viernes, 6 de noviembre de 2015

DLS|HEALTHCARE NEWS|November 05, 2015: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Healthcare News Update

DLS|HEALTHCARE NEWS|November 05, 2015

CDC. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC 24/7: Saving Lives. Protecting People.

A Weekly Compilation of Clinical Laboratory and Related Information
From The Division Of Laboratory Systems


November 05, 2015


News Highlights

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  • PSA Tests Cut Metastatic Prostate Cancer Rate by 50%
  • Scientists Urge National Initiative on Microbiomes
  • The Latest Colorectal Cancer Screening Guidance
  • ACMG and AMA Coalition Make LDT Oversight Recommendations to Congress
  • Discrepant Results at Multiple Sites
  • Genome Sequencing of Tumors Are Helping Pathologist and Physicians Identify Useful Therapies for Patients with Unresponsive Cancers
  • Penn Study Blocks Ebola Virus Budding by Regulating Calcium Signaling
  • Tumor RNA within Platelets May Help Diagnose and Classify Cancer, Identify Treatment Strategies
  • Mount Sinai Scientists Deploy Data Analysis to Identify Subtypes of Common Disease
  • CDC's World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology and Control of Influenza
  • TB 'Joins HIV as Most Deadly Infection'
  • A Grim Breast Cancer Milestone for Black Women
  • CHIME Applauds Senate Passage of Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015
  • Electronic Exchange of Lab Data Happening in Majority of Hospitals
  • HHS Wants Help Updating Disease Tracking System
  

View Previous Issues - Healthcare News Archive


Leading News

PSA Tests Cut Metastatic Prostate Cancer Rate by 50%
Screening for early cancer detection may reduce the rate of related metastatic disease, but not always. In a perspective published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the authors describe trends in metastatic breast cancer and prostate cancer prior to and more than a decade after the widespread use of mammography — a radiographic test — and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing — a blood test. The trends are startlingly different. The incidence of metastatic prostate cancer fell by approximately 50% within 7 years of the start of widespread PSA use in 1990; however, rates of metastatic breast cancer remained remarkably stable following the initiation of widespread mammography screening in women from 1985 to the current day.

Scientists Urge National Initiative on Microbiomes
Scores of leading scientists urged the creation of a major initiative to better understand the microbial communities critical to both human health and every ecosystem. In two papers published simultaneously in the journals Science and Nature, the scientists called for a government-led effort akin to the Brain Initiative. “This is the beginning of the shot to the moon,” said Jeffery F. Miller, the director of the California NanoSystems Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a co-author of the Science paper. “There is so much to learn, and so many benefits of learning it.” Microbiomes have become the focus of intense study and public interest. The trillions of microbes that live inside the human body, for example, play important roles in health, from fighting diseases to maintaining a balanced immune system. But the planet is home to a vast number of other microbiomes, from the microbial communities that live in undersea volcanoes to microbes that cling to existence in Antarctic deserts. These play an instrumental role in the environment: Ocean microbes, for example, produce half of the oxygen we breathe. Dr. Miller said a microbiome initiative could uncover fundamental explanations for why things are the way they are.

The Latest Colorectal Cancer Screening Guidance
While standing firm that adults aged 50 and older should get screened for colorectal cancer, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) is proposing to revise certain screening procedures for adults. This involves placing new emphasis on fecal immunochemical testing (FIT) while reducing the frequency of other screening procedures. USPSTF is proposing the following screening options: colonoscopy every 10 years, a yearly FIT or high-sensitivity guaiac-based fecal occult blood test (gFOBT), or flexible sigmoidoscopy every 10 years in combination with an annual FIT test. The previous recommendation to use flexible sigmoidoscopy every 5 years plus high-sensitivity fecal occult blood testing just every 3 years has since evolved, USPSTF Chairman Albert L. Siu, MD, MSPH, told CLN Stat. Reducing the frequency of sigmoidoscopy while enhancing the role of FIT “occurred as a result of new findings from modeling studies the task force commissioned for this recommendation,” Siu explained. Some doubts have been cast on flexible sigmoidoscopy’s effectiveness as a lone tool to help reduce colorectal cancer deaths, the task force indicated.

