AARP launches money-saving prescription drug resource

  • Author: Health Informer
  • Filed under: Health News
  • Date: Jun 24,2009

Online tool helps people avoid dreaded “doughnut hole”

By the end of this summer, more than one million older Americans will have fallen into the “doughnut hole”–a coverage gap in Medicare’s prescription drug program that leaves individuals on the hook for all of their own drug costs while still paying premiums. AARP is launching a new online resource to help older Americans avoid this dreaded coverage gap.

The AARP Doughnut Hole Calculator, available at www.aarp.org/doughnuthole, guides visitors through their prescription drug options using localized information about their plans and prescriptions to determine if or when they will fall into the coverage gap. In about 15 minutes, visitors can view a graph of their out-of-pocket spending by month, look up lower cost drugs for their conditions, create a Personal Medication Record and print out personalized letters to their doctors to help start a conversation about safely switching prescriptions.

“More than three million people fall into the gap each year, and millions more nervously wonder if they might fall in,” said AARP Executive Vice President Nancy LeaMond. “For the first time, people in Medicare have a simple way to learn if they’ll fall into the doughnut hole and find ways to avoid it by switching to safe, less expensive medications.”

As a part of its Health Action Now campaign, AARP is calling on Congress to close the doughnut hole and lower prescription drug prices so that no one has to go without the prescriptions they need to stay healthy. Yesterday, AARP joined President Obama to endorse an agreement by Senate leaders and the pharmaceutical industry that would reduce brand name drug costs for people who fall into the doughnut hole by half. Research has shown people cut back on their prescription drugs when their costs become unaffordable, which can lead to more serious health conditions and larger health care bills.

LeaMond added: “Saving money on prescription drugs is going to mean pressing hard in Washington to close the doughnut hole; yesterday we were proud to help announce significant progress toward that goal. In the meantime, we also want to give Americans the tools they need to cut their drug costs and stay out of the gap in the first place. We encourage every person in Medicare to take a few minutes to find the right drugs at the lowest prices.”

The calculator is powered by DestinationRx as part of a special arrangement between AARP and Medicare. The data is the same used by the Medicare Prescription Drug Plan Finder, giving users the most accurate and up-to-date drug pricing information available.


Boomers: Tips on how to exercise safely

As the weather gets warmer, people often get motivated to spend more time outdoors. Whether it’s working on projects around the house, playing with the grandkids at the park or out exercising, the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) stresses important that baby boomers remember their bodies are not as young as they used to be and not overdo it.

In 2008, more than 166,000 people between the ages of 45 and 64 were treated in emergency rooms, clinics and doctors’ offices for injuries related to exercise and exercise equipment, according to the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission.

“Baby boomers have become increasingly active as they age and orthopaedic surgeons think this trend will continue,” says Ray Monto, MD, spokesperson for the AAOS. “One thing to keep in mind is that when you are 50, you may injure your body more easily than when you were 20. Joints, tissues and muscles may not be as flexible as they used to be. So as boomers age, they should take extra steps to protect themselves from injuries when exercising.” Dr. Monto adds, “a little extra stretching before and after exercise, for example, goes a long way.”

The AAOS offers the following tips to help boomers prevent exercise-related injuries:

  • Check with your doctor before beginning any exercise program. A physician will make sure your heart is in good condition and can make recommendations based on your current fitness level. This is especially important if you have had a previous injury.
  • Always warm up and stretch before exercising. Cold muscles are more likely to get injured, so warm up with some light exercise for at least three to five minutes.
  • Avoid being a “weekend warrior.” Moderate exercise every day is healthier and less likely to result in injury than heavy activity only on weekends.
  • Do not be afraid to take lessons. An instructor can help ensure you are using the proper form, which can prevent overuse injuries such as tendonitis and stress fractures.
  • Develop a balanced fitness program. Incorporate cardio, strength training and flexibility training to get a total body workout and prevent overuse injuries. Also, make sure to introduce new exercises gradually, so you do not take on too much at once.
  • Take calcium and Vitamin D supplements daily.
  • Listen to your body. As you age, you may not be able to do some of the activities that you did years ago. Pay attention to your body’s needs and abilities, and modify your workout accordingly.
  • Remember to rest and schedule regular days off from exercise and rest when tired.

