DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) ? Microsoft chairman and philanthropist Bill Gates pledged a further $750 million to the troubled global AIDS fund on Thursday and urged governments to continue their support to save lives.
"These are tough economic times, but that is no excuse for cutting aid to the world's poorest," he said in Davos at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum.
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis (TB) and Malaria announced two days ago that its executive director, Michel Kazatchkine, was stepping down early following criticism over misuse of funds and cuts in funding.
The public-private organization, which has the backing of celebrities like rock star Bono, accounts for around a quarter of international financing to fight HIV and AIDS, as well as the majority of funds to fight TB and malaria.
But it has been forced to cut back and said last year it would make no new grants or funding until 2014.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is giving $750 million through a promissory note -- a fresh injection in addition to the $650 million that the Gates charity has contributed since the fund was launched 10 years ago.
While that will give an immediate boost, more is needed from governments, which have provided the bulk of the $22.6 billion that has been raised by the Geneva-based organization to date for its work in 150 countries.
The commitment of governments was shaken last year when the fund reported "grave misuse of funds" in four recipient nations, prompting some donors such as Germany and Sweden to freeze their donations.
Gates, however, played down the problem and praised the fund's transparency, which he said had exposed corruption problems that might well have remained hidden at other organizations.
"If you are going to do health programs in Africa you are going to have some percentage that is misused," he said.
"We've looked at where they've found money that wasn't applied properly and how they tracked that ... the fact is the internal checks and balances have worked."
Recent scientific studies have shown that getting timely AIDS drug treatment to those with HIV can significantly cut the number of people who become newly infected with the virus, increasing the case for maximum access to drugs.
So the decision in 2011 to cancel fresh funding, due to waning political commitment, has alarmed healthcare activists like Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF).
"Now that new scientific evidence shows that HIV treatment itself could be one of the best ways to turn the epidemic around, it's time for governments to roll up their sleeves and commit to getting the Global Fund back on track," said Tido von Schoen-Angerer, MSF's head of access.
(Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by Jon Boyle and Kirstin Ridley)
On the anniversary of the Egyptian uprising that swept former President Hosni Mubarak from power, many of those who protested are not celebrating.
Egyptians are left with the regime Mr. Mubarak built, and unelected military rulers who seem intent on preserving that regime. Instead of the freedom they hoped for, Egyptians have faced human rights abuses just as bad, if not worse, than under the previous government.
Here are four perspectives:
- Kristen Chick,?Correspondent
Ahmed Salah, like many in Egypt, didn?t think the protests called for Jan. 25, 2011, would be big. But he was wrong. As the protests turned into an uprising, he quit his job at Egypt?s stock exchange and devoted his time to the movement. Even after Mubarak was toppled, he kept coming to Tahrir Square. He helped form a group that has tried to unite the revolutionary forces. But the fight is still far from over, he says.
?I don?t think it?s an anniversary,? he says of Jan. 25. ?An anniversary is for something that has ended. We started the revolution, but we?re still completing it.?
When Army tanks rolled into Cairo?s streets after the police force collapsed during the revolution, Salah says he feared the military would become the next dictator. ?At the moment people said, 'The people and the Army are one hand,? I knew the revolution would take a long time,? he said, referring to a popular slogan during the uprising.
Despite this, he?s optimistic that Egyptians ? hundreds of whose fellow citizens lost their lives in the revolution ? will eventually succeed. ?I am a believer," he says. "I believe that God is fair.?
1. Death Comes to Pemberley, by P.D. James, Knopf ?2. Believing the Lie, by Elizabeth George, Dutton ?3. The Sense of an Ending, by Julian Barnes, Knopf ?4. The Paris Wife, by Paula McLain, Ballantine ?5. 11/22/63, by Stephen King, Scribner ?6. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, by Stieg Larsson, Knopf ?7. State of Wonder, by Ann Patchett, Harper ?8. The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern, Doubleday ?9. 1Q84, by Haruki Murakami, Knopf ?10. The Marriage Plot, by Jeffrey Eugenides, FSG ?11. The Art of Fielding, by Chad Harbach, Little Brown ?12. The Orphan Master's Son, by Adam Johnson, Random House ?13. A Dance With Dragons, by George R.R. Martin, Bantam ?14. The Cat's Table, by Michael Ondaatje, Knopf ?15. The Litigators, by John Grisham, Doubleday
ON THE RISE: ?16. How It All Began, by Penelope Lively, Viking ?Lively's latest novel explores the powerful role of chance in people's lives and the surprising ways lives intersect.
