DLS|HEALTHCARE NEWS|October 01, 2015
A Weekly Compilation of Clinical Laboratory and Related Information
From The Division Of Laboratory Systems
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October 01, 2015
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News Highlights
Leading News
Full-Court Collaboration in Transition to IQCP
Diagnostic Errors a Persistent 'Blind Spot'
A Blood Test for Early Cancer Detection Sparks Debate
Laboratory Testing / Diagnostics
Making QC Meaningful
Reference Standards Address Technical Challenges in DNA Resequencing
Medical Scientists Call for Standard Method for Validating Antibodies Used in Research and Clinical Laboratory Diagnostics
Research and Development
You’re Surrounded by a Cloud of Bacteria as Unique as a Fingerprint
NIH Researchers Find Role for Soft Palate in Adaptation of Transmissible Influenza Viruses
Origins of the Lassa Virus Finally Identified
Public Health and Patient Safety
Old-School and Current Vaccines Have No Link to Autism (Again), Study Says
Multidrug Resistance to Malaria Is More Alarming Than Ever
Every 9 Minutes, Someone in the World Dies of Rabies
Health IT and Other
ONC Releases Final Federal Health IT Strategic Plan 2015-2020
ONC Unveils Draft 2016 Interoperability Standards Advisory for Comment
Future Docs Cite Interoperability as Top Priority for Better Patient Care
View Previous Issues - Healthcare News Archive
Leading News
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Full-Court Collaboration in Transition to IQCP
With the CLIA Individualized Quality Control Plan process geared to unseat the familiar Equivalent Quality Control process on Jan. 1, there seems to be wide agreement that microbiology laboratories will have the biggest adjustment to make to comply with CLIA QC requirements, despite the IQCP being voluntary. “IQCP will have a more profound effect on clinical microbiology than some other areas of the lab that already run positive and negative controls every day they run tests,” says Susan Sharp, PhD, president-elect of the American Society for Microbiology and a member of the CAP Microbiology Resource Committee. She agrees with Dr. Sharp and other microbiology leaders who suggest that microbiology laboratories need to focus to get their IQCPs underway, but that panic does not need to be part of the game plan. “In a way, IQCP will allow labs to continue to follow the QC processes they’ve been doing under CLSI, although it will take effort up front to pull together the documentation they need,” Anderson says. Laboratories will find several tools available to use to develop their own mechanism to prepare a risk assessment, Anderson says. The joint CDC/CMS workbook is one such tool. “It doesn’t include any tables that specifically quantify risks that the laboratory identifies, but it has the questions that should be asked for the laboratory director to determine which risks need to be addressed in the QC plan.”
Source: http://www.captodayonline.com/
Note, link to CDC IQCP web page is here: http://wwwn.cdc.gov/
Diagnostic Errors a Persistent 'Blind Spot'
An unacceptable number of patients in their lifetime will experience a misdiagnosis or a delayed explanation of their illness, according to a highly anticipated new report on diagnostic mistakes. The problem is a “blind spot” prevalent throughout all healthcare settings, one that can't simply be blamed on bad doctors, according to a report released by the National Academy titled Improving Diagnosis in Health Care. The report challenges the current thinking of how patients learn about a condition. The idea that a sole physician is responsible for relaying information is a “stereotype,” the authors state. The process involves teams of healthcare professionals, but also includes input from patients and their caregivers. And human error is not always the culprit, the report says. Poorly utilized healthcare information technology, systems that rush the diagnostic process, and a lack of metrics to track incidents are other factors, according to the report. A 21-member multidisciplinary committee of physicians, researchers, health policy and quality leaders at the National Academy of Medicine (formerly the Institute of Medicine) met for over a year to evaluate existing data, get a sense of the burden of harm and costs associated with diagnostic mistakes and create national standards. The report makes eight recommendations based on the current evidence. Providers are encouraged, for example, to facilitate more effective teamwork in the diagnostic process, which has been shown to reduce mistakes and boost clinician confidence. The report states that the stakes are too high to continue with the status quo.
