A consulting firm dealing with long-range, leading edge technological innovations and their consequences and implications for healthcare policy and practice.
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alt="http://hfdigest.com/wp-content/gallery/pics/robomed2.jpg" We can expect the labels of many other drugs besides Camptosar to carry pharmacogenomic advice as research increasingly provides such knowledge. That research is delivering the knowledge is attested to by the growth in biotech patent applications in recent years. The application process itself has lengthened from about 12 months to more than 30 as […]
2006 was the year when the use of biomarkers and genetic testing to indicate the presence of disease or disease predisposition, based on the sort of research results described above, began to take off. Genetic testing and biomarker identification was a $5 billion business in 2006 and growing by 25 percent annually. Insurers did not […]
The HapMap helped reveal an environmental as well as an inheritable component to genetics. That, plus our new understanding of the complex interplay between the genomics of a disease and the unique minor genetic differences among individuals, has led to custom-tailored therapies based on the individual patient’s unique genetic situation. 2006 was the year when […]
Members of the Personalized Medicine Coalition were right to be bullish on the prospects for personalized medicine, and the PCM itself is to be congratulated for its vision and leadership in promoting the cause. It is our pick for Health Futures Organization of the Year, 2006 . 2006 was certainly a banner year for personalized […]
A pundit envisions a market-driven healthcare heaven by the year 2020, in which all patients are perfect capitalist consumers with perfect knowledge, perfect discrimination, and perfect ability to pay. A healthcare heaven may well be within reach technologically by 2020; but this will be beyond anybody’s grasp, politically and socially. A handful of visionary US […]
We said here years ago that RNA interference (RNAi, the ability to control whether and how genes express themselves) was the best thing since sliced bread. Someone at Nobel must have been thinking the same thing, since the two researchers credited with RNAi’s discovery have been awarded the 2006 Nobel Prize for Medicine. It is […]
The US may not remain the leader in healthcare innovation as the Human Physiome Project, the International HapMap Project, the Allen Institute’s Brain Atlas, the Cancer Genome Atlas and similar advances — made accessible at no cost to the global research community — begin to help other countries contribute innovations. The US can hold its […]
The trend to medical tourism is picking up the pace, with ever more creative choices and unbeatable prices. It is understandable that unions would be concerned about it, but the over-my-dead-body response of the United Steelworkers is unfortunate and misguided. While unions can slow the trend, they can’t stop it, and they may do a […]
Serious money is finally going into one of the most exciting of all developments in healthcare: human limb and organ regeneration. The US Department of Health and Human Services thinks “tissue on demand” will be here by 2020, and meaningful regenerative therapies will arrive sooner — within five to ten years. A phase II trial […]
