Tuesday 26 May 2015

New pharmacy rules 'should reduce dispensing mistakes'


 




Medicine bottles in a pharmacy
Seven patient deaths have been linked to mistakes made by high street chemists since 2009

Health ministers want to introduce an airline-style error reporting system for the UK’s high street pharmacies.


The government hopes it will provide more accurate information about the number of mistakes being made.


Voluntary reporting by pharmacists shows 10,000 medication errors a year, out of a billion prescriptions issued.


But academic research suggests that a quarter of a million patients are given the wrong medicine every year, with a million more so-called “near misses”.


Seven patient deaths have been linked to high street chemists since 2009.



There are 36,750 high street or community pharmacists in the UK. According to support groups, an increasing number of them are feeling stressed due to the pressure of ever-rising numbers of prescriptions.


Under the Medicines’ Act, pharmacists face criminal charges if they own up to making a mistake.


But under the system proposed by ministers, if they made a genuine mistake that harmed someone they would not face prosecution.


The Department of Health is currently considering a consultation about the proposed law change.


It said: “Encouraging pharmacists and their teams to come forward when they do make mistakes means that patients get better, safer care.


“Pharmacy professionals will learn from mistakes and prevent them from happening again.


“By decriminalising mistakes we will promote a more open culture of transparency.”


Dawn Britton, a 62-year-old from Bristol, died in 2013 after going into a hypoglycaemic coma.


Dawn Britton (l) and her daughter Tammy Haskins
Tammy Haskins is angry that no one has been prosecuted for her mother Dawn Britton’s death

She passed away weeks after her pharmacist wrongly dispensed diabetes drugs, instead of tablets for her Crohn’s Disease.


Her daughter Tammy Haskins told the BBC 5 live Investigates programme there was no point changing the law as no one had faced prosecution in her mother’s case.


“The CPS looked at it twice, and both times they said it was not in the public’s interest to prosecute,” she told the programme.


“I feel angry no one’s accountable for my mother’s death.”


The last NHS report into pharmacy dispensing errors, published in 2007 said that, in England and Wales, there were 113,953 “near misses” and 20,361 “dispensing errors.”


These figures represent 0.1% (near misses), and 0.02% (dispensing errors) of all prescriptions issued.


But in the same year another study in the International Journal of Pharmacy Practice which looked at 11 UK community pharmacies put the error rate for prescriptions dispensed to be as high as 3%.


‘Duty of care’


And voluntary reporting by pharmacists to the NHS under the current system shows only 10,000 medication mistakes a year, out of a billion prescriptions issued.


The Department for Health now wants to encourage candour by introducing a “no-fault” reporting system where blunders could be reported more freely.


But lawyers are sceptical that the changes would bring about significant improvements in safety.


Renu Daly from Neil Hudgell Solicitors represented Dawn Britton’s family.


“These proposals will have a very limited impact on the protection of the public, or on ensuring the safe supply of medication is better regulated,” she said.


“They will simply protect pharmacists from any kind of external scrutiny and accountability, and that would be a dangerous route to take.”


According to the NHS National Reporting and Learning System, the vast majority of mistakes did not hurt anyone, but last year 1,200 people did suffer some harm because of a medication error.


In 2014 there were three deaths linked to community pharmacies. One of them was 83-year-old Edlie Masters.


Edlie Masters
Edlie Masters’ family argues that pharmacists should face prosecution for serious mistakes

He died when a pharmacist delivered a blood pressure drug to his house instead of paracetamol.


His son Leon said the government should leave the law alone.


“If you don’t have the threat of prosecution in place, it is giving pharmacists a right – ‘if I do make a mistake, nothing is going to happen to me’,” he explained.


“Accidents do happen, but they have a duty of care as well to you as a customer handing over prescriptions to you.”


Learning lessons


But Ash Soni, president of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, insists the proposed law change will improve patient safety.


“Pharmacists take the responsibility for the safe and correct supply of medicines to patients extremely seriously,” he said.