Source: http://www.modernhealthcare.com/
A Blood Test for Early Cancer Detection Sparks Debate
A new ‘liquid biopsy’ detects bits of DNA common in several cancers, though critics question its value.
Scientists have long dreamed of spotting cancers with a simple blood test in people who haven't shown symptoms. One company says that day is here—though it has yet to convince government regulators. Pathway Genomics began marketing a blood test in mid-September that it says can detect DNA fragments linked to 10 common cancers in otherwise healthy people. Consumers can order the test directly from the company’s website by consulting with Pathway physicians and completing a questionnaire. But many cancer experts—and competitors—say the Pathway test is far from scientifically proven and could cause unnecessary alarm. “This test is essentially telling you, ‘You’ve got cancer!’ But it can’t be linked to a particular site in the body or tell you whether the cancer may be problematic now or in the future,” says J. Leonard Lichtenfeld, deputy chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society. The Food and Drug Administration has raised concerns, too. The agency sent a letter to Pathway’s CEO last week saying: “We believe you are offering a high risk test that has not received adequate clinical validation and may harm the public health.”
Source: http://www.wsj.com/
Integrating AP and Radiology, Inch by Inch
Two major specialties serve all of health care as the foundation for diagnosis. Now efforts to align pathology and radiology again appear to be picking up steam. As payment shifts to so-called value-based care and as medical record systems may challenge successful test interpretation, many experts seek a clear integration of these two specialties. Bruce A. Friedman, MD, active emeritus professor of pathology at the University of Michigan Medical School, is a longtime advocate of the integrated approach to diagnostics, which he believes is essential for the specialties of pathology and radiology to assert their central place within health care organizations and dramatically improve diagnostic efficiency. We are living in a “golden age of diagnostics,” he said, but health care systems are unable to fully exploit testing advancements because EHRs are not optimized to run testing rules, algorithms, and heuristics that can make the testing process faster and less costly. “EHRs are built on a core of antiquated software,” Dr. Friedman tells CAP TODAY. “They’re not designed to increase clinical efficiency, but primarily designed to drop a bill and, secondly, to replicate paper records. What is needed, Dr. Friedman argues, is what he calls an “integrated diagnostics server.” The idea is a server controlled by pathology and radiology that scoops up data and images for selected patients from the LIS, RIS, PACS, and so on.
Source: http://www.captodayonline.com/
ASCP Vacancy Survey Reveals Laboratory Workforce Shortage Expanding
Health systems across the nation are seeing vacancy rates climb as baby boomers who held off retiring a few years ago during the sluggish economy are now handing in their retirement notices, according to the newly-released ASCP 2014 Vacancy Survey. The areas of the medical laboratories that have the highest numbers of staff are the same areas that will be hardest hit by these retirements, according to the Vacancy Survey which was published in the October2015 issue of the journal, AJCP. These areas include chemistry, which had the overall highest percentage of employees anticipated to retire in the next five years, at 23.60 percent; hematology, at 19.51 percent, microbiology, at 19.48 percent; and blood banks, at 19.19 percent. The ASCP 2014 Vacancy Survey findings show that overall vacancy rates increased in all departments of the medical laboratory, except for cytology and cytogenetics. It also shows higher anticipated retirement rates for both staff and supervisors.
Source: http://www.wtrf.com/
Laboratory Testing / Diagnostics
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Making QC Meaningful
Quality control (QC) only provides value to clinical laboratories if QC failures are meaningfully managed, Joshua Hayden, PhD, DABCC, writes in theSeptember issue of CLN. Too often, however, the questions asked about QC relate to the number, type, and frequency of QC required, which all are irrelevant if the lab does not deal with QC failures thoughtfully and substantively. In his article, Hayden offers three suggestions for turning QC failures into more meaningful insights:
1. Make review of QC proactive
2. Deal with alert fatigue
3. Analyze QC trends
Laboratorians should view QC failures not as isolated events, but as part of a global picture of what is occurring in the laboratory.
