News Archive

Eight minutes: this is approximately (1) how long it takes sunlight to reach the earth; (2) how long it takes to hard-boil an egg (if you eat them) and (3) how long medical residents — doctors in training — spend with patients per day on average.

What’s more, researchers from Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland have found that those eight minute are less than the amount of time that residents used to spend with patients (and make the standard 15 minutes allotted to a medical office visit seem generous).

If you’re a medical intern, most of what you need to do your job can be pulled off a computer screen: Blood test results. Paged messages. Orders to start a medication. All but, of course, how sick a patient is.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland, suspecting that more and more of an intern’s time is spent in front of a computer, looked into just how today’s intern spends her working hours on an inpatient ward. They asked trained college students to shadow 29 internal medicine interns from two different Baltimore teaching hospitals and document how much time they spent talking to patients, eating lunch, reading charts, and the like — over the course of three weeks. Their recently published results confirm a trend that old-timers nostalgically lament and that those of us in training know to be all too true: Only a small percentage of our time is spent in direct patient care.

Remember Plexxikon? The Berkeley, CA-based company had a lot of talent for structural biology-based drug design, an impressive new treatment for melanoma, and a strong management team.

Two years ago, nobody on Wall Street cared one whit. Plexxikon flirted with the idea of going public, found little interest, and sold itself off to Japan-based Daiichi Sankyo for a more than 10-fold return on investment. It was a poster child for how dead the biotech IPO market was in 2010 and 2011.

Through new agreements with the Canadian BC Cancer Agency and Columbia University, the company now has access to biomarkers for lymphoma, glioblastoma, and several other cancers. These biomarkers will be developed into diagnostic assays that can assist physicians in choosing targeted treatments, Qiagen says.

The company’s glioblastoma cancer biomarker, acquired from Columbia University, detects the presence of FGFR-TACC fusion genes. The lymphoma biomarker, acquired from BC Cancer Agency, detects the Y641 EZH2 gene mutation. This type of lymphoma is targeted by pharmaceutical manufacturers like Epizyme and Constellation.

QIAGEN N.V. (NASDAQ: QGEN; Frankfurt Prime Standard: QIA) today announced two agreements adding promising new biomarkers involving glioblastoma, lymphoma and other cancers to QIAGEN’s expanding portfolio of potential companion diagnostics that is being developed to help doctors use a patient’s genomic information to guide treatment decisions.

In the glioblastoma project, QIAGEN has entered into an exclusive worldwide licensing option on FGFR-TACC fusion genes with Columbia University in New York. QIAGEN intends to develop this biomarker into a diagnostic test for routine use in diagnostic workups, which may enable doctors to identify glioblastoma patients who could benefit from targeted treatments now under development. Glioblastoma is the most common and aggressive form of primary brain tumor, a serious unmet medical need because the disease is generally fatal despite aggressive therapy. Fusions between members of the FGFR and TACC gene families also have been identified recently as present in several other malignancies, including bladder cancers.

Five top Japanese drug companies are to open their “libraries” of experimental compounds to scrutiny by scientists hunting new treatments for malaria, tuberculosis and other diseases affecting the world’s poor.

The initiative, announced on Thursday, is the first project under a new $100 million partnership between the drugmakers, the Japanese government and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to fund research into neglected tropical diseases.

By Eve Green

Partner companies Theravance and the GlaxoSmithKline have received Food and Drug Administration clearance for their new drug for the treatment of COPD, Breo Ellipta. COPD encompasses what used to be known as emphysema and chronic bronchitis – the new drug should be an improvement on current treatment options which can ease the symptoms of this disease. COPD, which is strongly linked to smoking, is the third most significant cause of death in America.

Curtis Rosebraugh, director of FDA Office of Drug Evaluation II, commented that this new long-term maintenance treatment for COPD will provide new care options for the millions of people in the USA who suffer from the condition. The companies have stated that the drug should be available during the third quarter of 2013. Breo Ellipta, which requires a single dose per day, should surpass existing treatments which require two doses.

COPD

COPD stands for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a progressive condition (one which continually worsens) which causes breathing problems in those who suffer from it. The symptoms are coughing and the associated overproduction of mucus, shortness of breath especially during exercise and tightness of chest. COPD is also associated with a greater susceptibility to chest-infections. Doctors used to refer to ’emphysema’ and ‘chronic bronchitis’, though these are now officially grouped under this general condition. 

A disease which is currently under-diagnosed, this condition refers to the inflammation and subsequent damage to the interior of the lungs, and results in lower efficiency in taking on oxygen and in problems with the mechanics of breathing. Smoking is the top cause of COPD, though a genetic predisposition can cause it in some people. While the damage which it causes cannot be repaired, sufferers who subsequently quit smoking can slow down the progress of the disease. 

This week, U.S. Chief Technology Officer Todd Park and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius posted separate entries on the White House Blog touting the effect of federal initiatives on health IT adoption and health industry innovation, FierceHealthIT reports.

The posts were written in response to a New York Times commentary published by columnist Thomas Friedman last week about health industry innovation related to the Affordable Care Act and other federal initiatives.

The Greater Washington Board of Trade is forming a joint task force with the Greater Baltimore Committee and the Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore to promote the region as a global hotbed for the cybersecurity industry.

The Baltimore-Washington Cyber Task Force plans to work with both public and private sector groups to develop a strategy for cyber industry growth around the new U.S. Cyber Command at the Army’s Fort Meade, located halfway between Washington and Baltimore.

A team of students at the Johns Hopkins University’s Whiting School of Engineering has designed for NASA a new stethoscope that delivers accurate heart- and body-sounds to medics who are trying to assess astronauts’ health on long missions in noisy spacecraft.

Space is serene, because no air means no sound. But inside the average spacecraft, with its whirring fans, humming computers and buzzing instruments, is about as raucous as a party filled with laughing, talking people.