According to the survey, almost one third (32%) of biopharmaceutical executives think patients will be very or extremely influential in the success or failure of new drug therapies over the next five years. In stark contrast, only 11% of patients feel they will influence which new prescription drugs are available over that same time period.

The survey also reveals that the perception of how patients demonstrate influence varies considerably between biopharma executives and patients themselves. Only 6% of biopharma executives feel that patients show their influence most by choosing lifestyle or holistic approaches, despite 45% of patients who report they have made lifestyle changes within the past five years to avoid taking prescription drugs.

“This misalignment speaks volumes about biopharma’s challenge to better understand patients and their perception of the value of prescription drugs in order to address the needs of this increasingly influential stakeholder group,” added Amin.

Additional findings from The New Health Report include:

• What is the impact of the rise in generics? – Almost half (46%) of biopharma executives believe a worsening of public health is likely if generics continue to gain market share.
• What do patients think of patent protection? – Nearly all biopharma executives (99%) and three-quarters (75%) of patients feel patent protection is important in promoting the development of new drug therapies. However, nearly one third (30%) of patients believe that drug companies should never be the only company that can make and sell a drug.
• What should be the therapeutic area of greatest focus? Biopharma executives, managed care executives and patients all agree that oncology should be the therapeutic area of greatest focus in the next five years.
• Which cancer should be a top priority? – Among patients, more than one in three (35%) feel breast cancer should be the priority focus, followed by lung cancer (16%) and leukemia (13%).

Ten Important Men’s Health Terms Include (listed in alphabetical order):

1. AOD: Adult Onset Diabetes, more commonly referred to as “Type II Diabetes,” is a condition marked by high blood glucose and insulin deficiency. Because diabetes affects blood sugar levels and a man’s vascular system, diabetes is often associated with other health conditions, such as heart disease and erectile dysfunction. Men will benefit by understanding the underlying health issues affecting all bodily functions and taking a holistic approach to healthcare, rather than treating a singular condition such as diabetes.

2. BMI: Body Mass Index is a number calculated using a person’s height and weight. One’s BMI is a reliable indicator of the various weight classifications, such as obesity, that can lead to other health problems. Once a man’s BMI is calculated, he can take the diet and exercise measures necessary to improve his weight category and overall health.

3. BP: High blood pressure, or hypertension, occurs when the force of blood within an artery is unusually high. The risk of high blood pressure increases in a man’s forties, and can cause a wide range of health problems, including aneurysms, heart failure, kidney failure and blindness. While high blood pressure is often genetic, a man can decrease his risk of hypertension by improving his diet and exercise level, and decreasing salt and alcohol intake.

4. ED: Erectile dysfunction is a condition that affects 30 million American men. According to the Massachusetts Male Aging Study, 52 percent of men between the ages of 40 and 70 report having some difficulty achieving or maintaining erections.¹ Many physicians point to the fact that the penis serves as the barometer of a man’s overall health, with ED acting as an early sign of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and other physical ailments. Men with even mild symptoms of ED should examine their overall health to ensure longevity.

5. HDL/LDL: HDL—or high-density lipoprotein—is known as “good cholesterol,” because it is thought to carry cholesterol away from the arteries to be processed by the liver and excreted from the body. LDL—or low-density lipoprotein—can form plaque in the arteries that feed the heart and the brain, increasing risk of clot formation and heart attack. Foods heavy in omega-3 fatty acids, such as fish oils, flax seeds, soy products and dark leafy greens have been shown to lower fat in the bloodstream and improve overall blood flow.

6. ICP: Used to treat erectile dysfunction and premature ejaculation, intracavernous pharmocotherapy (ICP) is a combination of FDA-approved medications that is injected into the spongy tissue of the penis, using an auto-applicator, to produce an erection within minutes. Because ICP is a localized treatment, many of the systemic risk factors that keep oral medications from being a safe treatment option for men affected with diabetes and heart conditions are not present with ICP.

7. EKG: Recommended for men over thirty-five, an electrocardiogram (EKG) is an important medical test that records the electrical activity of the heart. EKGs are used to detect abnormal rhythms and heart muscle damage.

8. STI: Sexually transmitted diseases, in recent years referred to as sexually transmitted infections (STIs), are illnesses transmitted through sexual contact. Gone untreated, many STIs can adversely affect one’s immune system, organ function, blood cells and other health conditions. The most effective way to prevent STIs is by avoiding the transfer of bodily fluids; proper use of condoms also reduces risk of STIs. Both sexual partners should also get tested for STIs before initiating sexual activity.