Source: https://www.aacc.org/
Reference Standards Address Technical Challenges in DNA Resequencing
The extensive workflow required to analyze DNA samples using next-generation sequencing (NGS) leaves many opportunities for the introduction of variability. To achieve accurate and precise results in an NGS assay, each stage of the protocol must be routinely optimized, validated and monitored. In this regard, well-characterized reference standards are an effective route to earlier detection of diseases, noninvasive monitoring and lower sample input, all of which push the technical limits of NGS.
Meeting the evolving needs of NGS
Options that satisfy validation and optimization needs include cell lines, reference standards, patient samples and oligonucleotides. Testing methodologies are recommended based on a laboratory’s accreditation or requirements. New York State guidelines state that researchers must “Establish the analytical sensitivity of the assay for each type of variant detected by the assay. This can initially be established with defined mixtures of cell line DNAs (not plasmids), but needs to be verified with 3–5 patient samples.”
The NGS workflow challenges are:
Tumor sample—heterogeneity (stromal contamination), low quantity and poor sample quality are important factors that impact the final assay results
DNA extraction—extraction from low-quality and low-quantity samples and accurate assessment of quantity are challenges presented by patient-derived samples
Library preparation—specific library preparation approaches are tailored to the goals of the experiment and the quantity and quality of the sample
Sequencing—read length and type (paired-end vs single-end) and sample multiplexing are determined by the library fragment size and the coverage required for detection
Bioinformatics—on-sequencer analysis may be employed, or data may be exported into either commercially available software or a laboratory-built pipeline
Analysis and interpretation—after generating a list of variant calls and their corresponding frequencies, database annotations, statistics and metadata may be incorporated to improve understanding and interpretation of assay results.
Source: http://www.americanlaboratory.com/
Medical Scientists Call for Standard Method for Validating Antibodies Used in Research and Clinical Laboratory Diagnostics
As science and industry gets better at measuring things and assessing quality, the acceptable standard often comes into question. This seems to be happening with antibodies, the most common reagents used in diagnostics, clinical laboratory diagnostic tests, and medical research. In many cases, the end result is that companies and their suppliers must use new technologies and quality methods to revise the “old way” and create products that have measurable better quality. The techniques currently used to validate antibodies is the topic of a recently-published scientific paper. The authors of apaper published in the March, 2010, issue of Biotechniques pointed out, antibody validation and standardization ensure study reproducibility, which is critical to accuracy. And yet, no standard guidelines define how these important biological tools should be validated prior to use.
Source: http://www.darkdaily.com/
FDA Clears First Real-time PCR Test for Influenza A/B
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared the cobas Influenza A/B test for use on the cobas Liat System, according to manufacturer Roche. It is the first Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA)-waived, real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test to detect and differentiate influenza A virus and influenza B virus in RNA in nasopharyngeal swab specimens in about 20 minutes or less, the company notes in a September 22 news release. "Today's CLIA waiver for the cobas Influenza A/B test allows real-time PCR technology, the gold standard in molecular testing, to be utilized at the point of care to accurately and quickly detect and differentiate influenza A and B," Roland Diggelmann, chief operating officer of Roche Diagnostics, said in the release.
Source: http://www.medscape.com/
NeoGenomics Launches New FISH Test for Abnormal Pap Smears
Using FISH technology, the NeoSITE Cervical assay evaluates abnormalities in five chromosomal loci. This testing can be used for diagnosis, for prediction of prognosis, and for monitoring precancerous and cancerous cervical lesions. NeoSITE Cervical is designed as a complementary test to the cytology examination and HPV testing. It is estimated that 29.4 million Pap tests are ordered annually in the US. 3%-5% of all tested cases are classified as ASCUS (Atypical Squamous Cells of Undetermined Significance) and another 3%-5% are reported as low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (LSIL), high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (HSIL) or cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN).
