Aimee Mullins at TEDMED

• UK NHS After Hours Low Rating Some Areas – BBC News – England out-of-hours GP care inadequate – http://goo.gl/waBf (yes but it is free?) #
• Safe in Bed? – The New Old Age Blog – NYTimes.com – http://goo.gl/Nor9 – [Hospital and Homecare Beds Need More Work - Not Isolated case] #
• Doctors Ego, ignorance, arrogance bigger than caring? Helene Pavlov: Why wait so Long At The Doctor's Office? – http://goo.gl/n7hQ #
• MedWire News – Stroke – Dieting may reverse carotid atherosclerosis – http://goo.gl/QnBK – OR – its never too late! Or so it appears… #
• New measures will ensure drugs suppliers put patients before profits — Mooney 340: c1312 — BMJ – http://goo.gl/xr9w #

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New German Health Minister Takes Aim At Traditional Pharma Companies.

Newly appointed German Healthcare Minister Philipp Roesler – liberal – Free Democratic Party in likely move to break big pharma stronghold and submit new products to insurance pricing scrutiny and impose an “efficiency and clinical effectiveness /outcomes” pricing performance ratio.

Not totally dissimilar to the British NICE economic and clinical effectiveness system.

Sign of the times perhaps to introduce new effectiveness and economic liberalization in the DME (durable medical equipment) sector of the ever increasing homecare industry.

Maybe not – Roesler is clearly risking his parties popularity as a junior member in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrat Party.

Bridgepoint will be concluding the acquisition of UK care services provider Care UK.

Care UK provides care services through it’s facilities as well as in the growing home care sector. In addition they are a provider of NHS Walk-In centers. The acquisition is valued at 309 million Euro (about 460 million US Dollars).

Jamie Wyatt, director responsible for Bridgepoint’s UK healthcare investment activity, said, “Today’s offer is a fair one that comes with the unanimous recommendation of the independent directors of Care UK to the Care UK shareholders, and which will allow Care UK to accelerate growth and undertake selective acquisitions in a way that it was unable to as a quoted business.”

As an aside this compares in several ways with the 920 million US Dollar investment that Blackstone made to take (homecare services provider) Apria private in the USA. We wrote about this last year “Why Invest In Homecare? – Revisited – Blackstone Bids For Apria“.

Of course Care UK and Bridgepoint will continue to be going up against the likes of the agile and behemoth Bupa who is also not sitting still.

To view other Bridgepoint healthcare investments click here and adjust the tab.

With the age and population demographic being so favorable, these types of deals in services and facilities will only continue.

Frank Barlin is Managing Partner at Sibaya LifeScience!

Here is a thread from The BMJ where NHS physicians enter into the argument of the value (moral, ethical and commercial) of medical (pharmaceutical) sales reps.

The original letter from Dr Shane O’Hanlon starts like this:

It was switching to decaffeinated coffee that started it all. In a flash of lucidity I realised the dubious ethical basis for drug company representatives’ courtship of doctors.

Doctor – Sorry to say but so long as anybody works for money, including doctors, they could be asked the same thing. Doctors are very quick to court sales people when they “need” something. Medical Journals are quick to solicit and accept drug company advertising, and there is nothing wrong with that. It is also very ethical.

It becomes unethical when the conversation between a doctor and a sales rep concerning a product or service cannot be published in the local newspaper – that’s the acid test. In 99% of cases it can be.

The argument is the same one that has been made for years and usually ranges from “I don’t like them, they waste valuable time, they are (yes) commercial” etc.

The counter argument is that in fact the medical sales rep does provide a service – even if it is to only alert the doctor to a new product so that he or she can go and do their own research (which is what hopefully they do anyway).

Obviously there are good and bad sales people (and doctors) in every industry. I am making an assumption that most are good, so here goes.

Doctors, you get what you deserve – many of you treat appointments with sales reps with little respect for the content of their message (after having kept them waiting way past scheduled (and cancelled) appointment times). Even when the sales person is finally in front of many of you – you look at your watch and say “you have two minutes” as you continue to click on the keyboard.

If you have pre-determined that the sales rep will have nothing useful to say – then why agree to the appointment in the first place?

Without a doubt there are medical / surgical sales reps that are way better trained on a particular subject than the doctor is. This is of course the reason why so many sales people are invited into the OR (Operating Theatre) to explain the use of complex, and often life saving medical devices.

It is true that with modern media there are now improving ways of getting the message across to the doctor, which is good for all. In the mean time next time you the doctor complains or is rude to a sales rep – think first about the value of pharmaceutical and medical companies, especially when you demand samples of products, a demonstration, or support for an important clinical trial that you are going to publish.

Pharmaceutical companies – make sure you have the right message and you are sending it in the most effective way.

(To all the pharmaceutical representatives out there looking for a job – rest assured that you have great value. If you can succeed and survive selling into the hospital jungle – you can excel anywhere).

• Concerns Over ‘Metal on Metal’ Hip Implants – NYTimes.com – http://goo.gl/Rusp #
• http://www.bma.org.uk/lobbying_campaigning/manifesto.jsp – http://goo.gl/gks3 – Support Doctors & NHS! #
• http://bit.ly/bZpYe4 Huffpost – #
• Economist: 'Industry is already competitive' – HME News – http://goo.gl/USXM – More National Competitive Bidding Pain #
• Report: Pfizer Under Investigation for Promotion of Rapamune – FOXBusiness.com – http://goo.gl/KII0 #

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Press release:

Virginia Legislature Passes Bill Requiring Reimbursement for Telemedicine

Contact: Ben Forstag, American Telemedicine Association, 202-223-3333 March 3, 2010

WASHINGTON, DC – By a unanimous vote, the Virginia State Legislature yesterday approved SB 675 mandating that health insurers pay for telemedicine services. Governor McDonnell is expected to sign the bill into law.

“This is one more indication that telemedicine is now fully accepted by providers, policy makers, consumers and insurers as an important way to increase access, improve quality and reduce costs in the delivery of healthcare” said Jonathan D. Linkous, CEO of the American Telemedicine Association (ATA).
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