Guidelines on Sharing Individual Genomic Research Findings with Family
The first consensus guidelines on how researchers should share genomic findings in research on adults and children with other family members has now been published. The recommendations offer direction on sharing information before and after the death of an individual research participant. A blue-ribbon project group funded by the National Institutes of Health has published the first consensus guidelines on how researchers should share genomic findings in research on adults and children with other family members. The recommendations, published in the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, offer direction on sharing information before and after the death of an individual research participant. The guidelines were developed after a multiyear consensus process involving experts in medical genetics and genomics, genetic counseling, genomic researchers, biobanks and repositories, human research protection, bioethics, and law.

 

Laboratory Testing / Diagnostics

ACMG and AMA Coalition Make LDT Oversight Recommendations to Congress
A coalition of organizations including the American Medical Association (AMA) and American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG) have recommended to Congress that oversight of laboratory developed tests (LDTs) be undertaken “primarily through reform of the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments [(CLIA)],” with a more limited role for the Food and Drug Administration. The coalition’s letter, sent to Chairmen and Ranking Members of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions and the Committee on Energy and Commerce, says that congressional action is needed to “ensure that high complexity laboratory developed testing services and procedures are accurate, precise, clinically relevant, and monitored for continued quality performance.”

Discrepant Results at Multiple Sites
As hospitals are brought under single health systems, laboratory leaders are faced with the task of ensuring that their clinical lab results are comparable among various sites and instruments. But some have had more opportunity than most to investigate the mischief afforded by variations in instruments, reagents, and more. Dina N. Greene, PhD, found herself in that position. She worked for four years at Kaiser Permanente Northern California, where she served as a clinical chemistry consultant for its 21 hospital laboratories in the area and directed hemoglobinopathy and myeloma testing for the system’s regional laboratory. “This is an increasing kind of problem with consolidation. As different universities acquire more hospitals and as hospital systems acquire other hospitals, it’s going to be an increasing challenge,” says Dr. Greene, now associate director of chemistry at the University of Washington Medical Center. You have to standardize your equipment—that’s a fundamental part of this. Without standardizing the equipment, you just have so much more opportunity for wildly different results, especially if everything is going into the same electronic medical record,” Dr. Greene says. “That’s what my data is showing. This is hard enough when everyone’s on the same instrument. There’s no way to do it when you’re on different instruments,” she says. “This also bolsters the argument for standardization of quality practices.”

Genome Sequencing of Tumors Are Helping Pathologists and Physicians Identify Useful Therapies for Patients with Unresponsive Cancers
Step by step, progress is happening in the use of genome sequencing to advance personalized and precision medicine, with clinical laboratories and pathologists in the forefront of these developments. Much of this effort is focused on cancer and the sequencing of tumors. One recent example comes from New York City, where the genomes of tumors of patients with unresponsive cancers were sequenced at the Institute for Precision Medicine at Weill Cornell and New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell Medical Center. The outcomes of this effort demonstrates how the results of such testing can help patients who had not found an effective therapy to control their cancers.

Urinary Biomarkers Are Unreliable for Diagnosing Bladder Cancer
Urinary biomarkers miss a substantial proportion of patients with bladder cancer and are falsely positive in others, according to an article in Annals of Internal Medicine. Researchers reviewed 57 published studies to ascertain the accuracy of the five FDA-approved urinary biomarkers for diagnosis of bladder cancer in adults who have signs or symptoms of bladder cancer or are undergoing surveillance for recurrent disease. They found that urinary biomarkers had sensitivities for bladder cancer that ranged from 0.57 to 0.82 and specificities that ranged from 0.74 to 0.88. Their sensitivity seemed to be particularly poor for low-stage and low-grade tumors.

