VIDA Launches New Digital Home Care Platform After Receiving Stamp of Approval from UK's Health Watchdog

A new pioneering in-home care service for the elderly and those with chronic illnesses has launched and is the first of its kind to be registered by the Care Quality Commission.  

The mark of approval was granted on November 23rd from England's independent regulator for health and social care. The move marks an important step towards the recognition that digital platforms will play a critical role in provisioning and improving the quality, safety and transparency of home care to the elderly and people with chronic illnesses.

The Vida home care service uses sophisticated technology to match carers with clients throughout the Greater London area. The matching process takes into account multiple factors when assigning carers to clients including level of need, care specialization, location, culture, gender, interests and hobbies. Vida's platform goes far beyond matching clients to carers.  Their sophisticated platform allows full transparency and insight into the entire care programme from the moment the carer is on their way to a client's home, to meal preparation and service to medication administration and ensuring important routines like exercise are carried out.

Vida's platform has been developed in response to the significant challenges faced within the NHS' broken £24 billion care sector. The current care system sees many elderly people either falling through the cracks, suffering from abuse or simply not receiving adequate levels of care. While the primary goal is to ensure the safety and well-being of their vulnerable clients, Vida's ultimate aim "is to ensure the transformation of the care industry so that everyone within the care network wins," says Naushard Jabir, Founder and CEO of Vida.  "We want our carers to feel valued and respected, the families of our clients to feel reassured that their loved ones are safe and looked after and most importantly for our clients to receive the best quality care with high levels of continuity."

By digitising the care programme, Vida is able to ensure the quality, safety and consistency of the care services it offers.  Unlike the traditional approach to care management which is manual and paper based and has at times resulted in life threatening errors, Vida's digital care platform ensures no room for error or ambiguity when it comes to the treatment of their clients.

Vida's launch comes off the back of a glowing review from their current clients and their families as well as the carers themselves who are being trained rigorously, treated with respect and paid above average wages to ensure they see caring as a valuable vocation.

With plans to expand across the UK in 2017 and to further build their platform to include integration for connected medical devices, Vida is poised to make a major and lasting impact on the care system in the UK and improve the lives of thousands of people in the process. 

Thousands of melanoma patients in Europe have no access to new life saving drugs

  Over 5000 patients with metastatic melanoma in Europe are denied access to new, life saving drugs every year, according to a survey presented at the ESMO 2016 Congress in Copenhagen¹.

Metastatic melanoma is an aggressive and deadly skin cancer. With innovative targeted therapy and immunotherapy, patients can survive for many years. Unfortunately new therapies are expensive so, according to a survey conducted by Dr Lidija Kandolf-Sekulovic, over 5000 patients with metastatic melanoma in Europe have no access to these drugs.

“Before 2011 there were no effective treatment options for metastatic melanoma patients, but that has changed tremendously in the last 5 years. We now have medicines which can prolong overall survival of these patients to more than 18 months and, in some patients, durable responses lasting up to 10 years have been reported. However, access to these medicines is limited and patients and physicians are facing increasing difficulties to obtain them. This is especially the case for Eastern and South Eastern European countries, where a majority of patients are still treated with palliative chemotherapy that does not prolong overall survival,” said Kandolf-Sekulovic.

The survey showed that in Western Europe 70% of patients were treated with innovative medicines, while in Eastern Europe less than 10% of patients had access to the latest treatment recommended by current European Guidelines (ESMO, EORTC/EADO) (2).

The study found that the BRAFi+MEKi combination (one of the first-line treatments besides immunotherapy for BRAF mutated metastatic melanoma) was registered in 75% of Western European countries and fully reimbursed in 58%. In Eastern Europe, the treatment was registered in 42% of countries and only reimbursed in 18%, with time consuming administrative work needed to obtain the medicines in all cases.

The survey estimated that around 19.250 metastatic melanoma patients are treated every year in Europe and nearly 7.450 (39.7%) in Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. Of these patients, 5.128 (69%) do not have the access to first-line therapy according to European guidelines. Overall, it can be estimated that in Europe 5.228/19.250 (27%), i.e. almost one third of all metastatic melanoma patients, do not have access to innovative medicines.

In Europe, about 1 in every 100 people will develop melanoma at some point in their life, but important variations exist from one country to another. This number is increasing in almost all European countries. Melanoma is slightly more frequent in females than in males and more frequent in Switzerland, the Netherlands and the Scandinavian countries (Norway, Sweden and Denmark), where about 20 out of 100,000 people are diagnosed each year. From 1999-2012 there has been a 78% recorded increase in Germany. Similar increases were recorded also in the United States, Australia, Norway and Denmark, as well as countries in South-Eastern Europe.

Kandolf-Sekulovic explained: “Our study raises ethical questions on the inequalities that affect survival based on the country of residence in Europe. It is not new that disparities in healthcare can lead to disparities in overall survival of patients, but these disparities are becoming even sharper for patients with chemotherapy resistant metastatic melanoma in whom durable responses lasting for years can be seen in up to 20% of patients if treated with innovative medicines. In European healthcare systems that declare universal access to healthcare, these inequalities must be overcome.”

