PEN Blog Archives

Newsy Nuggets brought to you by Diverse Health Hub

Data and Predictions in Healthcare: Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic

Using data to predict outcomes is healthcare in the 21st century. In light of the pandemic, Dr. Gary Puckrein of the National Minority Quality Forum brings up important lessons about how projections from data on COVID-19 correctly anticipated hospitalization rates. This ability to anticipate is also relevant for other disease areas, and informs therapy to maximize positive individual outcomes.

Transcript:

Christian Strohm: You’re listening to a Newsy Nugget brought to you by Diverse Health Hub, a health equity education and awareness channel. I’m Christian Strohm, and thanks for tuning in! We had the opportunity to speak with Dr. Gary Puckrein, president and CEO of the National Minority Quality Forum. Dr. Puckrein highlights the power of data in predicting health outcomes, and discusses the opportunity for intervention in context of the COVID pandemic.

Dr. Puckrein, can you speak on any valuable lessons that we all should learn from this COVID pandemic?

Dr. Gary Puckrein
So, there’s a couple, you know – obviously we’re very early into the epidemic and so it’s hard to draw a lot of lessons and as we get through this, we’ll have time for that. But a couple of quick observations that I would like to make, one is that where healthcare is going these days, it’s about predictions, right? Here, we can predict in January what this virus is going to be doing in populations in April and May. You could do the same thing with diabetes, with heart failure, renal disease, all of those chronic diseases. When you look at hospitalization rates, mortality costs, those are all highly predictable and the ability to predict means you have the opportunity to intervene and that’s what big data is about. It’s about using that data to get the best possible outcome for patients and so, one of the lessons we hope – as we move away from this virus and get control over it, is that we learn a big-time lesson which is we have a lot of ability to control. And so, what we talk about less these days is about health disparities and more about controlling health outcomes. We have the capacity to control health outcomes which is a big deal. You couldn’t say that in the 20th century or the 19th century, so the partnerships that we form is really about how do we support local care networks to get predictable positive outcomes for patients.

Christian Strohm: Thank you for listening. I’m Christian Strohm and we hope you enjoyed this newsy nugget. Find more on our website, diversehealthhub.com

Does the Pandemic Reveal Cracks in our Healthcare System?

The COVID-19 pandemic is a stress on global healthcare systems. Dr. Gary Puckrein of the National Minority Quality Forum remarks on the cracks in the American healthcare system that have appeared under this stress. He reminds us about the Constitution as the social contract that all Americans have entered into, and the role of healthcare in guaranteeing life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Transcript:

Christian Strohm:
You’re listening to a Newsy Nugget brought to you by Diverse Health Hub, a health equity education and awareness channel. I’m Christian Strohm, and thanks for tuning in! We had the opportunity to speak with Dr. Gary Puckrein, president and CEO of the National Minority Quality Forum. Dr. Puckrein remarks on the American social contract, and what this means for access to basic healthcare.

Dr. Puckrein, I’d like to ask you from a policy perspective, do you see benefits to expanded coverage in reducing healthcare inequities?

Dr. Gary Puckrein:
Well certainly, ACA (Affordable Care Act) has expanded the number and diversity of the population with health insurance in this country. One of the – one of the key things to bear in mind. And this is where politics and healthcare come together, when you go back to the founding fathers and you look at the system that they designed, what they said was the reason that we’re all coming together in this social contract is life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Life meant preservation of life, that one of the reasons why we agree to come together is to conserve life and denying someone in the 21st century healthcare is in fact, breaking that social contract. We didn’t enter this to say that some people should have healthcare, and some people should not. That wasn’t the deal. The deal was we’re all coming together, in the body politics to conserve life, preserve our liberties, and pursue happiness. And so, I think what we’re seeing now and I think this pandemic is a great example, the cracks in our system that are showing up from access to basic health insurance. Think about it, people today who have no healthcare insurance going into hospitals or physicians because of the pandemic and the burden that places on those hospitals, unfortunately with new legislation some of that care will get reimbursed, but we still don’t know what after effects come out of this virus in terms of impact on populations and exacerbation of things like asthma and diabetes and whatever chronic diseases that people might face. And so, we sort of crossed the Rubicon in terms of whether everyone should have healthcare. The answer is yes indeed, they must have it and obviously the discussion is to be around what is at healthcare and what ought to be its purpose and as I said I think its purpose has got to be reducing the risks of that and anything short of that is really not quality care.

