April 2010 Archives

To say this has been a year of dramatic change in healthcare would be an understatement.   Healthcare reform, new approaches to intellectual property, and dramatic growth in typically underserved parts of the world...all have challenged us to think differently about health.

One large shift for GlaxoSmithKline has been the focus on the so-called emerging markets, a diverse group of growing economies that now account for 13 percent of GSK's pharmaceutical sales.

This month, Harvard Business Review is featuring an online special report on the 12 megatrends they believe will dramatically alter how we think about--and approach--healthcare. 

GSK's Abbas Hussain, President, Emerging Markets, blogged about the megatrend "Emerging Economies" at HBR.org.

Last week, several of us who work in Medical Affairs for GSK vaccines attended the 44^th annual National Immunization Conference (NIC) hosted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  The four-day conference brought together public health leaders from across the country to "to provide information that will help participants provide comprehensive immunization coverage for all age groups and explore innovative strategies for developing programs, policy, and research to promote immunization coverage..."

For the 1,621 attendees, much of the meeting's focus centered on the impact the H1N1 flu had on our public health system.   Of the twelve featured sessions scattered throughout the agenda, five included H1N1 or influenza-related topics.

Despite significant public communications outreach efforts by the CDC and local public health departments, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius emphasized in her keynote address that "there was a sizable number "of health care providers who did not receive immunization against H1N1 flu.  In fact, the rate of seasonal flu immunization among health care professionals in recent years has not exceeded 50 percent.  

At the NIC, there was no shortage on new and unique ideas on how to improve immunization coverage for flu and vaccine-preventable diseases, generally.  Several sessions focused on ways to use social media to help increase immunization rates.  Exhibitors promoted a variety of different innovations from "drive-thru" immunization facilities to vaccinating individuals at voting centers in November. 

Some of these ideas may catch on and the enthusiasm may spur new ideas, but as a physician, it is up to us to lead by example when it comes to immunization, not only against flu, but also against other vaccine-preventable diseases thereby helping to keep them from re-emerging.

This weekend the world observed World Malaria Day, an opportunity to focus international attention on the epidemic and review progress in the fight against the disease.

As someone who grew up in Nigeria in West Africa, I experienced malaria as a normal part of childhood.  Malaria was everywhere in my community, as common as the flu is in the United States.   But unlike the regular seasonal flu shots we are accustomed to here, we essentially waited for malaria to strike and then were left to treat it. 

My siblings and I are all incredibly allergic to quinine--formerly the main ingredient in malaria medicine--so our family spent a lot of time and energy on malaria prevention.  Most nights we could be found sealing all the windows and doors of our bedrooms and spraying our rooms with heavy-duty mosquito repellant. We would then wait for about half an hour or so for the fumes to dissipate before heading off to sleep. 

Despite our nightly efforts--combined with the mosquito nets and screen doors we had all over our home--we all managed to contract malaria.  One of my younger sisters, Mimi, says "I spent my entire childhood with malaria!" This is a slight exaggeration but she did have malaria quite frequently!  The effects of malaria were a high fever, achy joints, chills, lethargy, and loss of appetite which lead to weight loss.  However, we were the fortunate ones.  Our mother worked in healthcare, and our aunt is a doctor.  That meant that we had an easier time accessing medical care, and we often received special attention.

The average person living in Sub-Saharan Africa is not as lucky.  Each year there are more than 800,000 malaria deaths in Sub-Saharan Africa alone, and more than 900,000 globally. 

This is why I am so proud to work for a company with such a strong commitment to malaria research. 

GSK has invested more than $300 million and two decades developing a malaria vaccine, now in advanced testing across 11 sites throughout Africa.  We join a consortium of world-class African research institutions leading this trial on the ground and together we are more than halfway to our projected enrollment of 16,000 children and infants.  Our partnerships--with the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative, incredible African researchers, and local communities across Africa--are the key factors in our progress.

Additionally, my colleagues across the company are working on exciting initiatives to spur research into new drugs across the globe; develop unique partnerships to speed our R&D efforts; and partner with communities to promote education about malaria prevention.

