August 28th, 2011

Health plan for current era

by admin

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“We’re busy all our life, then we die.”- Unknown

Smart Health Plan for Individuals and Business

With the growth of Internet and also with rapid globalization,the world is shrinking down at a much faster pace than we can imagine.Healthcare expenditure has grown exponentially for individuals and also for business with large health insured employers base.In the current era of recession, healthcare industry in every country has  many issues.Today the modern consumer is always battling with a sense of urgency, with debts of car payments, house mortgages, Credit card defaults, and other billing worries. The endless turmoil of responsibilities and struggles keeps you absorbed during most of our waking hours, at work, at home, and even in dream. We have been completely absorbed in our current world that we seem to have forgotten how to lead a minimalist life.

 

Now, more than ever before – life keeps getting more complicated. And for the most part, all of us certainly agree it’s worthwhile! Regardless of the challenges and tribulations involved in our modern lifestyles, this is a glorious time for being alive… and we’re fortunate to keep witnessing astonishing developments in science and technology and be a part of it.It’s the heyday of consumerism, and we love just about everything of it: we make investments, we take expensive hobbies, and we treat ourselves with all the gadgets and tools that strike our fancy.

 

After all, that’s why we keep working hard, right? To get access to the things we want; to spend our free time as we please, and to get as close as possible to enjoying life to the fullest with our loved ones.Whether you love it or hate it… that’s pretty much the spirit of our time, the way things work in this day and age. The real problem though, is that generally – amidst the ongoing rush of earning money and the thrill of spending money, we’re prone to losing perspective and forgetting that which is in fact our single most valuable asset.

 

Most of us do not even spare a thought to our single valuable treasure, as we feel it is not important at present. We prod along with our daily routine, until one fine day…we realize when it is too late.

Why We Need a Health Plan?

Few of us realize that the complications of majority of diseases can be avoided by early screening tests and regular checkups with a health care professional.But,we have many reasons to procrastinate about visiting our doctor—it is expensive to do screening tests, we don’t want to wait in a physician’s office with sick people, we have more worthwhile and entertaining activities to pursue. When we are still healthy, we don’t give much thought to our health. Then, one fine day we end up in the emergency room, the place we dread.Breaking out of this vicious cycle is not easy and there are no miracle cures for any disease and its complications. But, thanks to the rapid growth of technologies, today it is possible to have a screening test in the comfort of our home, and home health care is now affordable.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in their publication Consumer Expenditures in 2005 the average consumer unit (household – a family consisting of an average of 2.5 people) spent $2,664 on health care in 2005.

And by now, most households could have successfully cut back on their health care expenses, if by then they would have started thinking proactively about their well being.Sometimes, changing the future can be achieved most effortlessly by shifting perspectives in the present.Just like how personal financial management is essential to maintain a healthy finances in life, similarly a good health management plan will help you to get your health aligned in the present, so you can have a better chance of living a happier, healthier future.In order to do such a thing, you need to approach health in a different way.

 

Do you have a Smart Health plan for Your Life?

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May 13th, 2010

Medical Devices and Disruptive Technologies

by Editor

Thomas L.Friedman author of the bestselling book “The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century” in a recent open-ed piece in New York Times, writes about a new breed of very lean start-up, where the principals are rarely in the same office at the same time, and which takes advantage of all the tools of the flat world — teleconferencing, e-mail, the Internet and faxes — to access the best expertise and low-cost, high-quality manufacturing anywhere, is the latest in venture investing. His poster child example is EndoStim; the company is developing a proprietary implantable medical device to treat acid reflux.

While this is a relatively new phenomenon in the world of medical device industry with the trend for outsourcing of manufacturing and clinical trials to countries outside North America. This is not uncommon in the world of Internet, wherein many disruptive technologies utilized in the past has given us wonderful tools from Email -Hotmail to Search engines- Google.

Health care industry is still in infancy in adopting disruptive technologies. This has resulted in ever rising costs in health care delivery. Only in the past couple of years, new breed of companies in medical device world have moved away from old school of manufacturing using expensive technologies to the current generation of lean manufacturing and using disruptive technologies.

If we look into the cycle of a medical device development by FDA, it is fairly complex and it has to be done that way because a medical device is not like your car or bike, if it breaks down early in the morning when you are ready to go, yes it can cause inconvenience   to you but it is not the end of the world, if a medical device breaks down it can cause grievous injury to the user or even cause catastrophic complication like death. So the current process of approval is fairly complex and lengthy and justified.

The Medical Product Cycle

Total Product Life Cycle. David W. Feigal, M.D., M.P.H., Director, Center for Devices and Radiological Health, FDA (www.fda.gov)

This is one of the main reasons for high cost of health care delivery.However,there are other reasons too..

But, in a recent post in Healthbeat blog ,Medical Device Start-Up Generates Controversy Naomi Freundlich posts
Medical innovation needs to move away from the profit-driven motive that has led to expensive new technologies that drive up health care costs without a comparable effect on improving the nation’s health.In these changing times, as the government revisits how devices are tested and approved and comparative-effectiveness studies—not marketing—will help doctors decide which treatments are best, companies like EndoStim will face a far rougher road to success.

While we cannot predict the success or failure of EndoStim and its technology,but the future is bright for companies which utilize disruptive technologies and use Internet as part of their product cycle to create next generation Innovative medical devices.

More thoughts in my next upcoming article on Medical Devices and Disruptive Technologies

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April 30th, 2010

Fresh Air Fund & Child Obesity

by Editor

Once,in a while I would like to provide some publicity to Charity works.With the ever rising incidence of Obesity in Children,Fresh Air Fund promotes a healthier lifestyle habits by offering them camping program with lots of healthy activities.

THE FRESH AIR FUND, an independent, not-for-profit agency, has provided free summer vacations to more than 1.7 million New York City children from low-income communities since 1877. Nearly 10,000 New York City children enjoy free Fresh Air Fund programs annually. In 2008, close to 5,000 children visited volunteer host families in suburbs and small town communities across 13 states from Virginia to Maine and Canada. 3,000 children also attended five Fresh Air camps on a 2,300-acre site in Fishkill, New York. The Fund’s year-round camping program serves an additional 2,000 young people each year.

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