Christian Strohm:
Thank you for listening. I’m Christian Strohm and we hope you enjoyed this newsy nugget. Find more on our website, diversehealthhub.com

Does COVID-19 Illuminate Healthcare Cost Hypocrisy in America?

The COVID-19 pandemic does not care about the ranks we decide to lay upon people. Dr. Gary Puckrein of the National Minority Quality Forum tackles the policy positions that result in the access to and cost of healthcare in America.

Transcript:

Christian Strohm:
You’re listening to a Newsy Nugget brought to you by Diverse Health Hub, a health equity education and awareness channel. I’m Christian Strohm, and thanks for tuning in! We had the opportunity to speak with Dr. Gary Puckrein, president and CEO of the National Minority Quality Forum. Dr. Puckrein discusses access to healthcare in America, and how the COVID pandemic is shaping the dialogue.

For us in America, we often hear it argued that the cost of quality healthcare makes it impossible to extend to everyone. Dr. Puckrein, can you remark on this policy position in light of the COVID pandemic?

Dr. Gary Puckrein:
Yeah, I see when people talk about the cost of healthcare, what they’re really talking about is the cost of healthcare for their neighbor, they’re not talking about the cost of healthcare for themselves because the cost of healthcare for themselves is “I want the best possible healthcare I can get. It’s my neighbor’s healthcare that I’m afraid that you’re asking me to pay for that I’m really concerned about.” And that’s a wrong way to look at it. We cannot build a healthcare system for the 1%. Look at this virus, look at what it’s doing to the 1% — the heir apparent to the throne of England, or actors and actresses, and senators — it doesn’t care, the virus actually is complete agnostic to all of the ranks that we decide to lay upon people and treats everyone just the same. And so, if we’re going to fight the pandemic we have to fight it collectively. It’s not that we can say everybody’s whose income level is “x” stay home and everybody whose income is “y” can get to go outside. No, everybody has got to go indoors because the virus doesn’t care. And the same way with diabetes, heart failure and renal disease, cancers in none of those can we just build a healthcare system for that 1%. And so, when we’re talking about reducing risks we have to be talking about if everyone and the idea that we can’t afford it is ridiculous, it’s where we want to put our money is really what the answer is.

Christian Strohm:
Thank you for listening. I’m Christian Strohm and we hope you enjoyed this newsy nugget. Find more on our website, diversehealthhub.com

Newsy Nuggets podcast, produced by Diverse Health Hub. Special thanks to Dr. Gary Puckrein, President and Chief Executive Officer National Minority Quality Forum.

As people age, the body deteriorates and so does health. This is why getting or developing diseases is much more common to elderly individuals. While diseases are more common in the elderly, it is worth noting that this is not normal, in any way. You can grow old without having to suffer or live with a disease of any kind.

But, due to several reasons and factors, like a weakened immune system, diseases may still develop. And some of these include dementia and cancer.

If you know someone, especially within your family who is at risk for dementia and/or cancer, this post might help.

Introduction: Understanding Dementia and Cancer

Dementia

Dementia is very common for seniors and older adults. But, just like any disease and condition, it is not normal for aging people to develop dementia despite the fact that many senior citizens have the condition.

By and large, dementia is not a disease. Rather, it is a syndrome that encompasses a group of symptoms that has not been diagnosed with any condition yet. Alzheimer’s Disease is one of the many forms of dementia, and it is the most common of all.

As per data, AD accounts for almost 80 percent of people diagnosed with dementia. Although the two conditions may have similar symptoms, there are different ones as well.

Cancer

Meanwhile, cancer can happen to anyone at any age. But, the median age is above 40. Also, it can occur anywhere in the body as it is the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells in the human body.

Individuals develop cancer when the body’s ability to control the growth of the abnormal cells stop working. Instead of the old cells dying, it grows out of control, which then forms new abnormal cells.

There are different types of cancer. For women, the most common is breast cancer while for men, it is prostate cancer.

The Risk of Cancer In Dementia Patients

According to https://www.memorycarefacilities.net/, the risk of developing cancer in dementia patients is very low. While there is no direct relationship between the two, studies and data show that there is an inverse relationship between the two conditions.

In conclusion, people who are living with dementia have a very low risk of developing cancer. However, low risk is still different from no risk. So, there are still a few individuals who are living with dementia who have developed cancer.