To address the growing resistance to current malaria treatments, GSK works in partnership with Medicines for Malaria Venture to research new therapies. In addition to our own drug R&D program, GSK helps to advance the work of other researchers in the field. After scanning more than two million drug compounds in our library, we found 13,500 that could potentially inhibit the malaria parasite. In January 2010, GSK made these compounds freely available in the public domain to researchers around the globe.

We also work with local communities through our Africa Malaria Partnership program to prevent and treat malaria in sub-Saharan Africa. The organizations we partner with on-the-ground promote the use of existing interventions such as bed nets, insecticide spraying and existing treatments.

When I was a child, there was no such thing as World Malaria Day.  Now, as the world pauses and calls out for continued commitment in the fight against malaria, we can say that we are well on our way to developing new tools to answer that call.

Listen to GSK CEO Andrew Witty on BBC this weekend to mark World Malaria Day.

Recently, Bill Gates injected new energy and resources into the immunization field with an unprecedented pledge of $10 billion through 2020 for vaccine development and delivery.

This month, the blog for ONE, a grassroots campaign and advocacy organization cofounded by Bono and other campaigners, is featuring a series, "Vaccines: The Next 10 Years."

Check out what Jean Stephenne, President, GSK Biologicals, had to say about the three conditions needed to truly succeed over the next 10 years.

Our friends at Edelman recently unveiled the results of their second "Health Engagement Barometer."  This global survey of 15,000 people examined attitudes toward health and demonstrated the public's changing expectations of companies and institutions regarding health-related issues and engagement.   Their findings showed:

The general public expects businesses outside the health industry--such as retail, entertainment and consumer technology--to be involved in health in ways that go well beyond the health of their employees....Nearly three-quarters (72 percent) of people trust a company more that is effectively engaged in health and two-thirds (65 percent) either recommend or buy products from those companies.  However, 51 percent said business in general is doing only a fair or poor job in this arena, and only 36 percent trust business to fulfill its role in addressing health.

What this means, according to Edelman's Nancy Turett , is that "For a company to be prosperous and relevant in the future, it has to factor health into its business strategy, not only to fulfill its social contract with all stakeholders but to realize its full market potential."

As a health care company this is (it better be!) second nature for GSK.  But increasingly we see many companies we work with heading in this direction (GE and their Healthymagination initiative are one example).  Clearly public views and expectations around health are changing and those that don't take notice will be left behind.

Click here for the full presentation of data.

A fairly regular post from a busy mom concerned about raising healthy children.

This campaign is not going to be an easy one for Mrs. Obama or any parent for that matter, but it's a good start.

Physician blogger extraordinaire KevinMD recently wrote about Twitter's role in rapidly spreading sometimes faulty medical information.  His piece focused on a study from the American Journal of Infection Control that concluded tens of thousands of people received inaccurate safety information about antibiotics through Twitter in a 4-month period.

According to the study's author, "When we looked at tweets... we found that there are some basic categories like general mentioning of antibiotics or complaints about side effects and things like that, but there was also a category that was pretty interesting where people were indicating misuse or misunderstanding of antibiotics."

Although the number of Tweets that contained misinformation was small, estimated to be about 2%, that still is enough to be transmitted to tens of thousands of patients.

KevinMD goes on...

That's a major reason why medical professionals need to become more active on Twitter and Facebook. Not to give personal health advice, of course, but to "flood the web" with legitimate health information, and to provide patients with reputable medical sources.

Patients are increasingly turning to the web for medical advice, whether doctors like it or not. It's up to us to provide much needed online guidance.

Like everyone else, we're still finding our footing on Twitter and contending with obvious limitations in terms of space and questions about how we can appropriately communicate product information in this increasingly popular venue.  And we've experienced first-hand the rapid-fire tweeting and re-tweeting of incomplete information regarding our products.  One challenge is the "headline effect" where Tweets simply consist of a (sometimes alarmist) headline that often doesn't tell the full story.  In some cases, as KevinMD points out, this can have unfortunate consequences.  

The excitement was palpable in our house last night as we sat around the dinner table discussing our beloved Phillies.   It's no secret, Philly fans are passionate.  Our enthusiasm is famous (notorious?) but one thing is certain, we are sincere.  