The Paris System for Reporting Urinary Cytology
Historically, examination of urine for presence of malignant urothelial cells has been successful for High Grade Urothelial Carcinoma (HGUC), but not for Low Grade Urothelial Carcinoma (LGUC).  Indeterminate results are of little clinical significance.  The Paris System for Reporting Urinary Cytology has been developed to emphasize the goal of performing urine examination, i.e., detection of HGUC, and minimizing the detection of LGUC.  Definition of the characteristics of the intermediate category of atypia aims at decreasing that category into a clinically meaningful one.  Criteria for each category have been based on clinical outcomes.

With Clarient Purchase, NeoGenomics Hoping to Offer Most Comprehensive Cancer Genetics Test Menu
NeoGenomics Aspires to Become "America's premier cancer testing laboratory." While searching for a company that could move NeoGenomics closer to achieving this goal, GE Healthcare Life Sciences' unit Clarient rose to the top of the list, CEO Douglas VanOort told investors and analysts during a call. After a year of negotiations with GE Healthcare, the Fort Myers, Florida-headquartered cancer reference lab announced it was buying Clarient in a cash and stock deal worth approximately $275 million.

Clinical Diagnostic Laboratory Test Payment System Proposed Rule Call — Register Now
Tuesday, November 10 from 2-3pm ET. To Register: Visit MLN Connects Event Registration.
During this MLN Connects National Provider Call, CMS subject matter experts will discuss proposed policy changes in the Clinical Diagnostic Laboratory Test Payment System proposed rule (CMS-1621-P). The proposed rule would significantly revise the Medicare payment system for clinical diagnostic laboratory tests and implement a related data collection system. This call will not include a question and answer session. You can submit comments on the proposed rule until November 24, 2015.
Target Audience: Clinical diagnostic laboratory industry.

 

Research and Development

Penn Study Blocks Ebola Virus Budding by Regulating Calcium Signaling
The Ebola virus acts fast. The course of infection, from exposure to recovery, or death, can take as little as two weeks. That may not leave enough time for the immune system to mount an effective response. The goal of some anti-viral therapies, therefore, is to buy more and give the immune system a leg up on the virus. A new study led by Bruce Freedman and Ronald Harty in the Department of Pathobiology of the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine demonstrates a way to do that, by reducing the ability of the virus to exit a host cell and spread. Their work showed that blocking a calcium-signaling pathway could inhibit not only the Ebola virus, but also Marburg, Lassa and Junin viruses, all sources of deadly infections. The work paves the way toward designing a potential broad-spectrum drug that could serve as a therapy for a number of serious viral infections. "Our work is aimed at handicapping the virus so that the immune system has time to respond," said Freedman.

Tumor RNA within Platelets May Help Diagnose and Classify Cancer, Identify Treatment Strategies
Analysis of tumor RNA carried in platelets – blood components best known for their role in clotting – may prove to be more useful than other “liquid biopsy” technologies for diagnosing cancer and determining its primary location and potential therapeutic approaches. In a paper published in the journalCancer Cell, an international research team describes finding that the RNA profiles of tumor-educated platelets – those that have taken up molecules shed by tumors – can distinguish among blood samples of healthy individuals and those of patients with six types of cancer, determine the location of the primary tumor and identify tumors carrying mutations that can guide therapeutic decision making. “By combining next-generation-sequencing gene expression profiles of platelet RNA with computational algorithms we developed, we were able to detect the presence of cancer with 96 percent accuracy,” says Bakhos Tannous, PhD, of the MGH Department of Neurology, co-senior author of the Cancer Cell paper along with investigators from VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam. “Platelet RNA signatures also provide valuable information on the type of tumor present in the body and can guide selection of the most optimal treatment for individual patients.

Mount Sinai Scientists Deploy Data Analysis to Identify Subtypes of Common Disease
A new publication from scientists at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai offers a glimpse of precision medicine in action, with a massive data analysis project that identified clinically and genetically distinct subtypes of patients with type 2 diabetes. This work not only points to the possibility for more tailored diagnosis and treatment of type 2 diabetes in the future, but also reveals a novel approach that can be applied to virtually any disease. The paper, published in Science Translational Medicine, describes a complex network analysis of electronic medical records (EMRs) and genotype data for more than 11,000 patients. Patients were grouped into three distinct subtypes based on EMR data, followed by genomic analysis pinpointing common genetic variants representative of each subtype. These subtypes were associated with different clinical characteristics.

