Enterprise Value in a Consumer Health App

February 9th, 2012

There’s been much written lately about big data in the health industry, but I don’t see too much on the overlap of data and social media. Not yet anyway.

Social health websites that collect data have the ability to serve two audiences: 1. they can provide comprehensive options & insights to health consumers; and 2. they can provide data and insights to enterprise health companies. This dynamic is already in play in the Travel industry, where TripAdvisor collects ratings & reviews (for travelers) and sources areas of concerns (for hoteliers). In the health industry, healthetreatment and other startups are starting to do the same thing.

Healthetreatment is WebMD meets TripAdvisor: we collect and display self-reported health statistics and user-generated health content. Visitors to the site learn about health concerns from other people who are living with the same condition. Take Fibroymaliga for example. Want to know what all the symptoms of Fibromyalgia are? We have a list of all the symptoms that our members have reported. Want to know what percent of people report muscle weakness with Fibromyalgia, or how severe it can be? We’ve got that, too. We also have a list of the most effective – and most popular - treatments, according to healthetreatment members. Healthetreatment is crowdsourcing health information from patients, for patients.

But this anonymous, aggregated data can benefit pharma, insurance, and other health companies, too. If a pharma company wants to know which symptom is most severe for people with Fibromyalgia, we can say that based on our sample, it’s back pain. We can cut the data to report variances in symptom severity or treatment effectiveness by gender and age. With a higher volume of users, we could even tell pharma companies which (good or bad) keywords are frequently coming up in reviews of their medications.

I once met a hotel manager who told me part of her performance review was based on her property’s rating on TripAdvisor. If the property received poor reviews, she would be held accountable, but if it fared well, she would be rewarded. This property manager would look at specific items within a TripAdvisor review to find out which areas were most troubling or best performing (eg, service, cleanliness, value, etc). It’s a terrific example of enterprise value in a consumer application. Our goal at healthetreatment is to bring that same philosophy to the healthcare space. I don’t know if we’ll ever see a day when a Novartis or Merck product manager’s success will be determined by her product’s reviews on social media websites, but the data is already there for them to better understand product performance and brand perception.

The health industry is moving online and becoming more social at a slow pace. Consumers are much further ahead in their adoption of digital media to help manage their health & wellness. That’s good news for the health industry, who will find web 2.0 products & services built out when they’re ready to engage and embrace new media.

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Considering a Clinical Trial?

February 6th, 2012

Deciding to take an antibiotic for a bacterial infection or have surgery for a case of appendicitis? Those decisions aren’t so tough. Deciding whether or not to participate in a clinical trial for a chance to better manage a chronic condition? That can be a more challenging decision.

If you knew that the treatment in the trial would work, it would be a no-brainer. But clinical trials can’t make any promises – the trials are evaluating whether these treatments are more or less effective than other current treatments for conditions ranging from cancer to fibromyalgia to diabetes. People participate in clinical trials on a volunteer basis, as long as they qualify for the trial based on certain criteria that varies based on the particular trial.

Why do most people participate in clinical trials? Because they:

  • Want to receive new treatments that are not otherwise available to the public
  • Want the best possible care from a well-known facility
  • Want to cure or manage their condition
  • Want to help researchers learn more to help others who have the same health condition
  • Want to be more proactive in taking care of their own health
  • Can’t find relief from symptoms or a way to cure or manage their condition with standard treatments

By participating in a clinical trial, you can make a difference – not only in your own health, but in the health of others who also suffer from the same health condition that you do and those for generations to come. You can help researchers learn more about health conditions, the best ways to treat them, and ways to prevent them.

Questions and Concerns
It’s normal to be nervous or concerned about participating in a clinical trial. The best thing you can do is discuss it with your doctor. Find out if there are any clinical trials for which you might be a candidate, and talk about the pros and cons. While there are many benefits of clinical trials, but there are some risks to consider too.

Possible risks of clinical trials include:

  • Suffering from side effects of the treatment
  • The treatment being ineffective for you
  • Inconveniences such as more frequent doctor’s appointments or traveling to the site of the trial

The researchers conducting the study must follow a strict protocol, or plan, to ensure patients’ safety. Participants in the clinical trial can leave at any time during the trial for any reason.

For many people, a clinical trial offers successful treatment and management of their condition – and there is satisfaction knowing that they have helped make advancements in the medical field. To find out more about clinical trials, talk to your doctor or visit www.clinicaltrials.gov.

 

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The Importance of Clinical Trials

January 31st, 2012

Before you swallow your pain medication, take your insulin, or get your flu vaccine, stop and think about the reason that you have these medical advancements available to you today. Everything that experts understand today about the best ways to manage and prevent health problems they learned in a clinical trial – thanks to volunteers who agreed to take a risk in an attempt to improve their own health and further medical advancements. Virtually any treatment, procedure, screening or diagnostic test, or medication is available as a result of clinical trials.

