Data Sharing is Caring
Former U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, a physician and adviser to the Manhattan Institute’s “Project FDA,” writes at Stat News that the best way to advance cancer research is through greater use of data sharing. He’s optimistic that initiatives, such as Sean Parker’s $250 million to establish the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, hold promise from their emphasis on collaboration.
“One revolutionary aspect of this consortium is that the participating researchers have agreed to share not just data but also revenues from intellectual property rights derived from their discoveries,” Coburn contends. “This is a crucial step — progress slows when researchers, cancer centers, and others keep information to themselves in the quest for more funding, licensing deals, and top billing in prestigious journals.”
What stands out in Coburn’s analysis is the often-ignored point that cancer will require many cures.
“Cancer isn’t one disease; it’s hundreds. And it rapidly evolves to sidestep drug therapy. To beat it down and keep it down, it is essential to deliver the right medicines in the right sequence. No single cancer center sees enough data from enough patients to identify all of the variations needed to develop tailored treatments for the many subtypes of the disease, or for rare tumor types. Pooling and analyzing data from hundreds of thousands or millions of cancer patients can speed the development of new therapies.”
Today in History
We’re rolling out a new ongoing series here in The Daily Rise. With our “Today in History” section, we’ll share some of the important milestones and historical figures that have helped advance innovation and put patients first.
On this date more than a century and a half ago, biochemist and pharmacologist John Jacob Abel was born. The first full-time professor of pharmacology in the U.S. at John Hopkins University, Abel first reported the isolation and crystallization of insulin. Although derided at the time, he conceived of a medical device to clean toxins from the blood and invented the forerunner to the artificial kidney.
“Abel worked in an age of great progress and experimental work in the basic sciences that laid the foundations of science-driven medicine,” Garabed Eknoyan, Professor of Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, wrote in 2009. “The first step in the translation of the laboratory principles of dialysis to living animals was the “vividiffusion” apparatus developed by John Jacob Abel.”
Right Patient, Right Treatment, Right Now
Join us in Chicago on June 4th as we discuss ways to help patients survive the attacks on their treatments.
FACTS: The Obstacles to Access
CLARITY: What Can We Do About It?
PERSPECTIVE: What is NOT the solution
Patients Rising Policy Director, Jonathan Wilcox brings together patients and patient advocates, as well as nationally acclaimed policy, legal and medical professionals.
- to reveal the real barriers standing between patients and the effective treatments they need, when they need them
- to oppose policy proposals called value-frameworks that can limit or ration the care you need
- to propose how we can work together to assure patient have access to the best, most advanced diagnostics and treatments despite these obstacles
Together we can get the Right Treatment to the Right Patient Right Now!
WHEN:
Saturday, June 4, 12:00PM – 2:00PM CT
Lunch will be provided
The full program will be recorded and available online after 6:00PM CT
WHERE: Symphony Center, 1061 West Van Buren, Chicago, IL 60607
Register by clicking here.
Wall Street’s Ominous Prediction
Wall Street is predicting that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will ultimately succeed in its plan to slash reimbursement rates for doctors. We’ve been warning patients for months that the plan will reduce patients’ access to treatments as well as harm doctors and community clinics already operating on razor-thin margins.
In a note to investors, Evercore ISI analyst Terry Haines estimated that the plan is “80 per cent likely to be adopted by CMS in July 2016 and implemented in fall 2016, despite rising industry and congressional pressure to delay or stop it.”
CMS “has not backed off its timetable, although some small modification is not out of the question,” he wrote, according to Morning Consult. “We think CMS is unlikely to significantly change its timetable because the agency wants to get (the first phase) in place in this presidential administration and CMS believes Congress will not be able to stop it.”
Advocating for patients is a bipartisan issue. Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill are joining together in criticizing the proposed changes to Medicare Part B. Let’s hope our elected representatives are able to prevail over the unelected bureaucrats at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.