“Sadly, mistakes occasionally happen and, when they do, we must be open with patients and do everything we can to stop them happening again.


“The proposed changes will increase accountability through greater reporting of errors and improve patient safety by sharing the learning from errors across the profession.”


Pharmacist Support chief executive Diane Leicester-Hallam said that more and more pharmacists are coming to her organisation for help.


“Around three quarters of all calls to our stress helpline, Listening Friends, relate to work,” she told the programme.


“Enquiries include pressures to meet targets, staffing levels and increasing numbers of prescriptions.”


Source BBC News/Health By Claire Savage 5 live Investigates http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-32832536




New pharmacy rules 'should reduce dispensing mistakes'

Friday 22 May 2015

Quarter of skin cells 'on road to cancer'

Sun bathing


More than a quarter of a middle-aged person’s skin may have already made the first steps towards cancer, a study suggests.


Analysis of samples from 55- to 73-year-olds found more than 100 DNA mutations linked to cancer in every 1 sq cm (0.1 sq in) of skin.


The team, at the Sanger Institute, near Cambridge, said the results were “surprising”.


Experts said prevention was the best defence against damage from the sun.


Skin cancer is one of the most common cancers.



Ultraviolet-radiation from sunlight bombards our skin and transforms it from healthy to cancerous tissue.


Seeds of cancer


Many of the mutations that culminate in skin cancer are already known, but the team wanted to know when they first started to appear.


The researchers analysed excess skin that had been removed from the eyelids of four patients.


They then drilled down deeply into the skin’s DNA to discover the very first steps being taken on the journey to cancer.


Dr Peter Campbell, the head of cancer genetics at Sanger, told the BBC News website: “The most surprising thing is just the scale, that a quarter to a third of cells had these cancerous mutations is way higher than we’d expect, but these cells are functioning normally.”


However, it would take multiple mutations – nobody is sure exactly how many – to culminate in a tumour.


Couple on the beach

The results, published in the journal Science, did show there were some subtle changes in the way the mildly mutated cells were behaving.


They were growing more quickly than other skin cells.


Dr Campbell said: “It certainly changes my sun worshipping, but I don’t think we should be terrified.


“It drives home the message that these mutations accumulate throughout life, and the best prevention is a lifetime of attention to the damage from sun exposure.”


The findings may be a warning to people trying to develop new cancer drugs, which often target the changes that make a cancer “unique”.


“We have not really had any insight into whether those cancerous changes occur in normal cells as well, a treatment that kills 20-30% of normal cells would potentially be a lot of collateral damage,” Dr Campbell said.


Dr Bav Shergill, from the British Association of Dermatologists, said: “Whilst the body’s immune system can prove quite effective at removing mutated cells, it is important to remember that some of cells aren’t removed and mutate into cancers.


“Prevention is the first line of defence; wearing protective clothing, seeking shade and choosing a sunscreen with an SPF [sun protection factor] of at least 30 are all good sun safety practices.”


Dr Alan Worsley, from Cancer Research UK, said: “Research like this could help uncover which specific mistakes are more likely to push a damaged skin cell into becoming a cancer.


“Although we all need some sun, avoid sunburn and skin damage when the sun is strong by spending time in the shade, covering up with clothing and using plenty of sunscreen with at least SPF 15 and four or more stars.”


Source BBC News/Health http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-32818285



Quarter of skin cells 'on road to cancer'

Thursday 21 May 2015

UK ramps up online access to GP services

Number of practices offering services like appointments via the internet tripled in first three months of 2015


Doctors 


Almost every GP surgery in England now offers a basic range of services online, according to new figures from NHS England.


This follows a spike in the number of GPs offering appointments, repeat prescriptions and access to summary information in medical records online, which tripled in the first three months of this year.


Beverley Bryant, director of digital technology for NHS England, said: “Many patients want the flexibility of booking services online so we are delighted that GPs have worked so hard to make this possible. There is more to come as we develop services that will increasingly help patients take more control of their health.”