Heat-Triggered 'Grenades' Hit Cancer
Scientists have designed microscopic "grenades" that can explode their cancer-killing payload in tumours. The team will present its findings at the National Cancer Research Institute conference. They plan to use liposomes - tiny bubbles of fat which carry materials round the body - to release toxic drugs when their temperature is raised. The "grenades" are intended to avoid side-effects by ensuring the drugs target only the tumour. Experts said such technology, which has been effective in animal experiments, was the "holy grail of nanomedicine". Cancer scientists are trying to harness the transporting abilities of these fatty spheres by getting them to carry toxic drugs to tumours. "The difficulty is, how do you release them when they reach their target?" Prof Kostas Kostarelos, from the University of Manchester, told the BBC News website.

Bacterial Hole Puncher Could Be New Broad-Spectrum Antibiotic
Bacteria have many methods of adapting to resist antibiotics, but a new class of spiral polypeptides developed at the University of Illinois targets one thing no bacterium can live without: an outer membrane. The polypeptides, which are short protein chains, act as bacterial hole-punchers, perforating the bacterial membrane until the cell falls apart. The antimicrobial agents are dressed for their mission in a positively charged shell that lets them travel in body fluids, protected from interacting with other proteins, and also attracts them to bacterial membranes.  Led by U. of I. materials science and engineering professor Jianjun Cheng, the researchers published their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "When you have an infection, it can be very difficult for a doctor to know which bacteria is infecting you," said postdoctoral researcher Menghua Xiong, a co-first author of the paper. "Many antimicrobial agents can only cure one class of bacteria. A doctor may try one class, and if that doesn't work, try another class. We need more broad-spectrum antimicrobial agents."

'Milestone' Prostate Cancer Drug
The first drug that targets precise genetic mutations in prostate cancer has been shown to be effective in a "milestone" trial by UK scientists. The study, at the Institute of Cancer Research in London, took place on 49 men with untreatable cancer. The drug, olaparib, had low overall success, but slowed tumour growth in 88% of patients with specific DNA mutations. Cancer Research UK said the trial was exciting. The future of cancer medicine is treating cancers by their mutated DNA rather than what part of the body they are in. The breast cancer drug Herceptin is already used only in patients with specific mutations. Olaparib targets mutations that change the way DNA is repaired.

 

Public Health and Patient Safety

CDC's World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology and Control of Influenza
Globally coordinated epidemiologic and virologic surveillance is the foundation of the influenza vaccine virus selection and development process and is a critical component of pandemic preparedness. The World Health Organization’s Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System (GISRS) was established in 1952 to monitor the frequent changes in influenza viruses with the aim of reducing influenza disease impact through the use of vaccines containing currently circulating strains. The GISRS network consists of national influenza centers (NICS) which conduct influenza virus surveillance and study influenza disease trends. There are also a number of designated WHO Collaborating Centers that conduct further research and analysis on information and samples gathered by the NICS. CDC’s Influenza Division has served as a WHO Collaborating Center (CC) for Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Control of Influenza in Atlanta, Georgia since 1956 and is the largest global resource and reference center supporting public health interventions to control and prevent pandemic and seasonal influenza.

TB 'Joins HIV as Most Deadly Infection'
Tuberculosis now ranks alongside HIV as the world's most deadly infectious disease, the World Health Organization (WHO) says. Each accounted for between 1.1 million and 1.2 million deaths in 2014. The WHO said the tuberculosis figures were unacceptable for a disease that could be cured. Medecins Sans Frontieres said the statistics were "disheartening" and warned the world was "losing ground" on tackling resistant forms of TB. The WHO's Global Tuberculosis Report 2015 shows the huge strides that have been made in tackling TB, with the death rate being nearly halved since 1990. And the number of infections has been falling by 1.5% a year since 2000. Deaths from HIV/Aids have also been falling rapidly because of improved access to anti-retroviral drugs. Dr Mario Raviglione, the WHO's tuberculosis director, told the BBC News website: "Tuberculosis and HIV are now competing to be the number one cause of death from infectious disease in the world.

