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Walgreens has rolled out an online mental health platform that offers informational resources, screening tools, a therapist/psychiatrist locator, and live video chats with mental health professionals...The drug chain said...that in tandem with Mental Health America, it has launched Mental Health Answers...visitors can access MHA’s provider locator tool; free online screenings that enable users to assess symptoms for a range of conditions, such as depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder and PTSD; and a library of articles and other content on mental health...MHA also can facilitate follow-up treatment and care through providers and specialists in local communities, as well as via its affiliates nationwide...The mental telehealth service expands Walgreens’ current medical telehealth partnership with MDLIVE...Teletherapy is an excellent option if you’re looking for a more convenient, private, and affordable way to receive behavioral therapy...Through our relationship with Walgreens, we are making it easier for consumers to get help by providing the flexibility to schedule therapy at a time that works best for them, and without the need for travel time, waiting rooms or office visits...

New medical schools are launching across the country to address a projected physician shortage. They’re promising innovative curriculums that let aspiring doctors spend time doing research, working in community health settings, and following the same patients for months...But they face big obstacles, starting with the challenge of recruiting students and faculty when they’re not yet accredited — and won’t be, even in the best-case scenario, for several years...An equally big challenge: raising the tens of millions it takes to build and then run a top-tier medical school...all in an effort to create a new breed of American doctor...What we’re doing is certainly a little bit risky…At the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, which is on track to launch its med school in the fall of 2017, student training will involve getting out of the hospital to work at a hospice, a home for developmentally delayed patients, or some other community organization. Plus, students will spend a year at an outpatient clinic where they can follow the same individuals over time, rather than jumping among different specialized clinics each month, as is often the case..."The students will actually get to know their own patients," said founding dean Dr. Barbara Atkinson...Massive fundraising campaigns and acceptance from the local community are needed...The financial urgency is even more pronounced at UNLV. Last year, Nevada legislators approved $27 million in startup funds — but that’s just a drop in the bucket of the full amount the university needs to get up and running..."We’re working hard to cultivate donors," said Atkinson...We’re very fortunate to be starting from scratch when we are...It would be virtually impossible to do what we’re doing at a school that’s already set in its ways...

This week, scientists will gather in Washington, D.C., for an annual meeting devoted to gene therapy—a long-struggling field that has clawed its way back to respectability with a string of promising results in small clinical trials. Now, many believe the powerful new gene-editing technology known as CRISPR will add to gene therapy’s newfound momentum. But is CRISPR really ready for prime time? Science explores the promise—and peril—of the new technology.

• How does CRISPR work?
• What has CRISPR accomplished so far?
• So why isn’t CRISPR ready for prime time?
• With these caveats, do you even need CRISPR?
• CRISPR also has other issues
• And CRISPR still has big safety risks
• So what’s the bottom line?

GlaxoSmithKline CEO Andrew Witty attributes the company's success to sticking to the tried-and-true business model of investing in research and development and not transitioning to an acquisition model...the key is to be patient and to see the value of investing in innovation...What we have to stay focused on is the fundamentals of the value of innovation and discovery of medicines and vaccines that make a real difference to patients...The alternative acquisition model in the health care industry has drawn criticism during this election year. In theory, the M&A strategy can save companies significant sums as they can purchase mature, fully developed products without having to invest in R&D...

Mike Glaicar, Business Development: Pharmacy Times...(PTNN) This weekly video program provides our readers with an in-depth review of the latest news, product approvals, FDA rulings and more.

A novel way of synthesising a promising new antibiotic has been identified by scientists at the University of Bristol. By expressing the genes involved in the production of pleuromutilin in a different type of fungus, the researchers were able to increase production by more than 2,000 per cent...With resistance growing to existing antibiotics, there is a vital and urgent need for the discovery and development of new antibiotics that are cost effective. Promising developments are derivatives of the antibiotic pleuromutilin, which are isolated from the mushroom Clitopilus passeckerianus...These new compounds are some of the only new class of antibiotics to join the market recently as human therapeutics...with their novel mode of action and lack of cross-resistance, pleuromutilins and their derivatives represent a class with further great potential, particularly for treating resistant strains such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and extensively drug resistant tuberculosis...

About 10 months after the only hospital in a 100-mile radius closed, Tonopah will welcome a new medical center, according to Northern Nevada health care group Renown Health...will open June 1 at the site of the former Nye Regional Medical Center in a partnership between Renown and the Nye County Board of Commissioners, it was announced Tuesday at a meeting of the board...The site...will use secure telehealth videoconferencing technology to connect patients with doctors, said Rich Conley, director of Renown Regional Medical Center...The technology will “help patients access primary care providers as well as more than 30 specialties...“This partnership with Nye County allowed us to create an innovative and sustainable solution for the residents of Tonopah and the surrounding communities in central Nevada,”...Renown said it is working to expand the number of services that the facility will offer by looking for an on-site advanced practitioner, hiring more support staff and expanding lab and imaging services...“It was important to us to restart health care services, and we are glad Renown stepped in to help find a solution for this community,” Nye County Commissioner Lorinda Wichman said...

The 21st Century Cures Act will have a huge impact on the pharmaceutical industry nationally and globally...All of the major pharmaceutical companies target the United States...they will have to comply with the...Act (when passed)…Precision medicine, meanwhile, is a programme announced...last January...it is an emerging approach for disease treatment and prevention, which includes a patient’s variability in their genes, environment, and a person’s lifestyle...What has the precision medicine initiative got to do with the 21st Century Cures Act?.. Precision medicine would allow the inclusion of much more technology driven healthcare innovation and would permit the introduction of additional personal data and information into health science...The requirement to get drugs to market faster is evident. However, a lack of interoperability poses a huge challenge when it comes to getting patient data consolidated in time for clinical trials...A large part of the new legislation is aimed at trying to connect the research and development arms of life science companies to health IT or digital health specialists...all pharmaceutical companies will benefit from the Act as they will be able to get their drugs out faster. On the technology side, the major beneficiaries of the Act will be the big data analytics players, since this lies at the heart of speeding up approvals...The good news is most (if not all) of the major players are fully aware of the challenges and opportunities of the Act.

With a regulator nod for full online prescription drug sales in China on hold for now...Jo-Jo Drugstores plans a TV loop direct to doctors who will listen to your ailments and write up scripts...The Zhejiang province-based pharmacy chain won China FDA approval for the plan to install the virtual doctor screens at 6 stores, allowing them to consult and write prescriptions if needed that the pharmacist can fill on the spot...China FDA has grown increasingly cautious about the sale of online drugs. But it is willing to experiment with models that may bring down costs and provide better services...Access to doctors in China has been difficult historically in many rural areas of China...Not only does our program rectify this problem, relieving hospitals of patient overflow; we are also able to save consumers between 10% and 30% in prescriptions costs as compared to the exact same service rendered at area hospitals...

Mike Glaicar, Business Development: Pharmacy Times...(PTNN) This weekly video program provides our readers with an in-depth review of the latest news, product approvals, FDA rulings and more.