Tuesday 31 March 2015

Google and J&J team up for robotic surgery

Two firms looking to revolutionise medical technology


Google HQ 


Johnson & Johnson’s medical device subsidiary Ethicon has signed a deal with technology giant Google to develop new surgical robotics to benefit surgeons, patients and healthcare systems.


In a joint statement the two companies said they would bring together capabilities, intellectual property and expertise to create an “innovative robotic-assisted surgical platform capable of integrating advanced technologies with the goal of improving health care delivery in the operating room”.


The collaboration was facilitated by Johnson & Johnson‘s Innovation group in California – financial details have not been disclosed.


Robotic-assisted surgery is a type of minimally invasive surgery that uses technology to give surgeons greater control, access and accuracy during the surgical procedure while benefitting patients by minimising trauma and scarring, enabling accelerated post-surgical healing.


The companies are seeking to develop new robotic tools and capabilities for surgeons and operating room professionals that integrate best-in-class medical device technology with leading-edge robotic systems, imaging and data analytics.


Gary Pruden, worldwide chairman and global surgery group at Johnson & Johnson, said: “For more than 60 years, Ethicon has developed products and technologies that have transformed the way surgery is done.


“This collaboration with Google is another important step in our commitment to advancing surgical care, and together, we aim to put the best science, technology and surgical know-how in the hands of medical teams around the world.”


The transaction is expected to close during the second quarter of 2015.


The life sciences part of the so-called ‘Google X’ research lab last year unveiled projects in genomic data and nano-diagnostics led by Andrew Conrad, a co-founder of the National Genomics Institute.


In 2013 Google also launched its healthcare division Calico – an abbreviation for the ‘California Life Company’ – which is being led and invested in by Arthur Levinson, chairman and former chief executive of Genentech and current chairman of Google’s rival internet firm Apple.


The firm is looking to counteract the affects of ageing and also help develop new devices and even medicines to help across a variety of conditions.


Source PMLive http://www.pmlive.com/pharma_news/google_and_j_and_j_team_up_for_robotic_surgery_697451




Google and J&J team up for robotic surgery

Friday 27 March 2015

NHS to trial innovations in 'test beds'



NHS England is calling for healthcare innovators from across the world to trial new technologies and digital services at working NHS sites.


NHS England is calling for healthcare innovators from across the world to trial new technologies and digital services at working NHS sites.


Organisations from industry, the voluntary sector or even the NHS itself have until 29 May to apply to the scheme, which allows advances in healthcare to be tested in a clinical setting at one of several ‘test bed’ sites.


According to NHS England, the aim is to evaluate the impact of new technologies, such as wearable devices, in the real world rather than in isolation where innovations can be “implemented without rigour and discipline, generating little evidence”.


The scheme is part of the NHS Five Year Forward View, a plan for the future of the NHS launched by chief executive Simon Stevens at the end of 2014.


Stevens’ said the innovation project is part of an NHS England ambition is to become the “best place on the planet to test new combinations of innovations that produce clear payoffs for patients and taxpayers”.


“We’ll never be the system that pays the highest prices, [but] we could be the health service most open to new and better ways of providing care.”


NHS England will partner with the 15 academic health science networks on the programme, which plans to identify five test bed sites that that will receive national support.


These sites may include combinations of GPs, hospitals, community health teams, social care and the voluntary sector, and they must be able to implement innovations on a large scale and collect evidence on improvements in patient outcomes.


A prospectus for innovators published by NHS England says: “We are seeking to test innovations that offer the prospect of improving health and healthcare outcomes at the same or lower overall cost; in other words, high value innovations.


“We do not wish to over-define the potential range of innovations at this stage, although clearly those that offer the highest potential to address the big challenges in health and care will stand the best chance of inclusion in the national programme.”


Priorities defined by the NHS include preventing illness and improving health and wellbeing; supporting people to effectively manage multiple long term conditions such as hypertension, diabetes and mental illness; helping people to live better for longer and with greater independence in old age; improving diagnostic services; and optimising the use of medication.


NHS England also highlighted the growing importance of the Internet of Things when considering healthcare innovations by stating UK-based consortia focused on IoT technologies are invited to apply.


“Maximising the use of digital technology and data, both in the delivery of services to patients and the ability of test bed partners to track outcomes and evaluate success, will be a key criteria on which bidders will be judged,” said the NHS England statement.


Once the first round of applications has been assessed there will be a ‘matchmaking’ period over the summer of 2015, where potential test bed NHS bodies will be able to discuss partnership opportunities with innovators.


