Healthcare: reloaded...

Alzheimer's is an irreversible, progressive brain disorder that over time destroys memory and thinking skills, and in the end, the ability to carry out everyday tasks, explains the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Changes in the brain of amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary, or tau, tangles lead to a loss of neurons and their connections, which in turn affect a person's ability to remember and to think. Its cause is still not fully known. A number of different methods for reversing or slowing down Alzheimer's are being developed, including a potential vaccine against the brain disorder that just showed positive results during its Phase II clinical trial: AADvac1.

Global pharma major Lupin Limited (Lupin) on Monday announced the launch of its Digital Asthma Educator platform for guiding patients on the correct technique of using inhalers. The educator platform has been launched as a part of the company's long running umbrella programme, Joint Airways Initiative (JAI), for patients suffering from respiratory ailments.

The VISTA's Select suite of exclusive services allows your health system to systematically manage the above obstacles and uncover costs often unknown to the hospital's leadership team.  Fill out the form to download and learn more about how CFO's can contain costs, and by partnering with VISTA, they can reduce overall labor costs, centralize and standardize reporting and vendor management.

Global glass primary packaging supplier SGD Pharma has expanded its ready-to-use (RTU) molded glass vial range to introduce a market-first 50ml volume option in tray developed at industrial scale by a molded glass manufacturer. The Sterinity platform, which includes both ISO and EasyLyo injectable vials, offers high quality sterile Type I molded glass to speed up aseptic filling processes and reduce time to market for high value parenteral drugs.

Akili Interactive, a digital health company that got FDA clearance last year for its video game as treatment for ADHD, recently brought in $160 million in funding. It plans to use the funds to ramp up coverage of its flagship treatment and to develop digital treatments for other cognitive conditions.

What will happen to medtech procurement in the wake of the pandemic? COVID has exposed vulnerabilities in government processes and distribution, as well as global supply chains. The most high-profile examples were ventilators and PPE, but other supplies have been in the frame, including consumables, complex capital equipment, a wide variety of diagnostics, and digital health products.

Dans moins de dix ans, cette nouvelle génération de vaccins, dont certains seront universels et efficaces contre toutes les formes du pathogène ciblé, vont permettre à l’Humanité d’accomplir un nouveau pas de géant en matière de prévention et de lutte contre les maladies les plus répandues et plus mortelles. Dans un tel contexte, il est évidemment capital pour notre avenir que la France, pays de Pasteur et de Yercin, jette sans tarder les bases d’un nouveau et puissant pacte de recherche entre sa recherche fondamentale, qui reste au plus niveau, et doit garder un horizon à long terme, et son industrie pharmaceutique, afin de rester dans cette course scientifique et technologique planétaire qui va bouleverser nos vies et nos sociétés.

Les nudges sont de plus en plus utilisés dans la société. Ils se développent désormais aussi dans le domaine de la santé. Faut-il s’en féliciter ou s’en inquiéter ? Quelle est l’opportunité d’utiliser des nudges en santé et quelles sont les précautions à prendre ?

Not only has the cost of medical care been on a steady increase over time, but so has the cost of health insurance. Like most other things in life, the cost of health insurance inevitably and reliably rises as time passes, increasing the financial burden on American households. In 2020 alone, the cost of group health insurance premiums was $21,342 for an average family policy, marking a 4% increase from the year before. According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), it’s estimated that health spending will grow 5.5% every year on a national level until 2027. Eventually, healthcare spending will reach $6 trillion.
The question is, why? What is causing these increases in costs?

Upon execution of the deal, tech transfer will start immediately and Samsung Biologics will perform aseptic fill-finish, labeling, and packaging services from its Incheon, South Korea site, to support the production of hundreds of millions of doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, intended for the supply of markets outside of the US starting in the third quarter of 2021.

Using data and analytics, Berkeley Research Group looks at data around patient movement and empty beds.

In granting China's Sinopharm emergency use authorization, the vaccine can be included in Covax — which is the WHO's global initiative that aims to realize equitable vaccine distribution worldwide. Several well-off countries aren't sharing as many vaccines as they otherwise might. India is a major developer of vaccines, but has halted exports to better confront its exacerbated coronavirus crisis. Additionally, concerns surrounding the safety of using the AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines — in light of extremely rare but dangerous side effects observed in some countries — and this has led to temporary halts of both vaccines pending additional guidance.