9. CDE: In order to promote good health and strong bodily functions, it is important that the male diet is rich in vitamins and minerals. Three important vitamins for men include Vitamin C to strengthen blood vessels and muscles and protect against infection; Vitamin D, which is important for preventing some types of bone disease; and Vitamin E, an antioxidant that helps repair cell membranes that protect the heart.

10. PSA: A Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) is a protein secreted by the prostate–measuring one’s PSA level has been used for some time as a method of screening for prostate cancer.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response will provide the funds through the Hospital Preparedness Program. The grants enhance community resilience by increasing the ability of hospitals and healthcare facilities to respond to the public health and medical impacts of any emergency, such as natural disasters, disease outbreaks, or acts of terrorism.

All states, territories and the metro areas of New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles County and Washington, D.C., will receive the 2010 Hospital Preparedness grants. The funds will be used by state and local governments to boost the readiness of hospitals and other healthcare facilities in their jurisdictions by finalizing development or improving:

• Interoperable communication systems
• Systems to track available hospital beds
• Advance registration of volunteer health professionals
• Processes for hospital evacuations or sheltering-in-place
• Processes for fatality management
• Strengthening health care partnerships at the community level
• Strengthen hospital participation in statewide and regional exercise programs.

The 2010 awards are as follows:

The grant cycle aligns with the state fiscal year of July 1 – June 30.

The Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act requires accountability of the use of the Hospital Preparedness Program funds. These funds can be withheld from awardees if they fail to meet established state-level performance measures.

“The U.S. Military holds a strong commitment to continued care for the wounded warrior, even after the battlefield experience,” stated Jon J. Snyder, President and CEO of Neuros Medical. “Our efforts via this funding will greatly advance our technology’s application in providing a proven treatment for patients with chronic pain, specifically residual limb pain.” In addition, military casualties and amputations experienced by those serving in Iraq and Afghanistan have contributed to the need to develop effective treatments for patients suffering from chronic residual limb pain.

Whether it’s called a hybrid room or an interventional platform, Room 9 at Stanford Hospital & Clinics is that singular space where a patient can stay in one place to be diagnosed and treated, either with surgery or the latest interventional procedure, in an environment as sterile as an operating room, with all-important imaging devices, microscopes and monitors right at hand.

“It’s a quantum leap up,” said Robert Dodd, MD, PhD, who is both Stanford neurosurgeon and interventional neuroradiologist. “We can have a full operating team in the room and we won’t have to move the entire team and patient down the hall, up the elevator and back down again.”

The patient, in that old scenario, remains anesthetized, and movement requires all the IV poles to come, too, along with a medical team. It also means that the surgical opening remains unclosed until imaging can confirm that the surgery has done what was needed. That kind of back and forth, Dodd said, can take all day, instead of four hours and no moving necessary.

“It’s much safer for the patient,” said Shelly Reynolds, RN, Interim Director of the Hospital’s Cath-Angio Interventional Services Lab. “If someone has their brain exposed, it’s not really ideal to be moving them down the hallway.” Until Room 9 opened, however, that was the only option.

Room 9, open only a couple of weeks, was designed specifically to allow on-scene collaboration between specialists in neurosurgery and neuroradiology. The room’s centerpiece is a stereoscopic biplane digital subtraction angiography system−its curvilinear arms nearly reaching the ceiling, encircling a space as broad as a giant redwood trunk. It’s a machine that captures all-around images of the brain without having to turn the patient from side to side. Because fewer images are required to build the 3D images that offer the required precision of detail, the patient is exposed to less radiation and less contrast dye injection.

The improved detail enhances patient safety as well as diagnosis and treatment. “Combined with live fluoroscopy, the newer angiographic hardware and software in the room produces a fully-dimensional image that reconstructs a patient’s arterial system,” said Michael Marks, MD, Chief, Interventional Neuroradiology. “We can understand anatomy better and more precisely navigate.”

The larger space is not just about the equipment, Reynolds said. In the older rooms, “people are literally up against the wall−attending physicians, anesthesiologist, residents, nurses, technicians. It’s a lot of people in a very tight space. And that’s just essential personnel.”

Thirty years ago, the industry standard size for operating rooms was 450 square feet. Advanced imaging technology is now part of the standard equipment at top-flight hospitals, like Stanford, and that equipment requires space. The new industry standard operating room is at minimum, 600 square feet. New operating rooms must also accommodate the greater degree of collaboration between specialists that means more personnel around a patient. At 800 square feet, hybrid rooms like Stanford’s can hold those extra people that might be needed in an unanticipated turn of events, if what begins as a catheterization suddenly becomes a situation for surgery.

