- AstraZeneca to invest £11.5 million in new clinical oncology bioinformatics collaboration with The University of Manchester (worldpharmanews.com)
AstraZeneca and The University of Manchester…announced a collaboration harnessing clinical bioinformatics to deliver personalised healthcare for cancer patients. The five-year agreement will see the organisations apply clinical trial bioinformatics to better identify the right cancer treatment for the right patient at the right time…AstraZeneca will provide a total of £11.5 million ($17.5million) to support clinical bioinformatics research led by…the…Centre for Cancer Biomarker Sciences at the Manchester Cancer Research Centre.
- Pfizer’s quit-smoking drug not linked to depression or heart risks (reuters.com)
Pfizer's stop-smoking drug Chantix (varenicline) does not raise risks of heart attack or depression, contrary to previous reports, and should be recommended to more smokers wanting to quit, scientists said…researchers found that patients who took Chantix,..marketed as Champix in Europe, were no more likely to suffer a heart attack than those using nicotine replacement therapy or another quit-smoking drug…also not at higher risk of depression or self-harm...
- Novartis to start human tests with Google lens in 2016 (reuters.com)
Novartis plans the first human tests next year of a "smart" contact lens it is developing with Google designed to help restore the eye's natural autofocus….it would take about five years to see a product on the market,…we are already developing a technological lens prototype (that) should be tested on humans in 2016…for accommodative vision correction in people with presbyopia, or age-related long sightedness, who can no longer read without glasses… Novartis is also developing smart contact lenses to help diabetics track their blood glucose levels.
- QS1 offers myDataMart through FDS partnership (drugstorenews.com)
QS1 announced…that it would be partnering with…FDS to brings(bring) its customers… business intelligence software myDataMart...pharmacy owners can receive detailed analytics into the state of their business operations and potentially increase their Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Star ratings,..aid in monitoring adherence among patients,..
- How Technology and Legislative Issues Could Affect Pharmacy (pharmacytimes.com)
Pat Basu, MD, MBA, chief medical officer of Doctor on Demand, discusses legislative issues and technology that could affect pharmacy.
- Will Salesforce Health Cloud crush the electronic medical record? (medcitynews.com)
Salesforce is taking its biggest stab yet at conquering healthcare. The $5 billion cloud computing behemoth…unveiled Salesforce Health Cloud. Salesforce, best known for its customer relationship management platform, considers Health Cloud a patient relationship management product…moon-shot goal is to leapfrog electronic medical records as the central patient record. It promises to cull data from as many sources as possible, safely manage that information, let patients easily access these records and display the information in a dashboard to help healthcare providers and payers better manage – and in some cases, predict – care.
- Outsourcing Facilities of America Works with Search Engines and Pay-Per-Click Advertising Sources to Eliminate Ads by Non-Compliant Compounding Pharmacies (prweb.com)
Pay-Per-Click advertising sites, primarily search engines, are largely unaware of the new regulations governing 503B Outsourcing Facilities. Pay-per-click advertising has been one of the main ways non-compliant compounding pharmacies have been able to sell their products and services to hospitals, physicians and patients. Outsourcing Facilities of America is working to educate PPC advertising companies on the regulatory requirements… create new policies and procedures to stop non-compliant compounding pharmacies from selling their products in violation of these regulations.
- How Community Pharmacists Can Best Leverage Electronic Health Record Technology (pharmacytimes.com)
Pat Basu, MD, MBA, chief medical officer of Doctor on Demand, discusses how community pharmacists can best leverage EHR technology.
- Researchers are trying again to help you take your medicine (washingtonpost.com)
physicians, pharmacists and researchers have been frustrated for decades at patients’ inability to…remain on their medication regimens…a round of experiments funded by the Affordable Care Act…offer hope of progress against one of medicine’s most intractable problems….
- One project applies behavioral economics to the problem. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania gave 1,000 people "electronic pill bottles" when they left the hospital after heart attacks. If they forgot to take their medicine, the cap would light up and beep… If they took their medications,…they became eligible to win small lotteries that offer…prizes.
- In Hawaii, another project, the $14.3 million "Pharm2Pharm" experiment, seeks to connect doctors and pharmacists who dispense medication to patients leaving hospitals with community pharmacists…Community pharmacists often complain that they have no idea which medications their patients are taking, especially when they leave hospitals with new ones and can’t guard against dangerous interactions.
- In Wisconsin, more than 25 percent of the state’s pharmacists took a 12-hour training course, then sought out 100,000 people who appeared to be failing to refill their prescriptions…based on data provided by insurers under a $4.1 million project run by the state’s Pharmacy Society. Most were poor or elderly…Cost is a factor, convenience is a factor,..Lack of recognition of importance or need, health literacy and understanding" all contribute to non-adherence,…
- Sim Lab Gives Pharmacy Students Hands-On Experience (pharmacytimes.com)
Third-year pharmacy students at the Fairleigh Dickinson University School of Pharmacy will soon attend sessions at The Medicines Company’s patient simulation lab…students will be exposed to simulated hospital experiences in cardiac catheterization units and operating rooms using high-tech mannequins…also gives students a chance to see real-time blood pressure readings and simulated patients’ adverse effects from medication.