The treatment known as CAR-T, in which white blood cells are genetically modified to attack blood cancer, is one of the most exciting and expensive in medicine. But it has not been directly compared to standard treatments in a randomized trial — until now. Bristol Myers Squibb said Thursday that its CAR-T, Breyanzi, prevented the return of large B-cell lymphoma better than the standard of care treatment, which includes a chemotherapy regimen and a stem cell transplant, in which bone marrow cells are replaced to try to cure blood cancer.

In 2015, Götz and his colleagues published an initial study that saw ultrasound waves successfully remove beta-amyloid from the brains of mice. Beta-amyloids are a special class of proteins linked to several symptoms in people with Alzheimer's, including dementia and cognitive decline. And the researchers found that scans of the brain in ultrasound help to break up beta-amyloid, reversing the process of neurological damage caused by the amyloids.

Amongst other variants, the woman was reported to have had the E484K mutation, which is part of the Alpha variant (B.1.1.7, which was first seen in the UK) and the N510Y mutation, which is part of the Beta variant (B.1.351, which was first seen in South Africa). In total, the virus was reported to have undergone 13 mutations to the spike protein and 19 others that could change its behavior.

We’re used to the idea of wearable technology measuring everything from our temperature and heart rate, to blood glucose levels and sleep. But what if we moved those devices inside the body? That’s what Swedish startup DSRuptive does, using small glass capsules — the size of a grain of rice.
On Wednesday, the company announced the results of the first clinical study showing the effectiveness of injectable implants in monitoring body temperature.
The results are a glimpse into a future when implants could be the norm for everything, from health monitoring to payments and identification.

Here is the application form. The deadline is 5PT on Friday, June 25. There is no fee to apply. Startups that have pitched at a MedCity event in the last 12 months are not eligible to apply.

We demonstrated a valuable supplement to traditional PROs by using smartphone-based activity data. This methodology yields a rich data set that has the potential to augment our understanding of patient recovery.

La start-up à statut universitaire Tricky propose un escape game censé aider à désamorcer l’hésitation vaccinale par une expérience ludique et un échange avec un médecin
Dans cet escape game, on ne feint pas un braquage de banque ou une chasse au trésor. La start-up Tricky, installée cours de la Martinique, à Bordeaux, propose un jeu d’énigmes qui invite à se questionner autour de l’hésitation à se faire vacciner. « Notre jeu a été créé notamment en collaboration avec l’ARS de Nouvelle-Aquitaine et nous sommes soutenus par Inno’Vaccins. Il rentre dans le cadre d’une expérimentation de recherche universitaire ».

Biosimilars are highly similar versions of approved and authorized biological medicines. They are supported by rigorous analytical, non-clinical, and clinical testing to demonstrate that they are sufficiently “similar” in structure, function, efficacy and safety to their reference innovator biologic.

Ocular implants — small devices designed to be inserted into the eye and deliver a drug locally over an extended period — are rapidly gaining ground as a treatment option. As patients continue to seek out convenient, less invasive treatments, the demand for these implants will continue to increase.

Schneider has launched its Innovation Experience Live Healthcare Lab, an immersive experience that takes visitors through a demonstration of a hospital, including the doctor’s office, the operating room, and the intelligent patient room.
The room features a digital patient footwall - a touchscreen that creates a single reference point for patients, families and healthcare providers, by incorporating care information, entertainment and environmental controls all in one place. A separate digital patient door display has important information for healthcare staff.

By standardizing how we measure the quality of care and by transparently sharing what is working and what is not, we will consistently improve towards a health system focused on outcomes that matter most to all of us. Making this transformation requires an overarching strategy and restructuring of how healthcare is organized, measured and reimbursed. Michael Porter and Elizabeth Teisberg introduced such a strategy in 2006, named the VBHC “Value Agenda”.

How would you deal with physical and mental health needs on a three-year round-trip to Mars? Those are questions I often think about and I would like to take you on a tour of solutions already out here on Earth, that might benefit those first astronauts to the Red Planet.