Older People Need More Sun

Spending more time in the sunshine could help older people to reduce their risk of developing heart disease and diabetes. Exposure to sunlight stimulates vitamin D in the skin and older people are more likely to have a vitamin D deficiency due to the natural aging process and changes in lifestyle.

Researchers at the University of Warwick have shown vitamin D deficiency is significantly associated with metabolic syndrome, a combination of medical and metabolic disorders that increase the risk of developing cardiovascular disease and diabetes. The research team, led by Dr Oscar Franco at Warwick Medical School, investigated the association between vitamin D levels in the blood and the prevalence of metabolic syndrome in 3,262 people aged 50 to 70 years old in China.

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At a meeting with investors and financial analysts today, Royal Philips Electronics will update the market on progress at the company’s Healthcare sector. Executives at Philips Healthcare, including sector Chief Executive Officer and member of the Philips Board of Management Steve Rusckowski, will elaborate on the fundamental strengths of Philips’ Healthcare business and will discuss the long-term growth and profitability drivers that give Philips a uniquely strong position going forward.

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GE Healthcare, a leading provider of healthcare information technology (HIT), announced a multi-million dollar agreement with Harrison Medical Center (Bremerton, WA) for a broad portfolio of healthcare IT solutions. The announcement marks a significant expansion of GE’s footprint in the health information exchange (HIE) market with a comprehensive deal that also includes the company’s full-featured electronic medical record (EMR), patient communication services, ePrescribing, quality outcomes measurement, and revenue cycle management tools. With Centricity HIE Services pulling the digital care community together, this implementation will serve to extend Harrison’s EMR to community providers, bolster the patient care continuum and help Harrison’s providers improve the quality of their care..

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Data from a study of managed-care cancer patients receiving chemotherapy and newly treated with erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs) found that the cumulative ESA cost with Epoetin alfa (EPO) was 29 percent lower than treatment with darbepoetin alfa (DARB).  The analysis, published in the Spring issue of the Journal of Medical Economics, was sponsored by Centocor Ortho Biotech Services, LLC. The retrospective cohort study of 10,928 patients investigated the current real-world dosing patterns and associated ESA costs in an adult cancer chemotherapy population.  The data showed that the cumulative ESA cost was $4,321 for patients receiving EPO vs. $6,089 for DARB patients (p<0.0001).  The dose ratio was 255 units of EPO to 1 microgram (mcg) of DARB.  The authors stated these findings are consistent with dose ratios from studies of randomized clinical trials and other observational studies.

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Abbott announced that it has received premarket approval (PMA) from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration for ARCHITECT® CORE™, an automated hepatitis B test for use on its ARCHITECT i 2000 and i 2000SR immunoassay testing instruments. ARCHITECT CORE is a chemiluminescent microparticle immunoassay (CMIA) for the qualitative detection of IgG and IgM antibodies to hepatitis B core antigen (anti-HBc) in human adult and pediatric serum and plasma and neonatal serum. It is intended as an aid in diagnosis of acute, chronic or resolved hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection in conjunction with other laboratory results and clinical information.

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