Source: http://www.thestreet.com/
Molecular Diagnostics at Home: Chemists Design Rapid, Simple, Inexpensive Tests Using DNA
Chemists at the University of Montreal used DNA molecules to developed rapid, inexpensive medical diagnostic tests that take only a few minutes to perform. Their findings, may aid efforts to build point-of-care devices for quick medical diagnosis of various diseases ranging from cancer, allergies, autoimmune diseases, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), and many others. The new technology may also drastically impact global health, due to its low cost and easiness of use, according to the research team. The rapid and easy-to-use diagnostic tests are made of DNA and use one of the simplest force in chemistry, steric effects - a repulsion force that arises when atoms are brought too close together - to detect a wide array of protein markers that are linked to various diseases.
Source: http://phys.org/
Gene Test Helps Some Breast Cancer Patients Skip Chemo, Study Says
A gene test used to guide treatment for early-stage breast cancer proved effective in enabling certain women to safely forgo chemotherapy, in a study that illustrates how genomic information is reshaping cancer care. Researchers said the findings provide validation for the test, called Oncotype DX, which is already in use helping women decide whether chemotherapy should be part of their treatment. The test provides a score based on a tumor’s genetic signature that describes the risk that the cancer will recur. In the study, less than 1% of women who skipped chemotherapy based on a low risk score had a recurrence of cancer beyond the breast five years later, researchers said. Just 1.3% had a recurrence of the original cancer anywhere.
Source: http://www.wsj.com/
Diagnostics Breakthrough Brings Viral Sequencing to Doctors’ Toolkit
New screening tool produces up to 10,000-fold improvement in viral matches compared with traditional high-throughput methods. Until now, there hasn’t been a fast, efficient way to broadly screen for viral infections. A breakthrough genetic testing method promises to change this situation by giving clinicians a powerful new tool to detect and sequence viruses. Developed by scientists at the Center for Infection and Immunity (CII) at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, the Virome-Capture-Sequencing platform for Vertebrate viruses (VirCapSeq-VERT) is as sensitive as the gold standard polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays while enabling simultaneous testing for hundreds of different viruses and providing near complete sequence of their genomes.
Source: http://www.technologynetworks.com/
Synoptic Reports for Patients
I am a big fan of synoptic reports for cancer diagnoses said Dr. Keith J Kaplan. They allow us to standardize our reporting of tumor site, type, grade stage, size and many other characteristics of the tumor that comprise staging information required for therapy. We can have more uniform reporting within our groups and among each other. Each organ of course is a little different. There have been many changes to the colon template, for example, with molecular ancillary studies and other findings that may not have been commonly performed or mentioned in the patient report. I realize the reports are for surgical, medical and radiation oncologists but I think pathology has an opportunity and responsibility to create patient-centric reports.
Source: http://tissuepathology.com/2015/09/22/synoptic-reports-for-patients/
Research and Development
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You’re Surrounded by a Cloud of Bacteria as Unique as a Fingerprint
Do you ever feel like you're all alone in the world? Well, don't. At every moment of your life, you're surrounded by a cloud of bacteria. These microbial companions are so unique to you that the cloud – which you leave traces of everywhere you go – might actually be as identifiable as a fingerprint. In a study published in PeerJ, researchers report that the unique signatures of bacteria a person left in the air can be used to identify them in just four hours of analysis. The researchers placed subjects in sanitized chambers for 90 minutes, then tested the "cloud" of microbes they'd left behind in the air.
Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/
NIH Researchers Find Role for Soft Palate in Adaptation of Transmissible Influenza Viruses
National Institutes of Health scientists and their colleagues identified a previously unappreciated role for the soft palate during research to better understand how influenza (flu) viruses acquire the ability to move efficiently between people. In studies using ferrets, the team collected evidence that this patch of mucous-coated soft tissue separating the mouth from the nasal cavity is a key site for the emergence of flu viruses with a heightened ability to spread through the air. The finding could aid efforts to define the properties governing flu virus transmissibility and predict which viruses are most likely to spark pandemics. The research was led by Kanta Subbarao, M.D., of NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and Ram Sasisekharan, Ph.D., of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge. Their report is published online in the journal Nature.
