Health Care Update News

The Health 2.0 public option - Ano Lobb

Justmeans health writer and RAND researcher Sam Werthheimer recently reported on interesting trends from the Health 2.0 conference in San Francisco.  Just because the conference was dominated by private ventures,  however, doesn't meant that governments aren't also trying to apply web 2.0 to improve health delivery.

US health reform efforts are banking on effective health information technology (IT) as a means for improving the efficiency, quality, and value proposition of health care delivery.

Post continues:- http://www.justmeans.com/-Health-2-0-public-option/38379.html


Facebook triggers asthma -  Ano Lobb

Can Facebook trigger asthma attacks? Apparently so. Italian doctors report in The Lancet on a new and previously unreported health risk associated with the ubiquitous social networking site: Asthma.

Sound crazy? Granted, the headlines are catchy and trying to ride the wave of social-media. But the details actually make sense. The case-report discusses an 18-year old man with asthma who was distraught after his girlfriend un-friended then broke up with him. After gaining access to her facebook page, he saw that she had friended several new young men, then had an asthma attack.

Post continues:- http://www.justmeans.com/Facebook-triggers-asthma/38149.html

Health 2.0 Company Launch Review Part 1 - Sam Wertheimer

The term "Health 2.0" describes the interface between web 2.0-inspired technology and health care. The sector is growing rapidly as patients search for ways to navigate the health care system and companies - both large and small - race to serve consumer needs. The annual Health 2.0 Conference in San Francisco (Health 2.0 SF) brings many of the key players under one roof. This year I joined the gathering to learn more about the entrepreneurs, innovators, and consumers doing good work in the Health 2.0 sector.

Among the highlights of the conference were launches of new Health 2.0

Post continues:- http://www.justmeans.com/Health-2-0-Company-Launch-Review-Part-1/38299.html

Health 2.0 Company Launch Review Part 2  - Sam Wertheimer

Sharecare is WebMD plus facebook. The site aims to help patients make healthy decisions by interacting through social media applications with registered health care "experts." These experts are vetted by Sharecare and include health care providers, advocacy groups, and corporations. Consumers can search the site by topic, enter particular health care questions, or browse their favorite expert's pet subjects. They can also use the facebook "like" button to endorse helpful health care advice and become friends with the experts who provide the tips.

Post continues:- http://www.justmeans.com/Health-2-0-Company-Launch-Review-Part-2/38304.html

Smart health care=Innovation - Ano Lobb

Basic sciences are increasingly being applied in innovative ways to address some fundamental health care problems. Applied chemistry has combined paraffin and dye to potentially double the effectiveness of blood tests used outside the clinic. Improving the accuracy of home-based health tests has benefits beyond the obvious improvements in accuracy: When appropriately used they also reduce demand on health care resources by potentially keeping people away from unnecessary clinical encounters, and by bringing the test to the person they are the embodiment of patient-centered care.

Post continues:- http://www.justmeans.com/Smart-health-care-Innovation/38338.html

Gay patients sometimes excluded from clinical health trials

A portion of the population could have health issues that are being ignored.

There are, unfortunately, many corners of our society that still exclude people who are gay. In most states, gay couples cannot marry; gay people cannot serve openly in the military, and some states even go as far as excluding gays from being able to adopt children. But scientists and doctors are now fearing that another type of exclusion is taking place - one that could have effects on those people’s health and wellness: clinical trials that examine diseases, drugs and medical treatments.

A letter published recently in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that 37 of 243 clinical trials studied that dealt with couples and sexual function barred people who were in same-sex relationships. Researchers at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Pennsylvania who conducted the study worry that gay patients are routinely excluded from other studies as well, such as ones that study depression [http://www.justmeans.com/Is-Optimism-in-Young-Adults-Harmful-Mental-Health/7945.html] or cancer.

Doctors hoping to create a clinical trial to study a drug often develop a target demographic of people who are a certain age, have a certain disease, or participate in a certain kind of behavior associated with the drug in order to narrow down those who’d be most likely to use, and benefit from, the drug. It’s a vital element to creating a clinical trial. But if doctors, for whatever reason, universally exclude gay participants, then a whole segment of the population will inevitably have health issues that aren’t addressed or uncovered in such trials.

Brian Egleston, Michael J. Hall, and Roland Dunbrack wrote that not all clinical trials use exclusionary language, and that often, gay and lesbian patients might not even be aware that they’re missing out on certain trials:

“To ensure that we did not miss a general pattern of exclusionary language, we also examined eligibility criteria in 1019 studies that we identified by using the search term ‘asthma.’ Exploratory searches indicated that such studies did not have high rates of exclusionary language, and indeed, no asthma trials were found to exclude lesbians and gay men. However, we incidentally found a clinical trial of attention deficit–hyperactivity disorder that required that participants be ‘in a reciprocal relationship with a person of the opposite sex.’

Our results indicate that exclusion of lesbians and gay men from clinical trials in the United States is not uncommon, particularly in studies with sexual function as an end point. It is likely that most gay and lesbian patients are unaware that their sexual orientation is being used as a screening factor for participation in clinical trials. Researchers should be held to careful scientific reasoning when they develop exclusion criteria that are based on sexual orientation.”

Photo credit: Tom Varco