Healthcare : In The News

Penn scientists were instrumental in the recent discovery of the gene that causes fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP), a rare condition that causes the growth of a second skeleton. It's a fascinating and inspiring story.

The group’s members gave [Frederick Kaplan] more than their stories and DNA: they began raising money. Nick Bogard, whose son Jud had been diagnosed with the disease at age 3, organized a golf tournament in Massachusetts that raised $30,000. That money allowed Kaplan to host the first scientific conference about FOP, in 1991. Other families hosted barbecues, ice-fishing tournaments, swim-a-thons, bingo nights. In 2012 alone, Peeper’s organization raised $520,000 for research. That’s not much compared with, say, the $1 billion that the NIH distributes each year for diabetes research. But these funds were crucial for Kaplan, who sought to escape the rare-disease trap. IFOPA’s money—as well as gifts from other private donors and an endowment accompanying Kaplan’s professorship at Penn—made it possible for him to work single-mindedly on FOP for more than two decades.

Original source: The Atlantic
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The University of Pennsylvania's Center of Excellence in Environmental Toxicology is leading the effort to assess the health risks of natural gas extraction. They are heading up a national coalition of institutions set to analyze and map the risks of fracking.

The aim is to bring academic discipline to the unresolved national debate, which pits an industry that denies any link between fracking and environmental contamination against those who assert that fracking poisons air and water with natural and man-made chemicals that can cause cancer, birth defects and other illnesses.

“There is an enormous amount of rhetoric on both sides,” said Trevor M. Penning, head of the Penn toxicology center and the driving force behind the Environmental Health Sciences Core Center Hydrofracking Working Group. “We felt that because we are situated in Pennsylvania, we had a duty to get on top of what was known and what was not known.”

Original source: The New York Times
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Teva, the Israeli pharmaceutical company, is nixing plans to build a proposed $300 million distribution center in Northeast Philadelphia. The company was to set to receive $4.7 million in grants and tax credits to aid construction.

Earlier this month, Teva, which is based in Israel and has its North American headquarters in North Wales, Pa., said it is reassessing its global network footprint as part of a plan to reduce costs by $1.5 billion to $2 billion over the next three-to-five years.Teva broke ground on the distribution project, which called for the construction of three buildings that would have employed more than 200 workers, in September 2011.

Original source: Philadelphia Business Journal
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The New York Times takes note of urban success stories in the war against childhood obesity. Philadelphia is among the most promising cases, mostly thanks to school-based initiatives. 

Philadelphia has undertaken a broad assault on childhood obesity for years. Sugary drinks like sweetened iced tea, fruit punch and sports drinks started to disappear from school vending machines in 2004. A year later, new snack guidelines set calorie and fat limits, which reduced the size of snack foods like potato chips to single servings. By 2009, deep fryers were gone from cafeterias and whole milk had been replaced by one percent and skim.

Original source: The New York Times
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The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) used a disabled form the AIDS virus to treat a young girl's leukemia. The results have been remarkable for 7-year-old Emma Whitehead and her family, and constitute a major breakthrough in the treatment of cancer. Doctors hope the new treatment, developed at the University of Pennsylvania, will eventually replace bone-marrow transplantation.

The treatment very nearly killed her. But she emerged from it cancer-free, and about seven months later is still in complete remission. She is the first child and one of the first humans ever in whom new techniques have achieved a long-sought goal — giving a patient’s own immune system the lasting ability to fight cancer.
Original Source: The New York Times
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A study at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and published in this month's Nature Genetics has proved significant, identifying gene variants associated with 10 percent of all ADHD cases, reports USA Today.

"Members of the GMR gene family, along with genes they interact with, affect nerve transmission, the formation of neurons, and interconnections in the brain, so the fact that children with ADHD are more likely to have alterations in these genes reinforces previous evidence that the GMR pathway is important in ADHD," study leader Dr. Hakon Hakonarson, director of the Center for Applied Genomics at Children's Hospital, said in the news release.

"Our findings get to the cause of the ADHD symptoms in a subset of children with the disease," he added.

Original source: USA Today
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The New York Times follows a young man's journey from coma to consciousness as aided by Ambien, and how two Philadelphia institutions are uncovering why.

This year, scientists at Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute and at the University of Pennsylvania, both in the Philadelphia area, began the first large-scale clinical study of zolpidem as a treatment for disorders of consciousness. (Amantadine, a drug used to treat Parkinson’s disease, and the anti-anxiety medication Ativan also show promise in increasing awareness in minimally conscious patients.) So far, the evidence suggests that less than 10 percent of brain-injured patients will experience the drug’s paradoxical effects, and that among those, only a few will respond as profoundly as Viljoen did. For families like the Coxes, such odds provide a tortured kind of hope. For doctors, they bring questions. Why does a sleeping pill induce awareness in some patients but not others? And what can these bizarre awakenings tell us about the brain’s ability to heal?

Original source: The New York Times
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Philadelphia's Dr. Richard Baron and his Greenhouse Internists practice in Mt. Airy are cited as pioneers of adopting electronic medical records and advocating for the kinds of innovations sought through $1 billion in federal funding, reports American Medical News.

The Health Care Innovation Challenge program was announced on Nov. 14 by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. The center will provide grants of $1 million to $30 million to physicians and other health professionals, payers, local governments, community-based organizations. Priority will be given to public-private partnerships and multi-payer groups, as well as for proposals targeting patients with complex health care needs.

It is not yet clear whether the best way to achieve CMMI's goals is to change health care payment or to change the delivery system, said Dr. Baron, speaking at a Nov. 16 event on clinician leadership in health reform at the Brookings Institution in Washington. Dr. Baron, who joined the center in March, is overseeing efforts to implement Medicare accountable care organizations, among other duties.

Original source: American Medical News
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A University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine study found that converting vacant lots into small parks or community green spaces can reduce crime in distressed neighborhoods, reports The Atlantic.

Vacant lot greening was associated with significant reductions in gun assaults across all four sections of Philadelphia in the study and with significant reductions in vandalism in one section. Greening was also associated with the reporting of significantly less stress in one of the sections of the city and with more exercise in another. Cholesterol numbers were lower to a statistically significant degree for the greened areas across all four city sections.

Original source: The Atlantic
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Recro Pharma of Malvern was one of several companies from the region who were showcased at BioTech 2011 last week at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, and MedCity News has a write-up and video on its new drug that targets postoperative and diabetes pain.

This year’s innovation corridor included about 24 scientists and early stage startups from universities and incubators who exhibited posters that highlighted their work and demonstrated the commercial applications, something that regional associations are trying to do more. Now in its sixth year, a decision was made to put the younger scientists alongside the more mature startups so potential investors could see them at the same time and encourage mentoring and partnership opportunities.

Recro Pharma, a Malvern, Pennsylvania-based company, is seeking $20 million for a new drug application for a drug that targets postoperative and diabetes pain relief.

Original source: MedCity News
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New findings at The University of Pennsylvania may signify a turning point in the long struggle to develop effective gene therapies against cancer, according to The New York Times.

A year ago, when chemotherapy stopped working against his leukemia, William Ludwig signed up to be the first patient treated in a bold experiment at the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Ludwig, then 65, a retired corrections officer from Bridgeton, N.J., felt his life draining away and thought he had nothing to lose.

Doctors removed a billion of his T-cells -- a type of white blood cell that fights viruses and tumors -- and gave them new genes that would program the cells to attack his cancer. Then the altered cells were dripped back into Mr. Ludwig’s veins.

Source: The New York Times
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