Google to respond to health queries with treatment information

Addition of Knowledge Graph considerably ups the ante for ‘Doctor Google’

 

Google is preparing to provide treatment and symptom information directly into its health search results pages.

The internet giant says one in 20 of the search queries it handles are for health-related information and it plans to respond to this by harnessing its ‘Knowledge Graph’.

Launched in 2012 the Graph provides ‘semantic-search’ information alongside relevant links to other sites, though the addition of this extra information can make navigating away from Google unnecessary.

Google product manager Prem Ramaswami said: “We worked with a team of medical doctors … to carefully compile, curate, and review this information.

“All of the gathered facts represent real-life clinical knowledge from these doctors and high-quality medical sources across the web, and the information has been checked by medical doctors at Google and the Mayo Clinic for accuracy.”

Nevertheless, the company cautioned that the addition to a service often referred to as ‘Dr Google’ of extra health information “doesn’t mean these search results are intended as medical advice”.

However, Ramaswami said: “We hope this can empower you in your health decisions by helping you learn more about common conditions,”.

The changes will start to be rolled out over the next few days, initially in the US and in English, with Google’s future plans extending to “many more medical conditions” as well as other parts of the world.

Boost to Google’s mobile offering

Although not explicitly positioned as a mobile offering, there should be now doubt that forms a key part of how Google expects the service to be used.

Its visual explanation of the service (see above) show a mobile being used for to search for information on tonsillitis and Ramaswami said: “So the next time you need info on frostbite symptoms, or treatments for tennis elbow, or the basics on measles, the Google app will be a better place to start.“

One in 20 Google searches is currently for health-related information and last year Ebola edged out flu and pregnancy to top Google’s list of most searched for symptoms in the US.

Coming up behind were health searches for Asperger’s, ALS, Lupus and then diabetes, with Lyme disease, typhus and respiratory symptoms rounding out the top ten searches in 2014.

Meanwhile the top medication searches were led by requests for information about pain medications, with Pfizer’s Advil (ibuprofen) and J&J’s Tylenol (acetaminophen) top the chart.

The new expansion of its approach to search is just the latest health move from the company, which in the last 12 months has also seen Google test doctor consultations by video, agree a tie-up with Novartis for its ‘smart lens’ technology and forge a research alliance via its R&D company Calico with AbbVie.

Source PMLive http://www.pmlive.com/blogs/digital_intelligence/archive/2015/february/google_to_start_responding_to_health_searches_with_treatment_information

Google to respond to health queries with treatment information

Hospitals are developing ways to ease pressure on A&E

It’s been a tough winter in A&E departments across the UK.

More patients have come through the door, many of them elderly and very ill.

But problems in discharging them home mean pressure has built up across the system, resulting in long delays for some patients in A&E.

So what solutions have hospitals found to help ease the demands on A&E?

Treatment at home

Denise Vernon can receive the treatment she needs in her own home

One idea has been to treat more people at home, freeing up hospital beds.

Denise Vernon suffers from a long term lung condition and is undergoing a course of powerful antibiotics.

Normally that would mean a two-week stay in hospital but now – twice a day – Denise is visited at her home in Manchester.

She says: “For me it is a win-win, because you get very dedicated treatment, for two hours in the day.

“But I have all the benefits of being able to relax and be at home.”

For Denise, a university lecturer, it means she can still carry on doing some work, which would be impossible if she was in hospital.

This particular project – delivering intravenous drugs at home – is run by the Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

So far nurses have treated around 300 patients over 16 months.

They believe they have saved a staggering 2,800 bed days.

GPs in A&E

GP Ged Garbutt works alongside emergency medicine doctors

But what happens when patients arrive at A&E, but could just as easily be seen by a GP?

North Manchester General has one of the busiest units in the country, treating around 100,000 patients a year.

But it is estimated that at least 15% of patients could have been treated elsewhere, perhaps by a pharmacist or a GP.

So, since August of last year, family doctors like Dr Ged Garbutt have been working along side emergency specialists at North Manchester to filter out less urgent cases.

He says it works well because of it connects primary and secondary care.

“All of the GPs working here actually work in the local practice.

“Essentially it is our patients who we are treating here in secondary care, so we understand them, we understand their needs.”

Coordinating care

Christine Laidlaw is keen to go home

At Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary (RVI), improved coordination of care is helping older patients such as 73-year-old Christine Laidlaw.

We pro-actively roam the hospital”

Dr Steve Parry, Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary

She has already been in hospital for a couple of days, after developing a chest infection and she is now ready to go home.

Christine says: “You are desperate to get in [to hospital] because you are ill.

“But then you are desperate to get out when you feel a bit better, and they start to help you, with physio and all different things.”