Neurocatheterization is a treatment option whose capabilities have grown rapidly in the last decade. In a typical procedure, Dodd will make a fingernail-sized opening at the top of a patient’s thigh and then thread a very tiny tube−the catheter−into an artery that will, ultimately, reach the patient’s brain. Once there, Dodd manipulates tools carried by the catheter to remove stroke-causing blood clots with exquisite specificity. It’s a procedure that requires the highest degree of imaging and must be done as precisely as any surgery, and yet, until now, hospital design has separated catheter procedures from operating rooms.

Planning Room 9 took months of careful evaluation of the needs of physicians, nurses and technologists, Marks said. The transformation was precipitated by the natural end of Room 9’s usefulness, said the Hospital’s Vice President-Clinical Services Jerry Maki. “We were convinced that a new hybrid room was what was needed at Stanford, so it made sense to invest the effort and funds to make it happen.”

The new Stanford Hospital will include one entire floor of this kind of multipurpose space, with several 1,000-square-foot units large enough to accommodate larger scale equipment and more people. In the meantime, the hospital is considering renovations, to surgical standards, of other catheterization procedure or operating rooms. Room 9 will not be restricted to neurological procedures. Many other fields of medicine−such as cardiology, vascular, thoracic, gastrointestinal−now include minimally invasive procedures guided by advanced imaging.

Myth 1: ‘Foods labelled “low fat” are always a healthy choice’.

The reality: ‘Low fat’ foods can still pack plenty of calories. All the low-fat label really means is that this food is 30% lower in fat than the standard equivalent. So if the type of food in question is high in fat in the first place – like a doughnut – the low-fat version may also still be high in fat. Low-fat foods are often high in sugar too – so check the label carefully.

Myth 2: ‘Steer clear of starchy foods if you want to stay slim.’

The reality: Starchy foods such as rice, pasta, bread and potatoes should make up around one third of everything we eat. This means we should base our meals on these foods for a healthy, balanced diet.

Myth 3: ‘Eating less is the secret of a healthy diet.’

The reality: When it comes to healthy eating, balance is the key. While it’s true that many of us eat too much, a healthy diet means eating a wide variety of foods in the right proportions. Most people eat too much fat, sugar and salt, and not enough fruit, vegetables and fibre.

Myth 4: ‘All fat is the same.’

The reality: Many of us would benefit from cutting down on all types of fat but swapping saturated for unsaturated fat can have health benefits.

Saturated fat – found in sausages, pies, cheese, butter and biscuits – can raise cholesterol and increase your risk of heart disease. But unsaturated fat - found in oily fish, sunflower and olive oils – can help reduce cholesterol and provide essential nutrients. So, for a healthy diet, limit the total amount of fat you eat and switch to unsaturated fat where possible.

Myth 5: ‘I don’t add salt to my food, so I can’t be eating too much of it.’

The reality: Not salting your food is a good idea but three-quarters of the salt we eat is already in our food when we buy it.

Too much salt can raise blood pressure and increase your risk of stroke and heart problems. Adults shouldn’t eat more than six grams a day, so keep an eye on food labels.

HealthCare.gov is the first central database of health coverage options, combining information about public programs, from Medicare to the new Pre-Existing Conditions Insurance Plan, with information from more than 1,000 private insurance plans. Consumers can receive information about options specific to their life situation and local community.

In addition, the website will be a one-stop-shop for information about the implementation of the Affordable Care Act as well as other health care resources. The website will connect consumers to quality rankings for local health care providers as well as preventive services.

“This website is unlike any government website you have ever seen or used before,” said HHS Chief Technology Officer Todd Park. “It was developed with significant consumer input and is remarkably easy to navigate. This is despite the sheer volume of content it offers consumers: billions of health care choices through the insurance finder and more than 500 pages of new content, all of which is designed to grow with ongoing consumer feedback and as our health care system improves.”

As the health care market transforms, so will HealthCare.gov. In October, 2010, price estimates for health insurance plans will be available online. In the weeks and months ahead, new information on preventing disease and illness and improving the quality of health care for all Americans will also be posted. The website also includes a series of opportunities where users can indicate whether pages were helpful to them and we will continue to seek user feedback to grow and strengthen the site.

“The mistakes made at the St. Louis VA Medical Center are unacceptable, and steps have been and continue to be taken to correct this situation and assure the safety of our Veterans. VA will not tolerate risk to our Veterans,” said Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric K. Shinseki. “VA employees at the St. Louis VA Medical Center, along with all of our employees, have a solemn responsibility to provide safe, quality care for the well being of all our patients.”

Under the Obama Administration, in the past 18 months, VA has implemented more stringent oversight of the safety of all its medical facilities. It is this more rigorous standard that directly led VA to identify and address problems at the St. Louis Medical Center. Additional resources have been allocated and new procedures and stricter enforcements are in place to ensure the safety of all Veterans who seek care at VA facilities. VA mandates transparency and accountability in its handling of mistakes or failures to meet VA’s high standards. VA’s processes lead the nation in terms of transparency and accountability.

