Just got back from the American College of Physican Executives Annual Meeting.
It was a very enlightening time. I really enjoyed meeting physicians from all over the world with a deep interest in shaping the future of healthcare.
I presented a poster on my mobile apps - Prostate Pal and Bladder Pal that was very well received! I got some great feedback for future directions of the apps...as well as my career with respect to mobile healthcare technologies. Thank you to all those who came by and engaged me about this.
I'd like to focus a little bit on our keynote speaker - Peter Sims, author of the book "Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge from Small Discoveries". He gave a great talk about making small low risk pilot projects and prototypes to drive creativity. Some references he used to support this process were Frank Gehry's extensive use of models to create new buildings, Pixar's way of creating films, and the comedian's use of small venues as a lab to create new material. After his lecture, we participated in fun exercises to demonstrate the "Little Bet" principles that really let our creative juices flow.
Thanks to the meeting, I feel more empowered to take more creative stabs at things and approach life like a player in a casino rather than a nervous soldier in a minefield!
Monday, April 30, 2012
Friday, April 27, 2012
New drug approved by the FDA for ED
The FDA has just approved a new agent for male erectile dysfunction - Stendra (avanafil).
This medication is in the same class as Viagra (sildenafil), Levitra (vardenafil), and Cialis (tadalafil) - phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitors, or PDE-5 inhibitors.
How does this new agent compare to the existing drugs? Avanafil's reported time to maximal blood level or Tmax is 0.593 hours compared to 1, 0.7, and 2.0 hours for sildenafil, vardenafil, and tadalafil respectively. The reported half-life is 1.19 hours compared to 3-5, 4-5, and 17.5 hours for the other three respectively.
Reference: Drug Des Devel Ther. 2011;5:435-443
Based on this pharmacokinetic data, avanafil should work faster then be more quickly eliminated from the body compared to the other currently available drugs. It's targeting the end of the market where people want a fast onset of action and only have the medication in their system for the least amount of time.
Tadalafil targets the other end of the market where a man can take a daily formulation (2.5 mg or 5 mg) to be ready at any time or an as needed formulation (10 or 20 mg) where he can be ready for up to 36 hours.
It's too early to say what the differential impact will be between all of these drugs clinically. In the end, as some of the older drugs come off patent in a few years and the US market is flooded with generics, the relative cost of each agent will likely be a significant driving factor as to what oral agent patients choose.
This medication is in the same class as Viagra (sildenafil), Levitra (vardenafil), and Cialis (tadalafil) - phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitors, or PDE-5 inhibitors.
How does this new agent compare to the existing drugs? Avanafil's reported time to maximal blood level or Tmax is 0.593 hours compared to 1, 0.7, and 2.0 hours for sildenafil, vardenafil, and tadalafil respectively. The reported half-life is 1.19 hours compared to 3-5, 4-5, and 17.5 hours for the other three respectively.
Reference: Drug Des Devel Ther. 2011;5:435-443
Based on this pharmacokinetic data, avanafil should work faster then be more quickly eliminated from the body compared to the other currently available drugs. It's targeting the end of the market where people want a fast onset of action and only have the medication in their system for the least amount of time.
Tadalafil targets the other end of the market where a man can take a daily formulation (2.5 mg or 5 mg) to be ready at any time or an as needed formulation (10 or 20 mg) where he can be ready for up to 36 hours.
It's too early to say what the differential impact will be between all of these drugs clinically. In the end, as some of the older drugs come off patent in a few years and the US market is flooded with generics, the relative cost of each agent will likely be a significant driving factor as to what oral agent patients choose.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Why is the testis called the testis?
I have a pet peeve. Over the years, I've heard many people call or spell the testis a "testi" or "teste", perhaps from seeing testis or testes and removing the "s" thinking that it's plural. Since it's a latin word, the singular form is testis and the plural is testes.
So where does testis come from? Well, there is a commonality between the male gonad and a court of law. No, this is not a lawyer joke. Let me explain...When you are a witness in court you testify and in a man's scrotum are testicles or testes.
They share the same root word, testis, which means a witness.
Some related words from Wiktionary are:
test
testament
testify
testimony
How does this word relate to a the male anatomy? This root word was applied to the male gonad because it is a "witnesses for a man's virility".
It's funny how I've been involved in urology for many years and didn't know all these details about the word until now!
So where does testis come from? Well, there is a commonality between the male gonad and a court of law. No, this is not a lawyer joke. Let me explain...When you are a witness in court you testify and in a man's scrotum are testicles or testes.
They share the same root word, testis, which means a witness.
Some related words from Wiktionary are:
test
testament
testify
testimony
How does this word relate to a the male anatomy? This root word was applied to the male gonad because it is a "witnesses for a man's virility".
It's funny how I've been involved in urology for many years and didn't know all these details about the word until now!
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