Some hospitals have struggled to discharge patients, particularly older people, because of problems coordinating community care.

“Delayed discharges” – also known as the less flattering “bed blocking” – feed back into A&Es, causing delays for patients waiting to be admitted.

But helping patients to go home when they are ready is not just about freeing up beds and easing pressure on busy A&E departments.

Older people stand a much better chance of making a good recovery if they are back in their own home.

So at the RVI a team of medical staff and social workers is coordinating community care to make sure there are no delays in discharging older patients from hospital.

Dr Steve Parry is an consultant geriatrician – a specialist in the care of older patients – and clinical director at the RVI.

He says: “We pro-actively roam the hospital, trying to find older people who are medically pretty good, ready-ish for discharge, or in the early stages of planning.

“We make sure that they safely get to a discharge, long before several weeks in hospital have taken place.”

The Newcastle team are helped by the fact the hospital also runs community care services, but not every hospital trust is in the same position.

These solutions save money, are better for patients and help hard-pressed A&Es.

The challenge will be to spread them across a health service that is still struggling with winter pressures.

By Dominic Hughes Health correspondent, BBC News

Source BBC News/Health http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-31447979

Hospitals are developing ways to ease pressure on A&E

UK must embrace genomics or face medicines “dark age”

Life sciences minister George Freeman calls for NHS to embrace new data and technology

George Freeman is the UK’s life sciences minister 

The UK’s NHS is at the forefront of a revolution in genomics medicines that could have a huge impact on the lives of people genetic conditions, according to the country’s life sciences minister George Freeman.

“We stand on the cusp of a once in a generation chance to maximise the potential of innovation in UK healthcare,” said Freeman, who was speaking at the Astellas Innovation Debate in London on January 29.

Freeman said the Government’s aim is to make the NHS the first mainstream health system in the world that offers genomic medicine as part of routine care for its patients.

The data compiled using this approach would enable the UK to lead research into new cures for cancer and other genetic disorders, new diagnostics and new uses for existing medicines, according to Freeman.

However, many people have concerns about the ethical implications of collecting DNA information in this way and the minister acknowledged the government and its supporters have a lot to do to get the public on its side.

“If we get it wrong, if we fail to convince patients, the public and the media of the medical benefit [of genomics medicine] we risk condemning ourselves to a slow lane of dark age medicine,” he said.

DNA mapping on the NHS

The UK’s work in the area is led by Genomics England, an organisation set up by the Government in 2013. Its main task at the moment is to map the DNA of 100,000 patients with cancers and rare genetic conditions by 2017.

Freeman described the £300m project as the “NASA of genomic medicine” that will allow genomic information to be combined with NHS medical records to create a unique “reference library” for researchers.

“The richness of that dataset can help us understand disease and tease apart the complex relationship between our genes, what happens to us in our lives, our illnesses, our predisposition to different diseases and how different people in this room will respond to the same drug, the same disease in different ways,” said Freeman.

NHS England has also set up 11 genomics centres in the country to support the ’100,000 Genomes Project’ by recruiting volunteers.

The project is set to conclude at end of 2017 but Freeman said he believes these centres will help drive UK excellence in genomic research into the future.

“When the project ends we want there to be a lasting legacy,” he said.

“I hope that in 5, 10, 15 years time we will look back and say – in the same way that President Kennedy launched the US on what seem like a crazy shot for the moon and sewed the seeds for the country’s leadership in technology over the next 30-40 years – that we laid the foundations for the NHS and this country’s life sciences sector to unleash a revolution in 21st century healthcare.”

Source PMLive http://www.pmlive.com/pharma_news/uk_must_embrace_genomics_or_face_medicines_dark_age_640316

UK must embrace genomics or face medicines “dark age”

DanMedical announce they will be exhibiting with Royal IHC (Stand 125) at the forthcoming Subsea Expo 2015, 11th-13th February, Aberdeen

Kingham, Oxfordshire, UK, 3rd February 2015

DanMedical Ltd, the leading remote healthcare telemedicine solutions provider will be demonstrating the latest 2015 specification D-MAS HyperSat Medical Monitoring System, for use in Saturation Diving, Hyperbaric Chambers and remote locations. D-MAS comes with medical software suite 2015 pre-installed and now includes Pulse CO-Oximetry using the Masimo SET finger clip sensor for SPO2 (Saturated Oxygen) as standard amongst many other features and options.

From within the chamber, D-MAS HyperSat measures the diver’s heart rhythm, blood pressure, SpO2 and core temperature. This information is transmitted from inside the chamber to a specialist doctor on-shore, who provides expert medical advice in real-time. This level of medical support is required to comply with OGP 411 – now adopted by the world’s leading energy companies.