Source: http://www.nih.gov/
Origins of the Lassa Virus Finally Identified
By studying the genetics of populations infected by the Lassa virus, Jesse Shaprio and his colleagues were able to trace its geographic origin and evolution. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, terrible hemorrhagic fevers caused by the Lassa virus affects 300,000 people in Africa each year, killing over 5,00. The virus is transmitted from rats (Mastomys natalensis) to humans through airborne particles imbued with the animals' urine or droppings, through bites, or through direct contact with the blood or other bodily fluids of an infected person. The resulting fever was first discovered in Nigeria over 40 years ago, but only now have some of the viral mutations that foil the immune system finally been identified. This was accomplished by an international team of researchers that included Jesse Shapiro, a professor at the University of Montreal's Department of Biological Sciences and holder of the Canada Research Chair in Evolutionary Microbial Genomics. “Part of the virus' envelope, the glycoprotein enables the Lassa virus to infect cells upon its entry into the body, but because it is exposed on the surface of the virus, it is targeted by the human immune system. But mutations in the glycoprotein allow the virus to evade the immune system,” he explains.
Source: http://www.nouvelles.umontreal.ca/
FAU Researcher to Develop New Technology to Test for Sickle Cell Disease Using a Smart Phone
A researcher from Florida Atlantic University has come up with a unique way to monitor sickle cell disease - a serious blood disorder - using a smart phone. With a $166,935 grant from the National Science Foundation, E. (Sarah) Du, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Ocean and Mechanical Engineering in FAU's College of Engineering and Computer Science, and principal investigator, will develop a portable smart sensor and a phone application for patients to analyze and store the results of their blood tests on a smart phone. This technology will enable them to keep a close watch on any abnormal activities in their blood cells and take important steps to manage this disease with early intervention. Integrating microfluidics with communication technologies like a smart phone, Du and her collaborators will create a disposable testing platform much like a glucometer that is used by patients who have diabetes. There are currently no such field sensors available for patients with sickle cell disease. By monitoring the activity of their red blood cells, patients will have a potential risk indicator of a pain crisis and therefore take the appropriate steps for early intervention. They will be able to better manage the disease by making sure they are appropriately hydrated and have sufficient oxygen.
Source: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/
Scientists Find Way to Disarm Deadly Bacteria without Destroying the Good Ones in Your Gut
Nearly half a million Americans get infected in a single year by Clostridium difficile, a dangerous bacteria that causes life-threatening diarrhea. It kills 15,000 people a year. It's the most common cause of health-care associated infections in U.S. hospitals. Patients on antibiotics are at the greatest risk for developing C. diff infections. That happens when people are prescribed powerful antibiotics incorrectly or unnecessarily. Those antibiotics wipe out the good bacteria normally inside in your gut that protect you against infections. That's when vulnerable patients can get a C. diff infection from a contaminated surface or from another person. Now researchers from Stanford say they have found a way to disarm a C. diff toxin that makes people sick, but in a way that doesn't harm those good gut microbes. The study uses a drug-like molecule called ebselen. The study was done in mice, but researchers say it could be moved quickly into human trials because ebselen is already being tested in clinical trials to treat other, unrelated conditions. The study was published online in Science Translational Medicine.
Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/
Liquid Crystals Show Potential for Detection of Neurodegenerative Disease
Liquid crystals are familiar to most of us as the somewhat humdrum stuff used to make computer displays and TVs. Even for scientists, it has not been easy to find other uses. Now a group of researchers at the University of Chicago’s Institute for Molecular Engineering is putting liquid crystals to work in a completely unexpected realm: as detectors for the protein fibers implicated in the development of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Their novel approach promises an easier, less costly way to detect these fibers and to do so at a much earlier stage of their formation than has been possible before—the stage when they are thought to be the most toxic. “It is extremely important to develop techniques that allow us to detect the formation of these so-called amyloid fibrils when they’re first starting to grow,” said Juan de Pablo, whose group did the new work. “We have developed a system that allows us to detect them in a simple and inexpensive manner. And the sensitivity appears to be extremely high.”
