In my last Map of Biomedicine blog post, I talked about the different phases of clinical trials and a little bit about how trials are structured. I mentioned that trial is really just an experiment designed to test a hypothesis. When you studied science in school you learned about the scientific method:
Read MoreTags: clinical trials, personalized medicine, map of biomedicine, genes, drugs
Two new studies published in JAMA this week confirm that amyloid plaques on the brain predict future Alzheimer's Disease (AD). What's more, there is evidence that the plaques appear decades before patients experience the cognitive declines associated with AD. Researchers have long suspected that amyloid plaques precede the disease, but according to an article in the New York Times, this new research is "[t]he largest analysis to date of amyloid plaques in people’s brains [and it] confirms that the presence of the substance can help predict who will develop Alzheimer’s and determine who has the disease."
Read MoreTags: research, clinical trials, map of biomedicine, diagnostics, Alzheimer's Disease
Last week, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST,) working through the Genome in a Bottle Consortium (GIABC) (a NIST-funded and initiated working group) pushed next generation sequencing (NGS) a little closer to being adopted into regular clinical practice. NIST/GIABC have released a standard for measuring the accuracy of genetic tests.
Read MoreTags: personalized medicine, map of biomedicine, genetic testing, NGS Sequencing
The azaleas are in full, colorful blossom in my suburban Washington, DC neighborhood. To me their appearance signals spring marching toward summer; the end of the last of winter's blahs. According to a paper published in Nature Communications last Tuesday, the impact of seasonal changes on human health are much deeper than aesthetic, and in, fact, may be genetic.
Read MoreTags: research, personalized medicine, genes
The newest installments in the Map of Biomedicine blog posts take us down the routes that get drugs to patients, primarily in the United States. Of course, we are all patients at one time or other regardless of where we live. Without a doubt, the route to getting effective therapies from the lab to your local pharmacist is convoluted and expensive even if you live in a wealthy nation. If you don't, making the most effective treatments available to the people who need them most in middle- and low-income nations is more difficult.
Read MoreTags: map of biomedicine, drug development, drugs, World Health Oranization
As I said in my last post, one of the key components of the Map of Biomedicine is how new treatments get developed. That’s one of the parts of the map that is highlighted, as shown below.
Read MoreTags: clinical trials, biomedicine, map of biomedicine, drug development, Vignette 2
You’ve probably noticed that there is a lot of conversation about meaningful use lately. It’s not a new concept in health IT, but these days, it’s timely.
Read MoreTags: meaningful use, EHR, interoperability
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