EurekAlert: New tool developed at UBC screens online health ads for deception . “The internet is rife with ads for health products, from weight-loss systems to arthritis cures–but whether they actually work can be difficult to discern. Now, experts at the University of British Columbia have devised a simple screening tool to evaluate if the products popping up on your newsfeed are likely to be scams.”
health care
Washington Governor: Washington launches online tool that lets patients compare prices for medical procedures
Washington Governor: Washington launches online tool that lets patients compare prices for medical procedures. “If you or a loved one needed knee replacement surgery, would you want to know which surgeon in your community has the highest rating for quality of care? Would you like to know how much a knee replacement costs, on average, at all of the medical offices close to your home? Those are the types of information easily accessed through Washington state’s new HealthCareCompare website, an online tool that launched today. The user-friendly website is part of the state’s larger effort to make health care costs more transparent, and gives the public access to health care price and quality information from the Washington All-Payer Claims Database.”
AHRQ: National Guideline Clearinghouse to Shut Down July 16 (AAFP)
AAFP: AHRQ: National Guideline Clearinghouse to Shut Down July 16. “In less than a month, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) National Guideline Clearinghouse (NGC) website will cease operations. An announcement posted on the NGC website… states that ‘because federal funding through AHRQ will no longer be available to support the NGC,’ the site will shut down after July 16. A similar AHRQ online database, the National Quality Measures Clearinghouse… also will close up shop after July 16.” AAFP is the American Academy of Family Physicians.
Revitalizing the drug pipeline: AntibioticDB, an open access database to aid antibacterial research and development (Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy)
Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy: Revitalizing the drug pipeline: AntibioticDB, an open access database to aid antibacterial research and development. “The current state of antibiotic discovery, research and development is insufficient to respond to the need for new treatments for drug-resistant bacterial infections. The process has changed over the last decade, with most new agents that are in Phases 1–3, or recently approved, having been discovered in small- and medium-sized enterprises or academia. These agents have then been licensed or sold to large companies for further development with the goal of taking them to market. However, early drug discovery and development, including the possibility of developing previously discontinued agents, would benefit from a database of antibacterial compounds for scrutiny by the developers. This article describes the first free, open-access searchable database of antibacterial compounds, including discontinued agents, drugs under pre-clinical development and those in clinical trials: AntibioticDB.” The article is free.
TechCrunch: UK report warns DeepMind Health could gain ‘excessive monopoly power’
TechCrunch: UK report warns DeepMind Health could gain ‘excessive monopoly power’ . “The DeepMind Health Independent Reviewers’ 2018 report flags a series of risks and concerns, as they see it, including the potential for DeepMind Health to be able to ‘exert excessive monopoly power’ as a result of the data access and streaming infrastructure that’s bundled with provision of the Streams app — and which, contractually, positions DeepMind as the access-controlling intermediary between the structured health data and any other third parties that might, in the future, want to offer their own digital assistance solutions to the Trust.”
Indiana University: Medical student founds national organization connecting LGBTQ community with health care
Indiana University: Medical student founds national organization connecting LGBTQ community with health care. “[Dustin] Nowaskie graduated in May, but before that, in the middle of his psychiatry studies, he founded OutCare, a database for LGBTQ health care. The website includes the OutList, a compilation of doctors and nurses confirmed to be culturally competent on LGBTQ health issues, as well as a database of other community and educational resources for patients and health care providers alike.”
LocalSYR: NY Health Dept. launches interactive tool to find health info, costs
LocalSYR: NY Health Dept. launches interactive tool to find health info, costs. “The New York Department of Health announced a new tool that allows consumers and researchers to find various health information. The tool, called the NYS Health Connector, provides information such as the cost of medical procedures and the frequency of those procedures that are performed at hospitals.”
