Sundeep Bhan, co-Founder and CEO for Medivo, will be contributing to a panel during the NYEC Digital Health Conference in New York today, December 1, 2011. Steven Krein, co-Founder of StartupHealth will lead the 3:00pm session entitled, “Bridging the Gap Between Health & Wellness Entrepreneurs and Providers.” Sundeep along other healthcare entrepreneurs will discuss new developments in healthcare technology, and how companies like Medivo are evolving patient care.
Click here to view more information about the NYEC Digital Health Conference.
In a recent Huffington Post article, a new study determined that twenty-two million Americans are not getting Colorectal Cancer Screenings done. In other words, “1 in 3 Americans age 50-75 are still not getting tested”. Colorectal Cancer is the 2nd leading cause of cancer death in the United States today. Both men and women age 50 and over are recommended to get screened. A 2007 study shows. “Half of new detected cancer cases — as well as prevented deaths — are a result of increased colorectal cancer screenings, according to the report. From 2003 to 2007, 66,000 fewer people developed the disease, and 32,000 fewer people died from it”.
Medivo’s lab testing platform provides the optimal solution for such cases. Empowering patients with self-ordered lab tests to provide diagnostic evidence of disease and therapeutic effectiveness to help them make informed health care decisions. While at the same time encouraging patients to have thoughtful and personalized conversations with their primary care physicians.
In the June edition of PM360, Bob Previdi, President of PSKW, discusses “Shifting the Marketing Emphasis to the Patient.” Since the dawn of DTC advertising, pharma executives have realized that patient empowerment would play an ever-increasing role in marketing. The challenge, however, is identifying solutions that provide true value and empowerment.
Medivo’s consumer-driven lab testing platform provides the ultimate solution. Imagine empowering patients with self-ordered lab test to provide diagnostic evidence of disease and therapeutic effectiveness to help them make informed health care decisions. Medivo’s programs also empower patients with consumer-friendly education to help them translate clinical results to conscious conversations.
In the new patient-centric model, pharma marketers will need to deliver actionable tools and resources to help patients help themselves.
According to a recent white paper from Viverae, “preventative screenings could save more than 100,000 lives per year.”Currently, employees and employers are becoming more aware of the benefits of biometric screenings, such as making employees more aware of critical health information, potentially reducing medical expenses for themselves as well as employers. Access to biometric screenings has become increasingly more convenient to employees, taking only a few minutes to complete and test results are often made available online. Removing barriers to access allows people to take a more active role in their health. According to Viverae, 70% of all health care costs are the direct result of behavior, and 74% of all costs are confined to four chronic conditions (cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity). The Medivo Clinic provides access to these tests for employers, patients and physicians for biometric screenings, as well as disease monitoring and management. Click here to read the full report.
In a recent CNBC CEO blog, Medco Health Solution’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Robert Epstein, declared that “Personalized medicine has finally arrived and is poised to deliver significant health improvement and healthcare cost savings.” Of course, that is the premise and platform that Medivo was built upon.
We are all familiar with the success that oncology has attained utilizing a personalized medicine approach, but according to Epstein, many more diseases are well suited including cardiovascular (warfarin dose, antiplatelet therapy, hypercholesterolemia) HIV and Hepatitis C. Medivo is working actively in all of those areas as well as diabetes, atrial fibrillation, Hepatitis B, testosterone and many others.
Reaffirming Medivo’s business plan, Epstein concluded that “There is research or personalized medicine approaches for virtually every area of chronic disease today.”
According to ABC World News, a recent study shows how personalized medicine is being used to more effectively treat cancer.
“We classify cancers according to where they start, but each cancer is probably many types of cancer. The bigger picture is what are the genetic abnormalities that make that cancer grow. Traditional treatments for cancer, such as chemotherapy, are one size fits all. All lung cancer patients might receive the same type of chemotherapy,” says Dr. Gerald Falchook, assistant professor in the department of investigational cancer therapeutics at MD Anderson. While this approach can be effective, it ravages the patients body by attacking all of a patients cells in hopes of killing the cancer.”
Promising results for personalized medicine. Click here to read the full post.
According to a recent white paper from Viverae, “preventative screenings could save more than 100,000 lives per year.” Currently, employees and employers are becoming more aware of the benefits of biometric screenings, such as making employees more aware of critical health information, potentially reducing medical expenses for themselves as well as employers. Access to biometric screenings has become increasingly more convenient to employees, taking only a few minutes to complete and test results are often made available online. Removing barriers to access allows people to take a more active role in their health. According to Viverae, 70% of all health care costs are the direct result of behavior, and 74% of all costs are confined to four chronic conditions (cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity). The Medivo Clinic provides access to these tests for employers, patients and physicians for biometric screenings, as well as disease monitoring and management. Click here to read the full report.
Interesting post on the PhRMA blog on a new study from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences talks about the discovery of a genetic variant that may help with smoking cessation.
Click here to read the full post.
According to a recent New York Times article, healthcare businesses, in particular, will need to make big investments in data mining and analytics in order to get a piece of the projected $300 billion boost as a result of recent data innovations.
“In health care, the biggest slice of the $300 billion gain is expected to come from more effectively using data to inform treatment decisions. The tools include clinical decision support to assist doctors, and comparative effectiveness research to make more informed decisions on drug therapy.
For example, the Department of Veterans Affairs and Kaiser Permanente save millions of dollars a year in treating many patients with high cholesterol with generic statins instead of branded statins, like Lipitor. But such tailored treatments require electronic health records for tracking results, and most of the nation’s hospitals and physicians still use paper records.”
Click here to read the full article.
In March, our EVP and co-Founder, Dr. Destry Sulkes presented to the FDA on the need for physician oversight in DTC genetic testing. Dark Daily, a publication discussing key developments in laboratory medicine and laboratory management, recently published a followup article highlighting investigations into DTC testing in the UK as well.
As the need for low-cost DTC genetic testing increases, in the US and abroad, so does the need for qualified physicians to oversee and interpret these tests on behalf of consumers.
Click here to view the full article.