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It’s an edict that comes out every autumn in many hospitals: If health care workers don’t get a flu shot, they will face consequences. Some make vaccinations a condition of employment. Others require unvaccinated staff to wear surgical masks near patients for weeks during flu season...But a new study is calling into question the scientific evidence underpinning these increasingly common hospital policies — and could fuel challenges to the contentious orders...The study...concludes that the research used to justify mandatory flu shots for health sector workers is flawed, and that the policies cannot plausibly produce the benefits that had widely been assumed...the bottom line of our paper is to say there is no valid scientific evidence, even now, underpinning enforced health care worker immunizations...trying to mandate that health care workers take the flu vaccine is well-intentioned, but is taking away resources and the focus on what our main priority needs to be, which is getting a better influenza vaccine...

Columbia University Medical Center researchers have created a computational tool that can rapidly predict which genes are implicated in an individual's cancer and recommend treatments. It is among the most comprehensive tools of its kind, and the first that incorporates a user-friendly web interface that requires little knowledge of bioinformatics...The researchers found that iCAGES identified personal cancer "drivers" 77 percent of the time when presented with a pair of randomly chosen driver genes and non-driver genes, compared with about 51 percent for other computational tools... Cancer "drivers" can vary from patient to patient, and there are no practical clinical tools for predicting which variants in an individual's genome are driving his or her disease and which are present but not causing disease...Dr. Wang...developed a computational tool called integrated CAncer GEnome Score…(it) analyzes the patient's entire genome, comparing it to the genomic sequence of the patient's tumor to identify possible cancer-causing variants. Next...cross-references these variants to databases of known cancer-causing genes, using statistical analyses and machine learning techniques to prioritize the most likely driver genes. Finally...matches the variants to FDA-approved and experimental drug therapies that specifically address those variants or genes. The entire process takes about 30 minutes...

Scientists have mapped all 1,578 licensed drugs licensed by the US Food and Drug Administration according to their mechanisms of action to help researchers visualize the ‘uncharted waters’ where they may find future treatments...Scientists at The Institute of Cancer Research in London...extracted data from their own drug database, as well as databases at European Bioinformatics Institute in Cambridge and the University of New Mexico. They matched each drug with prescribing information and data from published scientific papers to build up a picture of how each existing medicine works. The analysis, published in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery (A comprehensive map of molecular drug targets) reveals that there are just 667 unique human proteins targeted by existing approved drugs (or only 3.5% of the estimated 20,000 human proteins), and a further 189 drug targets in pathogenic organisms...This new map of drugs, created through the latest computational analytical technologies, will enhance our ability to use rational, data-driven approaches to identify the most promising future targets and treatment combinations for the next generation of cancer and other diseases...

The rising cost of medicines may be a growing problem for many Americans, but a new survey finds that cost is generally not a key factor when doctors decide which treatments to prescribe their patients. Among six different types of doctors queried, only primary care physicians cited cost as among their most important considerations. Forty-seven percent ranked the issue as a key concern, behind evidence that a drug is safe, effective and well-tolerated…many physicians remain more concerned with finding the best medicine for the ailment at hand, as they should. But this will also place more of the onus on patients to talk to their doctors about affordability when reviewing treatment options...

Analyses of data from 195 clinical trials show that financial ties between researchers and the pharmaceutical industry were associated with a 3.57 greater odds of a positive trial outcome...Clinical trials involving principal investigators with financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry are more likely to report positive results...The researchers...say their findings — which held even after accounting for the influence of study sponsorship — suggest that financial ties could be leading to bias in the clinical evidence base...Given the importance of industry and academic collaboration in advancing the development of new treatments, more thought needs to be given to the roles that investigators, policy makers, and journal editors can play in ensuring the credibility of the evidence base...

U.S. sales and distribution of antibiotics approved for use in food-producing animals increased 1 percent from 2014 to 2015, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said in a report...Scientists have warned that regular use of antibiotics to promote growth and prevent illness in healthy farm animals contributes to the rise of dangerous, antibiotic-resistant "superbug" infections, which...pose a significant threat to global health...An estimated 70 percent of antibiotics used to fight human infections and to ensure the safety of surgery and other invasive procedures are sold in the United States for use in meat production...In 2015, sales and distribution of those medically important antibiotics for food production rose 2 percent...Medically important antimicrobials accounted for 62 percent of the domestic sales of all antimicrobials approved for use in farm animals...McDonald's USA and some other chains have switched to serving chicken raised without antibiotics important to human health…

Medication errors remain fairly common in nursing homes but they appear to result in “surprisingly” low rates of serious impacts affecting residents, according to Australian researchers...researchers set out to assess the prevalence of medication errors leading to hospital admission and deaths in nursing home residents, and to determine the factors associated with these errors...They examined three types of errors – all medication errors, transfer-related medication errors, and potentially inappropriate medications...researchers found that medication errors were common, involving 16% to 27% of residents in studies examining all types of medication errors...Transfer-related medication errors occurred in 13% to 31% of residents, while 75% of residents were prescribed at least one potentially inappropriate medication...investigators noted that it was unclear whether medication errors resulting in serious outcomes were truly infrequent or are under-reported due to the difficulty in ascertaining them.

IBM Watson is to work with the FDA to investigate the use of blockchain technology, seen as one of the most secure ways of sharing patient data...(it) allows each separate patient data source to be a ‘block’ part of a complete, unalterable patient data profile which can then be shared securely with healthcare providers or research organisations...Initially focused on oncology-related data, the collaboration will look at how best to exchange data gathered from multiple owner mediated data sources such as Electronic Medical Records, clinical trials, genomic data, mobile devices, wearables, and Internet of Things technologies...The deal aims to overcome the limitations of large scale sharing of health data seen in the past, namely data security and patient privacy concerns during the data exchange process.

It’s crucial for pharmacists to be aware of medications associated with high risk for error and harm to patients, and to look for best ways to implement practices for improving safety and patient care...The Institute for Safe Medication Practices...Compiled data gathered from hospital medication error reports, risk assessments, consumer reports, and FDA collaboration...to name the top medication classes involved in adverse events...the top 5 high-alert medication classes based on data from 2016. Opioids, antithrombotics, and insulins topped the list, followed by antipsychotics and antibiotics...data pegged wrong dosage as the top reason for adverse events in most cases, except in the use of antibiotics, for which wrong drug was the top reason...

The dearth of hospitals is just one of the issues threatening the well-being of the roughly 300,000 Nevadans who...live in small towns like Tonopah and other rural communities. A shortage of medical professionals, an increasingly strained emergency care network and escalating costs of health care are threatening to turn them into health-care "have-nots" who pay a steep price for their rural lifestyle...The problem is not limited to Nevada. Across the nation, residents of rural areas are experiencing health-outcome disparities, including "higher incidence of disease and disability, increased mortality rates, lower life expectancies and higher rates of pain and suffering...Rural residents are themselves a public health challenge, as they are generally older, more isolated and less likely to be covered by insurance than their urban counterparts. They’re also more likely to smoke, suffer from obesity and hypertension and die from complications of diabetes.