TOP STORIES
Endure if you must The Washington Post’s takeout on tech gurus and venture capitalists with too much time on their hands trying to extend life (though most of the possible stuff they talk about are simply medical treatments not invented). Accompanying the story is a somewhat interesting “game” The Post created in which you drag stem cells into your brain and so on to extend your life.
I know it’s a week away but you should probably start watching the HIMSS 2015 hashtag now.
Behavioral Health, Interoperability and eConsent: Meeting the Demands of CMS Final Rule Compliance
In a webinar on April 16 at 1pm ET, Aneesh Chopra will moderate a discussion with executives from DocuSign, Velatura, and behavioral health providers on eConsent, health information exchange and compliance with the CMS Final Rule on interoperability.
LIFE SCIENCE
A long but worthwhile read on a moratorium and proper path toward human genetic engineering.
In the long run, I believe the permissibility of using germline genomic modification to make babies will be, and should be, a political issue. Right now, I suspect I would opt for regulating it on a safety/benefit basis, allowing it only when the potential benefits outweighed the risks. But I might change my mind, either because of newly discovered facts or well-made arguments. Importantly, though I do not think that my view should govern. The people, through their governments, should govern.
Medtronic has invested $2 million in DreaMed Diabetes and will be using its artificial pancreas technology in is insulin pumps.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
I hope you didn’t miss The Wall Street Journals’ look at Bayer and its continued focus on its health and agriculture businesses. Bayer is dumping its $10 billion specialty plastics business.
Still, some analysts are skeptical that Bayer’s drug pipeline is strong enough to deliver many new products with selling power like the current wave. But Bayer expects at least three new drugs in midstage clinical testing, including two for chronic heart failure, to advance this year. “Strong data is expected” for those trials, said Ali Al-Bazergan, an analyst at Datamonitor Healthcare in London.
True: “There’s something to be said for an environment defined by energetic, if occasionally excessive hope versus one suffused with a persistent indomitable sense of sharply constrained possibility (or as some of my colleagues from drug discovery and clinical medicine like to call it, reality).”
Here are some job tips for young scientists comparing academia to a biopharma career.
PAYERS-PROVIDERS
Easier to read IV bags can save lives, according to a new study.
We should probably be listening to this lawyer when it comes to privacy issues.
Meet a doctor specializing in medical marijuana. I wonder what a residency in this will be like?
Florida will deal with the latest designer drug first. But everyone needs to brace themselves for Flakka.
The brother of comedian Mindy Kailing says he got into medical school by claiming he was black. This is getting a mixed reception.
Why are doctors resistant to ACOs?
POLITICS
Would recent dismal job numbers have been worse without Obamacare?
A LITTLE EXTRA
In the battle against eating disorders, France has banned models under a certain body mass index.
The Morning Read provides a 24-hour wrap up of everything else healthcare’s innovators need to know about the business of medicine (and beyond). The author of The Read published it but all full-time MedCity News journalists contribute to its content.