Dr Alexander Eniu, Chair of the ESMO Global Policy Committee, said: “This study confirms what ESMO has highlighted in the past: access to the best treatment according to evidence based clinical guidelines such as ESMO’s, is not equal across Europe. ESMO advocates for equal access to treatment and care, which is the fundamental right of any patient.  Despite the encouraging rate of new medicine development, there are still unacceptable inequalities in the availability and accessibility of new and effective cancer medications across Europe.”

 “The present study focuses on melanoma but the ESMO-led European Consortium Study on the availability and accessibility of anti-neoplastic medicines across Europe (3) found that the same was true for other types of cancer, especially rare cancers, in countries with lower economic levels.  It is important to continue to provide health authorities with data, and to carry on calling attention to the difficulties patients with incurable diseases are facing, in the hope that equal access will soon be a reality, at least in Europe,” said Eniu.

“This every day situation which is source of a large frustration for metastatic melanoma patients, their families and physicians, needs to be adressed urgently by all stakeholders. We need harmonisation of reimbursement procedures throughout Europe, adjusted programmes for early access to innovative medicines in countries with delayed reimbursement and sustainable pricing for these life saving drugs,” concluded Kandolf-Sekulovic.

Birth season affects your mood in later life

New research shows that the season you are born has a significant impact on your risk of developing mood disorders. People born at certain times of year may have a greater chance of developing certain types of affective temperaments, which in turn can lead to mood disorders (affective disorders). This work is being presented at the European College of CNP Congress in Berlin.

Seasons of birth have traditionally been associated with certain personality traits, such as novelty seeking, and various folklore justifications, such as astrology, have sought to explain these associations. Now a group of researchers from Budapest, Hungary, are presenting a study which links birth season with temperament.

According to lead researcher, Assistant Professor Xenia Gonda

“Biochemical studies have shown that the season in which you are born has an influence on certain monoamine neurotransmitters, such as dopamine and serotonin, which is detectable even in adult life. This led us to believe that birth season may have a longer-lasting effect. Our work looked at over 400 subjects and matched their birth season to personality types in later life. Basically, it seems that when you are born may increase or decrease your chance of developing certain mood disorders”.

“We can’t yet say anything about the mechanisms involved. What we are now looking at is to see if there are genetic markers which are related to season of birth and mood disorder”.

The group found the following statistically significant trends:

·         cyclothymic temperament (characterized by rapid, frequent swings between sad and cheerful moods), is significantly higher in those born in the summer, in comparison with those born in the winter.

·         Hyperthymic temperament – a tendency to be excessively positive -  were significantly higher in those born in spring and summer

·         Those born in the winter were significantly less prone to irritable temperament than those born at other times of the year.

·         Those born in autumn show a significantly lower tendency to depressive temperament than those born in winter.

Commenting for the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology, Professor Eduard Vieta (Barcelona) XY said:

"Seasons affect our mood and behavior. Even the season at our birth may influence our subsequent risk for developing certain medical conditions, including some mental disorders. What's new from this group of researchers is the influence of season at birth and temperament. Temperaments are not disorders but biologically-driven behavioral and emotional trends. Although both genetic and environmental factors are involved in one's temperament, now we know that the season at birth plays a role too. And the finding of "high mood" tendency (hyperthymic temperament) for those born in summer is quite intriguing."

Los optimistas viven más

«Está en sus genes» es una frase común de los científicos cuando se les pregunta acerca de los factores que permiten a los centenarios vivir más de 100 años. Hasta ahora, la investigación se ha centrado en las variaciones genéticas que ofrecen una ventaja fisiológica, como los altos niveles de colesterol HDL -«colesterol bueno »-. Pero un equipo de investigadores del Albert Einstein College of Medicine y de 
de la Universidad Yeshiva (EE.UU.), han encontrado que los rasgos de la personalidad como serextrovertido, optimista, tolerante, así como estar comprometido en actividades que ayudan a los demás también pueden ser parte de una mayor longevidad.

Los hallazgos, publicados en la revista Aging, forma parte del Einstein's Longevity Genes Project, que incluye a más de 500 judíos ashkenazi con edades entre los 95 y 100 años. Se ha seleccionado esta población porque s genéticamente homogénea.

Estudios previos habían indicado que la personalidad está directamente relacionada mecanismos genéticos que pueden afectar directamente a la salud. El presente estudio se diseñó para analizar la relación entre la personalidad y los genes en 243 centenarios.

La risa

«Cuando empezamos a trabajar con los centenarios pensamos que nos encontraríamos con que las personas que había sobrevivido tanto tiempo era, en parte, porque tenía "malas pulgas"», señala Nir Barzilai. Sin embargo, cundo evaluamos la personalidad de estas 243 personas centenarias, encontramos cualidades que reflejan claramente una «actitud positiva» hacia la vida. La mayoría eran «extrovertidos, optimistas y de trato fácil». Para ellos, la «risa es una parte importante de su vida y tenían una gran red social».

Los expertos señala que algunas evidencias científicas advierten que la personalidad puede cambiar a partir de los 70 años, « así que no sabemos si nuestros centenarios han mantenido estos rasgos de personalidad positiva a través de su vida útil ». Sin embargo, Barzilai considera que estos hallazgos sugieren que los centenarios «comparten rasgos particulares de personalidad » y que los aspectos de base genética de la personalidad pueden jugar un papel importante en tener una «buena salud y unalongevidad excepcional ».