The Risk of Dementia In Cancer Patients

As mentioned, there is no direct relationship found between cancer and dementia. So, there is an insignificant number of cancer patients who have developed dementia. But, the same with reversed dynamic, there are still a few people who obtain and develop the two conditions at the same time.

It is also worth noting that several studies reportedly show that cancer patients tend to develop some symptoms that may be similar to dementia. Typically, people who have brain cancer are the most common ones who show some symptoms of dementia. These symptoms may include forgetfulness, confusion, and disorientation.

These studies also noted that cancer patients who have developed dementia are normally the ones who have undergone treatments and surgeries. While the studies have remained inconclusive, there are significant factors that seemingly prove so.

When Dementia and Cancer Collide

Dealing with dementia patients and cancer patients alone is already challenging enough. These two conditions are very different from each other. So, the care, treatment, and management also differ from one another. Therefore, when a patient develops both cancer and dementia, this is certainly very challenging not only for the patient but, also to the caregivers and family members involved.

As per actual caregivers and experts from https://www.seniorlivinghelp.org, when dealing with patients who have both cancer and dementia, the most important thing to be resolved is to decide whether treatments for both conditions will be given to the patient. While it is a very difficult thing to decide on as life is on the line, sadly, this is a must.

So, if dealing with this kind of situation, it was said that two questions will help you move forward. First, how advanced is dementia; second, what is the stage, type, and severity of cancer.

After understanding and learning the answers to these questions, this will help you decide how to effectively deal with a patient who has both cancer and dementia.

How Does Cancer Affect Dementia In Elderly

Cancer has a huge impact on dementia patients. When treating cancer, keep in mind that the process will be tedious, rigorous, and meticulous. It will take time, effort, and resources for the treatment to become a lot more effective. Accordingly, dementia patients will certainly have a harder time dealing with this kind of condition.

There are times medications will be forgotten, treatments will not be followed, and necessary processes may become much more confusing. So, the challenge will become even more apparent not only to the patients but, to the caregivers as well.

Tips When Considering All Aspects Moving Forward

As repeatedly mentioned, this kind of case is very challenging. So, serious considerations and regards to matters involved in the case are largely needed.

In the past, medical experts and doctors would decide what’s best for the patients. But, times have changed and the decision-making is now being given mainly to the family and loved ones of the patients.

Here are some of the things that you may need to look at when moving forward:

• Condition of the patient
• Financial matters
• Personal challenges
• Treatment options
• Possible impact and result of treatments

Final Thoughts

Seniors who have both cancer and dementia are faced with tremendous challenges physically, mentally, and emotionally. The same is also true for the caregivers and families involved in the situation. While some families are able to care for their loved ones at homes, others may need to look for assisted living for cancer patients. So, there is no doubt that considering all matters at hand is a must when deciding the best action to move forward for the betterment of everyone’s condition.

These tips and points might help you in doing so. Hence, you may want to check each and try to analyze further what could help. In the end, though, this remains to be a case-to-case basis as no situation is the same.

Holly Klamer

Holly is a pet lover who owns a dog and loves to write about everything related to pets. She is a frequent writer and contributor to top online pet publications and blogs, including Faith Based Assisted Living and Pet Friendly Senior Living.

Curing cancer is undoubtedly one of the biggest challenges of the 21st century. One can still not say for sure if the scientists would be able to find the cure for cancer by the year 2020 ends. Nonetheless, there is no denying the fact that the last two decades have seen significant advancements being made to cure cancer if not from the root, but at least after it has been diagnosed. Many technological advances have been made with more investments being made for the research and development of highly advanced equipment that can help from conducting tests, diagnoses, confirmation to providing a relatively easier solution to making it better.

According to the latest statistics published in the ACS Journal for cancer research and diagnostics, in 2020, there are an estimated 1.8 million cancer cases in the US alone. However, the cancer rate has increased since 1991 consistently declined throughout till 2017, bringing about a total of 29% decline. These figures estimate that if approximately 606,520 cancer deaths are going to occur in the US, it is 2.9 million fewer than what it had been like if no new advances would have been made.

Over the years, technology has played its part in greatly reducing these numbers. Let’s see what the new decade has in store to help tackle this disease.

12 Newest Technological Advancements of 2020 in Curing Cancer

Thus, here are the top twelve newest technological advancements being made in the name of curing cancer, diagnosing it accurately early on, and aiding in making it easier for the patients who are already suffering.