“VA is committed to ensuring that all our health care facilities are safe,” said Shinseki “VA will continue to investigate the actions of individuals involved and the proper administrative and disciplinary measures will be taken.”

The St. Louis facility has undergone a thorough examination, and many safeguards are in place that are designed to prevent a similar situation from occurring again. In-depth staff training and management reviews were immediately conducted by the St. Louis leadership, medical staff, and VA’s Supply, Processing and Distribution (SPD) program office teams.

“The Veterans we serve are our friends, our neighbors and a part of our family,” said Dr. Robert Petzel, VA’s Under Secretary of Health. “Under the direction of Secretary Shinseki I have determined there is a need for an independent, national Administrative Investigation Board (AIB) to determine the reasons for failure to follow correct procedures. The Chief of Dental Services has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation.”

Immediate actions were taken to ensure all personnel were properly re-trained and all equipment is being handled in accordance with manufacturers’ instructions. All pre-washing of dental equipment which was performed by dental personnel prior to sterilizations is now being done by qualified SPD staff.

No Veterans are currently ill as a result of this incident. The potential risk to Veterans is extremely low.

Other wireless technologies being adopted and deployed in healthcare including cellular M2M and wearable wireless sensors have also seen significant growth over the past 12 months.

Wireless communications continue to be adopted in healthcare applications ranging from Wi-Fi networks to wearable sensors that wirelessly transmit a patient’s condition to monitoring applications.

“Wi-Fi adoption has helped overcome initial concerns about complexity and reliability of wireless within healthcare,” says ABI Research principal analyst Jonathan Collins. “The growing number of wireless technologies and wireless applications being developed, piloted and deployed within healthcare further underline the level of interest in using wireless to improve the flexibility and efficiency of healthcare services around the world.”

The technologies tracked by ABI Research’s Wireless Healthcare Research Service include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Low-Energy Bluetooth, ZigBee, 802.15.4 and proprietary low power RF offerings across applications such as WLAN, personal monitoring, disease management, assisted living and telepresence.

“The 2010 Claims Review clearly illustrates that disabilities are more common than people think, and they are on the rise,” said Barry Lundquist, president of the CDA. “Just as the economy has faltered, more responsibility is falling on the individual wage earner to make decisions about how to protect themselves and their families and to shoulder more of the cost burden. Because ultimately all financial security results from one’s income, it’s imperative that people plan and protect against an income-limiting disability.”

The CDA’s 5th Annual Long-Term Disability Claims Review analyzed private and public long-term disability claims data and identified continuing and emerging disability trends among U.S. workers. Sixteen CDA member companies, the top disability insurance companies representing more than 75 percent of the commercial disability insurance marketplace, submitted proprietary claim data for inclusion in this year’s study.

The Claims Review found that CDA member companies paid $8.1 billion in ongoing disability insurance payments to disabled individuals in 2009. CDA member companies approved long-term disability insurance benefits for 141,000 new individuals, down one percent from last year as insured lives in 2009 decreased by 2.2 percent, reflecting the impact of the broad economic picture, according the CDA.

The leading cause of disability continues to be musculoskeletal and connective tissue disorders, such as back pain and joint and muscle disorders, but cancer and nervous system claims trended up slightly from a year ago. For the first time in three years cardiovascular and circulatory problems registered increases.

Despite the record number of people receiving disability payments, the 2010 CDA Claims Review reports that roughly 100 million workers have no private income protection insurance. In addition to the decline in the number of insured, fewer employers provided group long-term disability programs in 2009.

New claim applications submitted to the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program continued to surge in 2009. More workers are applying for SSDI claim payments than at any time in history, with new applications totaling 2.8 million in 2009 — an increase of 21 percent, and by far the most ever. New SSDI claims are projected to continue to rise dramatically in 2010. Over 5 percent of the workforce, or 7.8 million workers, were receiving SSDI at the conclusion of 2009.

At the same time, the approval rate for initial SSDI claims continued to decline. The approval rate fell to 35 percent in 2009, representing a continued steady decline from 52 percent 10 years ago. The CDA Claims Review found that 31 percent of individuals receiving private group long-term disability insurance benefits did not qualify for SSDI assistance and 95 percent of claims were not job-related.

According to the Claims Review’s qualitative data, member company representatives report few effects on private disability claims resulting from the economic downturn of 2007–2009. CDA member company future concerns center on the possible impact and uncertainty of the economy, regulatory environment and the residual impact of health care reform.