Published Thursday, January 19, 2012 (for the sales week ended Sunday, January 15, 2012). Based on reporting from many hundreds of independent bookstores across the United States. For information on more titles, please visit IndieBound.org
Gender differences in liver cancer risk explained by small changes in genomePublic release date: 19-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Karen Kreeger karen.kreeger@uphs.upenn.edu 215-349-5658 University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
PHILADELPHIA - Men are four times more likely to develop liver cancer compared to women, a difference attributed to the sex hormones androgen and estrogen. Although this gender difference has been known for a long time, the molecular mechanisms by which estrogens prevent -- and androgens promote -- liver cancer remain unclear.
Now, new research, published in Cell this week from the lab of Klaus Kaestner, PhD, professor of Genetics in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, has found that the difference depends on which proteins the sex hormones bind next to. Specifically a group of transcriptional regulatory proteins called Foxa 1 and 2.
Normally, when mice are given a liver carcinogen, male mice develop many tumors while females get very few. Strikingly, this gender-related incidence of liver cancer was completely reversed in mice genetically engineered by the team to lack the Foxa genes after the team induced cancer. Using complex genomic analyses, the researchers could show that the actions of both estrogens and androgens in the liver are Foxa dependent, explaining the reversal in cancer risk.
But how does this translate to human liver cancer when there are 5,000 places in the human genome where Foxa factors can bind? The team looked for genetic markers called SNPs that intersect with Foxa protein binding. A SNP is a DNA sequence variation occurring when a single nucleotide, or DNA building block, differs between members of a biological species or paired chromosomes in an individual. Knowing that in women the estrogen receptor protects against liver cancer, they looked for SNP markers within Foxa binding sites in tissue samples from women with and without liver cancer.
Strikingly, women with liver cancer frequently had SNPs within specific Foxa binding sites. The researchers then showed that the mutated SNP acts not only to abolish binding of the Foxa proteins, but also of the estrogen receptor to its target sites nearby. This impairment of estrogen receptor binding is thought to result in loss of the protective effect of estrogens, and increased liver cancer risk. Future research will have to determine if the same holds true in reverse in men. In addition, if the human data are validated in larger cohorts of patients, this research might lead to tests for predicting the genetic risk of liver cancer.
###
This study was funded through the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (P01 DK049210).
Penn Medicine is one of the world's leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, and excellence in patient care. Penn Medicine consists of the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (founded in 1765 as the nation's first medical school) and the University of Pennsylvania Health System, which together form a $4 billion enterprise.
Penn's Perelman School of Medicine is currently ranked #2 in U.S. News & World Report's survey of research-oriented medical schools and among the top 10 schools for primary care. The School is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $507.6 million awarded in the 2010 fiscal year.
The University of Pennsylvania Health System's patient care facilities include: The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania -- recognized as one of the nation's top 10 hospitals by U.S. News & World Report; Penn Presbyterian Medical Center; and Pennsylvania Hospital the nation's first hospital, founded in 1751. Penn Medicine also includes additional patient care facilities and services throughout the Philadelphia region.
Penn Medicine is committed to improving lives and health through a variety of community-based programs and activities. In fiscal year 2010, Penn Medicine provided $788 million to benefit our community.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Gender differences in liver cancer risk explained by small changes in genomePublic release date: 19-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Karen Kreeger karen.kreeger@uphs.upenn.edu 215-349-5658 University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
PHILADELPHIA - Men are four times more likely to develop liver cancer compared to women, a difference attributed to the sex hormones androgen and estrogen. Although this gender difference has been known for a long time, the molecular mechanisms by which estrogens prevent -- and androgens promote -- liver cancer remain unclear.
Now, new research, published in Cell this week from the lab of Klaus Kaestner, PhD, professor of Genetics in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, has found that the difference depends on which proteins the sex hormones bind next to. Specifically a group of transcriptional regulatory proteins called Foxa 1 and 2.
