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7 days in healthcare (January 15th-21st, 2024)

covidoriginandChina,

 

Summary

From the point of view of Biomedicine, it is worth highlighting the fact that in China they created the first cloned monkey, which introduces us to the ethical debate of the possible cloning of human beings. Also the fact of the discovery of biomarkers that allow persistent covid to be diagnosed.

As far as Global Health is concerned, it is confirmed that cyber attacks, whose frequency is only growing, are one of the greatest dangers to health systems, which is forcing governments to reinforce security standards.

In terms of International Health Policy, as demonstrated by the American Cancer Society, mortality from cancer is falling in the United States, due to the combined effect of less smoking, earlier diagnoses and more effective treatments. An article in the New York Times summarizes the six reasons why medicines are so expensive in the United States (twice as much as in other high-income countries, such as Germany and the United Kingdom), perhaps the most important being the absence of a centralized price negotiation body, something about to be overcome, given the upcoming Medicare negotiation on these prices. A group of Nobel Prize winners and scientists are addressing the EU to ask for less rigidity in the regulations on genetic modification, in order to protect crops. The ECDC launches RespiCast, a new center for the prevention of respiratory diseases.

If we talk about National Health Policy (Spain), the tripledemic is on the decline, at least as far as the pressure on hospitals is concerned. Although it may seem like an anecdote, the situation of the pediatric ICU in La Paz is a metaphor for human resources policy in the health sector. This ICU remains closed, due to the loss of all medical staff, as a result of the judicial decision that reinstates a former head of the Unit in his position. The Statute leads to the situation where the actions of a single person can put a service, a hospital, a manager, a regional minister and the Ministry in check, indefinitely and without anything happening. It is an extreme case, but it is something that happens every day. In this way, centers that claim to be companies cannot be managed. In the field of transplants, Spain has been a world leader for 32 years in a row.

As for Companies, internationally, Lilly’s leadership among pharmaceutical companies seems destined to last. At the national level, problems at Grifols, which call into question the future of this company, as well as the control by its founding family. Losses by Ribera in its Galician hospitals.

Biomedicine

Global Health

International health policy

National health policy

Companies