Highlights of the important and interesting in the world of healthcare:
Double dose of bad news. Indianapolis, Indiana, drug company Eli Lilly took a full-page advertisement in the Indianapolis Star Wednesday to reassure its hometown supporters of a brighter future, according to the New York Times. On Tuesday, Lilly said it would stop a late-stage clinical trial of an experimental drug for Alzheimer’s disease. Last Thursday, the Food and Drug Administration criticized Lilly’s application to expand Cymbalta, its blockbuster antidepressant, to treat chronic pain.
Change is good. After an embarrassing string of recalls of over-the-counter medicines due to quality problems, Johnson & Johnson is shaking up the way it makes its products.
With the Rise of AI, What IP Disputes in Healthcare Are Likely to Emerge?
Munck Wilson Mandala Partner Greg Howison shared his perspective on some of the legal ramifications around AI, IP, connected devices and the data they generate, in response to emailed questions.
About those small business tax breaks. You’re probably not getting them, says InsureBlog. “Fewer than 2 million of the nation’s 6 million companies with employees qualify for the small-business tax credits included in the new health insurance reform law,” according to the National Federation of Independent Business.
Valley of Death. Too many promising drug candidates fail in the valley where testing for Food and Drug Administration approval and the complexity of human biology combine, says Walter H. Moos, vice president of the SRI Biosciences Division.
Open the wallet… wider. Workers will pay more for health care next year as U.S. companies prepare for provisions of the federal overhaul, according to a National Business Group on Health survey. About 63 percent of businesses plan to make employees pay a higher percentage of their premium costs, and 46 percent plan to raise the maximum level of out-of-pocket costs workers must bear next year.
That’s a big “but.” If you end up at a hospital emergency room with the most fully digitized form of records, your length of stay is likely to be more than 22 percent shorter than at ERs with minimal or no electronic medical record systems. However, only 1.7 percent of ERs have fully digitized records.
A Personalized Approach to Medication Nonadherence
At the Abarca Forward conference earlier this year, George Van Antwerp, managing director at Deloitte, discussed how social determinants of health and a personalized member experience can improve medication adherence and health outcomes.
Mean to the core. New research suggests that antagonistic people — especially those who are manipulative and aggressive — have a higher risk of stroke and heart attack because of thickened arteries than people who are agreeable, straightforward and compliant.
Doing a 180. Hospitals will have to take a “radically new approach” to making mandated changes in their health information technology systems to minimize waste and standardize best practices, McKinsey Quarterly says.