Source: http://www.labmanager.com/
New Virus Identified in Blood Supply
Scientists have discovered a new virus that can be transmitted through the blood supply. Currently, it is unclear whether the virus is harmful or not, but it is related to hepatitis C virus (HCV) and human pegivirus (HPgV), the latter of which was formerly known as hepatitis G virus. The new virus, which researchers have named human hepegivirus-1 (HHpgV-1), is described in mBio, an online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology. "HHpgV-1 is unique because it shares genetic similarity with both highly pathogenic HCV and the apparently non-pathogenic HPgV. People need to be aware of this new infection in humans," said lead author Amit Kapoor, PhD, assistant professor, Department of Pathology and Cell Biology, Center for Infection and Immunity, College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University, New York City.
Source: Source: http://www.technologynetworks.com/
Researchers Create Antimicrobial Biofilm to Protect Medical Implants from Infection
Countless lives have been prolonged and improved with medical implants like pacemakers and replacement hips. But such operations also carry the risk that infection-causing microbes may grow on the implant and the immune system may reject the foreign object. Now, an Inserm team from Strasbourg University in France has succeeded in creating a biofilm that protects against such infection. The biomaterials and bioengineering researchers describe their work in the journal Advanced Healthcare Materials. The extremely thin, silver-coated biofilm has antimicrobial, antifungal and anti-inflammatory properties and can be used to cover titanium implants - including new hips, prostheses and pacemakers, and other medical devices that can cause infection, such as catheters.
Source: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/
Genetic Clue to Breast Cancer Relapses
Scientists say they have discovered a genetic clue to why some breast cancers relapse, which could lead to better treatment. A research team from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge found that cancers that return were more likely to contain certain genes or combinations of genes. Targeting these genes with early treatments could be key, they said. The study is being presented at the European Cancer Congress in Vienna.
Source: http://www.bbc.com/
Scientists Discover Possible Treatment for HIV, Cancer
Scientists have tested countless drugs as potential cures for cancer, HIV and similar incurable diseases, and they recently found that new graphene oxide biosensors show promise as treatments for both cancer and HIV. A team of scientists with the Laboratory of Nanooptics and Plasmonics, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) recently created a new kind of graphene oxide (GO) that is founded on a biosensor. This development could accelerate the process behind drug development. This specific carbon allotrope has properties that help it to heighten the biosensing sensitivity. This could allow scientists to create new vaccines and drugs for dangerous illnesses like hepatitis, HIV and cancer.
Source: http://vaccinenewsdaily.com/
Public Health and Patient Safety
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Old-School and Current Vaccines Have No Link to Autism (Again), Study Says
Multiple vaccines containing the preservative thimerosal, administered to macaque monkeys on the schedule that pediatricians followed in the 1990s, resulted in none of the key brain or behavioral changes linked to autism, a new study shows. The same study also administered a wide range of vaccines including the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine--which never contained thimerosal--to rhesus macaques. Again, it found no evidence of changes in brains or behavior that would implicate either the much-maligned MMR vaccine or a combination of many vaccines as a cause of or contributor to autism.
Source : http://www.latimes.com/
Multidrug Resistance to Malaria is More Alarming Than Ever
The efforts of the international community for the past 10 years in the fight against malaria have reduced the number of disease-related deaths. The emerging resistance to standard therapies threatening South-East Asia, and new research carried out by the team led by Françoise Benoit-Vical, Inserm research director in the CNRS (French National Centre for Scientific Research) Coordination Chemistry Laboratory in collaboration with the Pasteur Institute and Inserm, are not reassuring factors. The in vitro examination of a strain of parasites solely exposed to artemisinin (the base compound for standard therapy) demonstrates the development of a widespread resistance to most other anti-malarial drugs. This new resistance cannot be detected by tests currently used and represents an additional threat to antimalarial treatments in the field. This research is published in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.