Following this process, innovators and NHS bodies will be encouraged to develop joint proposals for testing and evaluating innovations and the strongest proposals will be designated as national test beds by the end of 2015.


These initiatives will be supported through a combination of national sponsorship, assistance with implementation barriers and a limited amount of investment.


Rachel Munton, chair of the network of AHSNs, said the group was “delighted to play our part in supporting local health and care systems to take advantage of this exciting opportunity”.


Life sciences minister George Freeman said the programme will help with “unlocking the potential of the world’s only fully integrated health system as the ultimate platform for assessing the real value of innovations”.


“By doing this we open the door to making the UK once again the best place in the world to invest in and develop medical innovations.”


Source 27 March 2015   Thomas Meek EHI http://www.ehi.co.uk/news/EHI/9947/nhs-to-trial-innovations-in-’test-beds’



NHS to trial innovations in 'test beds'

Thursday 26 March 2015

'No compromise on Health and Safety in the Offshore sector'


No Compromise


The impacts of falling oil prices is having a wide ranging effect in the UK – from the lower cost of filling up the car to people’s livelihoods being under threat.


It is inevitable companies seek to adapt to rapidly changing circumstances and the decisions they are being forced to make are tough ones. It’s actually a stress test of leadership and senior management.


Part of that test is whether company decision makers have all the relevant information to make informed decisions.


How can they?


At the very least they have to make assumptions about what the future will look like. In this case, how long oil prices will stay at these levels? What decisions are competitor companies and industries taking? After all, they need to be making the right decisions for the company in the short term and for the mid to long term.


We’ve been here before, of course, in the 1990s when oil prices dropped and assumptions were made about the long term life of North Sea assets that proved to be wide of the mark. So this is a time when corporate memory really counts.


On that occasion the assumption was made that North Sea production would be wound down in the medium term and assets could afford to be neglected because they would soon be out of service. As prices rose again, the assets were called upon to continue to produce and many are now operating well beyond their original life expectancy. Doing that has required huge effort by the North Sea Oil and Gas industry to bring those neglected assets back up to the required standard.


Those who have led this effort to improve asset integrity deserve to be praised, but their voices need to continue to be heard as we go through this next difficult phase for the industry.


Cutting costs where there seems to be least tangible day-to-day effect is obviously tempting but leaders and senior managers need to pass the stress test on knowing where health and safety – and particularly process safety and asset integrity – sits in this mix.


Asset integrity must not suffer from short term expediency over where the axe falls. Leadership is critical to avoid wrong assumptions being made about the lifespan of assets, assumptions we know from previous experience can take years to reverse.


Current news headlines may be disconcerting, but I want all industries dealing with process safety to avoid inadvertently writing tomorrow’s headlines today.


Safety must not be compromised, even in tough times.


Source - Health and Safety Executive; Judith Hackett http://www.hse.gov.uk/news/judith-risk-assessment/no-compromise060215.htm



'No compromise on Health and Safety in the Offshore sector'

Wednesday 25 March 2015

Pharmacists to help England’s GPs manage patients, medicines

Comes as doctor groups fear that primary care is struggling under increasing workloads


Union Jack flagPharmacists are set to work across England’s GP surgeries in a radical move designed to ease pressures on general practice and improve patient care.


The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) have come up with the plans in a bid to ease current pressures in general practice and address the severe shortage of GPs.


They say that the move will improve patient safety and care and reduce waiting times for GP appointments.


GPs and their teams are estimated to make 370 million patient consultations this year – 70 million more than five years ago – due to an ageing population and more patients being treated for long-term and complex conditions.


But as demand has risen rapidly, the number of GPs in England has remained relatively static.


By contrast there is an over-supply of pharmacists who train as clinicians for five years – one year less than a doctor, one year more than a nurse – and could step in to treat patients directly at the surgery.


The proposals would see pharmacists working as part of the general practice team, much in the same way as practice nurses.


They would work closely with GPs and other colleagues to resolve day-to-day medicine issues, particularly for patients with long-term conditions and who are taking a number of different medications. They would also liaise with hospitals, community pharmacists and care homes to ensure seamless care for patients.


With many GPs approaching retirement age, and insufficient numbers of medical graduates going into general practice to replace them, practices are struggling to meet patient demand and waiting times to see a GP are getting longer.


According to RCGP research, there will be 67 million occasions during 2015 when patients will have to wait a week or more to see a GP or practice nurse.


Dr Maureen Baker, Chair of the RCGP, said: “Waiting times for a GP appointment are now a national talking point – and a national cause for concern, not least amongst GPs themselves.