Data from the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) shows that over 97% of patients in England now have access to online services, a huge increase from the 3% in April 2014.


Dr Masood Nazir, GP and national clinical lead for NHS England’s PatientOnline programme, said: “Online services help to make patients’ lives easier and can reduce the paperwork for those in general practice. As GPs offer more online access we will continue to work closely with them to ensure they feel confident these services deliver real benefits for their patients.”


The government has ambitious plans to offer everyone in the UK online access to their full health records but, in addition to the inevitable questions about data security that will have to be answered, it will also have to overcome the ‘digital divide’.


There are still 10 million people who do not have access to the internet and 4 million of these people are the most socially and economically disadvantaged in the country.


Meanwhile, NHS England will put the emphasis on patients to go online. To use the GP services currently available via the internet NHS England is encouraging patients to ask their GP surgery to set-up their online access next time they visit.


Nevertheless, the announcement of greater online service coverage was welcomed by doctors leaders, who said moving administrative services online could ultimately lead to better patient care.


Dr Imran Rafi, chair of the Clinical Innovation and Research Centre at the Royal College of General Practitioners and lead for the RCGP Patient Online programme, said: “Services such as online appointment booking and online repeat prescription requests offer patients greater choice over how they interact with their GP practice – and it is very encouraging that the vast majority of patients now have some form of online access to their practice.


“We hope that Patient Online will make our patients’ lives easier and, in time, help to reduce the administrative burden on practices so that all members of the practice team are able to focus more of their time on frontline patient care.”


And, speaking to PMLiVE last year, life sciences minister George Freeman said both the NHS and pharma should be looking to digital technology to help the health service make the billions in savings needed over the coming years.


Source PMLive http://www.pmlive.com/blogs/digital_intelligence/archive/2015/may/uk_ramps_up_online_access_to_gp_services_741284




UK ramps up online access to GP services

Monday 18 May 2015

NHS England chief: cash shortages could hit plans for seven-day health service





Simon Stevens, appearing with the PM at his NHS speech, warns that other changes could take priority at a time of funding shortfalls







Hospital staff

 Health unions have threatened to strike over Cameron’s plans to create a seven-day-a-week health service if the initiative cuts existing payments for working antisocial hours. Photograph: Peter Byrne/P



The head of the NHS in England has warned that its financial problems could hamper the government’s plans to introduce a seven-day health service, as a former health minister said they were unachievable without a significant funding boost.





Simon Stevens, the chief executive of NHS England, warned that progress towards seven-day services may not be a priority because of cash shortages and the need to make other changes.


His comments came as a former Liberal Democrat health minister, Norman Lamb, claimed that David Cameron’s plan could not be delivered within the service’s existing budget and would need even more money than the £8bn extra by 2020 the Conservatives have already pledged. Health unions have threatened strike action if workers’ benefits for working anti-social hours are cut.


Cameron used his first major speech since his re-election to guarantee care to patients “wherever they are and whenever they need it”.


Speaking at a GP surgery in the West Midlands on Monday, he promised more GPs, faster access to new drugs and treatments and a greater focus on mental health and healthy living. A GP access fund, which will ensure that 18 million patients will have access to a GP in the evenings and at weekends, will be expanded to ensure that more seven-day access will be available.


Cameron said: “It’s a shocking fact, but mortality rates for patients admitted to hospital on a Sunday can be 16% higher than on a Wednesday, while the biggest numbers of seriously ill patients arrive at the weekend when hospitals are least well equipped to handle them. So seven-day care isn’t just about a better service – it’s about saving lives.”


But Stevens, speaking alongside the prime minister, sounded a note of caution about Cameron’s pledge by pointing out that expanding NHS services when it was facing a £30bn budget gap would take time.


“We’ll need careful and disciplined phasing of our ambition to expand services – be it improved cancer care, mental health, primary care, seven-day services – all of which we want to do,” he said.