Source: http://www.infectioncontroltoday.com/
Every 9 Minutes, Someone in the World Dies of Rabies
A human death from rabies is a tragic but rare thing in the United States and most developed nations. It’s just as tragic but sadly common in parts of the world where some 3 billion people are at risk of being bitten by a rabid dog. More than 59,000 people die of rabies each year because they cannot get the care they need. That’s about 1 person dying of rabies every 9 minutes. Most of these deaths are in Africa and Asia, and nearly half of the victims are children under the age of 15. Many of these lives can be saved if bite victims and healthcare providers know what to do and have what they need —rabies vaccine and immunoglobulin. “Measures to prevent rabies in people are simple: wash the wound right after you are bitten and get follow-up care and vaccination immediately,” said Ryan Wallace, veterinary epidemiologist with CDC. “However, the primary method of prevention, and the more cost-effective intervention in the fight against rabies, is vaccination of domestic pets, particularly dogs.”
Source: http://www.cdc.gov/
U.S. Opioid Epidemic Fueled by Prescribing Practices
The United States is facing the worst "man-made epidemic" of opioid abuse in the history of modern medicine, and it is the direct result of poor research and outdated teaching practices, according to a leading pain expert. "There's been over 200,000 deaths from prescription opioids and many more hundreds of thousands of overdose admissions, and millions are addicted or dependent on prescription opioids, and while some patients don't meet the classic definition of opioid use disorder, as many as 30% of patients who are sitting across from you in your office have opioid use disorder or are severely dependent," Gary Franklin, MD, MPH, vice president of Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing, said during a Webinar sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Clinician Outreach and Communication Activity (COCA).
Source: http://www.medscape.com/
HHS Sponsors Development of Drug for Hospitalized Influenza Patients
Development of an experimental influenza antiviral drug that may be more potent and could have a longer treatment window than existing drugs will receive support from the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR). The drug is being developed for use in treating patients hospitalized with influenza. With a unique “mechanism of action,” the new drug could become first in a new class of influenza antivirals,” HHS stated in an announcement. If development is successful, and the drug receives Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval, the drug could become the first specifically developed for this use and potentially the first in a new class of influenza antivirals.
Source: http://www.hstoday.us/
Blood Pressure Medication before Bed Could Lower Risk of Diabetes
It may sound simple, but something as basic as taking your blood pressure medication before bed rather than in the morning could be enough to lower the risk of type 2 diabetes significantly, according to new research. Two studies conducted by researchers from the University of Vigo in Spain have explored the impact of sleep-time blood pressure on new-onset diabetes risk. The findings are published in the journal Diabetologia. For this study, 2,012 people with high blood pressure were randomly assigned to either take all of their hypertension medication upon awakening or to take the entire daily dose of one or more of their prescribed medication at bedtime. Those who were assigned to take their medication before bedtime had significantly lower average sleep-time blood pressure and a greater sleep-time relative blood pressure decline than those who took their medication in the morning. Most importantly, however, was the finding that the risk of new-onset type 2 diabetes decreased by 57% in the group of patients who took their medicine before bedtime.
Source: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/
DuPont to Manufacture Johns Hopkins Ebola Protection Suit
Last year Johns Hopkins unveiled an Ebola protection suit that has a lot of innovative features to protect the wearer while being comfortable to keep on for extended periods of time. Now the university has partnered with DuPont to develop the device into a real product that can be used by clinicians in the field by 2016. The suit has a zipper on the back with break-away tabs and features a nifty method of taking it off without assistance that prevents potential contamination. Jhpiego, a Hopkins partner firm that’s also working on the Ebola suit, will field test it in Liberia where signs of the disease are still present.
Source: http://www.medgadget.com/
Health IT
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ONC Releases Final Federal Health IT Strategic Plan 2015-2020
Embracing a long-term vision for nationwide health information technology that 'puts the person at the center,' the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT has finalized its strategy for the next five years<a class="external" href="http://www.cdc.gov/Other/disclaimer.html" id="anch_149" style="background: url(ht