A year ago, when Harry Kalas died of heart disease the fans mourned the loss of one of the greatest voices in baseball.   And, although defeated in the World Series last year, we saluted our players, held our heads high and looked towards the future (Halladay!).

As we head into another exciting (and hopefully long!) season, the fans are pumped, ready for another run at the title, even with all its ups and downs. 

There's no question that many Americans are blessed with a wealth of riches and choices.  It's always been amazing to me that while so many countries struggle to feed their citizens, our country is so rich that many of our citizens actually pay to have someone coach them to not eat so much.  We also pay for medicines - including those made by companies GSK - to help us lose weight from consuming so many calories.

With so much choice comes responsibility - both corporate and personal. 

You may have heard that major beverage companies and industry associations have banded together to reduce the amount of high-calorie, carbonated soft drinks shipped to schools.  The numbers are impressive.  One association reports a dramatic decrease in both the total "beverage calories" shipped to schools, as well as in the total volume of full-calorie carbonated soft drinks shipped to those schools in the past five years.

It's great to see that industry and manufacturers are banding together to help children!  But steps like these are only one-half of the solution.  The other half of the solution must come from personal decisions made by parents, when they decide to teach - or not teach - their children health eating habits. 

Obviously, the same applies to any health issue.  GSK and other pharmaceutical companies manufacture wonderful products to address the potentially devastating effects associated with health issues such as smoking and high cholesterol, as well as...you guessed it...obesity.  But we're only part of the solution.  In an age in which we've all become accustomed to advanced medicines and medical procedures "saving the day," once a health problem has occurred, it's incredibly easy for us all - and I include myself - to forget the "low tech" means of preventing these diseases in the first place; such as getting enough exercise, not smoking, limiting junk food, and choosing the treadmill instead of the couch.  After all, preventing disease in the first place is the best option of all.

So starting today, let's spend some time thinking about what we can do to head off future health problems, or making lifestyle choices to address the ones we already face. 

As for me, I'm going to go for a 20-minute walk at lunch time.  It's beautiful spring weather outside, the flowers and trees are in full bloom, and it's a chance to tone up while I doing something good for my heart.  Now, if I can only find a way to deal with the allergies I suffer from being out in the pollen...maybe I should take some medicine for that...

Remember block parties, community fairs - great neighborhood events we participated in as children and may now organize as adults? Well I had the honor of participating in a fantastic neighborhood party at the White House yesterday ... the annual Easter Egg Roll. What a day!

Children led their parents through a maze of activities, the hunt for eggs, practice drills with the Washington Redskins, Baltimore Ravens, Tennis with Billie Jean King , hula-hoop dancing (ok I tried and it was not a pretty sight- how did I do this as a child), readings by J.K. Rowling, basketball with the President, enjoying music with the First Lady, Sasha and Malia (the cast of Glee performed, I enjoyed it - does that mean I too am a GLEEK, hmmmm), and oh yes, the food!

The food booths were heavily attended - not too surprising at these types of events, right? Well what impressed me most was the type of food that people couldn't get enough of ... apples, bananas, smoothies, there were exhibits for making your own garden and healthy carbonated juice drinks (everyone loved the carbonated orange and agreed, better than orange soda, who knew?)

The First Family, particularly the First Lady, provided a great venue to illuminate messages on healthy eating, demonstrating how easy it can be to enjoy a healthier lifestyle. When I think about it, all the components that contribute to building healthy communities were available.  While not all neighborhood events can have nationally known celebrity participation, there are many local celebrities who have achieved their dreams like singing with a local band, participating in a school play, playing a sport, writing an article for a neighborhood paper (or nowadays, writing a blog) weight loss, overcoming a chronic disease, helping others to achieve their dreams ...

My day at the White House felt like a day amongst family and friends (I actually ran into a few - very cool)! It affirmed that building healthier communities is not difficult. We just need to be more aware of our local resources, join those who are committed to making a difference to help us live healthier lives and celebrate those around us who have achieved and are achieving their goals. Thank you First Family for setting a great example and a fabulous block party!