Patients Discuss and Debate the Medical Outcomes from Generic Formulations

Patients Discuss and Debate the Medical Outcomes from Generic Formulations By Jeff Terkowitz When mature products face the introduction of generics, patients are often considering, or asked to consider, switching their medications. At that transition, there is a high need for Real World Data documenting patient experiences. What happens to medical outcomes when patients switch medications? Where does a business get the Real World Evidence (RWE) about patient experience that is so needed during any transition from an exclusive formulation to the availability of competitive generics? A logical place to start is with the patient consumers. After [...]

HEOR: Incorporating the Human Costs and Benefits into Drug Value

HEOR: Incorporating the Human Costs and Benefits into Drug Value By Kathleen Hoffman, PhD, MSPH In a 2007 article, “Pinning Down the Money Value of a Person’s Life,” NY Times reporter Alex Berensen wrote, “HOW much is your life worth? How about a year of life? How much is your vision worth? What about being pain-free? Able to walk unassisted? ... Economists are sometimes accused of knowing the prices of everything and the value of nothing. Now they are trying to answer what may be the most difficult question of all — the price of health.”1 Berensen [...]

Doing Better and Feeling Worse: Patients with Long-term Conditions Describe Treatment Side Effects

Doing Better and Feeling Worse: Patients with Long-term Conditions Describe Drug Side Effects By Kathleen Hoffman, PhD, MSPH We live in fortunate times; people are now described as “living with” conditions. As an article in BioMed Central Health Services Research put it: Where previous generations experienced episodes of infectious and acute disease that were often rapidly lethal because there were few effective treatments,... major changes in the epidemiological and demographic landscape have led to increasing numbers of people with chronic or long term conditions such as diabetes and asthma; living with and surviving potentially life-limiting conditions, [...]

Inspire posts forward medical research in adverse drug reactions, new study shows

Inspire posts forward medical research in adverse drug reactions, new study shows Over 2 million injuries, hospitalizations and deaths in the US each year are associated with post-approval adverse drug reactions (ADRs).1 The usual method of gathering ADR data is through provider reporting.  Research suggests that health care providers tend to under-report ADRs, sometimes because patients just don’t discuss all of their treatment experiences with them.2 Supplementing spontaneous provider-reliant reporting could be extremely beneficial to patient safety. In Can Patient-Generated Health Communication on the Internet Enhance Pharmacovigilance? (Part 1)3 and Research Confirms: Valuable Patient-Centered Data on Inspire [...]

Video Vignettes: Through Your Own Lens – Dealing With Side Effects

Video Vignettes: Through Your Own Lens - Dealing With Side Effects You wouldn’t think that someone could speak with delight about an experience with diarrhea. Yet when Amy,* a lung cancer patient, speaks about her search for help with “horrific diarrhea” in the video below, she sounds happy. Her relief at finding answers that actually worked to stop this side effect is palpable. As she describes her experience, imagine yourself in her situation while undergoing treatment: experiencing unending GI urgency, or having such a severe scalp itch that it interrupts your ability to sleep and begins to [...]