Wearables' impact on cancer patients' quality of life to be tested

Project sees the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center collaborate with Medidata

A prestigious US cancer centre is set to evaluate the application of wearables and other mobile technology to assess cancer patients’ quality of life.

The Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) is collaborating with cloud-based research solutions firm Medidata on the project, which will test the use of activity trackers and mobile apps to study patterns of movement in patients being treated for multiple myeloma.

Dr Neha Korde, assistant attending for the Myeloma Service at MSK, said: “All cancer patients face health challenges from the disease as well as the side effects of treatment. But the challenges are particularly acute for those who suffer from multiple myeloma, a painful blood cancer that affects the bones.

“We will be able to use mHealth technologies to gauge how patients sleep, how they move, and how they feel with greater precision.”

Patients taking part in the project at New York’s MSK will be asked to wear a wearable activity tracker for one to seven days prior to treatment to establish baseline measurements, they will then be continuously for approximately four months over four cycles of the prescribed therapy.

They will also be able to report quality-of-life measures – such as activity level, fatigue and appetite – through Medidata’s Patient Cloud ePRO app on their personal smart phones.

Medidata‘s president Glen de Vries said: “Success in cancer treatment is measured not just by what it does to the disease but what it does to the patient’s body and mind.

“Our collaboration with MSK will bring to bear the very best technology and data analytics to help researchers begin to identify multiple myeloma treatments that best enhance quality as well as quantity of life.”

Meanwhile, Medidata has expanded its relationship with Biogen, with the US biopharma company ramping up its use of the tech firm’s Medidata Rave trial data capture product and its data verification tool Medidata TSDV.

The agreement expands an existing relationship to use Rave and TSDV across Biogen‘s clinical development portfolio, which includes potential therapies for neurological, autoimmune and rare diseases.

Source PMLive http://www.pmlive.com/blogs/digital_intelligence/archive/2016/july/wearables_impact_on_cancer_patients_quality_of_life_to_be_tested_1080774

Wearables' impact on cancer patients' quality of life to be tested

Healthcare gets more independence in Google restructuring

New ‘Alphabet’ company will put tech giant’s health ventures centre-stage

Google is re-organising to create a leaner organisation, and its healthcare operations have a central place in the new structure.

The technology giant has created an over-arching holding company called Alphabet that will be run by Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, while Google itself becomes a subsidiary with Sundar Pichai serving as its chief executive.

Google’s life science research arm and pharma-like unit Calico – as well as other newer ‘moon shot’ ventures such as technology research unit Google X – will now operate independently of the Internet arm, which generates most of the company’s $60bn annual revenues.

Page cited healthcare specifically in a blog post about the new strategy, saying that it “allows us more management scale, as we can run things independently that aren’t very related.”

The company’s broad push into new business areas such as healthcare has raised eyebrows among some investors, who have expressed concerns that the company could take its eye off its core business and damage profitability.

The latest move may be a reaction to that but could also reflect a desire by the founders to retain some of the fast-moving, independent spirit that served Google so well in the early years.

“We’ve long believed that over time companies tend to get comfortable doing the same thing, just making incremental change,” writes Page.

“But in the technology industry, where revolutionary ideas drive the next big growth areas, you need to be a bit uncomfortable to stay relevant.”

Google certainly shows no sign of reining in its push into healthcare. The life sciences division responsible for projects such as the glucose-sensing contact lens signed a new agreement this week with DexCom to develop a new range of continuous glucose-monitoring products.

There have also been mutterings about a lack of information about the amount of money being invested into the new ventures, and the new structure will inject some more transparency into the company’s affairs.

For the healthcare units – with development timelines that typically stretch well beyond those expected by shareholders used to investing in the IT sector – that could prove to be a little uncomfortable. However, in the near-term Google is only planning to report two revenue streams – Google and Alphabet (everything else) – and is unlikely to drill down to the details of its speculative ventures.

It will also be interesting to see whether the new structure and transparency, whilst giving the healthcare units more independence, might also encourage them to work more traditionally within their areas of focus. Could the individual units perhaps lose some of the innovative miasma that comes from bringing scientists from different disciplines closer together?

The new structure will be introduced gradually over the coming months, according to Google.

