The Healthcare Disruptors Are Coming! Mimi Grant ABL Organization June 2018
A ton has been written of late about ” The Disrupters ” coming into healthcare from other industries. Notably, Warren Buffet, Jeff Bezos, and Jamie Dimon are “going for something bigger than shaving a few percentage points off health-care costs” for their million-plus employees. The fact is, the combined purchasing power – and will – of Berkshire […] Read More
Collective Intelligence At MIT: From Superminds – Thomas Malone.
The MIT Center for Collective Intelligence brings together faculty from across MIT to conduct research on how new communications technologies are changing the way people work together. This first-of-its-kind research effort draws on the strengths of many diverse organizations across the Institute including; the MIT Media Lab, the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, the Department of […] Read More
New analysis shows that HTA organizations may frequently restrict access to cancer treatments
Randy Burkholder | June 1, 2018 | In health care, who should decide value? In many industrialized countries with single-payer health systems, the answer is “the government.” A new analysis by Avalere illustrates the negative impact this answer has on patient access to care. After medicines have been approved for marketing (for example, by the European Medicines Agency), […] Read More
Palliative Care Is Majorly Misunderstood:
Palliative care is misunderstood by many. This is a missed opportunity for those patients who are suffering. The role of palliative care is to prevent and reduce suffering. The suffering can arise from any personal domain including: emotional distress, physical pain, social isolation and financial concerns. Palliative care is, ideally, delivered within the context of […] Read More
Fetal Therapy Advances:
By Denise Grady New York Times May 29 2018 SAN FRANCISCO — In the three months before she was even born, Elianna Constantino received five blood transfusions and a bone-marrow transplant. All were given with a needle passed through her mother’s abdomen and uterus, into the vein in her umbilical cord. Elianna, born Feb. 1 with […] Read More
Virtualization Of Healthcare Services: Mr William Falk and Dr Sacha Bhatia C.D. Howe Institute
Virtual care is a natural next step in technological innovation for healthcare, says a report from the C.D. Howe Institute. In ‘Modernizing Canada’s Healthcare System through the Virtualization of Services,’ authors Dr. R. Sacha Bhatia and William Falk argue that virtual models of care have the potential to improve both quality of life for patients […] Read More
The Cause And Future Of Physician Burnout: Abraham Verghese
The biggest price for “digital medicine” is being paid by physicians like the sad case seated before me, who is already considering jumping to venture capital or a start-up, not because that is where the heart is but because it’s a place to bail out to. By some estimates, more than 50 percent of physicians […] Read More
Micro-RNA Is An Important And Repairable Target For Cancer Prevention
In epigenetics, micro RNA can turn genes on and off. If a tumour suppressor gene is turned off by micro RNA, then cancer might develop. It is only now that doctors are recognizing how important micro RNA is in promoting or preventing cancer. Micro RNA within the cell can be measured in an advanced lab. […] Read More
RNA Takes A Central Role In Cancer
RNA Takes A Central Role in Cancer: Recent studies have shown that depressed patients have alternations in their RNA. The changes are presumed to be the result of mental, cognitive and medicinal treatments. The RNA serves as a messenger and determines which components of our DNA will be expressed and which proteins our body will […] Read More
Francis Collins NIH Director On Gene Editing: Stat News
I’m very excited about the potential of gene-editing to cure rare diseases for which we know the molecular defect and there’s no current therapy. CRISPR-Cas9 has made it possible not just to dream about such protocols, but actually design them. I think this will be the year where we will see the first clinical trials […] Read More
Did Betsy Get Value From Her Lawyer?
Betsy is 61 years of age. She works as an editor in Calgary. She is in the midst of a divorce with her high earner husband. In fact, he earns over $1,00,000 per year. He is an odd duck. When he moved out of the matrimonial house, he had 126 brand new shirts which had […] Read More
New Ultrasound Technology for Prostate Cancer:
Scientists have announced the development of a highly accurate and reliable technique for diagnosing prostate cancer. The Dundee University-based team say they have used an ultrasound process called shear wave elastography (SWE) to detect prostate tumours. The method is non-invasive and cheaper than current detection techniques. … The new method aims to get round the […] Read More
National Pharmacare Is Pending
Let’s Think About Maximizing Access For All Canadians The House of Commons’ standing committee on health is recommending the creation of a universal, single public payer prescription drug coverage program for all Canadians. “The committee believes that the best approach for the creation of such a program is through the expansion of the Canada Health […] Read More
Dropping Big Data To Focus On Small Data
The world is obsessed with big data. Data collected from many persons. We are pleased to be contrarians. We focus on small data collected from one person. Small data is the really important data that makes all the difference to the patient in terms of patient safety and clinical outcomes. The team at RCM uses […] Read More
A Computer Greeted My Patient In The Emergency Department: Story As Told By A Patient
A Computer Greeted My Patient In The Emergency Department: A Story As Told By A Patient The patient reluctantly had to go to the ER for an infection of his nose. It was painful. It was not going to go away. His family encouraged him to go to the ER. When he got there, he […] Read More
Immunotherapy and Melanoma: Does it work or not work?
How melanoma evades the immune system the secret is the macrophages in the tumour which block the immunotherapy drugs… read on. Scientists have pinpointed a pathway that helps melanoma evade the immune system’s attacks — and in turn, have found a a potential reason why the cancer cells doesn’t always respond to certain drugs. Here’s what […] Read More
Targeted EEG Measurements To Predict Treatment Outcomes In Depression:
Key Points Of The Study: Question Does increased pretreatment rostral anterior cingulate cortex theta activity have incremental predictive validity with respect to treatment outcome in major depression? Findings In a randomized clinical trial including 296 patients with major depressive disorder, higher rostral anterior cingulate cortex theta activity at both baseline and week 1 predicted greater improvement in […] Read More
Phage Therapy When Antibiotics Fail To Help….
A case study of phage treatment where antibiotics had failed. A phage is a virus that attacks bacteria and can kill them. Very important when antibiotics are not working because of resistance. The bacteria have learned to evade the antibiotics. In 2015, Thomas Patterson, a professor at the University of California, San Diego, was on holiday […] Read More