“But, even if we were to get an urgent influx of extra funding and more GPs, we could not turn around the situation overnight due to the length of time it takes to train a GP.


“Yet we already have a ‘hidden army’ of highly-trained pharmacists who could provide a solution.


“Patients with long-term conditions such as asthma or diabetes with complex medicine needs would particularly benefit from having a pharmacist to help them navigate the conflicting and confusing information they sometimes receive about their treatment as they move between hospital and community care.


“Practice teams can also benefit from a pharmacist’s advice to help avoid medicines waste, improve the management of medicines and rationalise costs at this time of a squeeze on NHS finances.”


Source PMLive http://www.pmlive.com/pharma_news/pharmacists_to_help_englands_gps_manage_patients,_medicines_681863




Pharmacists to help England’s GPs manage patients, medicines

Friday 13 March 2015

Technology to be central to NHS ‘re-invention,’ says NHS England CEO








“Getting tech and information right over the next five years is going to be essential to the transformation that we need”






£200m worth of funding for new care models as ‘Five Year Forward’ changes start


[London, UK] – NHS England says it has taken the first steps toward making its ‘Five Year Forward’ transformation plan, which will see a much bigger role for technology, a reality.


This week, the body has detailed how 29 pilot areas will start implementing suggestions for better ways of working from nurses, doctors and other care professionals.


These so-called ‘vanguard’ sites will be using a new £200 million transformation fund and tailored national support, says NHS England, in a move that could directly impact as many as five million patients in the next few months.


Changes are expected to range from fewer trips to hospitals as cancer and dementia specialists and GPs work in new teams, moves to a single point of access for family doctors, as well as access to tests, dialysis or chemotherapy much closer to home – with the use of digital technology to redesign care specifically identified as one of the main ways this will be done.


One vanguard project, for example, will see care home residents in Airedale in West Yorkshire being given access to health care through telemedicine.


Radical redesign


“We’re backing radical care redesign by frontline nurses, doctors and other staff – in partnership with their patients and local communities,” claimed Simon Stevens, the Chief Executive of NHS England, while David Flory, Chief Executive of the NHS Trust Development Authority, added that, “With the support announced today there is an opportunity to develop better health and care services that will be built to thrive long into the future.”


Speaking at last week’s UK e-Health Week conference in London, Stevens told delegates that no industry had ever reinvented itself on the scale required by the NHS without having a strong technological underpinning, which means “getting tech and information right over the next five years is going to be essential to the transformation that we need”.


Source HIMSS Europe http://www.hitcentral.eu/british-journal-healthcare-computing/technology-be-central-nhs-%E2%80%98re-invention%E2%80%99-says-nhs-england-ceo






Technology to be central to NHS ‘re-invention,’ says NHS England CEO

Thursday 12 March 2015

Nursing tech fund 2 awards announced


Electronic observations and mobile access projects are the big winners from the second round of NHS England’s Nursing Technology Fund, with 62 organisations splitting £35 million in funding.


NHS England has also suggested that it may be able to hand out further awards as a result of savings from procurement discussions with suppliers.


The organisation received 276 applications for the second round of the fund, which launched last November and closed a month later.


It named the successful awards yesterday, with electronic observations projects the biggest winners from the latest round with 20 projects receiving a total of £14.9 million between them.


Mobile access to digital care records across the community also appears to be a high-priority area, with £7.2 million split between 14 projects, while 11 projects for the digital capture of clinical data at the point of care have shared £7.1 million in funding.


In total, seven trusts or organisations received the highest award size of £1 million: 2gether NHS Foundation Trust, Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, Marie Curie Cancer Care, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, and The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust.


NHS England said it had “pursued a number of opportunities to support [sic] local providers achieve ‘value for money’ in their procurement activity”, allowing it to stretch the funding further and consider further awards in 2015-16.


Successful and unsuccessful applicants will be able to access a number of catalogues developed to achieve better pricing for the procurement of mobile devices, while NHS England said it has also secured savings for electronic observations solutions.


Last November, the Department of Health announced that over a third of the £100 million due to be on offer through the fund was being withheld until it could “learn lessons from this initial investment” and consider a potential third round of funding.


In a statement at the time, a DH spokesperson told EHI that “decisions about the third phase of the roll-out will be made once lessons have been learned from this initial investment, allowing the fund to build on other improvements in technology that the NHS is delivering.”


The Nursing Technology Fund was launched in autumn 2011 by Prime Minister David Cameron, and was taken over by NHS England in April the following year.