Clinical trials are used for many different purposes, including:

  • Testing new treatments, including surgery, procedures, and medications
  • Testing new ways to prevent certain diseases
  • Testing new ways to better diagnose certain diseases
  • Testing new ways to screen earlier and more effectively for certain diseases
  • Testing new ways to improve comfort and quality of life for people with certain chronic diseases

Clinical trials are the only way to measure these things in humans, but researchers must follow protocols and safety guidelines to reduce any potential risk as much as possible for participants.

Solving Medical Mysteries

Clinical trials help researchers understand more about diseases and how to best treat and prevent them – particularly in diseases that are rare. Childhood cancer, for example, is very rare. Researchers can learn the most about these types of cancers and how to protect children’s health through clinical trials. According to the American Society of Clinical Oncology, as many as two-thirds of children with cancer are involved in a clinical trial. Their participation drives further advancements that help doctors understand how to better treat other children with cancer.

Clinical trials are also useful in helping doctors understand whether or not new treatments are more or less effective than current treatments, as they are often compared to one another. Outcomes are tracked for several years to provide long- term information on how effective a treatment is immediately and over time.

Not only do clinical trials measure effectiveness, but also how well the treatment or procedure is tolerated – whether it causes fewer side effects for an individual battling a disease with the same benefits. Clinical trials also show whether or not a treatment or procedure is safer or poses fewer possible complications than existing treatments.

Clinical trials are the window into the future of medical advancements, and make all of our lives just a little bit healthier.

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Heart disease risk may be much higher than you think

January 28th, 2012

Doctors may be significantly underestimating patients’ risk for heart disease, the leading cause of death in the US, according to the Scientific American.

A new report published in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine states that doctors only look into the short-term when determining a person’s risk for cardiac conditions, which could paint an inaccurate picture for one’s medical future.

Donald Lloyd-Jones, study author and associate professor at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, says that only focusing on the next decade gives patients “incomplete and misleading risk information.”

“The majority of adults in the United States who are considered to be at low risk for cardiovascular disease are actually at high risk across their remaining lifespan,” Lloyd-Jones and his co-authors wrote.

The massive study analyzed the data of more than 250,000 adults over the course of 50 years and found that white men were at a 36 percent risk of death from heart disease or stroke, with black men at a 33 percent risk. Women of both races were at approximately 27 percent risk.

While one’s short-term outlook may seem positive, events like “slightly elevated cholesterol or blood pressure significantly bumps up a person’s lifetime risk,” Lloyd-Jones told the news source. In order to decrease this risk, he suggests establishing prevention practices early in one’s life, by starting children off at a healthy weight and leading active lifestyles.

More than 27 million people in the United States suffer from a heart condition, reports the news provider.

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FDA approves new drug for advanced kidney cancer

January 28th, 2012

The Food and Drug Administration has approved a new drug for those with metastasized kidney cancer, reports The Associated Press.

Drug manufacturer Pfizer won approval this week for its medication for “hard-to-treat” forms of renal cell carcinoma – a pill called Inlyta that patients take two times daily. The kidney cancer treatment, known as axitinib, targets proteins that encourage tumor growth, in order to slow progression of the disease. It reportedly extended the time period before the cancer progressed by an average of two months more than Bayer and Onyx Pharmaceuticals drug Nexavar.

Inlyta is the latest in a handful of medications that have been approved for kidney cancer.

“This is the seventh drug that has been approved for the treatment of metastatic or advanced kidney cell cancer since 2005,” FDA cancer drug director Richard Pazdur said in a news release. “Collectively, this unprecedented level of drug development within this time period has significantly altered the treatment paradigm.”

The Pfizer drug is intended for use as a secondary option in patients who have not responded to other treatments.

According to the National Cancer Institute, there were 61,000 new U.S. cases of renal cell carcinoma in 2011. The disease has a poor prognosis, with only 11 percent of advanced cancer patients surviving longer than five years following diagnosis.

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New gene test predicts survival after lung cancer surgery

January 27th, 2012

A new gene test for people with lung cancer has been found to accurately predict whether a patient will live or die following surgery, according to Medical News Today.

The study took a look at individuals with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), a form of the disease that 80 percent of sufferers have. Typically, the outlook is not good this condition because the tumors often spread undetected.

The new test analyzes 14 different genes within a lung tumor to determine whether surgical intervention will benefit the patient or lead to death within five years. So far, it has accurately predicted whether or not the surgery will cure a patient.

“The molecular assay was the strongest predictor of five-year mortality compared with standard criteria, such as sex, age, smoking status, tumor size, and even disease stage, and outperformed National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines used to identify high-risk patients with stage I disease,” wrote the researchers.

