Diabetes Treatment and Diagnosing
Afe Babalola decries commercialisation of public health service
Pro-Chancellor, University of Lagos, Chief Afe Babalola, has criticised the commercialisation of public health service delivery, saying this has made government hospitals become more expensive than private ones.
Chief Babalola stated this at the opening of the first Strategies For Improving Diabetes Care In Nigeria (SIDCAIN) annual lecture entitled, “Health Scheme and National Development”.
According to the legal luminary,”it cannot be right that public health institutions, especially those set up by Federal Government with substantial subventions should become more expensive than their private counter parts.”
He stated: “there is abundant empirical evidence that commercialisation of public health service delivery exerts huge negative imparts on the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals in Nigeria.”
“I do not subscribe to making health care an avenue for profiteering. It is reported that, while an average private hospital in Ibadan where the UCH is located charges N500 for consultation, the UCH charges between N750 to N1, 250 for consultation alone.”
Chief Babalola declared further that, “these fees require urgent downward review, perhaps through a health scheme that would subsidise the costs.”
Earlier at the lecture, whose theme was “Diabetes mellitus in a developing country” Dr Sonny Kuku, Chairman, University College Hospital (UCH), declared that diabetes had reached an epidemic proportion.
He stated that currently the treatment and prevention of diabetes rely on education, diet and medications.
Evaluation of four novel genetic variants affecting hemoglobin A1c levels in a population-based type 2 diabetes cohort (the HUNT2 study)
Chronic hyperglycemia confers increased risk for long-term diabetes-associated complications and repeated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) measures are a widely used marker for glycemic control in diabetes treatment and follow-up. A recent genome-wide association study revealed four genetic loci, which were associated with HbA1c levels in adults with type 1 diabetes.
We aimed to evaluate the effect of these loci on glycemic control in type 2 diabetes.
Methods: We genotyped 1,486 subjects with type 2 diabetes from a Norwegian population-based cohort (HUNT2) for single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) located near the BNC2, SORCS1, GSC and WDR72 loci. Through regression models, we examined their effects on HbA1c and non-fasting glucose levels individually and in a combined genetic score model.
Results: No significant associations with HbA1c or glucose levels were found for the SORCS1, BNC2, GSC or WDR72 variants (all P-values >0.05).
Although the observed effects were non-significant and of much smaller magnitude than previously reported in type 1 diabetes, the SORCS1 risk variant showed a direction consistent with increased HbA1c and glucose levels, with an observed effect of 0.11% (P=0.13) and 0.13 mmol/l (P=0.43) increase per risk allele for HbA1c and glucose, respectively. In contrast, the WDR72 risk variant showed a borderline association with reduced HbA1c levels (beta=-0.21, P=0.06), and direction consistent with decreased glucose levels (beta=-0.29, P=0.29).
The allele count model gave no evidence for a relationship between increasing number of risk alleles and increasing HbA1c levels (beta=0.04, P=0.38).
Conclusions: The four recently reported SNPs affecting glycemic control in type 1 diabetes had no apparent effect on HbA1c in type 2 diabetes individually or by using a combined genetic score model. However, for the SORCS1 SNP, our findings do not rule out a possible relationship with HbA1c levels.
Hence, further studies in other populations are needed to elucidate whether these novel sequence variants, especially rs1358030 near the SORCS1 locus, affect glycemic control in type 2 diabetes.
Author: Jens HertelStefan JohanssonHelge RaederCarl PlatouKristian MidthjellKristian HveemAnders MolvenPal Njolstad
Credits/Source: BMC Medical Genetics 2011, 12:20
Hallmark Health to affiliate with Joslin Diabetes Center
The following was submitted by Hallmark Health:
According to the American Diabetes Association there are nearly 24 million children and adults in the United States living with diabetes and an additional 57 million Americans at risk for the disease.
In response to the epidemic of diabetes in men and women living in Massachusetts, Hallmark Health System, the leading provider of vital health services north of Boston, has joined forces with the Joslin Diabetes Center, the world’s preeminent diabetes research and clinical care organization.
