October 31st, 2011 by Toni Brayer, M.D. in News
Tags: Congo, Haiti, Hospitals, In-touch, Kolwezi, Lap-top computer, Medicine, Mobile, Physician expertise, Physicians, Resources, robots, Rural Areas, Specialists, Technology, Telehealth, Travel, Urban areas
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Both in the United States and around the globe there is a mismatch between needed medical care and the doctors who can provide it. Most physicians are located in urban areas where there are hospitals, teaching schools, lab and Xray and specialists to deal with most every medical condition. Rural areas in the United States lack these resources and patients either do without, or must travel far to be seen. In developing countries there may be no services at all for hundreds of miles. That is where telehealth can play a huge role in bringing medicine to the people.
The “In-touch” robot is one technology that can work all over the world. Through a simple lap-top computer a doctor can Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at EverythingHealth*
October 31st, 2011 by Bryan Vartabedian, M.D. in News, Opinion
Tags: advanced, Anti-A4-Fla2, anti-Fla-X, Antibodies, ASCA, ATG16L1, biomarker testing, CBir1, Crohn's Disease, CRP, Early, ECM1, Gastroenterology, IBD, ICAM, NKS2.3, OmpC, pANCA, Precision Medicine, Prometheus Labs, SAA, STAT3, Technology, Ulcerative Colitis, VCAM, VEGF
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If you want a glimpse at a company putting precision medicine into practice look no further than Prometheus Labs. They make diagnostic products for personalized care in digestive disease and oncology. I use their products to diagnose and target therapy in children with inflammatory bowel diseases (crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis).
IBD offers a nice place to see the evolution of precision diagnostics:
Early biomarker testing. Initially we had ASCA and pANCA antibodies to discern crohn’s and ulcerative colitis.
Advanced biomarker testing. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at 33 Charts*
October 30th, 2011 by GarySchwitzer in News, Research
Tags: BMP-2, bone morphogenetic protein-2, Cancer, Charles Rosen, Clinical Trial, Conflicts of Interest, John Fauber, Medical Devices, Medical Ethics, Medtronic, Research, Risk, Spine product, U.S. Justice Department, U.S. Senate Committee
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Reporter John Fauber has published the latest in his “Side Effects” watchdog series, headlined “Doctors didn’t disclose spine product cancer risk in journal: Spine-product paper omitted key data.” Excerpts:
“Doctors paid millions of dollars by Medtronic failed to identify a significant cancer risk with the company’s spine surgery product in a 2009 paper about results of a large clinical trial.
The surgeons left out important data and claimed there was no significant link between the product and cancer.
The company and doctors had become aware of information on Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Gary Schwitzer's HealthNewsReview Blog*
October 30th, 2011 by GruntDoc in News
Tags: ACEP, drotrecogin alfa, Drug Market, Eli Lilly, Emergency, Placebo, Prescriptions, PROWESS-SHOCK, Sepsis, Xigris
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The irony here is that Eli Lilly has advanced sepsis care (as a prelude to using their drug), and while Xigris hasn’t panned out, aggressive sepsis resuscitation has.
Eli Lilly is withdrawing drotrecogin alfa (Xigris) from all markets worldwide after a major study failed to show a survival benefit for patients taking the drug.
…
Xigris should be discontinued immediately in patients currently receiving it and should not be started in new patients, the company said.
The trial with the bad news on Xigris was Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at GruntDoc*
October 30th, 2011 by DrWes in News, Opinion
Tags: Diet, Energy Stars, food, Food Marketing Institute, GMA, Grocery Manufacturers Association, Healthy, Institute of Medicine, Rating System
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The Institute of Medicine has just released it’s recommendation that all foods be rated with an ‘energy star’ system: three stars = good, zero stars = bad:
The Energy Star system is a model because it’s simple and easy to use, and also because it’s gained traction with industry, which now develops products with the rating in mind, committee members said.
Except that this rating system hasn’t gained traction with industry:
But the Grocery Manufacturers Association and Food Marketing Institute announced their own front-of-the-pack system, called Facts Up Front, in January. It gives information on calories, saturated fat, sodium and added sugars but doesn’t rate foods according to those components.
In a statement today, the GMA said it has “concerns about Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Wes*