1.Personalizing Cancer Vaccines

Believe it or not, but a genetic mutation of cells causes cancer. The healthy cells transform into tumor cells in different parts of the body to cause cancer. As simple as it may sound, cancer is much more complex. As each cell growth can be very different from any other, this disease has severity levels of many different types that each of which may require individual attention, care, and medication.

According to Sean Marett, who is the CBO of the German immune-oncology company BioNTech,

“Mutations are random. If you look at one patient’s tumor and compare it to another patient’s, it would be highly unlikely that there will be a match.”

This is the main reason why BioNTech is proceeding with the development of personalized vaccines that will cater to every different type of cell growth.  

2. Fluid Biopsy

Cancer itself is gradually spreading, but the treatments of this disease put the person in a way more vulnerable position to adhere to pain. For instance, as a part of cancer treatment, there may come a situation where a single biopsy is not enough. There are many biopsies and re-biopsies required that put the patient in an uncomfortable position as it is a painful test performed through your back using your spinal cord. In such circumstances, a fluid biopsy would reduce the chances of going through the biopsy pain more than once by allowing to test the cancer cells through a single blood sample.

3. Guiding Immune Cells

The first approval of this cell therapy for cancer was seen in 2018. The technology behind this therapy is known as CAR-T cell therapy, is responsible for taking the patient’s immune T-cells, and by using genetic engineering, the cells would target the specific cancer antigen. There is no denying the huge success and immense progress that the clinical trials of the CAR-T cells have shown. Especially for patients that have already gotten rid of cancer but relapsed after some time and have already consumed all other options of medication to no avail, this technology guiding the immune cells to do the job would work progressively.

4. Smart Surgical Knife

Developed by Zoltan Takats of Imperial College London, this intelligent surgical knife is known as the iKnife, is a great tool to be soon incorporated in the surgical kit for oncologists. It works by integrating a rather traditional technology of electrical currents heating the tissue to make incisions. This allows precision, as well as minimal blood loss. And as the iKnife vaporizes smoke and analyzes it by a mass spectrometer, it detects chemicals in the biological sample for an accurate result and a successful surgery. Not only does this save time for the real-time identification of malignant tissue, but surgeons love the tool for saving their time as well by cutting the surgery time almost in half.

5. Using Microbes

In the last ten years, where the technological advancements were paving the way, the associated research allowed the scientists to uncover that many of the answers that we are looking for may reside right within our body. One of those discoveries was learning that our own microbiome that is the collection of the microorganisms that live inside our body, plays a huge role not only for cancer but for overall many other health aspects.

According to Christophe Bonny, CSO of a French company responsible for developing microbiome medicines,

“Elements of the microbiome play a role in suppressing an overactive immune system in inflammatory diseases, and in boosting a suppressed immune system in cancers.”

6. Next Generation of Targeted Therapies

Auto-Immune Deficiency Syndrome or AIDS became one of the more dangerous diseases sometime back in the last decade. However, by combining drugs that were developed to cater to different targeted diseases, it resulted in an overall major treatment success that was finally able to put a gap between the disease carriers. Now, applying the same trial and error logic to cancer, research was able to pick up that the same can be proven beneficial. New advancements made in the field of biology that utilizes computer models to predict which targeted medicines may work in the perfect combination to provide reduction for the cancer ailments.

7. Molecular Diagnostics

Many major research companies like Foundation Medicine are focusing on the early diagnosis of the disease than the actual cure. They believe the cure resides with the chemotherapy only if we turn down the severity of the disease and diagnose it as early as possible. They are adamant about working through molecular cancer diagnostics to develop test batches and clinical trial drugs that work just to recognize a stage one cancer right as soon as it develops in the cell. They hope that over time this will become the standard testing procedure followed by the tried and tested chemotherapy sessions that may even reduce in the number given how early the disease is caught.

8. Multifunctional Radiology

Radiology is already a successful domain in a lot of medical fields. However, without a doubt, future innovations are based on doing one successful technology work for interdisciplinary aspects. For instance, Magnetic Resonance Imaging or MRI machines is currently used for delivering gene therapy, but for the future, it can be a potential treatment for brain tumors. You can find related articles on the essay writers service that further elaborate on how multifunctional innovations would be the go-to technological aspect application for the future.  