Wireless communications enable live images and monitoring to any online location in the world, giving unprecedented levels of health surveillance and support to rig medics and divers.

Pressure tested in Heliox to 450msw verified by DNV, and in elevated oxygen to 18msw, D-MAS HyperSat delivers a full range of remote healthcare diagnostic and monitoring support options with built in clinical interpretation.

Standard functions: Blood Pressure, Resting ECG, Extended ECG, Pulse Co-Oximetry (SpO2) using Masimo SET technology, Core Temperature, Digital Imaging.

Optional functions include: Spirometry, Audiometry, a range of Digital Video Scopes and the Remote Medic Consult Database.

The team would be delighted to meet you on Royal IHC Stand 125 at Subsea Expo or to pre-arrange a demonstration please contact Sergei Sollo, details below.

Sergei Sollo

Marketing Manager

DanMedical Ltd.

sergei.sollo@danmedical.com

DanMedical.com

@DanMedical

t: +44 (0)1608 658924

m +44 (0)7836 261128

DanMedical Ltd., 12 Threshers Yard, Kingham, Oxfordshire, UK OX7 6YF

DanMedical announce they will be exhibiting with Royal IHC (Stand 125) at the forthcoming Subsea Expo 2015, 11th-13th February, Aberdeen

The FDA will not regulate your Apple Watches and Fitbits

US regulator clarifies its health wearables stance in draft guidance

 

Wearable fitness trackers and other devices that are only aimed at general wellness, and pose a very low safety risk to users, will not be regulated as medical products in the US.   

That’s according to new FDA guidance, which comes ahead of the release of the Apple Watch (pictured), whose launch this year is expected to help boost overall wearable technology sales to 91.3 million units in 2016.

The US regulator said it has been getting a steady stream of inquiries about whether particular products count as devices under the Federal Food, Drug & Cosmetic (FD&C) Act.

Moved to act the FDA has confirmed that its Center for Devices and Radiological Health “does not intend to examine low risk general wellness products to determine whether they are devices” under the Act.

Issued last week, the FDA’s draft General Wellness: Policy for Low Risk Devices guidance will, once finalised, represent the US regulator’s “current thinking” on the topic – in other words, it won’t establish legally enforceable responsibilities.

The recommendations cover products that promote a healthy lifestyle, rather than drugs, biologics, dietary supplements and so on.

Such products could include wearable technology, exercise equipment, audio recordings, video games, software programs and other products that are often, though not exclusively, available from retail outlets.

By ‘wellness products’ the FDA is looking at those that help maintain or encourage a general state of health or a healthy activity, or associate the role of healthy lifestyle with helping to reduce the risk or impact of certain chronic diseases or conditions.

As examples of such products the FDA said they might encourage healthy eating, promote physical fitness or improve mental acuity.

But the regulator was clear that products which make treatment claims, and its examples included obesity, anxiety, autism and erectile dysfunction, could not be counted as making general wellness claims.

The recommendations will now undergo a three-month consultation process, during which time comments and suggestions can be submitted online or by post to the regulator.

Source PMLive http://www.pmlive.com/blogs/digital_intelligence/archive/2015/january/the_fda_will_not_regulate_your_apple_watches_and_fitbits

The FDA will not regulate your Apple Watches and Fitbits

ICON to open global innovation hub in Ireland

Will create 200 new jobs

ICON has revealed plans to open a global innovation hub in Ireland that will focus on the development of new technologies and clinical trial processes.

The firm, which provides outsourced development services to the pharma, biotech and medical device industries, will aim for the developments to enable faster access to large volumes of clinical data and ensure a better insight from data.

Ciaran Murray, CEO of ICON, commented: “We have successfully built relationship with all of the world’s top biopharma companies and have been at the forefront of innovation in the design and conduct of global clinical trials.

“As innovation plays an increasingly important role in improving the outcomes of clinical trials, we are excited to reinforce our commitment to that goal by locating our global innovation hub in Ireland, one of the leading R&D and innovation centres in the world.”

It is thought that the opening of the hub will create 200 new jobs including positions in IT, data analytics, clinical science, project management, finance and human resources.

The project has been part-funded by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation through Enterprise Ireland.

Julie Sinnamon, CEO of Enterprise Ireland, added: “I warmly welcome this exciting new investment which will expand Ireland’s capabilities in the field of data analytics and ‘Big Data’ management in the life sciences sector and wish ICON continued success for the future.”

Source PM Live http://www.pmlive.com/pharma_news/icon_to_open_global_innovation_hub_in_ireland_642410

ICON to open global innovation hub in Ireland