Normally, when mice are given a liver carcinogen, male mice develop many tumors while females get very few. Strikingly, this gender-related incidence of liver cancer was completely reversed in mice genetically engineered by the team to lack the Foxa genes after the team induced cancer. Using complex genomic analyses, the researchers could show that the actions of both estrogens and androgens in the liver are Foxa dependent, explaining the reversal in cancer risk.
But how does this translate to human liver cancer when there are 5,000 places in the human genome where Foxa factors can bind? The team looked for genetic markers called SNPs that intersect with Foxa protein binding. A SNP is a DNA sequence variation occurring when a single nucleotide, or DNA building block, differs between members of a biological species or paired chromosomes in an individual. Knowing that in women the estrogen receptor protects against liver cancer, they looked for SNP markers within Foxa binding sites in tissue samples from women with and without liver cancer.
Strikingly, women with liver cancer frequently had SNPs within specific Foxa binding sites. The researchers then showed that the mutated SNP acts not only to abolish binding of the Foxa proteins, but also of the estrogen receptor to its target sites nearby. This impairment of estrogen receptor binding is thought to result in loss of the protective effect of estrogens, and increased liver cancer risk. Future research will have to determine if the same holds true in reverse in men. In addition, if the human data are validated in larger cohorts of patients, this research might lead to tests for predicting the genetic risk of liver cancer.
###
This study was funded through the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (P01 DK049210).
Penn Medicine is one of the world's leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, and excellence in patient care. Penn Medicine consists of the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (founded in 1765 as the nation's first medical school) and the University of Pennsylvania Health System, which together form a $4 billion enterprise.
Penn's Perelman School of Medicine is currently ranked #2 in U.S. News & World Report's survey of research-oriented medical schools and among the top 10 schools for primary care. The School is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $507.6 million awarded in the 2010 fiscal year.
The University of Pennsylvania Health System's patient care facilities include: The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania -- recognized as one of the nation's top 10 hospitals by U.S. News & World Report; Penn Presbyterian Medical Center; and Pennsylvania Hospital the nation's first hospital, founded in 1751. Penn Medicine also includes additional patient care facilities and services throughout the Philadelphia region.
Penn Medicine is committed to improving lives and health through a variety of community-based programs and activities. In fiscal year 2010, Penn Medicine provided $788 million to benefit our community.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
TOKYO ? A new book claims that the eldest son of North Korea's late leader Kim Jong Il believes the impoverished regime is in danger of collapse and that his young half-brother, chosen to lead after Kim's death, is merely a figurehead.
The book by Tokyo-based journalist Yoji Gomi went on sale Wednesday. He says it is based primarily on email exchanges he had with Kim Jong Nam over many years.
The book drew immediate attention as a rare view into the family that has led the secretive country for decades ? though Kim Jong Nam is thought to be estranged from his family and the workings of government. Since Kim Jong Il's death Dec. 17, North Korea has been led by his youngest son, Kim Jong Un.
"Jong Un will just be a figurehead," the book quotes Kim Jong Nam as saying. It claims he said the collapse of North Korea's economy is likely unless it initiates reforms, which could also bring it down.
"Without reforms and libereralization, the collapse of the economy is within sight," he quoted Kim as saying. "But reforms and opening up could also invite dangers for the regime."
Gomi, a Tokyo Shimbun journalist who had assignments in Seoul and Beijing, claims he exchanged 150 emails and has spent a total of seven hours interviewing Kim Jong Nam, who was seen as a possible successor until he fell out of favor with Kim Jong Il in 2001.
Gomi says he met Kim Jong Nam in person in 2004, in Beijing, and twice last year. Gomi was not immediately available for comment on the book.
Not long after Kim Jong Il's funeral, Jong Nam suggested in an interview with a Japanese TV network that he opposes a hereditary transfer of power to his young half-brother, who is believed to be in his late 20s.
That was a rare public sign of discord in the tightly choreographed succession process, but analysts said Jong Nam spends so much time outside his native land that his opinion carries little weight.
Kim Jong Nam, who did not attend the funeral, made similar comments in his communications with Gomi, the book claims.