A Grim Breast Cancer Milestone for Black Women
African-American women in the United States have reached a dubious milestone. For the first time, the incidence of breast cancer among black women is equal to that of white women, according to a sweeping new report from the American Cancer Society. The finding is worrisome because breast cancer has historically been more deadly in black women than in white women, but at least it has not been as common. Now, as incidence rates equalize, data suggests that breast cancer will continue to exact a far greater toll on black women, and that the trend shows no sign of abating. “It is a crisis,” said Marc Hurlbert, chief mission officer for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

Global Burden of HSV-1 Infection 'Huge'
Worldwide, more than 3.7 billion people aged younger than 50 years — or 67% of the population — are infected with herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1), according to the World Health Organization's (WHO) first global estimates of HSV-1 infection. HSV-1 and HSV-2 are both highly infectious and incurable. HSV-1 is primarily transmitted by oral–oral contact and in most cases causes cold sores around the mouth, while HSV-2 is largely sexually transmitted through skin-to-skin contact causing genital sores. However, the new estimates, published online in PLoS One, highlight that HSV-1 is also an "important" cause of genital herpes, WHO said in a news release. They note that roughly 140 million people aged 15 to 49 years have genital HSV-1 infection, primarily in the Americas, Europe, and Western Pacific.

Too Few Preteen Girls Get HPV Vaccine, CDC Says
HPV vaccination rates among American girls remain too low, a new U.S. government study says. The vaccine protects against infection with the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus (HPV), which can cause cancers of the cervix, vulva, vagina and anus. "Increasing delivery of HPV vaccination at the recommended ages of 11 or 12 years, before most adolescents are exposed to the virus, can ensure adolescents are protected against HPV infections and associated cancers," according to the report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Researchers from the CDC and the National Committee for Quality Assurance analyzed vaccination data on more than 626,000 girls at age 13 enrolled in either private insurance plans or Medicaid in 2013. Rates in different programs ranged from zero to 34 percent for those with private coverage, and 5 percent to 52 percent for girls with Medicaid. Doctors should offer HPV vaccination the same way and the same day they recommend other vaccines for teens, they said.

Could Cholesterol-Lowering Statin Drugs Hurt a Flu Shot's Effect?
Statin drugs, taken by about 28 percent of U.S. adults over 40, may interfere with the effectiveness of flu vaccines, researchers report. Two studies find that the popular cholesterol-lowering drugs may reduce the body's immune response to the vaccine in older people, who already have a lowered immune response. The researchers say their reports are meant to kick off more investigation — not to make people worry about taking statins when they get their flu shots. But they may help explain why flu vaccines often work so poorly among older people. In one of the studies, a team at Cincinnati Children's Hospital looked at data from 7,000 people over the age of 65 who got flu vaccines over nine years. Those who took statins produced fewer virus-fighting antibodies after vaccination, they reported in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.

Consumer Reports Ranks Smaller and Non-Teaching Hospitals Highest in Infection Prevention
Clinical laboratory professionals and pathologists are part of multi-disciplinary efforts to curb healthcare-associated infections.
One interesting fact about a national list of hospitals that rank highest in infection prevention is that they are mostly smaller and non-teaching hospitals. This was one finding from a recent survey conducted by Consumer Reports. The survey tracked MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus),Clostridium difficile (C. diff) and other common bacteria that are the source of most healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). These are also known as nosocomial infections when referring specifically to hospital-acquired infections.

New Public Health 101 E-Learning Courses
CDC’s Public Health 101 Series provides an introduction to essential public health practice science. Earlier this year, CDC provided customizable slide presentations on diverse topics essential to public health practice including epidemiology, public health informatics, surveillance, health economics, and public health laboratory science. Interactive e-learning products are now available for each of these essential public health topic areas. Learn more about the Public Health 101 Series and access the new e-learning courses today!