Stevens’s comments are significant, given the close relationship he enjoys with Cameron, the chancellor, George Osborne, and health secretary, Jeremy Hunt. All have backed Stevens’s blueprint for the service’s future, the NHS Five Year Forward View, and have pledged to find the £8bn of extra funding by 2020 he says is the minimum needed to keep the service sustainable.


Stevens’s public dampening-down of expectations follows concerns raised by health thinktanks that political parties’ promises made during the election to give patients easier access to key NHS services were not realistic.


Labour pledged to reinstate patients’ right to see a GP within 48 hours, despite a chronic and growing shortage of family doctors, for example. Dr Mark Porter, the leader of the British Medical Association, criticised the “outlandish and unrealistic election pledges” made by all the parties.


Speaking to the Guardian before Cameron’s speech, Lamb, a contender to succeed Nick Clegg as Liberal Democrat leader, said the plans could not be delivered in the current budget. “The idea that you can just achieve this without additional resources is just fanciful,” he said.


Lamb backed the ambition of a 24/7 NHS. “There’s a moral obligation to do this. The bottom line is that you can’t justify [having] different survival rates depending [on] whether you fall seriously ill on a weekday or at the weekend.”


But, he added, the extra capacity the NHS would need to become fully operational across all seven days – especially the extra staff involved – could not be achieved within the service’s budget, even though it has gone up by £3.1bn this year and will rise each year until 2020.


“No, the seven-day NHS can’t be delivered within existing resources. It needs additional resourcing. At the moment we are well staffed through five days but have a lower staffing ratio on the weekends, and that would have to change.”


Unison, the biggest health union, warned that it would ballot its members on strike action if a seven-day-a-week NHS operation was to be funded by cutting staff pay.


The Royal College of Nursing chief executive, Peter Carter, also warned that nurses would resist any changes to payments they receive for working outside office hours. Speaking to the Independent, Carter said: “The membership is quite clear: unsocial hours, weekend working, Christmas Day and bank holidays – they get a very modest higher level of remuneration. Any attack on that and I do fear it would result in industrial action.”


The health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, accused the unions of “jumping the gun”. He told BBC1’s Breakfast: “We haven’t made any proposals whatsoever about changing nurses’ terms and conditions … Eight days into a new government, I hope you’ll forgive me if I don’t negotiate on air about every single aspect of doctors’ and nurses’ conditions. That’s not our proposal.”


During the election campaign the Conservatives said they supported a plan produced by the NHS England chief executive, Simon Stevens, to fill a funding gap estimated at £30bn a year by 2020.


The BMA council chairman, Dr Mark Porter, said: “Crucially, the £8bn promised by the prime minister is the bare minimum needed for the NHS to simply stand still and will not pay for extra services.


“The real question for the government is how they plan to deliver additional care when the NHS is facing a funding gap of £30bn and there is a chronic shortage of GPs and hospital doctors, especially in acute and emergency medicine, where access to 24-hour care is vital.


“Without the answer to these questions this announcement is empty headline-grabbing and shows that, even after polling day, politicians are still avoiding the difficult questions and continuing to play games with the NHS.”


Hunt acknowledged that seven-day working would involve “some extra cost, which we will have to find”, but said it might be more cost-effective, for example, to boost capacity by using existing operating theatres at weekends, rather than building new facilities to use Monday to Friday.


Pressed on whether the government would be committing any extra money to the NHS, Hunt told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “If you look at what the prime minister is saying today he said ‘a minimum of £8bn’.”


Source The Guardian http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/may/18/health-unions-threaten-to-strike-if-seven-day-nhs-means-pay-cuts





NHS England chief: cash shortages could hit plans for seven-day health service

Friday 15 May 2015

Sobi launches disease awareness app with UK hospital

Pharma firm links with GOSH on helping children with haemophilia


Apple iPhones 


Pharma firm Sobi has teamed up with the UK’s leading children’s hospital Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) to help patients with a rare bleeding disorder. 