The Joslin Diabetes Center Affiliate at Hallmark Health, which will be led by Sunita Schurgin, MD, Tara Hamilton, MD and Sybil Kramer, MD will offer some of the latest advances for treating diabetes and its complications as well as patient education and support services. Hallmark Health will be one of 40 national and two international Affiliate locations as well as the only Joslin Affiliate in Boston’s northern suburbs.
“We are honored to enter into this partnership with the Joslin Diabetes Center,” said Terry Giove, vice president of Ambulatory Services for Hallmark Health. “Our two organizations share the common goal of providing the very best in diabetes care. We look forward to working closely with Joslin to treat, educate and support diabetes patients throughout the Hallmark Health system.”
Joslin provides clinical, educational, operational and marketing support to its Affiliates to help assure that high quality, comprehensive and cost-effective diabetes care is available to each partner’s community — ensuring that these organizations and the patients they serve are in touch with some of the latest clinical trends and research breakthroughs.
“We are delighted to have Hallmark Health join us in the fight against diabetes,” said Janice Murphy, JD, director of National Affiliated Programs for the Joslin Diabetes Center. “We’ve got a huge problem with diabetes in the United States. Hallmark has shown its commitment to dealing with this chronic disease and we’re thrilled to partner with them.”
The Center at Hallmark Health will offer advanced clinical care for the treatment of diabetes for patients ages 18 and older, as well as patient education and support services. This multi-disciplinary program will offer services for:
• Diabetes screening
• Comprehensive diabetes care and management
• Complication screening, prevention and treatment
• Weight management and nutritional counseling
• Medication management
• Insulin pump management
• Self-care and self-management
• Gestational diabetes management
Patients will be cared for by a dedicated, highly experienced team including a board-certified endocrinologist, registered dietitian, certified diabetes educator and other medical and support professionals. Along with expert diabetes care, these physicians will continue to provide treatment for a wide variety of other endocrinology diagnoses.
Ipsen suffers blow as Roche drops diabetes deal
(Reuters) – Swiss drugmaker Roche has dropped development of diabetes treatment taspoglutide, ending its partnership with French drugmaker Ipsen and pushing Ipsen’s shares as much as 4 percent lower.
Ipsen said on Wednesday it would thoroughly assess the available data on the drug to see if it can be developed with another partner as it would be too costly to develop the drug, once seen to have $2 billion sales potential, on its own.
The announcement came at Ipsen’s 2010 sales presentation. Fourth-quarter sales rose 1.1 percent to 258 million euros ($360 million), leaving full-year sales up 6.5 percent to 1.03 billion. They were up 5.1 percent in constant currency terms.
Quarterly sales missed forecasts of some analysts due to weak performance in primary care and in the United States.
“On a geographical basis, at the exception of France, Europe did relatively well. As far as the U.S. franchise, it is again disappointing,” Rodolphe Besserve, analyst at Societe Generale wrote in a research note.
Ipsen also said the group would present a new strategy in the second quarter of this year as U.S. healthcare reforms and price cuts in Europe are dampening growth prospects for the industry overall.
“The healthcare industry now faces new challenges and is currently undergoing important changes worldwide,” said Chairman and Chief Executive Marc de Garidel who replaced Jean-Luc Belingard over strategic differences in November. “I have decided to run a thorough strategic review to further define Ipsen’s mid-and-long term vision,” he said in a statement.
Taspoglutide was licensed to Roche in 2006, having shown promising end-stage clinical trials.
But then the drug suffered setbacks in its development, and Roche suspended dosing in a late-stage trial in September, leading many analysts to believe it would be halted due to adverse reactions among some patients.
Societe Generale’s Besserve said it was unlikely that Ipsen could find another partner for taspoglutide which belongs to the same glucagon-like peptide (GLP-1) drug class as Novo Nordisk’s Victoza and Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc’s and Eli Lilly and Co’s Byetta.
Another GLP-1 product, Bydureon, suffered a setback when Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc’s and Eli Lilly and Co, citing the need for further studies, including the drug’s effect on heart rate.
“Following the disappointing setbacks for … taspoglutide, we see few near-term catalysts for Ipsen’s stock, Jefferies Research analyst Tara Shivarattan wrote in a note, citing the slow ramp-up of Ipsen’s U.S. business and a challenging environment in Europe.
Ipsen shares fell 4.3 percent to 24.44 euros by 1011 GMT.
The company will release its full-year results on March 2.