PROST8CARE Timed Text Messages around chemotherapy treatment cycles

Are you familiar with PROST8CARE ?

Mobile Commons, Sanofi US, and the Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) have joined forces to create PROST8CARE™, a new text messaging program that delivers encouragement to men with advanced prostate cancer, timed to coincide with their chemotherapy treatment cycles.

PROST8CARE provides information—created by a board of oncologists and oncology nurses in partnership with PCF—to help patients and their caregivers understand their course of therapy. The text messages are designed to increase patients’ involvement—and help reinforce the information provided by their professional health care teams.



Learn more about this here.

Join the mobile app challenge to "Reduce Cancer Among Women of Color"

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology has created a mobile app challenge titled, "Reducing Cancer Among Women of Color Challenge."

Disparities in prevention, early treatment, and final outcomes exist across the spectrum of cancer types and are often amplified in women’s health when we look at breast cancer and gynecologic cancers—primarily cervical, uterine, and ovarian cancer. With over 300,000 new cases combined and 68,000 deaths annually, the impact that these cancers have on the United States cannot be overstated.

This challenge is a multidisciplinary call to innovators and developers to create a mobile device-optimized tool that engages and empowers women to improve the prevention and treatment of breast, cervical, uterine, and ovarian cancer in underserved and minority communities and interfaces with provider electronic health records (EHRs).

First Place: $85,000 plus conference exhibition opportunity
Second Place: $10,000
Third Place: $5,000

Learn more about the challenge here.

TrialX Wins NCI’s Developer Challenge for Cancer App

Health IT Startup TrialX Wins NCI’s Developer Challenge for Cancer App

TrialX, an NYC based health IT company was declared a winner of a developer challenge organized by the National Cancer Institute for its application, Ask Dory. Ask Dory helps cancer patients find and connect with clinical trials near them effortlessly.

New York, NY, January 25, 2012 --(PR.com)-- Applied Informatics (TrialX), a New York based Healthcare Information Technology (HIT) startup was adjudged as a winner of the developer challenge on "Using Public Data for Cancer Prevention" sponsored by the National Cancer Institute. The challenge was organized by the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) of HIT and managed by Health2.0 (see official HHS press release, http://1.usa.gov/AskDory). TrialX won the competition for its innovative application, "Ask Dory" that enables health consumers to find clinical trials near them and connect with trial investigators. The application was presented last week at the Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences 2012 in Maui, Hawaii.

"Ask Dory" uses an intelligent entropy based decision tree algorithm to narrow down the possible matches by leading patients through a step-by-step question answering system. “It is designed to be intuitive and easy for patients to use, unlike many other systems that require patients to fill long forms," explained Dr. Chintan Patel, the lead developer of the application.

Do Cell Phone Radiation Shields Really Work? No.

Here's what the FTC has to say about cell phone radiation shields:

Listen Up: Tips to Help Avoid Cell Phone Radiation Scams

Whether you call them cell phones, smart phones or mobile devices, it seems like everyone has one. According to the wireless telecommunications industry, the U.S. now has an estimated 300 million mobile subscribers, compared to 110 million subscribers a decade ago. The increase in cell phone use has generated concern about possible health risks related to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields from this technology, and a market for shields as possible protection against the radio waves the phones emit. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the nation's consumer protection agency, has some practical tips to help you avoid scams and limit your exposure to electromagnetic emissions from your cell phone.

WHO agency reports that mobile phones may cause brain cancer

The World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer is reporting that mobile phones may increase the risk of brain cancer. The agency classified the risk of the adiofrequency electromagnetic fields as "possibly carcinogenic to humans."

Dr Jonathan Samet (University of Southern California, USA), overall Chairman of the Working Group, indicated that "the evidence, while still accumulating, is strong enough to support a conclusion and the 2B classification. The conclusion means that there could be some risk, and therefore we need to keep a close watch for a link between cell phones and cancer risk.

You can read their statement here.

ASCO Launches Mobile App for Patient Information in Oncology (Cancer.Net Mobile Application)

ASCO recently launched a mobile app for Apple smart technology (iPhone, iPad, iPod touch) based on its patient information website, Cancer.Net. 

The Cancer.Net mobile app will serve as an oncologist-approved mobile companion for patients to stay educated and informed about cancer type(s) and issues of interest, and organize important personal data often needed for doctor's visits.  The Cancer.Net app includes up-to-date guides on 120 types of cancer, with information about treating cancer, managing side effects, managing the cost of care, and living with cancer.  Interactive tools help keep track of questions to ask doctors and record voice answers, save information about prescribed medications, including photos of labels and bottles (on camera-enabled devices), and track the time and severity of symptoms and side effects.

Learn more here.

Vinegar and smartphone camera used to screen for cervical cancer

There's a story about Carrie Kovarick, an assistant professor of dermatology and a member of the Penn-Botswana program, using some vinegar and a smartphone camera to screen women for cervical cancer. Consider this a pilot project involving mHealth, telemedicine, and software supplied by ClickDiagnostics.

When vinegar is applied to the cervix, pre-cancerous cells dehydrate faster and turn white. A photo of the cervix can be viewed by clinical experts who can identify suspicious areas on the cervix.

ClickDiagnostics is involved in a number of global health initiatives.

NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology for iPhone and Android

Access the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines™) anywhere and at anytime through free NCCN Guidelines mobile apps for iPhone and Android.

Recent data continues to indicate that clinicians are increasingly using smartphones to access medical information and bring faster, more informed decision-making to the point of care.

These new NCCN apps enable clinicians to easily access the NCCN Guidelines, which are updated on a continual basis and developed through an explicit review of the evidence integrated with expert medical judgment and recommendations by multidisciplinary panels from NCCN Member Institutions.

The NCCN Guidelines apps for iPhone and Android are free to download through the iTunes Store and Android Market. To use the NCCN Guidelines apps, an individual must be a registered user on NCCN.org. There is no fee to become a registered user on NCCN.org and to view the NCCN Guidelines.

Visit NCCN.org/mobile

Android Market Bar Code for Installation

CCO Oncology inPractice

The Clinical Care Options (CCO) Oncology inPractice application for iPad is a comprehensive digital textbook designed for healthcare professionals needing to find information rapidly at the point of care.

CCO inPractice provides the busy clinician timely information authored by experts in hematology and oncology. The textbook content is accessible by either browsing or online searching and is regularly updated to reflect new data, making inPractice a practical resource that is always current. A CCO inPractice search delivers the textbook content you need to make clinical decisions alongside comprehensive drug information for all US Food and Drug Administration–approved drugs using the Lexi-Comp database, PubMed abstracts for review of the primary literature, links to management guidelines for quick review of best practices, and the ability to link to the CCO inPractice Web site to claim Point of Care CME credit for searches made from your iPad.

Features:
Search 4 resources simultaneously
• Original hematology and oncology textbook, authored by experts specifically for inPractice
• Drug database by Lexi-Comp
• PubMed abstracts
• Management guidelines
Share information with community consults, colleagues, and fellows
Bookmark content for further review
Claim Point of Care CME credit for your personal searches

Click here to learn more.

GlaxoSmithKline and MedTrust Online launch an oncology clinical trials iPhone app

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and MedTrust Online (an online physician portal) have launched a geolocating iPhone app that lets docs look up cancer clinical trials for their patients. Here are a few snippets from a June 4 press release:

With CancerTrials App, cancer doctors can easily find and share information about experimental therapies in clinical trials with their patients.  CancerTrials App provides a quick search menu based on 12 common cancers and more advanced features that refine searches based on criteria such as gender, age, trial status and more.  Once relevant trials are found, results can be mapped relative to the location of the iPhone or iPad running the application.

"GSK Oncology has always been interested in providing doctors and their patients with the access to the right information about the best therapies that improve patient outcomes," stated Jeffrey Bloss, M.D., Vice President, Medicine Development Leader for GSK Oncology.  "We are pleased to work with MedTrust Online to bring simple yet highly effective information-based solutions to the cancer community."

CancerTrials App is the first release of a mobile application for several platforms that connects to MedTrust Online's proprietary databases of oncology information at www.oncocentric.com.  Solutions for RIM's BlackBerry and Google's Android operating systems will be released over the next several months.  Oncologists using mobile communication devices will be able to share more with their patients as they search for the best therapies available in their communities.

About MedTrust Online, LLC
MedTrust Online LLC, www.medtrust-online.com, provides oncologists with clinically useful technology applications and solutions. MedTrust Online brings together experts in oncology, information technology, computational biology, pharmaceutical drug development, and personalized medicine to capture, organize, analyze, integrate and present the most up-to-date medical facts from a vast array of sources. This data is provided to doctors in a comprehensive yet concise way at www.oncocentric.com.

Cell Phones' Radiation Report Card

Last week, Time.com released a Cell Phones' Radiation Report Card. You can view the radiation levels associated with each of these mobile phones and smartphones:

1. BlackBerry 8820
2. Motorola i880
3. HTC Magic (T-Mobile)
4. Motorola Razr V3i
5. Apple iPhone 3G
6. Samsung SGH-a137
7. Sony Ericsson w518a Walkman
8. Samsung I8000 Omnia II
9. BlackBerry Storm 9530
10. Sanyo Katana II

The amount of radiation emitted by cell phones varies from model to model, but all fall under the FCC-mandated maximum absorption rate of 1.6 watts per kilogram of body tissue.

Read more by clicking here.

Do cell phones really cause brain cancer?

I was having a discussion about cell phones and brain cancer with my wife yesterday. When will we (as a health care community) decide that we have enough evidence to either substantiate or refute whether cell phones cause brain cancer? According to CNN, a report from the World Health Organization on a decade-long investigation called Interphone will show a "significantly increased risk" of some brain tumors "related to use of mobile phones for a period of 10 years or more." I don't think we've ever really looked at 10+ years of data in the past.

Are we simply dealing with issues related to recall bias? Is the root of the issue analog vs. digital? Have modern smartphones increased the risk due to their ability to transmit significantly larger amounts of data? Will we see everyone using speakerphone and ear pieces? How much longer will this topic be considered "controversial?" When will we decide that the evidence is compelling?

Personally, I think that we will eventually see stronger bodies of evidence suggesting that the association is real. What I don't know is: how strong is the association? I always use a Bluetooth headset or speakerphone whenever I know that I'm going to have a long phone conversation.