The firm says that children living with haemophilia sometimes have a hard time talking about their condition, or describing the implications the disease has on their life.


Sobi says to help with this it has, with the support of consultant nurse Dr Kate Khair and her team at GOSH, developed the ‘Magic Movie Maker’.


Now being introduced in the UK, the free iPad app has been created to enable children to enlighten others about what it means to live with haemophilia.


Dr Khair said: “For children with haemophilia, breaking the stigma and being able to live as normal a life as possible is as important as an effective treatment. The app is a great initiative, and I am very happy that it is now available.


Haemophilia is a rare condition that almost exclusively affects boys. A reduced or missing coagulation factor in the blood impairs the body’s capacity for blood clotting, which essentially means that injuries take a longer time to heal, and people with haemophilia can experience bleeding episodes that cause pain, irreversible joint damage and life-threatening haemorrhages. The disease is mainly treated by injection of the missing factor.


Sobi said in a statement that because the condition is so rare, most people who encounter children with haemophilia do not know what haemophilia is, how it is treated or how it affects the child’s life. Nor is it an easy topic for a child to bring into a conversation, the firm added.


Children with the disease can feel isolated and different having a condition that few friends understand and adults can be hesitant to invite a child with haemophilia into their home for fear of accidents.


Philip Wood, VP of commercial head haemophilia at Sobi, said: “Sobi is committed to supporting the haemophilia community beyond developing pharmaceuticals. We wanted to create a playful, positive way for children to share their experiences of living with haemophilia.


“The Magic Movie Maker is a way for kids to have fun while sharing their experiences of what it is like to live with haemophilia.”


Source PMLive http://www.pmlive.com/pharma_news/sobi_launches_disease_awareness_app_with_uk_hospital_737125




Sobi launches disease awareness app with UK hospital

Wednesday 13 May 2015

Doctors do get mobile, says the BMJ.com

And this year the site’s morning traffic saw mobile overtake desktop for the first time


Digital pharmaOne of the lessons the BMJ has learned in its 20 years of being online is that doctors do get mobile.


That was according to BMJ.com editor David Payne, who appeared at the PM Society’s recent Digital Works meeting in London to explain how the BMJ engages with healthcare professionals using technology and digital channels.


He said that that the number of doctors accessing the BMJ’s website via a mobile device rose from 14% in April 2014 to 17% in April 2015, though tablet usage remained static during this period at 8% of users.


However, this year the site’s mobile users overtook those viewing the BMJ.com on a desktop between 7-9am for the first time.


Source PMLive http://www.pmlive.com/blogs/digital_intelligence/archive/2015/may/doctors_do_get_mobile,_says_the_bmj.com_734218




Doctors do get mobile, says the BMJ.com

Monday 11 May 2015

Mid-sized European biotechs ‘need more support’

New report finds that the industry is fairing better in the US than in the EU


EU flag  


The European bio-pharmaceutical sector faces a range of challenges that need to be addressed if the sector is to flourish, according to the European pharma trade group EFPIA.


In a new report commissioned by EFPIA and compiled by Charles River Associates (CRA), the authors were asked to explore the extent to which barriers to growth exist, and to what extent companies of different sizes face a variety of challenges in raising capital to fund R&D.


The report: Access to finance and barriers to growth in the innovative biopharmaceuticals sector, examines the gap between Europe and the US in terms of growth of companies in the sector, and the underlying causes.


Its authors underscore the point that growth rates of mid-sized European-based companies “lie substantially” below those of US counterparts.


While Europe has a similar number of biopharmaceutical companies investing between €100m and €999m and even over €1bn annually in R&D, there are significantly fewer companies in Europe investing in the €30-99m range.


This happens irrespective of the fact that quality and quantity of fundamental research is broadly similar in the EU and the US.


A lack of private venture capital to fund early, loss-making development phases of proof of concept and essential safety testing in the EU has been identified as a major factor for this discrepancy. Yet equally importantly, these European funding shortfalls extend to other sources of finance used in later stage development.