"As a matter of common sense, a transfer to the third generation is unacceptable," Kim Jong Nam was quoted as saying in an email dated this month. "The power elite that have ruled the country will continue to be in control."
He added: "I have my doubts about whether a person with only two years of grooming as a leader can govern."
Party and military officials have moved quickly to install Kim Jong Un as "supreme leader" of the people, party and military.
But the new ruler's youth and quick ascension to power have raised questions in foreign capitals about how ready he is to inherit rule over this nation of 24 million with a nuclear program as well as chronic trouble feeding all its people.
A senior North Korean party official, however, told the AP in a recent interview that Kim Jong Un was ready to lead and had spent years working closely with his late father and helped him make key policy decisions on economic and military affairs.
Kim Jong Nam is widely believed to have dropped out of the succession race after embarrassing the government in 2001, when he was caught trying to enter Japan on a fake passport. He said he wanted to visit Tokyo Disneyland.
Jong Nam, the oldest of three brothers thought to be in the running, is the closest thing the country has to an international playboy and is the only one who speaks to the foreign media. He travels freely and spends much of his time in China or the country's special autonomous region of Macau ? the center of Asian gambling with its Las Vegas-style casinos.
Experts said he will most likely continue living abroad.
Kim Jong Il is known to have three sons ? one from his second wife and two from his third.
Kim often derided the middle son, Jong Chol, as "girlish," a former Kim Jong Il chef, who goes by the pen name Kenji Fujimoto, said in a 2003 memoir.
___
AP writer Foster Klug contributed to this report from Seoul.
Editor?s note:?This guest post was written by?Dave Chase, the CEO of?Avado.com, a patient portal & relationship management company that was a?TechCrunch Disrupt finalist. Previously he was a management consultant for Accenture?s healthcare practice and founder of Microsoft?s Health platform business. You can follow him on Twitter@chasedave.
Entrepreneurial epiphanies surface in random places. For Eric Page, it was watching Brad Pitt?s latest movie, Moneyball. The epiphany caused him to shift Amplify Health?s business model from a provider of technology to a heavy user of technology. While there is a wave of disruptive technology in healthtech, as interesting is the wave of disruptive innovation on the care delivery side of healthcare. These companies aren?t technology companies, however technology plays a pivotal role.
Previously, Page had been the Founder & President of REM Medical, a clinic for sufferers of sleep apnea. A key part of any sleep clinic?s service is prescribing CPAP machines. The problem is that the percentage of people who actually follow-through is quite low (40%) even though the results can dramatically improve one?s life. A series of behavioral insights, often applied through the use of technology allowed REM Medical to double the industry average adherence to 79%. As healthcare shifts from a ?do more, bill more? model of reimbursement to a value and outcomes-based model, these kinds of results will separate the winners from the losers. Amplify Health?s original vision was to package the behavioral insights in software and sell them to providers.
With the success of his previous company, Page thought it would be easy to sell this vision to healthcare providers. Unfortunately, many healthcare providers are making the same mistakes that newspaper companies made in the late 90?s. That is, they aren?t moving as quickly as circumstances dictate. The problem is that urgency is sometimes only evident in hindsight. This is what led to the Moneyball epiphany.
For those who haven?t seen the movie or read the book, Moneyball tells the story of how Major League Baseball?s Oakland A?s Billy Beane (the team?s General Manager) was faced with a payroll that was one-third the size of their competition. Beane realized he needed to come up with a different way of picking players or he?d lose bidding wars against richer teams. For over 20 years, baseball statistician Bill James had proffered theories of baseball statistics that flew in the face of conventional wisdom on what statistics best represented a player?s value to a team. James was ignored until Billy Beane came along. He applied James? theories with great success regularly fielding playoff teams that had one-third to one-half the payroll of the teams they competed against.
While watching Moneyball, Page had the realization that he had been acting like Bill James evangelizing his theories. Even with a successful track record, he wasn?t getting the traction he desired. Instead, he decided he should become Billy Beane and apply his knowledge to his own company. Rather than monetize via a software licensing model, Amplify Health will be in the onsite clinic segment delivering primary care and managing chronic conditions. [See DIY Health Reform: Employers Solving Healthcare Crisis One Onsite Clinic At A Time for more on onsite clinics.]