9. AI-based Therapy Design

The initial steps that we take like extracting the tumor cells from blood and sequencing the DNA as fast as possible; the decision making part of choosing with which treatment to follow up is still complicated. Even the most expert oncologist is not on the level to make a blind call based off of millions of studies and clinical trials for keeping the billion genetic mutations that could happen in a human body. It is why artificial intelligence or AI is the next big thing even in a cure for cancer research and development. The algorithms can not only remember the mutations but program them through to come up with a treatment in minutes.

10. Advanced Sensor Technology

Now coming to how can you can ease the process of measuring your health and updates about your internal body organs. So in many cases, the parameters taken for that can already be a huge aid for cancer reduction for pain. The advanced sensor technology is developed across all boards. You can work by having it embedded, implanted, or even continue by digestible sensors. These sensors can be swallowed to go through your digestive tract and come around the other way by sensing and recording whatever temperature changes it felt.

11. Wearable Technology for Pain Management

Wearable technology is already a huge market domain for fitness and tech enthusiasts alike. It can become a great tool for measure pain, heartbeat, blood, sugar, and chemo levels for patients by just a band around their wrist. Not only will it ease the pain of multiple tests, disruptions, and medicines, but wearable technology will automatically record data and keep it safe for further use and analysis.

12. Pre-existing Technology To Become More Precise

Lastly, cancer has seen many developments been made to its name for numerous to cure it, treat it, or just to provide even a little relief in pain. So the future holds many different opportunities as the technology advances for the already successful ways to become more precise and have a hundred percent guaranteed results.

In Conclusion;

Even if scientists and researchers are unable to find the complete cure for cancer by the end of the year 2020, there is still immense hope and gratification towards newer technology paving ways for the treatment and making it all the easier day after day for the patients who go through the unfortunate disease that is cancer.

Claudia Jeffrey

Claudia Jeffrey is currently working as a Health Enthusiast & Writer at Assignment Assistance, UK’s favorite dissertation help providers. Being a part of bigger research teams at medical facilities for cancer, she has gained significant experience over time. For further reading, you can check out her blog, where she shares her knowledge and expertise with a network of audience.

Technology has changed medicine as we know it. Not only have surgical and diagnostic procedures been revolutionized in incredible ways, but so has the communication process between doctor and patient.  The days of having to sit in a crowded waiting room to seek advice from a doctor are long over, as remote patient monitoring software is making it easier than ever before for doctors and patients to communicate from afar. Long-distance communication is as beneficial to doctors as it is to patients, especially in times when social isolation is required because of infectious disease or in the case of natural disasters.

Benefits of remote communication

By communicating via a dedicated application, the risk of person-to-person contamination is reduced drastically which I of immense benefit to patients with compromised immune systems.  It also allows patients and doctors to honor appointments regardless of unforeseen circumstances such as out-of-town travels and other obligations. There are a number of quality applications available that boasts superb features such as crystal clear audio and video transmission and even multiple-provider integration.  Apart from enabling patients to get remote medical assistance, these applications also permit medical practitioners to attend to more patients in a day and even keep to irregular working hours with increased ease.

Medici connects providers with patients

Medici is a popular U.S.-based, HIPPA-compliant application that connects doctors and patients through video chat and text. One of the biggest appeals of Medici is that it does not merely function as an online hospital but rather connects patients with their own doctors.  Through the app a doctor is able to diagnose ePrescribe, bill, and eRefer from anywhere in the world. A patient can easily set up a useful network of doctors, therapists, dentists, and even veterinarians and get diagnoses, advice, and prescriptions issued without leaving home. The Medici platform has proven to be especially beneficial during the cold & flu season as well as during periods of extreme weather. The Medici app can be downloaded for free via the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.

MeMD provides online medical consultations

The innovative MeMD application allows patients to connect with physicians, nurses, and physician assistants in order to save time when dealing with minor health concerns ranging from bronchitis and diarrhea to anxiety and eating disorders. The specialists consulting on MeMD can also write prescriptions for medications as permitted by the various state laws. These prescriptions can be collected from the patient’s nearest participating pharmacy. Apart from issuing prescriptions, MeMD also offers subscribers 24/7 service access and real-time video examinations and will readily assist in finding a participating pharmacy nearby. At present, the cost of a MeMD consultation is in the region of $60, and the app is available for download from both the App Store and Google Play Store.

Technology is making long-distance communication between doctors and patients easier than ever before. For the first time ever it is possible to be diagnosed and issued with a prescription without having to leave the house.