About healthcare IT
GAO: Mar-a-Lago members acted as advisers on VA initiatives, including $16B Cerner EHR contract: “Three members of President Donald Trump's inner circle acted as advisers by making recommendations on a number of key Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) initiatives, including the Cerner contract, a government watchdog said.
A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report publicly released this week said a review of email exchanges between Florida physician Bruce Moskowitz, Marvel Entertainment Chairman Isaac Perlmutter and financial consultant Marc Sherman indicated the three interacted with VA and other federal officials frequently—at times daily, according to former VA officials—through email and telephone, the GAO wrote.
’The three private citizens acted as advisors by making recommendations regarding, for example, the Cerner contract negotiation, mobile application development, and potential candidates for senior-level VA positions,’ according to the report.”
About healthcare personnel
Hospitals continue to struggle with job losses as other areas of healthcare rebound in May:”Healthcare employment increased by 312,000 in May, but hospitals still lost 27,000 jobs, according to a report issued today from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Job losses continued for hospitals and also for nursing and residential care facilities, which lost 37,000 jobs.
Physicians saw an increase of 51,000 jobs, and dentists and other health practitioners saw increases of 245,000 and 73,000, respectively.”
About the public’s health
Gargling with bleach? Americans misusing disinfectants to prevent coronavirus, survey finds: “More than a third of Americans misused cleaners and disinfectants to try to prevent infection by the coronavirus, according to a survey taken shortly after President Donald Trump publicly asked whether injecting such products could treat COVID-19.
Washing food with bleach, using household cleaning or disinfectant products on bare skin, and intentionally inhaling or ingesting these products were some of the most commonly reported ‘high-risk’ practices in a May 4 online survey of 502 U.S. adults, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported.”
And on a related note: Bleach baths and drinking hand sanitiser: poison centre cases rise under Covid-19: The headline speaks for itself. The article has more of an international scope than the one above.
Associations of Flavored e-Cigarette Uptake With Subsequent Smoking Initiation and Cessation: “Vaping uptake was positively associated with smoking initiation in youth…and in emerging adults... Vaping uptake was associated with cessation in adults…
adults who vaped flavored e-cigarettes were more likely to subsequently quit smoking than those who used unflavored e-cigarettes.”
The effect of large-scale anti-contagion policies on the COVID-19 pandemic: The researchers estimate that these well-known measures employed “across these six countries… prevented or delayed on the order of 62 million confirmed cases, corresponding to averting roughly 530 million total infections.” Of those prevented infections, an estimated 62 million were in the US.
Cuba sets example with successful programme to contain coronavirus: “While the WHO has signaled that Latin America is the new centre of the pandemic, cases in the Communist-ruled island have fallen for two months.” Cuba’s primary care system is a model for public health initiatives.
Coronavirus: WHO advises to wear masks in public areas: The important recommendation that is really new is: Fabric masks should consist of "at least three layers of different material" in order to be effective.
With No Current Cases, New Zealand Lifts Remaining COVID-19 Restrictions: A further reminder what a successful program looks like: “New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says the country has officially eradicated COVID-19 and will return to normal after the last known infected person recovered.
Isolation and quarantine for those arriving from abroad will continue.”
BARDA taps Evidation Health to digitally monitor healthcare workers for early COVID-19 symptoms:”The project will receive funding support from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) as well as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Evidation plans to gather behavior and symptom data—including sleep and activity patterns from wearable devices, plus self-reported health issues—from 300 people with a high risk of being exposed to and possibly contracting the disease, such as healthcare workers and first responders.”
Repositioning of the global epicentre of non-optimal cholesterol:”…countries with the highest level of non-HDL cholesterol—which is a marker of cardiovascular risk—changed from those in western Europe such as Belgium, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Malta in 1980 to those in Asia and the Pacific, such as Tokelau, Malaysia, The Philippines and Thailand. In 2017, high non-HDL cholesterol was responsible for an estimated 3.9 million (95% credible interval 3.7 million–4.2 million) worldwide deaths, half of which occurred in east, southeast and south Asia.”
California and Some Other States See Coronavirus Cases Rise:”Nearly three months since the U.S. declared a national emergency over the new coronavirus, some states are reporting a rise in new cases as they lift restrictions meant to slow the virus’s spread.
California, Utah, Arizona, North Carolina, Florida, Arkansas and Texas, among others, have all logged rises in confirmed cases, according to a Johns Hopkins tabulation of a five-day moving average. Meantime, New York City, the U.S. area hit hardest by the pandemic, has seen a drop in cases and deaths and plans to begin reopening its economy Monday.”
About pharma
The US government's supply of the only proven Covid-19 drug runs out at the end of the month: “The US government's current supply of remdesivir, the only drug known to work against Covid-19, will run out at the end of the month, Dr. Robert Kadlec, a US Department of Health and Human Services official, told CNN.
The government's last shipment of the drug will go out the week of June 29. Gilead Sciences, the company that makes the drug, is ramping up to make more, but it's unclear how much will be available this summer.”
The top 10 pharma R&D budgets in 2019: A good summary of who is working on what and how much they are spending. Roche heads the list.
Optum says payers should keep a close eye on these 3 drugs. Here's why: All three are orphan drugs.
About health insurance
COVID-19 Cost Scenario Modeling: Treatment: Wakely prepared this latest update for AHIP, estimating costs of COVID-19 to the insurance industry. “Our previous report estimated the direct impact of COVID treatment costs to be between $56 and $556 billion, while the updated analysis estimates costs of $30 to $547 billion. Incorporating deferred care with the treatment costs generally decreases the overall impact to insurers, resulting in a total impact of between -$76 and $216 billion for 2020 and 2021 combined.”