Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
According to a paper by Miljković et al. (2023), the answer is ‘no‘. The authors examine oncology treatments with FDA approvals between 2015 and 2020 and identify average wholesale prices from Redbook. Drugs were classified into three categories: (i) first approval of a new mechanism of action compound, (ii) next-in-class approval regardless the tumor type,…
Can voice-based AI help patients with diabetes move more quickly towards optimal insulin dosing? According to a Nayak et al. (2023) study out today in JAMA Network Open, the answer is yes. Question Can a voice-based conversational artificial intelligence (AI) application help patients with type 2 diabetes titrate basal insulin at home to achieve rapid…
All of us want new, improved medicines. Drugs that provide incremental benefits (often called “me too” drugs) are good, but truly revolutionary therapies are even better. However, how does one separate how “novel” a treatment is? Is there a way to quantify this? In fact there is. One way to do this is based on…
The U.S. is one of the the few developed nations without a government-run health technology assessment (HTA) body. Or are they? A recent perspective in the New England Journal of Medicine by Peter Neumann and Sean Tunis argues that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) already is serving as a de facto HTA…
New cell and gene therapies offer the promise of revolutionizing care for patients with genetic diseases. Many of these diseases impact kids and about a third of children in the US are insured by Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). The government faces a challenge: cell and gene therapies are potential breakthrough therapies…
On May 10, the House Ways and Means Committee held a hearing on “Examining Policies that Inhibit Innovation and Patient Access“. You can view the testimony here. I summarized submitted Congressional Testimony with the help of ChatGPT below. Actual testimony submitted is also referenced below as well. Mr. Tony Gonzales, National Early-Stage Advisor, Alzheimer’s Association.…
Based on a study by Frankovic and Kuhn (2022), the answer is both. However, the value of increased innovation–as measured through longevity gains–more than offset inefficiencies from overspending. Specifically, the authors use an overlapping generations model where individuals can purchase health insurance and medical progress depends on health care sector return on investment. The authors…
A paper by Gracia, David and Conti (2022) in Health Affairs Forefront poses the question ‘how do financial incentives impact venture capitalist’s (VC) investment decisions in early-stage biotech companies, and ultimately innovation?’ To get the answer, the authors interviewed 5 venture capitalists to get their thoughts. Based on these interviews, the authors had 7 key…
Last month, the Office of Health Economics published a report titled “Health Technology Assessment of Gene Therapies: Are Our Methods Fit for Purpose?” I summarize some of the key challenges and solutions below. Challenge #1: Initial assessment of clinical effectiveness. Since gene therapies often target rare disease, the sample size from clinical trials is often…
Is telehealth over before it began? Let’s hope not. First, there is the clinical aspect. While telehealth was vital during the pandemic, it is unclear to what degree telehealth can fully substitute for in-person care (see Hatef et al. 2022). Likely telehealth is superior to in-person visits for some types of care, inferior for others,…