Pressures on healthcare

Government pressure on healthcare costs and Fourth hurdle for new drug approvals... 

However, the healthcare system is only furnished with limited resources, facing endless new technologies and growing service demand by the population. All this translates into tremendous economic pressure on healthcare professionals. 

TWO OTHER PRESSURES ON THE HEALTHCARE SYSTEM REFLECT ITS CURRENT PLACE IN HISTORY OF WORLD AFFAIRS... 

The ultimate outcome of all of the neurodegenerative diseases described above is enormous pressure on the social environment of patients and premature death. Our pharmacological arsenal for treatment remains poor, despite years of intensive research in these areas. The disease burden of neurodegenerative disorders to the worldwide healthcare industry is very high [3.4% of all deaths in high-income countries were attributed to AD and other dementias (WHO Global Burden of Disease 2004)]. As the average survival age increases, this statistic is likely to rise. 

For the pharma-industry, the definition might be around the identification of a new product to promote at a time when pressures on margins and difficulties in research and development spell out an uncertain future. For health providers it might be a management-based approach to what has been traditionally a clinical-based service—and that spells erosion of power and influence. For politicians it can mean decoupling from the traditional path of healthcare delivery, spelling out patients worries, voter concerns, and re-election uncertainty. 

With the planned consolidation of the top four U.S. dialysis providers into two vertically integrated companies, the field of available dialyzers is likely to narrow. Meanwhile, the decrease in dialyzer reuse will continue to drive increased production. Given that the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), formerly known as the Healthcare Financing Administration (HCFA), will continue its downward pressure on costs, and possibly institute a capitated payment system (i.e., a fixed monthly payment to cover all patient costs including hospitalization), only incremental improvements in commercially available dialyzer membranes are expected in the next 5 years. 

We are now in a cycle characterized by incremental innovation, not therapeutic breakthroughs, and it is reasonable for industry critics to question the industry on the value of its innovations. A wave of patent expiries, high failure rates of developmental products, pressure to reduce or contain healthcare inflation (prices and expenditures), and access to essential medicines in developing countries have resulted in a global environment of increasing hostility. At this point it is difficult to predict the direction in which the environment will move over the next three to five years. 

The metric system consists of a base unit and (sometimes) a prefix multiplier. Most scientists and healthcare providers use the metric system, and you are probably familiar with the common base units and prefix multipliers. The base units describe the type of quantity measured length, mass, or time. The SI system is sometimes called the MKS (meter, kilogram, second) system, because these are the standard units of length, mass, and time upon which derived quantities, such as energy, pressure, and force, are based. An older system is called the CGS (centimeter, gram, second) system. The derived CGS units are becoming extinct. Therefore, we will focus on the MKS units. 

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