Highlight HEALTH 2.0 Interview: Phil Baumann

October 31, 2010 | by

Phil Baumann is an anomaly; he began his professional career as an accountant, a treasury analyst and an enterprise process designer. After years in the enterprise, he decided to make a difference in healthcare and trained as a registered nurse. Following two years in the ICU, Phil transitioned into the pharmaceutical industry via a clinical research organization (CRO). In his free time, Phil Baumann blogs about how technologies influence us, focusing on healthcare applications of social media. He expounds regularly on his blog (PhilBaumann.com) and on Twitter (@PhilBaumann), discussing how healthcare and other related industries should approach emerging media technologies. Indeed, over the past two years, Phil has averaged over 500 tweets per month on Twitter (top five words: rt, twitter, #hcsm, good, social).

Phil Tweet Cloud
Phil Baumann

Last year, Phil Baumann started CareVocate Strategies, offering organizations personalized, professional and focused strategic guidance on how to understand their relationship with social technologies and communities, and how to best interact with their customers.

In July 2010, Phil started Health Is Social, a website where the healthcare and life sciences learn how to integrate digital and social media into their strategies. I had the opportunity to talk one-on-one with Phil Baumann about CareVocate Strategies, Health Is Social and the future of social media in healthcare. Last month, Phil was also recently invited to be on the Board of Advisors for Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media.

A Vaccine for Breast Cancer – Deadline 2020

October 29, 2010 | by

Since 1991, the National Breast Cancer Coalition — an influential disease lobbying organization — has promoted evidence-based medicine and focused its public policy advocacy on legislative priorities that encompass three primary goals: increased funding for breast cancer research, improved access to quality breast cancer care and clinical trials, and expanded influence of breast cancer advocates wherever and whenever breast cancer decisions are made.

Last month, the National Breast Cancer Coalition (NBCC) launched the Breast Cancer Deadline 2020 — a call to action for policymakers, researchers, breast cancer advocates and other stakeholders to end the disease by January 1st, 2020.

Early-stage Breast Cancer: Choosing Your Surgery

October 12, 2010 | by

In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Health Dialog, a leading provider of care management, healthcare analytics and decision support, has made its industry-leading breast cancer decision aid Early Stage Breast Cancer: Choosing Your Surgery available to the general public. As a public service throughout the month of October, Health Dialog is providing access to a series of tools, information and resources about potential treatment options for breast cancer (see below).

In Vitro Fertilization and the Nobel Prize for Medicine

October 6, 2010 | by
nobel medal in medicine

The 2010 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was announced on Monday. The prize was awarded to a British scientist for his role in developing human in vitro fertilization (IVF) therapy. IVF is a process by which egg cells are fertilized by sperm outside the body, in vitro.

Over the years, IVF has helped millions of infertile couples worldwide have children. Biologist and physiologist Robert G. Edwards, age 85, at the University of Cambridge, developed the technique with obstetrician and gynecologist Patrick Christopher Steptoe, who died in 1988. The prize is worth about $1.5 million and is the first awarded in the area of reproduction.

Cancer Research Blog Carnival #38 – Breast Cancer

October 1, 2010 | by

Welcome to the 38th edition of the Cancer Research Blog Carnival, the monthly blog carnival that discusses what’s new in cancer research. In recognition of October being Breast Cancer Awareness Month, this edition’s focus is on breast cancer.

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.
October is all about pink

Breast Cancer Awareness Month — also referred to as National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (NBCAM) — is an annual international health campaign organized by major breast cancer charities every October to increase awareness of the disease and raise funds for research into its cause, prevention and cure. The campaign also offers information and support to those affected by breast cancer.

In 2010, the American Cancer Society estimates that 207,090 women will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer, approximately 54,010 women will be diagnosed with carcinoma in situ (CIS; the earliest non-invasive form of breast cancer), and approximately 39,840 women will die from breast cancer [1]. Indeed, breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in women, following lung cancer.

Self breast exam

In 1975, a woman had a 1 in 11 chance of developing invasive breast cancer some time in her life — today, the chance is even greater at 1 in 8. Although the risk has increased, deaths due to breast cancer have been declining: from 1990 — 2006, death rates decreased by 3.2% per year among women younger than 50, and by 2.0% per year among women 50 and older [2]. This decline in breast cancer mortality has been attributed to improvements in breast cancer treatment and early detection [3].

Animal research has contributed significantly to advances in breast cancer treatment. Animal studies were essential for the development of two front-line drugs that shrink breast cancer tumors, Herceptin and Tamoxifen. Since their mechanisms of action are different, they are used to treat different types of tumors. The drug Tamoxifen blocks tumor growth by blocking the action of estrogen, a hormone involved in the growth of most breast cancers. Tamoxifen binds to the estrogen receptor and blocks estrogen from docking to it. The drug Herceptin binds to another growth-regulating receptor protein called HER2, blocking it’s action and shrinking the tumor. Indeed, there is great value in animal research for the development of treatments to fight breast cancer.

Let’s find out what’s happening this month with breast cancer research.