The traditional model for funding this sector came from investment firms and venture capitalists (VCs) that had plenty of money to invest in risky – but potentially highly rewarding – life science start-ups.


But VCs both in the UK and globally have become less prone to risk since 2007, as the banking crisis that led to the financial crash was due in part to high-risk financial ventures.


This means more VCs have shied away from making bigger investments and this has decimated the sector in Europe, as traditionally biotech lives and dies by this type of funding.


They have come back in the US – in fact 2014 saw something of a boom in this area – but this investment level is not being matched in Europe.


The report’s authors add that public funding sources in Europe are providing investment support for companies, but historically this has mostly focused on the earliest stages of their development and on particular types of company.


Source PMLive http://www.pmlive.com/pharma_news/mid-sized_european_biotechs_need_more_support_731891




Mid-sized European biotechs ‘need more support’

Friday 8 May 2015

Prescribing costs jump in England

New report finds that asthma and diabetes drugs the most costly to the NHS


Pills 


New research into the primary care prescribing trends in England and Wales NHS has shown and increase in both prescriptions and costs in 2014.


The report, General Practice Prescribing Trends in England & Wales, 2014 Annual Review, found that the asthma treatment Ventolin (albuterol) by A&H was last year the most prescribed pharmaceutical brand by healthcare professionals working in general practice in England and Wales.


The drug had 8.8 million scripts written, according to the new report by media and marketing services company Cogora.


Cogora also found that the third most prescribed brand, GlaxoSmithKline’s respiratory drug Seretide (with 3.6 million scripts written), costs the NHS the largest amount of money, with a net ingredient cost (NIC) of £178m.


The total cost of medicines used in primary care in the NHS in England and Wales rose from £8.91bn in 2013 to 9.16bn in 2014.


After Seretide, another respiratory drug from AstraZeneca – Symbicort – saw the second highest spend with £89m, while Novo Nordisk’s insulin NovoRapid came in third with the NHS spending £75m on the drug. Sanofi’s insulin Lantus was also a close fourth, with £72.7m spent on the drug last year.


Overall, the disease areas associated with the highest cost to the NHS were discovered to be: diabetes drugs, respiratory corticosteroids, analgesics, antiepileptics and oral nutrition products.


NIC costs for diabetes was £901.6m while respiratory drugs saw a spend of £754.3m.


In line with prescribing guidelines, the vast majority (82%) of prescriptions issued in general practices in England and Wales in 2014 named an ‘active ingredient’, rather than a specific pharmaceutical brand.


The proportion of prescriptions naming an active ingredient varied across regions, with the highest observed in London and the North of England (83%) and the lowest observed in Wales and the South of England (80%).


Trends in therapy areas for 2014 include a 10% increase in the total number of prescriptions issued for strong opioids, which are associated with an increased risk of addiction.


And while the level of generic prescribing was lower for certain antiepileptics (51%) compared with other therapy areas (82%), charities are currently advocating greater branded prescribing of antiepileptics due to the uncertainty associated with ensuring clinical equivalence for certain types of antiepileptics if these are supplied by different manufacturers.


There was also a 12% increase in the total NIC associated with prescriptions for nutritional supplements and paediatric milk intolerance in 2014 compared to 2013, which may reflect the publication of new UK guidance highlighting the importance of early recognition when managing cow’s milk allergy.


Source PMLive http://www.pmlive.com/pharma_news/prescribing_costs_jump_in_england_730355




Prescribing costs jump in England

Thursday 7 May 2015

IBM's Watson supercomputer to speed up cancer care

IBM's Watson


IBM’s supercomputer Watson will be used to make decisions about cancer care in 14 hospitals in the US and Canada, it has been announced.


Using computers to trawl through vast amounts of medical data speeds up the diagnosis process.


The system will help assess individual tumours and suggest which drug should be used to target them.


Doctors have welcomed the new computer which will learn from each case it examines.