While this new method has been tested extensively, according to the study’s authors, further research must be done before it can be used in a clinical setting. Scientists are also testing whether the assay can correctly predict the outcome of adjuvant therapy, a lung cancer treatment like chemotherapy, which will take a few more years to complete.

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Sedentary rheumatoid arthritis patients may benefit from activity

January 27th, 2012

While the pain of rheumatoid arthritis may leave many feeling incapacitated, new studies show that staying physically active may be a better option than remaining sedentary, which over 40 percent of patients have become accustomed to doing, reports HealthDay.

With such a large amount of arthritis sufferers leading non-active lives, researchers are emphasizing that rather than relying on medications to relieve the pain, exercising can help with joint flexibility, strength and pain relief.

However, nearly half of participants in the study published in this week’s Arthritis Care & Research did not believe in the health benefits of physical activity, with more lacking the motivation to try.

The trial reportedly gave individuals the opportunity to participate in moderate-to-vigorous activities, with moderate exercise including “brisk walking” for a minimum of 10 minutes.

Rheumatologist Dr. Waseem Mir of New York City’s Lenox HIll Hospital told the news source that those who push through and remain active will eventually improve flexibility and get stronger, and may also decrease their risk for heart disease.

About 1.3 million people in the U.S. suffer from rheumatoid arthritis, reports the American College of Rheumatology.

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New treatment approved to lower dangerous chemotherapy drug levels

January 19th, 2012

Chemotherapy medications can help save cancer patients’ lives, but if drug levels are too high, the result could be fatal. Thus, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has announced the approval of Voraxaze, a treatment designed to decrease dangerously high levels of methotrexate.

In cancer treatment, methotrexate inhibits the growth of certain cells. Patients who take this drug are routinely monitored with blood tests, as the medication may build up in the body and lead to serious damage throughout the body.

“Prolonged exposure to high levels of methotrexate can result in kidney and liver damage, severe mouth sores, damage to the lining of the intestine, skin rashes, and death due to low blood counts,” Richard Pazdure, director of the Office of Hematology and Oncology at the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, told Genetic Engineering News.

Pennsylvania-based drug manufacturer BTG International is behind Voraxaze. It is reported that those who use this medication were able to eliminate an average of 95 percent of the methotrexate present in their bodies. Side effects included headache, low blood pressure, nausea and vomiting.

Methotrexate is a popular drug used for a wide range of conditions, including various forms of arthritis, psoriasis, lupus, Crohn’s disease, and more.

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‘Breakthrough’ melanoma drug may lead to secondary skin cancer

January 19th, 2012

A “breakthrough” melanoma treatment has been found to cause additional skin cancers in a significant number of patients, reports HealthDay.

Vemurafenib, recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration under the brand name Zelboraf, has been identified as the cause for squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) in about 25 percent of those who took the medication.

“What we found is that vemurafenib blocks the mutation that makes the melanoma grow, but when patients have skin cells with another mutation that’s probably induced from sun exposure, there the drug has the exact opposite effect and causes these squamous cell cancers to grow,” Dr. Antoni Ribas, associate professor of hematology and oncology at UCLA, who co-authored the study, told the news source.

SCC is the second most common skin cancer, affecting those who are overexposed to sunlight. Light-skinned individuals are most susceptible to this form of cancer, as it is directly related to the amount of melanin in one’s skin. SCC is often curable.

Contrary to these troubling results, researchers also discovered that when vemurafenib is paired with a MEK inhibitor – a drug that blocks the other mutation that Ribas mentioned – this treatment for melanoma may be more effective. However, further clinical trials must be performed in order to confirm Ribas’ suggestion that the combined medications would stop both cancers from growing.

The study was performed at the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center in Los Angeles and was published in today’s edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.

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Osteoporosis screening every 15 years may be no problem

January 19th, 2012

While it is recommended that women ages 65 and over test for osteoporosis, a new study suggests that frequent bone scans can be avoided if the initial screening has no major issues, reports The Associated Press.

If the first test for osteoporosis is not problematic, women may wait up to 15 years before they need another one, according to the new research. Those who have a moderate risk for the disease may wait five years, with high-risk individuals requiring more testing.

Currently, bone mineral density tests are performed every two years via X-ray, which the study’s authors believe is too often.

“It’s an expenditure of time, it’s exposure to radiation, and it’s cost. There’s no reason to expose yourself to any risks if there’s going to be no benefit,” Dr. Virginia Moyer, head of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, told the news provider.

Osteoporosis causes bones to become brittle and prone to damage or injury, as the density decreases over time. The screenings check for bone density in the hip and lower spine, as nearly 50 percent of women over the age of 50 are reportedly at risk for breakage in these areas.

According to the AP, the 15-year timeline “applies only to postmenopausaul women.”

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