Source PMLive http://www.pmlive.com/pharma_news/healthcare_gets_more_independence_in_google_restructuring_796068

Healthcare gets more independence in Google restructuring

Novartis plots digital transformation in medical education

Outlines benefits of greater use of technology, including transparency and reach

Novartis is changing the way it engages with healthcare professionals (HCPs) for medical education activities by ramping up its use of digital technology.

Key to these plans will be the company’s Vivinda TV virtual conference platform, which went live earlier this year to provide on-demand content from medical meetings.

Intended for HCPs around the world, with the exception of the US, Canada, Japan, Norway and Sweden, Vivinda was used at last month’s American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting.

Content from the flagship cancer congress attracted more than 4,600 ‘virtual delegates’ across 103 countries. “That’s five times more than were engaged the previous year using traditional sponsorship methods,” Novartis noted.

Vivinda TV was also used for the European School for Advanced Studies in Ophthalmology (ESASO) congress, and attracted almost 1,800 virtual delegates from 75 different countries, compared to the 500-600 ophthalmologists normally able attend in person.

Pharma companies such as GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer have been using webinars to reach healthcare professionals for some time, but Novartis’ plans appear be a more concerted drive towards virtual meetings.

And the Swiss pharma company said it is taking Vivinda TV‘s ASCO sand ESASO performance as a cue to do more of the same in the future to enhance the quality, transparency and reach of its interactions.

Shannon Thyme Klinger, chief ethics and compliance officer and head of litigation at Novartis, said: “We are changing our relationship with the medical community and extending global access to high-quality information and education that will benefit doctors and patients worldwide for years to come.”

The changes come as new European pharma industry rules came into effect last week on HCP payment transparency, requiring firms to disclose their payments to HCPs for activities such as travel to congresses.

In outlining its digital plans, Novartis acknowledged the limitations of traditional marketing activities like sponsoring doctors to attend conferences, inviting clinicians to speak about products and providing promotional aids.

The company said: “Conference attendance is by nature restricted to only a small proportion of doctors worldwide, and Novartis is keen to find better and more inclusive ways of reaching a broader cross-section of the medical community.

“Moreover, social expectations are changing fast and educational and promotional practices which for a long time have been widely used by industry need to be further developed. Now the company is taking steps to ensure its actions meet with the evolving views of the public and regulators.”

Consequently the company has increased its investment in digital technology to record levels and plans to use virtual meetings and web-based customer interaction platforms to engage more with HCPs.

However, Novartis will still offer doctors support to attend medical conferences, but from January 2017 it said this would be based on “active participation in the event”. The firm will also sponsor speakers to represent the company in clearly-defined instances, such as when a new product becomes available.

Source – PMLive http://www.pmlive.com/blogs/digital_intelligence/archive/2016/july/novartis_plots_digital_transformation_in_medical_education_1058424

Novartis plots digital transformation in medical education

Dr Google looks to reassure 'cyberchondriacs'

Starts providing more context for medical symptoms

Google is changing the way medical information is presented on its search engine to provide more context for medical symptoms.

The move could ease the worries of ‘cyberchondriacs’ who find themselves overwhelmed by the potential seriousness of certain symptoms when they go online to self-diagnose.

Huge numbers of people do of course turn to ‘Dr Google’ for healthcare information – around 1% of the 3.4 billion searches the firm processes every day are related to symptoms.

“Health content on the web can be difficult to navigate, and tends to lead people from mild symptoms to scary and unlikely conditions, which can cause unnecessary anxiety and stress,” Veronica Pinchin, product manager, search, wrote.

In response Google will answer symptom queries with a list of related conditions, and provide an overview of individual symptoms along with information on self-treatment options and what might require a doctor’s visit.

The symptom information, which will first be displayed in the US in English on Google’s mobile search app, was created in conjunction with Harvard Medical School and the Mayo Clinic.

“That said, symptom search (like all medical information on Google) is intended for informational purposes only, and you should always consult a doctor for medical advice,” Pinchin said.

She added: “Over time, we hope to cover more symptoms, and we also want to extend this to other languages and internationally.”

Source PMLive http://www.pmlive.com/blogs/digital_intelligence/archive/2016/july/dr_google_looks_to_reassure_cyberchondriacs_1059387

Dr Google looks to reassure 'cyberchondriacs'