Posts Tagged ‘medicine’

Audit firm Ernst & Young said in a recent report that consumer electronics companies Nintendo and Apple, Inc. are helping drug makers bring their products to customers as looming health-policy changes and new technologies force them to seek non-traditional marketing methods. As well, global drug sale growth through the year 2013 are only expected to be 4-7% due to the impending expiration of patents on some of the industry’s most profitable drugs. Bayer AG has already teamed up with Nintendo to produce a glucometer for use by children, which attaches to the Nintendo DS portable video game player. Johnson & Johnson is currently working with Apple, Inc. to create an iPhone application which would allow diabetics to better monitor their disease. Ernst & Young states that 92% of business executives surveyed for the report expect that new medical technology, mobile and electronic health companies will most likely be the new partners for pharmaceutical companies for product distribution. [via Businessweek]

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Turmeric powder has been used for centuries in Ayurvedic and Traditional Chinese Medicine for its various medicinal properties, including as an antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and antibiotic. Because of these purported effects, scientists have been studying the active ingredient in turmeric, curcumin. Reporting in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, University of Michigan researchers have discovered that molecules of curcumin can actually insert themselves into the membranes of our cells, thus making the membranes more stable. This may have effects on the way our cells respond to inflammation and infections. For now, the mechanism of action of curcumin, in its entirety, remains a mystery but we are one step closer because of this discovery.

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With the US government trying to stimulate wider adoption of electronic medical records (EMR), Wal-Mart is diving in head first by marketing its very own EMR product. By using its buying power, Wal-Mart is combining Dell computers with EMR software from eClinicalWorks and offering the bundle as an affordable way for small medical offices to afford an EMR system. The EMR will allow medical professionals to digitally record patient charts, organize billing statements, and handle patient registration. Wal-Mart believes this product will appeal to smaller medical groups and practices since they have already successfully implemented the technology in their store-based health clinics that can be found now in 8 states across the US.

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Three researchers were awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine today. French scientists Luc Montagnier and Francoise Barre-Sinoussi were credited with the discovery of the HIV virus, the virus that causes AIDS. The $1.4 million prize was shared with German physician-researcher Dr. Harald zur Hausen who first discovered HPV, the human papilloma virus, which can cause cervical cancer in women. However, the selection of the recipients was not without controversy. Many consider Dr. Robert Gallo of the US integral in discovery of the HIV virus and should have been a recipient as well. Read more and Share your opinion.

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