“When you are dealing with cancer, it is always a race,” said Dr Lukas Wartman, assistant director of cancer genomics at the McDonnell Genome Institute at Washington University in St. Louis, one of those signed up to use the Watson system.


 ”As a cancer patient myself, I know how important genomic information can be.

“Unfortunately, translating cancer-sequencing results into potential treatment options often takes weeks with a team of experts to study just one patient’s tumour and provide results to guide treatment decisions. Watson appears to help dramatically reduce that timeline,” he explained.


Pressing issue


Chemotherapy session
There could be alternatives to the standard treatments for cancer

Most people currently diagnosed with cancer will receive surgery, chemotherapy or radiation treatment.


But as genetic sequencing becomes increasingly accessible and affordable, some patients are starting to benefit from treatments that target their specific cancer-causing genetic mutations.


However the process is very time-consuming – a single patient’s genome represents more than 100 gigabytes of data – and this needs to be combined with other medical records, journal studies and information about clinical trials.


What would take a clinician weeks to analyse can be completed by Watson in only a few minutes.


“The technology that we’re applying to this challenge brings the power of cognitive computing to bear on one of the most urgent and pressing issues of our time – the fight against cancer – in a way that has never before been possible,” explained Steve Harvey, vice president of IBM Watson Health.


According to Mr Harvey, Watson “will look for actionable targets”, although he acknowledged that, “when institutions do genetic sequencing, only about half the cases come back with something actionable”.


Sometimes it is impossible to identify the main mutation and, in other cases, no targeted therapy currently exists.


Those collaborating with IBM include the Cleveland Clinic, the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Centre in Omaha and the Yale Cancer Centre.


Eleven others will join the programme by the end of 2015 and each will pay an undisclosed subscription fee to IBM.


Corporate medicine


The link-up is part of an increasingly close relationship between the medical community and technology corporations.


Apple revealed this week that it plans to develop apps for the iPhone that will allow users to take DNA tests which may reveal which diseases and health conditions they are likely to develop


It also recently teamed up with IBM to allow the software that helps gather health data from iPhones to be used by Watson.


IBM is convinced that Watson can “help change the face of healthcare” but it has even bigger ambitions for its cognitive computing platform.


Speaking at an IBM event this week, the firm’s chief executive Ginni Rometty made a bold prediction for the technology, saying: “in the future, every decision mankind makes, every decision, is going to be informed by a cognitive system like Watson and, as a result, our lives in this world are going to be better for it.”


Source BBC News/Health http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-32607688



IBM's Watson supercomputer to speed up cancer care

Wednesday 6 May 2015

The silence on public health in the election debate - Kings Fund



David Buck

David Buck

Senior Fellow, Public Health and Inequalities





5 May 2015

As the election campaign has got into full swing, politicians have been seeking to outbid each other on funding for the NHS. And there has been extensive discussion – what do the bids mean; will they be enough; and, perhaps most importantly, when exactly will the cash be delivered?







However, there has been almost total silence on public health. Looking back, the contrast with the last election is stark. In 2010, the Conservatives were promising a Department of Public Health, the headquarters of health across government and public health – and public health even merited its own separate section in the coalition agreement. We have recently given our verdict on the coalition’s record on public health, so no more of that here.


So why is the debate so different this time round, and why does it matter? First, unlike in 2010, the polls are now showing the NHS at the top of voters’ concerns and Labour in particular have focused the debate on funding and ‘privatisation’. Second, there may be a view amongst the parties that the coalition’s public health reforms have handed over ‘the problem’ to local authorities, meaning there is less need to define a national position. Third, the coalition government’s focus on public health has not been accompanied by targets and therefore not subject to scrutiny in terms of accountability and debate. Finally, and more speculatively, parties may be concerned about appearing to take the position of a ‘nanny state’, something that can clearly be seen in Labour’s manifesto on public health, although they deserve credit for being the only party to write such a document.