Baby boomers who exercise regularly are less likely to experience depression, weight gain, diabetes, high blood pressure and sleep disturbances, so it’s important to incorporate physical activity into your routine at any age.

For more information about baby boomer exercise safety, visit www.orthoinfo.org.

Source: American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons


Gene Findings Unlocking Reasons for Neuroblastoma Risk

  • Author: Health Informer
  • Filed under: Health News
  • Date: Jun 23,2009

Whole-Genome Searches Are Revealing Secrets of a Childhood Cancer–

Two new studies from The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia advance the search for genetic events that result in neuroblastoma, a puzzling, often-deadly type of childhood cancer.

Originating in the peripheral nervous system, neuroblastoma is the most common solid cancer of early childhood and causes 15 percent of all childhood cancer deaths.

“Only two years ago we had very little idea of what causes neuroblastoma,” said study leader John M. Maris, M.D., chief of Oncology and director of the Cancer Center at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “Now we have unlocked a lot of the mystery of why neuroblastoma arises in some children and not in others.”

In the largest gene study to date in pediatric oncology, Maris’s study team performed a genome-wide association study to discover that common variants in the gene BARD1 increase a child’s susceptibility to a high-risk form of neuroblastoma.

A second genome-wide study found that a copy number variation (CNV) — a missing stretch of DNA — along a structurally weak location on chromosome 1 plays an important role in the development of neuroblastoma. Although CNVs have received much attention from genetics researchers over the last several years, this study was the first example of a specific CNV that predisposes people to cancer.

The BARD1 study was published online in Nature Genetics on May 3, while the CNV study appeared in the June 18 issue of Nature. The researchers made use of highly automated gene-analyzing technology at the Center for Applied Genomics at Children’s Hospital, directed by Hakon Hakonarson, M.D., Ph.D., a co-author of both studies. They used specimens collected from around the world through the Children’s Oncology Group.

The BARD1 gene had already attracted attention from oncology researchers because it is associated with the gene BRCA1, which was the first discovered familial breast cancer gene. “Researchers have suspected that variants in BARD1 also increased the risk of breast cancer, but no one has found compelling evidence of this,” said Maris. “Instead, surprisingly, our genome-wide association studies found that BARD1 is a susceptibility gene for neuroblastoma, and perhaps other cancers as well.”

Maris added that researchers are now working to understand the mechanism by which BARD1 gene variants act on developing nervous system cells to give rise to cancer during fetal or early childhood development.

Maris’s second study, spearheaded by Dr. Sharon Diskin, also of The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, found that an inherited CNV located at chromosome 1q21.1 is associated with neuroblastoma. The chromosome region contains a large family of genes that are involved in the development of the nervous system, and the CNV they discovered changes how much of one particular gene is made within normal nerve and neuroblastoma cells.

This study, Maris added, opens up a new area for studying the mechanisms of how CNVs may increase the risk of cancer.

The current findings build on 2008 studies by Maris’s lab, one identifying the ALK gene as the major gene predisposing patients to the rare familial form of neuroblastoma, and the other identifying a region of chromosome 6 that increases the risk of the nonhereditary form of the disease. The ALK gene discovery has already led to a clinical trial led by Dr. Yael Mosse of The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

As gene studies continue to better define the genetic landscape of neuroblastoma, added Maris, pediatric oncologists can better develop more precise targeted treatments to improve survival and quality of life for children with this complex disease. The Cancer Center at Children’s Hospital has one of the nation’s largest research and clinical programs in pediatric oncology.

DNA samples for both studies were provided by the Children’s Oncology Group, a multicenter collaborative research organization in which Maris chairs the committee overseeing basic and clinical research in neuroblastoma. A variety of funding sources supported both studies, including the National Institutes of Health, the Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, the Evan Dunbar Foundation, the Rally Foundation, the Andrew’s Army Foundation, the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute and the Giulio D’Angio Endowed Chair.

Maris is also on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Scientists from six other centers in addition to Children’s Hospital and the University of Pennsylvania contributed to the discovery or replication of the findings.

Capasso et al, “Common variations in BARD1 influence susceptibility to high-risk neuroblastoma,” Nature Genetics, published online May 3, 2009.

