- Cloaked Nanoparticles Pave Way For Targeted Drug Delivery (forbes.com)Nanoparticle biointerfacing by platelet membrane cloaking (req sub) (nature.com)Nanotechnology: Platelet mimicry (req sub) (nature.com)
A study from the University of California,…Jacobs School of Engineering shows how nanoparticles can be an effective delivery system for drugs in the treatment of cardiovascular disease and systemic bacterial infections…engineers disguised nanoparticles as human platelets to see if they could increase the healing power of drug treatments by delivering those drugs to targeted areas in the body or organs…By using the natural biology of our bodies with the nanoparticle technology, the researchers have taken advantage of the unique natural properties of human platelet membranes for a new form of drug delivery.
- Update: Pager, Zipdrug partnership puts docs, meds on demand (drugstorenews.com)
Health care just got a whole lot more convenient in Manhattan, where a pair of health app developers …began coupling their offerings in what may become the ultimate in fast service — doctors to your door by way of Pager quickly followed by an on-demand prescription delivery from Zipdrug...Pager was launched…a healthcare startup reinventing the traditional doctor-patient experience…connects patients to board-certified doctors who make home, office or hotel visits within two hours…. Zipdrug…employs a trained delivery staff who picks up prescriptions at the pharmacy of the patient's choice and delivers them to the patient's doorstep.
- OIG hits HealthCare.gov on oversight (healthcareitnews.com)
New report details lax management of contractors, missed deadlines, process in disarray… contracts awarded for the development, implementation and operation of HealthCare.gov, the HHS Office of the Inspector General found the supervision of contractors on the job to be sorely lacking…The report…offers details of the lackaidaisical contract oversight – and often the lack of supervision altogether.
- Contractor delays and performance issues were not always identified,
- A contractor incurred unauthorized costs that increased the cost of the contract
- Contracting officers in all government agencies did not have access to contractor past-performance evaluations when making contract awards
- Critical deliverables and management decisions were not properly documented
- Pharmacist error rate rises as workload climbs (drugtopics.modernmedicine.com)Frequency of and risk factors for medication errors by pharmacists during order verification in a tertiary care medical center (abstract) (ajhp.org)
Hospital pharmacists are aware that they have too many orders to fill on a daily basis – in addition to numerous other job functions, including working with insurers and counseling patients. And now, a new study verifies that the more orders pharmacists fill, the more likely it is for errors to occur… at a large tertiary care medical center… than 1.9 million medication orders that were handled by 50 pharmacists…92 medication error events had occurred during order verification…There was also a lower error rate seen for pharmacists who had a Doctor of Pharmacy degree, compared with those who had a Bachelor of Science degree; however, those results were not statistically significant…
- Pharmacy, Digital Health, and Big-Pharma (pharmacypodcast.com)
John Nosta – Digital Health Philosopher, with Nosta Lab returns to the Pharmacy Podcast Show to discuss Pharmacy, Digital Health, and Big Pharma. (32:55 minutes)
- Intra-Cellular Surges on Optimistic Outlook for Schizophrenia Drug (thestreet.com)
Schizophrenia patients treated with an experimental drug from Intra-Cellular Therapies reported fewer antipsychotic symptoms compared to a placebo in a large, phase III study, the company said Wednesday. Intra-Cellular shares climbed 73% to $45.36, an all-time high, on the positive results from the study and the belief that the drug, ITI-007, could generate billions of dollars in schizophrenia sales if eventually approved.
- Sutter Health says data on 2,500 patients involved in potential breach (healthcareitnews.com)
Former employee emailed the records of 2,582 patients to a personal account without authorization… included name, date of birth, insurance identification number, date of service and billing code. In two cases a driver's licenses number was accessed and in one case the patient's Social Security number was included…no financial information was leaked… the event occurred in April 2013, and was recently discovered through a review of the former employee's email and computer use…As for 2015, this is third breach for Sutter.
- HELP Committee chairman calls for flexibility in implementation of Stage 3 EHR rules (modernhealthcare.com)AMA urges hitting Stage 3 pause button (healthcareitnews.com)
Sen. Alexander, chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee,…called for a delay and a phased-in implementation of Stage 3 of the electronic health-records program…we should delay until Jan. 1, 2017, making of the final rules for Stage 3 of the federal government’s program to require doctors and hospitals to create electronic health-record systems…should be phased in at a rate that reflects how successfully the program is being implemented…about a quarter of a million physicians and about 200 hospitals face Medicare penalties if the current Stage 2 rules are not revised. Only about 12% of physicians and 40% of hospitals have been able to comply thus far …
- VoicePort’s PharmaPhonetics service launches in Candian Costco pharmacies (drugstorenews.com)
VoicePort International…announced that its suite of adherence solutions, PharmaPhonetics would be launching in Costco Canada pharmacies…. is a service that focuses on automated prescription pickup notifications to ensure patients pick up their medicine and take it in a timely manner… medication synchronization services, patient counseling, written translation and instruction services..
- Pharmacies Hosted at Workplaces Increase Medication Adherence (pharmacytimes.com)
Employers with onsite pharmacies are seeing a return on investment in the form of increased medication adherence among their health plan members…Onsite pharmacies provide employees with a convenient option for filling discounted prescriptions that is integrated with other employer-sponsored wellness programs. These onsite initiatives aim to contain employers’ health care expenditures while supporting healthy lifestyles and increasing productivity across health plan members.