Using Big Data Analytics to Predict Metabolic Syndrome

A new study by Aetna’s Innovation Labs and GNS Healthcare uses “big data” analytics to predict patients at risk for metabolic syndrome. Their results show that lowering waist size and blood glucose have the largest health benefits and cause the biggest reduction in medical costs. Regular doctor visits and medication adherence reduces the one-year probability of having metabolic syndrome in nearly 90% of people.

Big data analytics predict patients at risk

Biomarker Bulletin: July 24, 2013

Biomarker Bulletin is an occasionally recurring update of news focused on biomarkers aggregated at BiomarkerCommons.org. Biomarkers are physical, functional or biochemical indicators of normal physiological or disease processes. The individualization of disease management — personalized medicine — is dependent on developing biomarkers that promote specific clinical domains, including early detection, risk, diagnosis, prognosis and predicted response to therapy.

Biomarker Commons

CVS Caremark MinuteClinic, Indiana University Health Announce Clinical Affiliation

MinuteClinic, the retail healthcare division of CVS Caremark and Indiana University Health (IU Health), the largest and most comprehensive health system in Indiana, announced yesterday that they have entered into a clinical affiliation to enhance access to the high quality, affordable healthcare services they provide in communities throughout the state of Indiana [1]. The affiliation allows the organizations to work together in a more coordinated and integrated fashion to provide better care of patients with chronic diseases.

CVS Minute Clinic and IU Health

Cancer Research Blog Carnival #13 – Stand Up To Cancer

Welcome to the 13th edition of the Cancer Research Blog Carnival, the blog carnival devoted to cancer research.

There’s a revolution occurring on the Web: those “authoritative” articles written on traditional, static websites are being replaced with blogs, wikis and online social networks. In the sphere of health, medicine and information technology, this “real-time Web” consists of many who are professionals in the field; their posts are listed below.
In the digital age, these are the characteristics of new media: recent, relevant, reachable and reliable.

Everyone knows that cancer is a devastating disease. What many people don’t know is that cancer kills more than 1,500 people a day; that’s one person every minute. Tonight, Stand Up To Cancer, a one-hour fundraising event, will be simulcast on all three major U.S. networks. The goal of Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) is to enable cutting-edge research aimed at finding a cure to all types of cancer and making cancer part of the national debate.

Since 2001, federal deficits resulting from a number of fiscal pressures, including the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, increased national defense spending and hurricane Katrina, have together placed significant stress on the resources available for U.S. biomedical research. Between the fiscal years 2004 and 2007, the National Cancer Institute’s budget remained relatively flat. However, factoring in inflation (i.e. a Biomedical Research and Development Price Index (BRDPI) of ~3.8% per year) reveals a 12% loss of purchasing power [1].

This decrease in resources comes as patient demand is growing. There was an estimated 1.5 million new cancer cases in 2007, an increase of 14% since 2001 [2]. The U.S. spends roughly $12 billion dollars every month fighting the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. That’s 33 times more than what is spent on cancer research annually. Imagine what we could do if just a fraction of those resources was dedicated to cancer research.