The Intersection of Public Health and Health Care—the Role of Law, All Parts
In the past few years, the health care system of the U.S. has embarked on a myriad of initiatives aimed at improving the quality of care received by Americans. One key component of this movement has been efforts, on the state and federal level, to better define, measure, and strengthen health care quality. This six-part Public Interest Webinar Series, co-sponsored by CDC's Public Health Law Program and the American Health Lawyers Association, will focus on legal issues at the intersection of public health and health care. The webinars will focus on topics including legal issues related to federally qualified health centers, prescription drug overdose prevention, Community Health Needs Assessments, and domestic legal preparedness and response related to Ebola. Each webinar will provide both a public health and health care perspective, and will feature lawyers representing health departments, hospitals, and health systems.


Health IT

CHIME Applauds Senate Passage of Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015
The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) and the Association for Executives in Health Information Security (AEHIS) welcomed passage of the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015 (CISA) by the Senate. Once enacted by the president, CISA will represent a significant advancement in cybersecurity and better enable the nation’s chief information officers (CIO) and chief Information security officers (CISO) to better protect patient health information. CISA will allow CIOs and CISOs to share threats and vulnerabilities through a secure national information-sharing infrastructure with the necessary liability protections in place and will not risk patient trust. As an important piece of the nation’s critical infrastructure, it is vital that healthcare organizations have the tools and information they need to identify and more effectively defend against growing cyber threats.

Electronic Exchange of Lab Data Happening in Majority of Hospitals
HealthITInteroperability.com analyzed data from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT’s interactive dashboard. The groups sought to identify "the vanguard states" in six areas of measurement. The data was based on the 2014 American Hospital Association survey of non-federal acute care hospitals. Results showed that 69 percent of hospitals nationally could electronically share lab results with any providers outside their health system. States with the highest percentage of hospitals reporting the exchange capability included: Delaware (100 percent), Rhode Island (100 percent), and Virginia (91 percent). States struggling with this measure included: Nevada (34 percent) and Wyoming (36 percent). Similar results were seen with the percent of hospitals reporting they could electronically share laboratory results with ambulatory providers outside of their health system.

HHS Wants Help Updating Disease Tracking System
The Department of Health and Human Services wants to revamp the way public health agencies track diseases such as Ebola, HIV and Anthrax. Hospitals and labs are required to notify the government when patients arrive with one of these or almost 100 other diseases. But the system through which local, state and federal agencies currently share information with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about "notifiable" diseases is outdated – and HHS wants techies from the private sector to help out. "Health informatics is no longer a niche market; complicated ways of exchanging health care data are being replaced by the same web standards and technologies other industries use," an HHS blog post said. "Openness is the new default and we need you to help show us the way."

UPMC's Big Data Approach Slashes Readmissions
Looking to slash your readmission rates using big data but not sure where to start? It's best to hear the stories from the folks who have done it successfully. UPMC's analytics team is one of groups ahead of the curve. Pamela Peele, the chief analytics officer for UPMC's insurance division, together with her team of 25, have done what many hospitals and payers are just beginning to do: They developed a conditional readmission model on the payer side that delivers a readmission risk prediction score before the patient even walks through the door, and then blending it with a provider-side model. "So we're predicting your readmission rate, and you haven't even been admitted yet," Peele told Healthcare IT News. "And we're pushing that information over to our provider side, so when somebody presents and they're being admitted, the provider can see the a priori readmission risk that we've already calculated and can act upon that risk starting at the point of admission."

Big Data: the Lifeblood of Precision Medicine
Perhaps second only to a learning health system, precision medicine is healthcare's grandest vision today. The idea is to essentially roll together massive population health data sets with individuals information – including genomics, lifestyle, chronic conditions – then analyze it to more effectively tailor treatments and preventative care plans for patients. At the heart of that, of course, is data. And that is going to require a major shift in terms of both business philosophy and technologies. "Healthcare needs to become more of a data-driven enterprise," said Kenneth Mandl, MD, chair of biomedical informatics and population health at Boston Children's Hospital.