(http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ng.374)

Diskin et al, “Copy number variation at 1q21.1 associated with neuroblastoma,” Nature, published June 18, 2009. (http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature08035)

Source: The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia


Awards recognize best-in-class, Microsoft-based solutions in discovery and product innovation, sales and marketing, and clinical development.

Microsoft Corp. today announced winners of the 2009 Microsoft Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences Innovation Awards, honoring companies that have made the most innovative use of Microsoft-based solutions for breakthroughs in business processes and practices throughout the pharmaceutical and life sciences industry.

Announced at the Drug Information Association’s (DIA) 45th annual meeting in San Diego, the awards were presented in the categories of discovery and product innovation, sales and marketing, and clinical development.

“The companies recognized are examples of innovators who have developed technology solutions to address the major issues impacting the pharmaceutical and life sciences industry today,” said Michael Naimoli, director of U.S. life sciences industry solutions at Microsoft. “By building upon the existing Microsoft software platform, this year’s winners demonstrated solutions that help streamline clinical trial and discovery processes to facilitate research and discovery, as well as improve the end user’s experience.”

Award Winners

Submissions for this year’s awards came from global life sciences corporations specializing in biotechnology, diagnostics, medical equipment and devices, pharmaceuticals, animal health, nutritional products, and consumer health products. The winners are the following:

Discovery and Product Innovation: HUNT Research Centre and Biobank
Norway-based HUNT Research Centre and Biobank hosts one of the largest population-based health studies ever performed, consisting of three separate studies that span nearly 25 years and evaluate the same patient population. The studies, initiated to support epidemiological, clinical and preventive medical research, offer valuable insight into disease status and progression, particularly in relation to quality-of-life measures such as one’s environment, education and occupation. In preparation for the third study, HUNT Research Centre and Biobank recognized the need to deploy a technology to better manage and analyze real-time data.

HUNT Research Centre and Biobank implemented Thermo Scientific Nautilus Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS) to facilitate their ability to gather, store, manage, track and retrieve data securely, and yield real-time, dependable analysis and reports. Built on the Microsoft.NET Framework, Thermo Scientific Nautilus LIMS(TM) with the use of Visual Studio has enabled HUNT Research Centre and Biobank to improve its efficiency and data reliability to better serve the research community.

Sales and Marketing: Bristol-Myers Squibb
Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. is a leading global biopharmaceutical company that develops innovative medicines to combat serious diseases, with the end goal of extending and improving human life. In order to address the increasing complexity of business and customer changes, Bristol-Myers Squibb UK realized that its old technology would no longer suffice.

Bristol-Myers Squibb UK deployed Data Intelligence’s Business Intelligence Solution, PharmaANALYTICS(TM), to manage all of the sales and marketing data sources for the entire U.K. organization. As a result, the Data Intelligence SQL Server-based solution has enabled the staff to quickly respond to new business challenges and opportunities. In addition, over 200 sales representatives now have immediate access to their sales performance by account.

Clinical Development: Harvard Clinical Research Institute
The Harvard Clinical Research Institute advances research by facilitating more efficient collaboration between the industry and academia. A highly respected academic research organization (ARO) the Harvard Clinical Research Institute needed to aggregate data from multiple sources into one to generate increased efficiency and productivity. The Harvard Clinical Research Institute will make more information available to study constituents and respond more capably to a growing number of research centers around the world.

The Harvard Clinical Research Institute deployed TranSenda’s Office-Smart Clinical Trial Manager (OSCTM) in order to access critical operational data from disparate systems and multiple clinical trials, and manage it into a single source. The deployment of OSCTM, with its native interoperability with the Microsoft Office SharePoint System, resulted in a streamlined processing of operational data management, significantly reducing the amount of time and effort involved in each study. The Harvard Clinical Research Institute has also reduced overall costs for the overhead of data collection and retrieval.

The 2009 Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences Innovation Award winners were selected by an esteemed panel of industry experts:

  • Scott Lundstrom, research vice president, Health Industry Insights, an IDC Company
  • James Averback, president, Life Science Integration Partners
  • Benjamin Rooks, principal, ST Advisors LLC
  • Salvatore Salamone, senior contributing editor, Bio-IT World

More information about the 2009 Pharmaceutical and Life Science Innovation Awards can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/industry/healthcare/lifesciences/innovationawards.mspx.


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