Category Archives: Article Summary

Reducing cancer risk by 40%

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  • Avoiding bacon and alcohol could help reduce the risk of cancer up to 40%, experts suggested as they unveiled what has been dubbed the “blueprint” to beat the disease.
  • obesity likely to overtake smoking as the “number one risk factor for cancer” within decades.
  • There is now strong evidence excessive weight is the cause of at least 12 cancers, five more than when the last WCRF recommendations were published in 2007.
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Fake medical news threatens our lives

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  • While misinformation has been the object of great attention in politics, medical misinformation might have an even greater body count.
  • False medical information can also lead to patients’ experiencing greater side effects through the “nocebo effect.”
  • Cancer is another big target for pushers of medical misinformation — many of whom are making money off alternative therapies.
  • Fake news represents a huge opportunity for pharma to lead the conversation.
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Pharma companies lag in digital transformation

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  • The life sciences industry’s commitment to digital transformation is increasing, but few organizations are digitally maturing.
  • Digital transformation is no longer a buzzword, but a strategic imperative for life sciences companies.
  • While first movers would likely gain a competitive advantage, all of today’s companies risk falling behind their competitors in delivering across all elements of the value chain if their strategies are limited to a few pilots and experiments.
  • Life sciences companies have been fast followers in adopting new technologies, but waiting too long to commit could leave some companies with portions of their value chains disrupted in an ever more price-conscious segment.
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Growth in the cost of health care has put sustained downward pressure on wages and incomes

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  • Rapid growth in the cost of U.S. health care has put sustained downward pressure on wages and incomes.
  • This rapid growth of spending has not purchased notably high-quality care, however.
  • U.S. spending on health care is higher than in peer countries, while quality is lower.
  • These high costs cannot be attributed to overuse of health care in America; instead, it is clear that the high price of health care is the culprit. Prices for pharmaceuticals, physician salaries, and medical procedures are almost uniformly higher in the U.S. than in peer countries—sometimes staggeringly so.

Source:Economic Policy Institute 

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Reducing the number of companies between a product and a consumer

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  • Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier thinks something has to change within the pharmaceutical industry to fix the issue of drug pricing.
  • [inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”” suffix=””]”I don’t understand where we live in a world where 50% of the value goes to the supply chain,[/inlinetweet]” Frazier said at an event at the Economic Club of New York last week.
  • Merck has published reports outlining the company’s average list and net price increases for its products. Merck’s average net prices after factoring in those discounts decreased by 1.9% in 2017 as list prices increased 6.6%.

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Consumers are increasingly using digital technologies to manage their own health

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KEY TAKEAWAY: Research suggests that emerging technologies are shifting the composition of the care team.  Consumers are increasingly using digital technologies to manage their own health, they are adopting virtual care, and they see the advantages of harnessing the collective power of humans and machines. (Source: Accenture) Continue reading →