About the public’s health
Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics—2020 Update: This publication is an extensive review of cardiovascular, lipid and diabetes statistics. Overall, progress is being made in such areas as smoking and lowering lipid levels, but obesity and the lifetime risk of hypertension are still major problems. You can read the chapter summaries starting on page e3.
Despite new regulations, FDA still fails to protect youth from e-cigarette epidemic, American Lung Association says: “The US Food and Drug Administration received its fourth consecutive failing grade on regulation of tobacco products in the American Lung Association's annual State of Tobacco Control report.
A key factor in the grade was the Trump administration's decision to exempt menthol and tobacco-flavored e-cigarettes from the policy it finalized this month to clear the market of cartridge-based e-cigarette flavors.”
Dietary flavonols and risk of Alzheimer dementia: Eat your fruits and veggies: “In this community-based prospective study of older per- sons, we found evidence that higher flavonol intake through food sources, and kaempferol and isorhamnetin in particular, may be protective against the development of Alzheimer dementia. The associations were independent of many diet and lifestyle factors and cardiovascular- related conditions.”
U.S. life expectancy increases for first time in 4 years: The increase was due to a decrease in cancer deaths and reductions opioid overdoses and suicides. See the CDC site for the details.
About pharma
Drug Price Forecast 2020, Vizient Integrated Pharmacy Solutions: This forecast has lots of great data, including costliest drugs and price trends. One continuing trend is the effect specialty pharmaceuticals is having on overall costs. “Although they only account for 2.2% of total prescription volume, specialty drugs now account for 49.5% of total spending by institutional and retail pharmacy settings. About half of the more than 40 novel molecular entities approved in 2019 can be classified as specialty drugs.” (See Chapter 7 in the book for strategies to lower these costs.)
About health insurance
CBO: Medicare spending projected to hit $1.7 trillion in 2030: “In 2020, spending on federal health programs [Medicare and Medicaid] is expected to total $1.3 trillion. That number is projected to rise to $2.5 trillion in 2030…The increase in spending over the next 10 years is largely attributable to an increasing number of Medicare beneficiaries. The number of people in the U.S. age 65 or older is now more than twice what it was 50 years ago, and that number is expected to continue to rise.” Read the full CBO report and search for Medicare.
Healthy Adult Opportunity Fact Sheet: Healthy Adult Opportunity is the name for the new federal block grant initiative for Medicaid. The program will be available in all states under a 1115 waiver and will “focus on a limited population – adults under age 65 who are not eligible for Medicaid on the basis of disability or their need for long term care services and supports, and who are not eligible under a state plan.” In order to assess the quality of care, participating states “will be required to report 25 quality and access measures drawn from the CMS Adult Core Set, which are currently optional…” We will need to see which states will sign up. It is unlikely that states which have expanded Medicaid under the ACA will participate.
About pharma
More than half of clinical trials still hidden from public view: report: “Researchers from the University of Oxford… found of the 4,209 trials registered on ClinicalTrials.gov that were due to report results, only 1,722 (41%) did so by the one-year deadline. More than a third of the trials (1,523) had still not been reported by Sept. 16, 2019.
This is despite new rules that began at the start of last year mandating these tests be shared within a year of completion, and the researchers argue regulators such as the FDA need to clamp down on this lack of reporting.”
About healthcare quality
Patient Sentiment Report: This compilation of 8.4 million provider reviews by Healthgrades and the Medical Group Management Association found some interesting opinions:
“Patients most often mention a doctor’s skill or care quality when writing reviews.
In negative reviews, patients mention the factors of wait time, visit time, and office staff up to three times more often than they do in positive reviews.
Male providers receive higher average star ratings than female providers.
Reviewers more often mention factors like bedside manner, communication, and visit time in feedback about female providers, while reviews of male providers more often highlight skill and care quality.
Patient sentiment varies across states: New Jersey and Idaho doctors are among the most highly-rated in the country, while providers in Maine and West Virginia receive lower ratings across many factors.”
About healthcare IT
Using AI to advance the health of people and communities around the world: Microsoft is launching a program it calls “AI for Health, a new $40 million, five-year program to empower researchers and organizations with AI to improve the health of people and communities around the world.” The program will focus on three areas:
“Quest for discovery. Accelerating medical research to advance prevention, diagnoses and treatment of diseases
Global health insights. Increasing our shared understanding of mortality and longevity to protect against global health crises
Health equity. Reducing health inequity and improving access to care for underserved populations…"