Patients' Social Media Posts may be the Next Big Thing for Big Data
Mining patients' social media data could provide enormous insight into overall health outcomes, according to a new study conducted by University of Pennsylvania researchers. By handling social media posts much like big data, it just may be possible to link social media posts to health outcomes, said researchers at UPenn's Perelman School of Medicine, in a new study. If patients consent to sharing this data, a research database could be created, comparable to that of genomic databases. This database could be used by researchers to better understand the relationship between certain patients and their health.

A Med School Teaches Science and Data Mining
For generations, physicians have been trained in basic science and human anatomy to diagnose and treat the individual patient. But now, massive stores of data about what works for which patients are literally changing the way medicine is practiced. “That’s how we make decisions; we make them based on the truth and the evidence that are present in those data,” says Marc Triola, an associate dean at New York University School of Medicine. Figuring out how to access and interpret all that data is not a skill that most physicians learned in medical school. In fact, it’s not even been taught in medical school, but that’s changing. “If you don’t have these skills, you could really be at a disadvantage,” says Triola, “in terms of the way you understand the quality and the efficiency of the care you’re delivering.”

Patients Prefer Password-Protected Portals for Most Sensitive Test Results
Most patients prefer receiving results from medical tests—especially ones containing highly sensitive information—through password protected patient portals or websites, according to a recent study. Researcher at Georgetown University Medical Center surveyed 409 patients to see if they better liked getting test results through email, mailed letters, text message, fax, phone call or portals, according to an announcement. While many preferred the portal, respondents also didn't mind obtaining results for tests like blood cholesterol through text, email or voicemail. When it came to results for tests on sexually transmitted diseases or genetic tests, however, patients preferred a more secure form of communication.

Telemedicine Market to Hit $2.8 Billion by 2022
There are no signs the telemedicine market will be slowing down anytime soon, especially in light of a report from Grand View Research Inc. forecasting that the market will reach $2.8 billion by 2022. Rising consumer demand for the tools will play large part in that growth, according to the report's authors. They cite an example from Community Care Plan of Eastern Carolina, where the facility was able to double the number of patients it could see a week thanks to telemedicine. In fact, one new healthcare facility is entirely built on telemedicine. Mercy Hospital's virtual facility is being called the hospital's "telemedicine mother ship."

 
Other News
To Prevent Malaria in Humans, Scientists Try Protecting Pigs
In a poster presentation at a meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in Philadelphia, the researchers showed how they had implanted two-inch soft silicone rods releasing a steady dose of ivermectin under the skin of pigs. Many poor farmers keep their animals near or even inside their homes to protect them from predators or thieves. Some disease-carrying mosquito species alternate between biting animals and humans, said Dr. Carlos Chaccour, a researcher at the University of Barcelona’s Institute for Global Health and the University of Navarra. Ivermectin will kill most mosquitoes, but the dose needed varies by species. Because not all poor farmers raise pigs — Muslims, for example, do not — the method will still need to be tested in cattle, goats, camels and other livestock.

Signs Point to Imminent Public Health Workforce Exit
New studies of the public health workforce reveal signs of unprecedented change ahead. Notably, 38 percent of state public health workers plan to leave the public health workforce by 2020, either to retire or to pursue positions in other sectors. The Journal of Public Health Management and Practice(JPHMP) compiled the new studies in a special supplemental edition that analyzes data from the Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey (PH WINS). PH WINS is the largest-ever study of the public health workforce and was conducted by the de Beaumont Foundation and ASTHO.

CMS Issues Final Payment Rules for Hospitals, Physicians
The federal government has issued new guidelines under a final rule that clarifies when inpatient admissions will be covered under the "two-midnight rule." The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services late last week released several final rules for payments to physicians and hospitals, featuring detailed policies on the two-midnight rule, shared savings, and advance care planning. The rule clarifies when inpatient admissions qualify for Medicare Part A payments under the two-midnight rule, according to the CMS announcement.


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