About the public’s health
WHO sees limited COVID-19 vaccine doses in early 2021: “The World Health Organization’s chief scientist said on Monday she expected there to be ‘very limited’ COVID-19 vaccine doses available in the first half of 2021.”
Use of adenovirus type-5 vectored vaccines: a cautionary tale: Different techniques are being investigated for effective SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. One of theses methods uses a viral delivery system. This article cautions that this type of virus has been used before in attempting to develop an HIV vaccine.
”Over a decade ago, we completed the Step and Phambili phase 2b studies that evaluated an Ad5 vectored HIV-1 vaccine administered in three immunisations for efficacy against HIV-1 acquisition. Both international studies found an increased risk [emphasis added] of HIV-1 acquisition among vaccinated men.”
A cervical cancer-free future: First-ever global commitment to eliminate a cancer: “WHO‘s Global Strategy to Accelerate the Elimination of Cervical Cancer, launched today, outlines three key steps: vaccination, screening and treatment. Successful implementation of all three could reduce more than 40% of new cases of the disease and 5 million related deaths by 2050.
Today’s development represents a historic milestone because it marks the first time that 194 countries commit to eliminating cancer - following adoption of a resolution at this year’s World Health Assembly.”
The article has the metrics that will be used in evaluating the success of this program.
Pfizer to start pilot delivery program for its COVID-19 vaccine in four U.S. states: “Pfizer Inc has launched a pilot delivery program for its experimental COVID-19 vaccine in four U.S. states, as the U.S. drugmaker seeks to address distribution challenges facing its ultra-cold storage requirements.
Pfizer’s vaccine, which was shown to be more than 90% effective in preventing COVID-19 based on initial data, must be shipped and stored at -70 degrees Celsius (minus 94°F), significantly below the standard for vaccines of 2-8 degrees Celsius (36-46°F).”
Effect of School-Based Body Mass Index Reporting in California Public Schools: It is important to know what works as well as what does not. “Body mass index reports alone do not improve children’s weight status and may decrease weight satisfaction. To improve student health, schools should consider investing resources in evidence-based interventions.”
About healthcare quality
Fortune and IBM Watson Health Recognize Top-Performing U.S. Cardiovascular Hospitals: “Extrapolating the results of this year's study, if all Medicare inpatients received the same level of care as those treated in the award-winning facilities more than 7,000 additional lives and over $1.6 billion could be saved annually, and more than 5,000 additional bypass and angioplasty patients could be complication-free.” Where is the Cleveland Clinic?
Cesarean Delivery and Gender of Delivering Physicians: ”Female physicians are less likely to perform cesarean delivery and less likely to prefer it. This was observed across different health systems and populations.”
About pharma
Amazon launches digital pharmacy: “The e-commerce giant on Tuesday unveiled Amazon Pharmacy, a section of its retail website and mobile application that lets people order medication. Shoppers can pay using their health insurance. Prime members who don’t use their insurance are eligible for discounts on generic and brand-name drugs on Amazon’s site or at about 50,000 participating pharmacies…
Walgreens Boots stock was down 8.8 percent this morning.”
Special Fraud Alert: Speaker Programs: This announcement is from HHS’ Inspector General. The framing as a fraud alert is novel.
”This Special Fraud Alert highlights the fraud and abuse risks associated with the offer, payment, solicitation, or receipt of remuneration relating to speaker programs by pharmaceutical and medical device companies. For purposes of this Special Fraud Alert, speaker programs are generally defined as company-sponsored events at which a physician or other health care professional (collectively, “HCP”) makes a speech or presentation to other HCPs about a drug or device product or a disease state on behalf of the company.”
Trump officials preparing to move forward with major step to lower Medicare drug prices:”The Trump administration is preparing to move forward with a major proposal to lower drug prices and rulemaking could come as soon as this week, according to people familiar with the effort.
The move, fiercely opposed by the pharmaceutical industry, would implement President Trumps’ ‘most favored nation’ proposal and lower certain Medicare drug prices to match prices in other wealthy countries.”
Evaluation of Time to Benefit of Statins for the Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Events in Adults Aged 50 to 75 Years: “These findings suggest that statin medications for the primary prevention of cardiovascular events may reduce cardiac events for some adults aged 50 to 75 years with a life expectancy of at least 2.5 years; no data suggest a mortality benefit.”
A network medicine approach to investigation and population-based validation of disease manifestations and drug repurposing for COVID-19:”We identified that melatonin usage (odds ratio [OR] = 0.72, 95% CI 0.56–0.91) is significantly associated with a 28% reduced likelihood of a positive laboratory test result for SARS-CoV-2 confirmed by reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction assay…
Importantly, melatonin usage (OR = 0.48, 95% CI 0.31–0.75) is associated with a 52% reduced likelihood of a positive laboratory test result for SARS-CoV-2 in African Americans after adjusting for age, sex, race, smoking history, and various disease comorbidities using PS [propensity score] matching.”
The results are interesting, but so is the technique used to extract the information.
About healthcare IT
Telemedicine and Office-Based Care for Behavioral and Psychiatric Conditions During the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United States: A good summary of the data about this process.
Trends in Outpatient Care Delivery and Telemedicine During the COVID-19 Pandemic in the US: This article is more general than the one above. “In this national study of a commercially insured population, growth in telemedicine use offset roughly two-thirds of the decline in in-person visit volume during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although there was geographic variation in the magnitude of changes, every state experienced a drop in total visits, illustrating the broad scope of deferred care during the first months of COVID-19.”
Newest clinical assessment tool allows AllianceRx Walgreens Prime cancer patients to manage care online: “Cancer patients who self-administer their therapy can now better manage their care online, thanks to the latest digital clinical assessment available only through AllianceRx Walgreens Prime. The newly-released self-serve tool simplifies patients’ online experiences when refilling their prescriptions. Earlier this year, AllianceRx Walgreens Prime announced the release of clinical assessments available for patients with chronic inflammatory disease, multiple sclerosis, cystic fibrosis, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, organ transplants, lipid and blood disorders. The addition of oncology to the clinical assessments means 85% of AllianceRx Walgreens Prime patients are eligible to use the online clinical assessment tool.”
About health insurance
Medicare Advantage Provider to Pay $6.3 Million to Settle False Claims Act Allegations:”Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Washington, formerly known as Group Health Cooperative (GHC), agreed to pay $6,375,000 to resolve allegations that it submitted invalid diagnoses to Medicare for Medicare Advantage beneficiaries and received inflated payments from Medicare as a result…”
About hospitals and health systems
Premier, 34 systems partner with global medical manufacturer to create domestic gown maker: “Premier and 34 health systems including AdventHealth and Henry Ford Health System partnered with global medical manufacturer DeRoyal to create a new joint venture dedicated to the production of isolation gowns.” Recall hospitals are also getting into the generic pharma business to lower costs and meet shortage needs.