MUST READS AND WATCH

An April 10, 2015 BBC News article reported on the changing face of death including the rise of dementia. According to the article, “A hundred years ago, infectious diseases were the scourge of the nation. As the 1800s drew to a close, more than a third of all deaths were caused by the likes of small pox, measles, cholera, tuberculosis and diphtheria…But as the population has aged, there has been a rapid growth in chronic conditions. Half of all deaths are now linked to circulatory problems - like heart disease - and cancers. This has had major implications for the way the NHS works, with an estimated 70% of the budget spent on long-term conditions like these…Perhaps the most noticeable change is the way that dementia has climbed up the table. The ageing population means the number of cases is growing all the time - and there is evidence that the NHS is already struggling to keep up.Years of poor health A report last year by the Alzheimer's Society found that only a third of the care that patients needed was provided by the state (the NHS or councils) with the rest coming from support from family and friends or from services they paid for. The charity branded it a "dementia tax" and called for an overhaul in how services were organised. But the changing patterns of disease pose another dilemma - a growing burden of ill health. Whereas infectious diseases tended to claim lives quickly, chronic illness can lead to many years of poor health.”

An April 9, 2015 Huffington Post article reported that former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) “wants the GOP to fund science research.” According to the article, “If they want to secure increases in defense spending, he said, they should dramatically increase funding for biomedical research -- and put it all on the nation's credit card…Cantor has been a longtime champion of the National Institutes of Health, almost single-handedly passing a bill during his last year in office to devote millions to pediatric research. So his forceful testimonial in support of greater federal spending on science is not surprising in itself. But he also has always balanced his advocacy with insistence on austerity. His bill, the Gabriella Miller Kids First Research Act, for example, was offset by ending the public funding of presidential conventions.” In an interview with The Huffington Post Cantor stated, “The president has consistently said, and the Democrats' position remains, that if there is going to be an increase in defense spending there must be a commensurate increase in domestic spending. My position would be, let's go ahead and commit to long-term creation of value, let's go in and put all the incremental dollars on the domestic side into scientific and medical research."

An April 9, 2015 Associated Press article (via The Miami Herald) reported on the growing cost of elder care and that the “median bill for a private room in a nursing home is now $91,250 a year.” According to the article, “The annual report from Genworth, which sells policies to cover long-term care, looks at costs for a variety of services, including adult daycare, and home health aides. And nursing home bills are rising at the fastest pace, twice the rate of U.S. inflation over the last five years. One year in a nursing home now costs nearly as much as three years of tuition at a private college…Often enough, experts say senior citizens wind up spending their savings until they hit their last $2,000, and at that point they can turn to Medicaid, the government's health insurance for the poor, to help cover the bill. As a result, Medicaid pays for more than half of the country's long-term care bill. That cost accounts for more than a quarter of Medicaid spending, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.”

SEX BASED RESEARCH AND TRENDS 

An April 9, 2015 Sunrise Senior Living Blog highlighted differences in male and female memory. According to the article, “A recent study from the Mayo Clinic has found that men may actually forget memories earlier than women do, and this gap only widens with age…The findings, published in JAMA Neurology, revealed that men's hippocampi may actually shrink faster than women's as they get older. The hippocampus is a small piece of the brain responsible for memory. Around 30, everyone begins to experience slight memory loss here and there, the study authors acknowledged. However, after 40, men deal with this more rapidly than women, causing them to forget more over time. That means when men are seniors, they're more likely to forget about that barbecue in the retirement community than women are.”

RESEARCH, SCIENCE, AND TECHNOLOGY 

An April 10, 2015 Wall Street Journal article reported that the Obama Administration issued a report that criticizes digital health records vendors for making it costly to share patient information. According to the article, “The report, by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, listed a litany of complaints it has received about vendors allegedly charging hefty fees to set up connections and share patient records; requiring customers to use proprietary platforms; and making it prohibitively expensive to switch systems. The report also cited complaints that some hospital systems make it difficult to transfer patient records to rival systems or physicians as a way to control referrals and enhance their market dominance.”

An April 9, 2015 U-T San Diego article reported on the ease of getting a brain injury. According to the article, “Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a significant public health issue. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 1.7 million people experience a TBI in the United States each year, which is eight times the number of people diagnosed with breast cancer each year, and 34 times the number of new cases of HIV/AIDS diagnosed annually. Brain injuries can occur at any time without warning, and often require highly specialized treatment, including long-term rehabilitation. Any injury to the brain can affect the way people walk, talk and think. Depending on severity, there can be severe physical and emotional problems. TBI can cause seizures, impaired memory or judgment, difficulty speaking, confusion, impulsiveness, depression, mood swings, loss of motor control and coordination, vision problems, difficulty concentrating, partial paralysis or weakness, chronic pain and more.”

INDUSTRY UPDATES

An April 9, 2015 Bloomberg Business article reported on legal issues surrounding Actavis’ Alzheimer's drugs Namenda and Named XR. According to the article, “Actavis, maker of the blockbuster Alzheimer’s drug Namenda, isn’t the first pharmaceutical company to attempt what’s known in the industry as product hopping or the hard switch. Facing the loss of patent protection and profits on top-selling brands, drugmakers sometimes stop or sharply limit sales of drugs to force consumers to switch to a somewhat modified, newly patented version before generic rivals have a chance to get into the market…Namenda, produced by Actavis subsidiary Forest Laboratories, is the company’s top-earning drug, with about $1.5 billion in sales last year. With the patent on the old version of Namenda expiring this month, Actavis is intent on building a market for Namenda XR, its once-a-day pill for Alzheimer’s sufferers. The patent for Namenda XR doesn’t expire until 2029.…In a statement issued in January, Saunders said Namenda XR offers significant advantages for Alzheimer’s patients. He was optimistic the company would prevail in the Second Circuit.”