The first round of bidding secured 226 applications from 139 trusts, 74 of which were successful in winning £30 million for 80 projects.


Source EHI 12 March 2015   Sam Sachdeva http://www.ehi.co.uk/news/ehi/9738/%C2%A335m-held-back-from-nursing-tech-fund-2



Nursing tech fund 2 awards announced

Monday 9 March 2015

FDA launches drug shortages mobile app

US regulator offers the public and HCPs Android and iPhone versions of the app


Digital pharmaRecognising the need to provide the public and healthcare professionals with easier access to information on drug shortages the FDA has launched its first mobile app dedicated to the subject.  


The US regulator’s Drug Shortages app, available in free Android and iPhone versions, identify current shortages, those that have been resolved and drugs that have been discontinued.


The apps can be used to report a suspected shortage or supply issue directly to the FDA, as well as to search or browse by a drug’s generic name or active ingredient, and browse by therapeutic category.


Valerie Jensen, associate director of the Drug Shortage Staff in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said: “The FDA understands that healthcare professionals and pharmacists need real-time information about drug shortages to make treatment decisions.


“The new mobile app is an innovative tool that will offer easier and faster access to important drug shortage information.”


The app’s development is part of the FDA‘s ongoing efforts to reduce the effects of drug shortages. These have already seen the regulator create an online database of shortages that it updates on a daily basis.


Some 18 months ago the FDA unveiled a strategic plan to tackle drug shortages, after a 2011 order from President Barack Obama to deal with a spate of shortage of crucial drugs, including cancer medicines over the last decade.


The FDA’s 2013 plan required manufacturers to provide it with early notice of any discontinuance or interruption of manufacturing likely to disrupt the supply of important prescription drugs.


Between 2005 and 2011 the number of shortages quadrupled to 251. The focus by the FDA on the problem quickly saw some improvements, with just 117 shortages in 2012, but clearly there’s still more to be done.


Source PMLive http://www.pmlive.com/blogs/digital_intelligence/archive/2015/march/fda_launches_drug_shortages_mobile_app




FDA launches drug shortages mobile app

Thursday 5 March 2015

Healthcare boundaries 'being erased,' says PwC; technology is eradicating person-to-person interaction

Reports claims technology is eradicating person-to-person interaction



edit-pwc_ad_700The ‘virtualisation’ of healthcare is creating a new breed of company – often from emerging economies – that is turning the sector on its head, says a new report.


New mobile, digital and wireless technologies have created a new kind of consumer that no longer relies on the person-to-person interaction that has traditionally been the nexus of healthcare, and erasing healthcare boundaries as they “enable care anywhere,” according to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).




Stepping up to meet those needs are a number of new entrants who are “pioneering pathways into virtual healthcare, more affordable and convenient care options, wellness and fitness, and more,” it says.




The $9.59tn global healthcare market is receptive to innovations, according to the authors of the report, who note “consumers want a healthcare experience that mirrors the convenience and transparency of banking, retail & other services.”




The report also points to a ‘democratisation of healthcare’ which means for example that “a pregnant woman in India can receive pertinent health messages on her mobile device that offer instructions for prenatal care and alerts on what symptoms might require attention.”




In emerging markets surveyed by PwC – namely Brazil, China, India, South Africa and Turkey – more than half (54%) of respondents expect that mobile health applications and services will improve the quality of healthcare they receive in the next three years.




Developed economies are also open to change, with 52% of Canadians saying mobile health technologies will improve access to care and 43% of Germans indicating they would accept healthcare from non-traditional providers.




The new entrants include some well-known groups that have traditionally operated outside healthcare – such as Coca-Cola bottling company FEMSA that is making waves running retail pharmacies in Mexico or Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin which has pushed into health and social care services in the UK – as well as healthcare specialists who are pushing into new categories.




Much of the new activity is coming from emerging economies, however, where urgent healthcare needs and a less regulated environment makes it easier for new, disruptive technologies to claim a foothold.




“New entrants are disrupting the healthcare industry globally and are helping to spur the rise of a new kind of healthcare consumer,” notes Vaughn Kauffman, who led the project at PwC and believes rising healthcare costs and limited access to care is driving the change.




“We’re seeing new entrants in health crossing national borders and forging symbiotic partnerships with traditional players, overturning old paradigms as they introduce greater choice and innovative health solutions.”


Source PM Live http://www.pmlive.com/pharma_news/healthcare_boundaries_being_erased,_says_pwc_668579





Healthcare boundaries 'being erased,' says PwC; technology is eradicating person-to-person interaction