This all really matters for our health of course – and for the NHS. As a colleague recently pointed out to me, the £30 billion that the NHS five year forward view says it needs to find per year by 2021 is the same amount that Derek Wanless argued in 2002 could be ‘saved’ on the annual NHS budget by 2022/23 if the NHS was more proactive and productive (particularly on disease prevention), and if people were much more engaged in their own health. Indeed, the Forward View starts with a call for a ‘radical upgrade in prevention’, but this only makes the contrast with the current radio silence even more noticeable. With £1 in every £5 of overall government spending set to be consumed by the NHS, there needs to be a greater focus on prevention and on the wider factors that shape our health.


If you look carefully, there is actually plenty in the parties’ manifestos that will impact on public health for good or ill, but lots of it is not in the health or NHS sections. This runs from the Liberal Democrats’ focus on air pollution to Conservative proposals for reviewing welfare benefits for claimants refusing obesity treatment and Labour’s promotion of the living wage. The thing you won’t find in Labour’s manifesto is arguably the most significant commitment from its public health manifesto – the stated commitment to ‘health in all policies’.


So it’s not as if there isn’t enough to debate. And belatedly some public health issues are managing to get into the press, including the Supreme Court’s ruling that the UK government needs to do more on air pollution and renewed criticisms of the Responsibility Deal. Whatever you think of the latter, I agree with Shirley Cramer, head of the Royal Society of Public Health, who said in response to the criticisms ’The time is ripe for a new Public Health White Paper…’.  Unfortunately, you wouldn’t know it from the silence of the politicians.


The first months after an election are the best time for politicians to engage with policies that are likely to deliver long-term benefits rather than short-term political capital. Let’s hope the silence on public health during the election campaign is not a signal of inaction once those in the new government take their seats.


Source Kings Fund http://www.kingsfund.org.uk/blog/2015/05/silence-public-health-election-debate







The silence on public health in the election debate - Kings Fund

Friday 1 May 2015

King's pilots Apple Watch app



King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has become one of the first trusts in the UK to use the newly launched Apple Watch as part of patient care.


A limited number of cancer patients at the London trust will have access to an Apple Watch app developed by tech company Medopad to support their chemotherapy.


The company, which will also provide the watches, said the oncology app was developed with input from doctors at King’s College Hospital and features several capabilities mainly focused on improving patient adherence to medicines.


Patients using the app will receive reminders to take their medication and a tap alert for personalised drug regimens.


The app also allows patients to record their temperature and any symptoms if they have a negative experience with a medicine. This data is sent instantly to a doctor’s Medopad platform on their iPad.


The aim is to allow doctors to adjust drug regimens when they are required, helping to personalise chemotherapy care and reduce side effects.


Siamak Arami, a consultant haematologist at King’s College Hospital, described the app as, “an exciting new development in medical technology”.


“This can eventually reduce the cost and improve the outcome of treatment for cancer patients,” he said.


Medopad co-founder Dan Vahdat told EHI News that a “very limited number of patients” will take part in the chemotherapy app pilot in its initial stages. The company needs feedback on how it works in a real clinical setting to learn what to optimise before a bigger roll-out.


Fellow co-founder Rich Khatib added that one of the biggest barriers was the availability of the Apple Watch, which is still absent from Apple stores.


Khatib went on the say that the company has plans beyond King’s College Hospital and this was the, “first solution of many to follow based on the Apple Watch platform”, suggesting a tool to monitor vital signs is in development.


“This is the first step to a new era in medicine,” he said.


Khatib explained that the company wanted to work in cancer care as current treatment is “very expensive and complicated” and there is an opportunity to improve efficiency.


King’s College Hospital has previous experience using apps to improve a patient’s experience of care.


Last month the trust announced it had adopted a smartphone app to support outpatients living with chronic arthritis by providing them with the ability to track hospital appointments and to access education resources and information about the hospital.


Source EHI 30 April 2015   Thomas Meek http://www.digitalhealth.net/news/EHI/10005/king’s-pilots-apple-watch-app



King's pilots Apple Watch app