- Legislation looks to limit length of opioid prescriptions (biopharmadive.com)
Senate Health Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander...is offering drafts of two pieces of legislation aimed at addressing the opioid crisis...One measure would attempt to limit overprescribing by allowing the Food and Drug Administration to require drug manufacturers to package certain opioids in blister packs, which would allow for a set dose, such as a seven-day supply...Rather than restrict the number of days on opioid prescriptions, James Madara, CEO of the American Medical Association, wrote a letter...suggesting further research "that specifically identifies best practices in settings ranging from surgical to the emergency department."...Alexander's other proposal involves improved coordination between the FDA and Customs Border Protection. The bill would look to improve the ability to find and seize illegal drugs, such as fentanyl, at the border. It would seek to ensure the two agencies have the technology, facilities and staffing needed...
- CRISPR Dispute Raises Bigger Patent Issues That We’re Not Talking About (realclearhealth.com)
The worlds of science, technology and patent law eagerly await the...government’s decision on who deserves patents on what many have referred to as the biotechnology invention of the century: the CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing technique...Scientists hail CRISPR/Cas9 as more accurate and efficient than other, now-traditional genetic engineering methods...CRISPR has generated worldwide debate about how it could accelerate the manipulation of plants, animals and even human beings at the molecular level. That some DNA modifications can be passed on to future generations raises particular concern...But the patent dispute, focusing on whether scientists at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard or those at University of California, Berkeley invented the technology, seems far from these ethical concerns...the...Patent and Trademark Office, which will make a decision in the next few months...But amid all the breathless anticipation, we’ve been ignoring two important lessons from the CRISPR/Cas9 patent dispute: patent systems no longer fit the realities of how science works, and patents give their owners significant control over the fate and shape of technologies.
- Do we need patents to stimulate innovation?
- Power of patents, in absence of regulations
- CRISPR’s future use in one institution’s hands
- 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.
- TruTag, WuXi PharmaTech successfully test edible, on-dose authentication
Testing on an edible on-dose authentication technology developed by TruTag Technologies is showing promising results for its use in combating counterfeit drugs…TruTech partnered with WuXi PharmaTech,…technology that can store a drug’s provenance information on individual tablets. The silica, dust particle-sized TruTags act like bar codes that can provide information about where a drug was manufactured and its dosage, as well as supply chain details like lot or batch number...
- CMS Unveils Patient Data Access Initiatives (healthleadersmedia.com)
The Federal government...unveiled two initiatives designed to improve patients' access and control over their personal electronic medical records, and also pledged to overhaul Meaningful Use and refocus on data interoperability and ease of use among providers...Under the MyHealthEData initiative, patients will have access to their complete electronic health record, which they can take from doctor to doctor, choose the provider they want, and give that provider secure access to their data, leading to greater competition and reducing costs, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said...Under a second initiative, Medicare has launched Blue Button 2.0, which allows traditional Medicare beneficiaries to access and share personal health data in a universal digital format, and connect claims data to the secure applications, providers, and services they trust...CMS Administrator Seema Verma unveiled the initiatives...at the annual conference of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society...CMS is also taking an aggressive stance against data blocking...it is the priority of this administration to ensure that every patient and their doctor can receive free and timely access to their electronic data,"...
- Rebranded LexisNexis Risk Solutions in the Pharmacy market helps leverage big data (drugstorenews.com)
LexisNexis Risk Solutions, a leading provider of data, analytics and technology, on Monday announced the rebranding of Health Market Science, its most recent acquisition, as LexisNexis Risk Solutions in the Pharmacy market. The rebranding initiative reflects the organization’s commitment to combine its industry-leading public records footprint and prescriber data, leveraging analytics and big data technology in the pharmacy space...Over the last four years...we have...achieved – a very specific course for growth within the health care data analytics market, and the pharmacy space has been a top priority since day one...We are pleased to have partnered with all of the major retail pharmacy chains and the majority of the Pharmacy Benefit Managers...In a market with an increasingly stringent and complex regulatory environment, pharmacies without the ability to perform real-time compliance checks put themselves at risk. By combining the referential database with the company’s public records footprint, analytics and big data technology, LexisNexis Risk Solutions can offer a continuum of prescriber data assets, analytics and services that allow pharmacy customers to remain compliant.
- Overlake CEO: Retail health clinics bring about a paradigm shift for hospitals (bizjournals.com)
..more and more, health care providers are teaming up with drugstores to provide care via in-store health clinics…trend based around convenience..shifts to focus more ..on the consumer, adapting means providing more services,..same-day access to a doctor, allowing people to interact with the health care system easily, and providing transparency...about the costs of procedures and quality of care.
- Survey: 97% plan to use digital health tech in trials over next five years (outsourcing-pharma.com)
According to survey results, published by Validic, more than 60% have used digital health technologies in clinical trials, and more than 97% plan to use such tools more over the next five years…Validic director of marketing told us...Medication adherence has always been a top priority for pharma, which is not surprising given the close correlation between participants’ compliance and the ability to get a drug to market faster and more cost effectively...Given advancements in technology, remotely tracking and monitoring prescription compliance has not only become a reality, but also an increased priority for pharma...As more evidence is available and sponsors continue to realize real-time, objective adherence data enables adaptive trial design and the ability to confidently make adjustments to protocols, we expect to see the interest in adherence technologies continue to rise…mobile applications have been a popular “entry point” for companies looking to being using digital health, “but we’re expecting to see greater use of wearables and sensors in the near-term...the respondents are most interested in reducing trial costs, while also being able to effectively demonstrate a drug’s efficacy in the real world...
- Retail clinics, apps change doctor-patient relationship (bigstory.ap.org)
Doctors say primary care is growing fragmented and turning into more of a commodity, with physician access based on what consumers will pay…the role of primary care has diminished ... and I don't see encouraging signs that it is having a renaissance,.. the result of technology and competition creating more convenient options for care that does not require an in-person doctor visit… changes have helped make basic care more accessible to patients and lowered the cost per visit for many consumers… Patients are opting for drugstore clinics over doctor's offices, and many will soon start wondering why they even need to leave the house when smartphone apps let them chat live with a physician.
- GPS for the body? Nevada doctors use tech to pinpoint problems (reviewjournal.com)
University Medical Center(Las Vegas),...doctors can reach deep into the lungs to diagnose cancer — without using a scalpel… hospital's superDimension ™ Electromagnetic Navigation Bronchoscopy ™ system extends the bronchoscope's reach into smaller airways. Catheters can be accurately placed into lesions outside the tube's field of view… Pulmonologists such as Dr. Hidenobu Shigemitsu can stage suspicious areas for biopsy and treat cancers found in the lungs…Lung GPS™Technology minimizes invasiveness and results in early detection of cancers.