- New firmware worm goes after Apple vulnerabilities (healthcareitnews.com)
IT security researchers have successfully designed a worm that will break into a Mac's operating system, widely considered more impenetrable than its PC counterpart…huge implications for the healthcare industry…but the lion's share of physicians -- nearly 80 percent in fact -- are tapping iOS for digital health… may have some big significance down the road for mHealth security and patient data...
- FDA Clears First 3D-Printed Drug (Spritam [Levetiracetam]) (medscape.com)Aprecia Preps to 3D Print Medicine with New Facility (video) (3dprintingindustry.com)
Food and Drug Administration has approved the first three-dimensional printed oral drug product, Spritam (levetiracetam), from Aprecia Pharmaceuticals,…indicated as adjunctive therapy for partial-onset seizures, myoclonic seizures, and primary generalized tonic-clonic seizures in adults and children with epilepsy…was developed with Aprecia's proprietary ZipDose technology, which uses three-dimensional printing to create a porous formulation...that disintegrates rapidly...
- The African Startup Using Phones to Spot Counterfeit Drugs (bloomberg.com)
Ghanaians shop for pills in open-air markets, where the fake may be indistinguishable from the real…Drug Lane runs through a market in the heart of Accra,..as one in three medicines sold…could be counterfeit…to address the problem…Ghanaian entrepreneur…has an answer.. creation of ...MPedigree Network …random 12-digit code hidden under a scratch-off panel on the packaging…text the code…get an instant reply telling… whether the product is authentic.
- Fetal tissue research declining, still important (newsdaily.com)
political battle over the use of fetal tissue in medical research has been reinvigorated by the release of undercover videos….interest in the use of fetal tissue is dwindling,…Newer, less-controversial technologies, including the "reprogramming" of adult skin cells to create specific types of stem cells, have rendered fetal tissue less central…
- Handy Device Shows Where Patient’s Veins Are Located (mentalfloss.com)
Those who fear needles are not likely to want to experience the prick more than once. And even experienced medical professionals can miss a vein sometimes, so it helps to have a little guidance…VeinViewer uses harmless, near-infrared light to show precisely where veins are located and take the guesswork out of the process.
- New all-in-one diagnostics device tracks 6 health measures (drugstorenews.com)
new consumer diagnostics tool called BodiMetrics that tracks six health metrics plus a medication reminder…."It's an all-in-one device." …track include an EKG, pulse rate, blood oxygenation, systolic blood pressure and temperature…to have Food and Drug Administration approval for a device designed to enhance in-office, or in-clinic, diagnostics that includes a metric for sleep apnea.
- Algorithm uses a computational model of the human body’s protein networks. (specialtypharmacytimes.com)An Innovative Algorithm is Helping Scientists Decipher How Drugs Work Inside the Body (newsroom.cumc.columbia.edu)Elucidating Compound Mechanism of Action by Network Perturbation Analysis (cell.com)
Columbia University Medical Center have developed a computer algorithm to greatly accelerate the drug production process…Detecting Mechanism of Action by Network Dysregulation uses a computational model of the human body's protein networks, and how they react with each other…able to perform experiments as different drugs enter the body, and can accurately track gene expression changes.
- New analysis underscores improving pharma R&D productivity (newsdaily.com)
Drug industry productivity is continuing to improve, with a bumper haul of new products being launched and companies proving more successful in the final stages of clinical testing, according to a new analysis...Data from Thomson Reuters ...showed the number of innovative medicines, or new molecular entities, launched globally in 2014 hit a 17-year high of 46, up from 29 in 2013.
- IT, EHR go dark at 13-hospital system (healthcareitnews.com)
computer system, including the electronic health record platform, at a 13-hospital health system went black this week, resulting in a 20-hour long outage….BJC HealthCare, in St. Louis,..reported a computer outage … All IT systems went dark, "including clinical, revenue cycle, e-mail, word programs and other applications…$7,900 per minute of outage time...
- Gadget Guide: 5 Helpful Apps for Pharmacy Students (pharmacytimes.com)
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