Interesting article – From what I’ve read from various sources, a large majority of traumatic brain injuries stem from incidents around sports, military and automobile accidents. Wouldn’t it be something if an iPad app could identify an otherwise ‘invisible’ injury immediately? Outside of the obvious dramatic Star Trek like ability to diagnose this in realtime (is my inner geek showing?) this is HUGE. One statistic I read (see “The Silent Epidemic: Understanding the Impact of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury – Part I: Identification & Diagnosis” here: http://www.brookhavenhospital.com/seminars/the-silent-epidemic-understanding-the-impact-of-mild-traumatic-brain-injury-part-i-identification-diagnosis/ ) mentions that “Mild Traumatic Brain Injury (MTBI) involves approximately 1 million people each year, most of which do not seek immediate medical attention.” This was mostly due to the fact that they weren’t able to identify the issue. That means 1 million people out that could be operating heavy machinery and endangering themselves. Shivers…

As for why patients fire doctors, so often it is a matter of attitude. More often than not, patients want to be CARED for not simply treated as disease. Doctors who fail to exhibit a behavior of concern for the patient as a whole person are those who are most likely to be subject to being fired. Telling a doctor “I don’t like your attitude” is intimidating for patients. It’s easier just to leave the practice than to face a show down. I strongly encourage doctors to think about the fact that it is not simply a matter of what you say but how.

AstraZeneca’s demise was rooted in its senior management’s unwavering commitment to mega-blockbusters, regardless of whether or not those candidates presented much real incremental clinical value and regardless of the fact that building such poorly differentiated candidates required a costly, margin-eroding payola scheme of advertising, rebates and co-pay cards, etc.

The seeds were sown over a decade ago and are best exemplified by the launch of Nexium, an enantiomer scheme hatched prior to the expiry of Prilosec which also relied on a 100% higher dose to attain a marginal superiority claim. Meanwhile management passed on an endless list of development programs which failed to promise ‘mega-blockbuster’ potential. All the while, an employee base and the public in general were further alienated by the hollow ring of management mantras like “Put patients first” & “Consumerism”.

This misguided interpretation of ‘consumerism’ might be written off as standard business practice if it weren’t for the fact that the majority of sales for Nexium are ultimately paid for by our GDP-devouring government healthcare entitlement programs and the fact that the science behind the brand was so thin.

AstraZeneca’s blockbuster obsession didn’t end with Nexium but rather has continued to present with an over-reliance on a succession of pipe-dreams including Crestor, Exanta, Onglyza and Brilinta.

Meanwhile, GSK has built a solid, diversified overall business and a much broader and diversified prescription drug business albeit at the cost of forsaking the obsessive pursuit mega-blockbuster successors to Zantac and Advair.

Now GSK can promise investors a sustainable business with real growth potential while AstraZeneca is left with the promise of a finite period of very good dividends.

Device companies like St. Jude Medical (twitter.com/sjmneuro, youtube.com/sjmneuro) offer a tremendous value-added service by sharing therapy education content on their sites that physicians can then re-share. It also connects them with new potential customers who find them in the social graph.

Yes, a company should thoroughly vet out the social sites that are valuable to its strategy, but otherwise this article seems myopic.

Bull Roar. The article is written by a woman. This has nothing to do with gender and everything to do with a disruptive, insecure showboat appropriately being shown the door.

. . . . so another man can come along and reap the benefits of her work. Five months is very fast, and I don’t care how “difficult” the personality (read “she is a woman”) if it were a man he would still be there. What a sexist article! I would leave too and let it be known.