incentives.

Cardinal Health Inc. said its new medication synchronization program...offers manifold benefits for community pharmacies in terms of patient care and efficiency...MedSync Advantage enables pharmacists to coordinate a patient’s prescriptions to be picked up on the same day each month…the program not only simplifies the process for patients and caregivers who must fill multiple prescriptions, but it also improves patient medication adherence by helping to ensure they fill all scripts each month...the number of prescriptions that a patient fills each month sharpens inventory management for the pharmacy and opens up more time for the pharmacy staff to focus on interacting with patients…We believe medication synchronization is a core competency for medication therapy management expansion in the pharmacy, and we want to prepare our pharmacies to move toward a value-based pharmacy model for payment in the future...It’s a win for the patient, and it’s a win for us because it evens out our workflow and helps us operate more efficiently...The most visible thing you get from medication synchronization is your time back…

Engineers at the University of California...say they have successfully 3D printed life-like liver tissue that simulates how the human liver functions and is structured. The researchers say the tissue could be used as a platform for drug screening...In the case of Federal Drug Administration approval for a drug, on average it takes around 11 to 14 years and $2.6 billion to get a drug to market...Around 90% of drugs don’t pass animal tests or human clinical trials. In the case of the new 3D printed tissue, the researchers say pharmaceutical companies could use the tissue as platform in the lab to focus on drugs that appear to be more promising and eliminate drugs that have less efficacy...To create the liver tissue that mimics real human liver tissue, the engineers created a diverse combination of liver cells and supporting cells systematically organized in a hexagonal pattern under a microscope. But to print that complex tissue, they needed a 3D printer that could accommodate the 3D micro-structures found in biological tissue. The team created their own bioprinting tech in the lab capable of reproducing the elements and features of the tissue…I think that this will serve as a great drug screening tool for pharmaceutical companies and that our 3D bioprinting technology opens the door for patient-specific organ printing in the future. The liver tissue constructed by this novel 3D printing technology will also be extremely useful in reproducing in vitro disease models such as hepatitis, cirrhosis and cancer...

Martin "Pharma Bro" Shkreli’s testimony – or lack thereof – at a House Oversight Committee hearing justifiably angered many people...Overnight, he became the embodiment of a pharmaceutical industry routinely accused of putting profit-seeking before patient health...But policymakers shouldn’t jump to conclusions...There are many important differences between the "Pharma Nerds" developing innovative life-saving drugs – including Gilead Sciences’ Sovaldi – and the "Pharma Bros" exploiting loopholes to profit from generics like Daraprim...What’s the difference between daraprim and Sovaldi?...quite a bit...Sometimes, short term monopolies are good for markets and society..Patents encourage innovation in sectors where the upfront costs of developing a product are very high. Monopoly patents are designed to ensure that innovators that they can recoup these costs and earn a healthy profit before generic competitors enter the market...Monopoly patents – with all the implied pricing power – are necessary for producing innovative drugs...But generic drugs are not "innovative," although they are critical in maintaining a healthy and competitive pharmaceutical market…Daraprim is a generic, and generics shouldn’t – with some very narrow exceptions – benefit from the same monopoly protections that innovator drugs do...patents will continue to work well for most products, and governments should continue to prioritize strong IP to promote medical innovation...Lowering prices by fiat will just tell investors to take their dollars elsewhere.

Hospital says MH-CURE offers care teams secure, access to all clinical communications, pertinent patient information and lab data...Patient care teams at Yale-New Haven Hospital, looking for a faster, more efficient and more secure way to communicate with each other in the emergency room, have adopted smartphone applications to speed up workflows. Eventually, the hospital bucked its traditional methods, which included a public address system and a VOIP wireless phone system, turned to MH-CURE – for Clinical Urgent Response – a smartphone application from Waltham, Massachusetts-based Mobile Heartbeat...MH-CURE offers care teams secure, single smartphone access to all clinical communications, pertinent patient information and lab data. Care team members have a choice of using their own smartphone or sharing hospital-supplied devices. It consolidates clinical communications, including alarms and notifications, pertinent patient information, lab data, texting, voice and photography...Results revealed that the amount of time required for clinicians to locate and transmit information to one another was greatly reduced, allowing staff to spend more time with patients and thus provide better patient care...