Big Tech is pushing into health care, believing it has what the industry needs to deal with spiraling costs, lousy service and quality problems. Or maybe it’s just bellying up to get a slice of the $2.5 trillion pie.

Google jumped in with a personal health record and a totally cool flu tracker. Microsoft is piloting its own personal health record with Cleveland Clinic. Apple has iPhone aps that help physicians access drug information and play bingo during Grand Rounds.

Those Big Tech entries created quite a splash, but as for Intel’s first health care gambit, well not so much. That would be the Mobile Clinical Assistant, Intel’s tablet PC that supports point-of-care documentation, order entry and practice management for physicians.  

The MCA is marketed by Motion Computing. It is a solid, useful product but so far it hasn’t prompted the addition of extra shifts back where the chips get made, so now Intel is rolling out Health Guide, a personal health record allowing patients and providers to co-manage chronic conditions like high blood pressure, diabetes, COPD and heart failure. 
 
Health Guide combines an in-home patient device and an online interface that permits clinicians to monitor patients and manage care remotely. The system enables vital sign collection, patient reminders, surveys, video conferencing and educational content. It is being piloted in the US and Europe. 
 
“Intel believes the personal healthcare marketplace is a multibillion dollar green field opportunity,” said Eric Dishman, global director of product research and innovation at Intel’s Digital Health Group. 

It’s late, but what the heck. Come join the party!

When Gennady Rozhdestvensky found out the materials promoting his appearance with the Boston Symphony Orchestra didn’t show proper respect, he pulled out at the last minute. That left the BSO in the hands of a young assistant conductor and its genteel audience aghast.

The 77 year-old Rozhdestvensky is a towering figure in his field. He conducted Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker ballet at the Bolshoi when he was 20 and went on to become the pre-eminent conductor during a golden era for classical music in the Soviet Union.

Rozhdestvensky’s brilliance was not lost on the Communist party. It flaunted him as a symbol of the regime’s excellence.

But that was quite awhile ago and now the maestro had pulled into Boston for a 4-night gig.

Then Rozhdestvensky, while out on a stroll, happened upon a promotional poster for his performance.  It gave top billing to the soloist, a cellist by the name of Lynn Harrell. Her name appeared in big print and was accompanied by a photo. His name appeared in smaller print.

How can that be?

The conductor tracked down a BSO marketing brochure. He opened it to find a page titled, “Artists who inspire.” His name wasn’t on that page. He then flipped to a section titled “Distinguished Conductors.” Still, no mention of the conductor. Rozhdestvensky finally found his name in a third section titled, “The Cello Shines.”

Who is that blasted Lynn Harrell anyway!

The maestro wasn’t going to take this sitting down. “I felt insulted by the actions of the (BSO) administration,” he told the Boston Globe. “I feel not only slighted but I suffered what is called in Russian a moral insult, and I’m free to take any actions to defend myself in public.”

That sent everybody ducking for cover at the BSO but Mark Volpe, its managing director did tell the Globe, “All of us at the BSO greatly admire Gennady Rozhdestvensky’s artistry. We genuinely regret that Maestro Rozhdestvensy decided to cancel his concerts this week.” 

Then he scrambled back to the foxhole.

Nine months after the FDA approved Genentech’s cancer-fighter Avastin for advanced breast cancer, scientists reported that it increases the risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE), a potentially serious side-effect.

Shobha Nalluri and her group at Stony Brook University combined results from 15 randomized controlled trials of 7,956 patients that were treated for advanced solid tumors. Overall, 7.3% of the patients developed VTE, and those treated with Avastin had a 33% higher risk.

The increased VTE risk was observed regardless of the site of the primary tumor and the Avastin dosing schedule.

Last year, an FDA advisory panel voted 5-4 against approving Avastin for advanced breast cancer because the drug’s beneficial effects in slowing disease progression did not, in its opinion, outweigh its potential for causing cardiovascular complications and VTE. Approval was granted anyway.

The FDA had approved Avastin for colon and lung cancer in 2004. The drug works by choking off the blood supply to a tumor rather than killing tumor cells directly. Scientists had hoped Avastin could replace traditional cancer drugs which are debilitating and increase the risk of serious infections, but this has not turned out to be the case. Avastin is typically used in conjunction with old-school cancer fighters.

Annual treatment costs for Avastin can exceed $50,000 per year. Its 2007 sales were $2.3 billion.

Previous studies were too small to detect the adverse effect found in the present study.

Avastin’s label already warns about the risk of VTE, but the Stony Brook scientists suggest in their publication that a tougher, “black box” warning should be affixed.