Amplify Health isn?t alone in this trend. Other examples include MedLion, One Medical Group, Qliance and White Glove Health [Disclosure: MedLion is a customer of Avado's]. These are healthcare providers who?ve applied technology to enhance their competitive advantage. Traditional healthcare providers should be on notice about these types of disruptive innovators. After all, in the late 90?s the newspaper companies were worried about other media competitors and big players such as Microsoft. What devastated their business models was an array of niche competitors who bit by bit hollowed out chunks of their business. Companies such as Monster.com, eBay, Cars.com, Zillow, Craigslist and many others. Like newspapers that were oligopolies or monopolies, many large health systems haven?t been faced with the level of competition that is emerging. As William Gibson has stated, ?the future is here, it?s just unevenly distributed.?
By definition, the legacy HealthIT vendors have optimized their solutions around the legacy reimbursement and delivery models that have created the hyperinflation in healthcare crushing family, business and government budgets. The exciting aspect of this for the healthtech startup community is entire new categories of software are emerging to support disruptive innovation taking place on the care delivery side. Even more promising is that many providers, payers and pharmaceutical companies have set up innovation groups. I wrote about one earlier ? Healthcare Field of Dreams In Idaho: Health System Opens Innovation Center. An array of new models are being tested at organizations such as Horizon Health Innovations, Catholic Health West, Trinity Health, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida, Catholic Health Partners, Blue Shield of California and many others.
Often what has passed for innovation in healthcare is a clever way to maximize the latest reimbursement code or government incentive. For example, a large swath of providers are chasing after Meaningful Use incentives. Meanwhile, there are others building a sustainable competitive advantage in rethinking delivery models from the ground up. Not long ago, CareMore was acquired for $800 Million by WellPoint because they?d developed a creative new delivery model. VCs are taking notice. For example, Dirk Lammerts, MD is a VC with the Burrill Venture Capital Group who has stated he will avoid investing in businesses dependent on Medicare reimbursement. Rather, he wants true disruptive innovation.
Taking place this week is the Health Innovation Summit being put on by RockHealth. I?m moderating a panel on business models for health-related startups ? panel members include Linda Avey, Ron Gutman and Jennifer Wong. I will speak to some of the aforementioned business models and the accompanying business models for companies that support those entities. Collectively, we?ll discuss models ranging from monetizing mobile apps to how value can be derived as a byproduct of customer use (e.g., PracticeFusion) to media models and more. What creative business models in healthcare should we be aware of? Please add your comments below.
Linda Avey is co-founder and CEO of Curious, Inc., a personal data discovery platform. Previously, she co-founded 23andMe, the leading personal genetics company. Her early career focused on sales and business development roles in the biopharmaceutical industry in San Francisco, Boston, San Diego, and Washington, D.C. While at Affymetrix and Perlegen Sciences, she focused on development of translational research collaborations with academic and pharmaceutical partners. Linda also worked at Spotfire helping researchers maximize value from scientific data through visualization...
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Ron is HealthTap?s Founder and CEO. He?s responsible for the company?s innovation, vision, and product. Prior to founding HealthTap, Ron was the founder and CEO of Wellsphere, a leading online consumer health 2.0 company that developed the world?s largest community of independent health writers and became one of the largest health sites on the Internet, serving more than 100 million users to date (acquired in early 2009). Prior to creating Wellsphere, as a graduate student at Stanford University, Ron...
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One Medical Group is a member-supported primary care medical practice that is redefining modern medical care by leveraging technology and innovative best practices to provide patients with affordable, high-quality care. One Medical offers patients comprehensive primary care services ??? delivered conveniently from modern, professional offices and via online technology. Services include same-day appointments, longer visits that start on time, on-site specialty services including gynecology and dermatology, and an integrative approach that emphasizes prevention and nutrition. With a focus of delivering...
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Qliance Medical Management, Inc. is a ?direct primary care? provider founded in 2006 and provides operating and management services to Qliance Medical Group of Washington PC, which operates clinics under the Qliance® brand. Qliance offers people of all ages and incomes unrestricted access to all types of primary, preventive and chronic illness care for one monthly membership fee, ranging between $49 and $89, depending on age, for its core service level. Qliance does not exclude anyone for pre-existing conditions...
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