Subaqua Sternal Rubs

Two interesting stories coming out today:

Medtronic Inc., the world's largest producer of implanted devices to correct heart rhythm, said a study showed that the cost of using a defibrillator to extend a patient's life works out to $33,192 for each year.

Treatments that cost $50,000 or less for each year of life saved generally are considered cost-effective, the Fridley-based company said in a statement. Medicare, the government's insurance program for the elderly and disabled, reimburses hospitals as much as $76,003 for installing the $18,000 to $30,000 devices in patients.

The findings might help Medtronic and rivals Guidant Corp. and St. Jude Medical Inc. expand the defibrillator market, which analysts said might total $4.4 billion this year. Medtronic's cost-effectiveness analysis, part of data used to win regulatory approval, was presented Wednesday at the American Heart Association's annual meeting in New Orleans.

"Implantable defibrillators represent an economically attractive way to save lives in many people who have moderate, stable heart failure due to a damaged heart muscle," Daniel Mark, director of outcomes research at Duke University's Clinical Research Institute in Durham, N.C., and the leader of the analysis, said in a briefing.

A defibrillator is a metallic device the size of a small stopwatch that senses irregularities in the heart's rhythm and uses electric shocks to restore it to normal. The devices differ from pacemakers, which increase a slow heart rate. The defibrillators used in the study were the company's simpler devices, with prices at the lower end of the range.

Medtronic's cost-effectiveness analysis was based on a review of a trial that showed the company's defibrillators reduced the risk of dying from sudden cardiac arrest by 23 percent in heart-failure patients. The clinical results of the five-year study of 2,521 patients, which was co-sponsored by the National Institutes of Health and drugmaker Wyeth, were presented in March.

About 5 million people in the United States suffer from congestive heart failure, a degenerative condition in which the heart becomes too weak to pump blood effectively. A heart attack can cause heart failure.

Source: Startribune.com

And as a stark contrast:

Health Care, Gap Between Rich and Poor Persists, W.H.O. Says

Despite significant gains in medical science, disparities in public health persist between rich and poor countries, the World Health Organization said in a report released here on Wednesday.

The report, released in advance of a W.H.O. meeting here next week of health ministers from 30 countries, called for more research into how health care is delivered. .

"Half of the world's deaths could be prevented with simple and cost-effective interventions," said the report. "But not enough is known about how to make these more widely available to the people who need them," it continued.

The study said that inadequate health systems in developing countries had been a constraint in global programs to fights AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. "Countries with few resources struggle with creaking infrastructure, inadequate financing, migrating doctors and nurses and lack of basic information on health indicators," the study's authors concluded.

Despite this, there has been little headway in closing the gap between rich and poor countries in financing for research into the infectious diseases that disproportionately affect developing countries, like malaria and tuberculosis, the report said.

The Global Forum, which will hold its own meeting parallel to the W.H.O. conference, said that less than 10 percent of spending on health research goes to study 90 percent of the world's diseases.

"Very few infectious diseases are getting sufficient attention," said Stephen Matlin, the group's executive director. "They remain neglected diseases."

Pharmaceutical companies account for 48 percent of the spending for medical research, reflecting in part the increased cost of bringing a drug to market. The public sector, led by rising budgets at the National Institutes of Health in the United States, spends 44 percent of all research funds. Private foundations and universities account for the other 8 percent.

Pharmaceutical companies are reluctant to release information about their research, Mr. Matlin said, but the evidence is that much of their spending goes to developing therapies for noncommunicable diseases prevalent in wealthier countries.

Source: New York Times

I wonder how many immunizations or treatments for communicable diseases could be administered for the cost of a single implanted defibrillator? This would benefit a much greater population, unfortunately however, it is also a much poorer population. So many people dying of diseases that first-world nations eradicated decades or centuries ago… Sad, really sad.

Email to Friend Print