Social Media : A Recruitment Tool for Clinical Trials

For a successful and efficient completion of Clinical Trial, the poor recruitment is a major obstacle.  A recent survey of corresponding authors of randomized trials found that nearly 60 minutes had either didn't meet their recruitment target or needed an extended recruitment period.  Insufficient recruitment of study participants could result in losing the statistical power of a predictive conclusion, likewise as prolonging the time and increasing the cost related to the study.

The path to recruitment is usually the much story in randomized clinical trials. While even failed results and conclusions of experiments are reported, inefficient recruitment methods often go unreported. Studies assessing effective recruitment methods are far too scarce. The few systematic reviews that have addressed this issue stress the lack of generalization of recruitment methods given the degree of subjectivity with respect to a particular study design, intervention type, and the nature of participation needed by volunteers.

The issue of poor recruitment becomes even more exaggerated when the target of a study is a special population like women in the perceptional period or during pregnancy. Risk perception with a clinical intervention during this period is often skewed from ‘actual risk’ to ‘imagined risk’ given this state of vulnerability and fears of coercion. As a result, there's an excellent want for the assessment of recruitment methods in special populations, like women in the perceptional amount, that aren't only efficient but also cost-effective.

With the arrival of the net and medical info being accessible on the net in recent years, volunteers collaborating in clinical trials have touched far from being “patients” to “informed health-care consumers”.  Many people thoroughly search their symptoms on the internet before they commit to visit a doctor who assigns them a diagnosing.  About one-third of American adult access social media for health matters. A survey conducted by the Opinion analysis Corporation incontestable that fifty nine of adults within the USA use the net to seek health information, creating it the foremost standard possibility over seeking similar information from a health care provider.

The accessibility of medical info on the net has not solely made modern-day patients more aware, however also more involved in their personal healthcare. Thus, social media to expose clinical trialsto a bigger subject population looks like a noticeable next step in making an attempt to optimize recruitment methods. Social media is usually on-line platform which will modify dialogue among people and online communities, serving as a website for info dissemination and discussion.

Clean Air Regulation

There appears to be some stipulations within the new american Power Act which tries to suppress the power of the EPA as clearly outlined in the Clean Air Act. Seen to be a very successful legislation, the Clean Air Act dates back to 1970, however the Supreme Court unrolled its call in 2007, granting full authority to the epa to regulate emissions as part of the said Act.

Critics of legislation passed by the House of Representatives to deal with climate change have created their voices heard during composition of the american Power Act. Specifically, as it seems that the EPA is prepared to introduce regulation to curb stationary sources of carbon emissions, some members of Congress want new legislation to be written to pre-empt it.

It seems that there's some language within the new american Power Act that seeks to dampen the power of the epa as written into the Clean Air Act. The latter is seen as a very successful piece of legislation, dating back to 1970, but in the judgment handed down by the Supreme Court in 2007, the epa was granted powerful authority to regulate carbon emissions as part of that Act.

Provisions at intervals the american Power Act mandate that the epa may not bring the power of the Clean Air Act to bear on major emitters of carbon, specifically power plants and large factories. Critics have cited this regulatory potential to be a "backdoor" way for the Administration to effectively tax energy use and carbon emissions.

Included within the American Power Act may be a cap and rebate provisions that deals with the producers of energy and a few different provisions that take care of threats to climate. whereas the political climate itself is much from appetizing, the damaging events of the Gulf oil spill square measure prompting popular opinion to push for legislation to curb energy usage. several square measure line for vital taxation on fossil fuels and investment in different sources of energy.

Pres. Obama has stated that the U.S. will reduce carbon emissions by 83 in 40 years. The american Power Act grants authority for such in the Environmental Protection Agency. without such legislation it's very unlikely that regulation as part of the Clean Air Act would achieve anywhere near that kind of reduction.

There seems to be a closing window of opportunity in the summer of 2010. Despite the events that happened in the Gulf of mexico, the Congress still doesn't pay that much of an attention to the difficulty. it might appear obvious that the legislation shall need to be addressed  in the near future should the promises made by the Pres. Obama to the listening world are to be unbroken.

In the event that the Congress would not successfully pass the climate bill in 2010, the EPA would currently need to follow through with a regulation that curtails carbon emissions from emitters that are stationary. This could appear to be the least enticing among the choices, tho' it leads to additional premiums on top of the traditional energy which would be shouldered by the other.

Carbon emission realization and ultimate reduction should be the goal of every business in the us. Unrestricted energy use is fast becoming a sore subject and organizations that aren't seen to be proactive risk damage to their reputations, quite apart from additional costs associated with an indirect or direct carbon tax.

Regulations change the way we do business all the time, especially when they involve climate change! For the last 50 years, nuclear energy has been depicted as a carbon free, clean alternative to fossil fuel-fired plants. More recently, wind farms and solar panel fields dominated the landscape. But what are the environmental impacts of these alternative sources? How do the risks of nuclear power play out in the public forum? Why do nuclear projects still encounter such forceful opposition? This program will review the issues that swirl around alternative energy sources as states attempt to comply with the Clean Power Program.

IRS Audits- A Nightmare to all Tax Payers

Though the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) allows taxpayers various means to save on taxes, it is the duty of the payee to keep precise records to the deductions in the audit. Organizing the tax records all through the year will make it easy for you to prepare your tax return and reduce the chances of errors. It will also allow you to build your defense if the IRS seeks to dispute your return. Here are a few best practices that any tax payer must follow to defend themselves against IRS disputes.

1.   Maintain records for at least three years of tax returns
2. Categorize your receipts from all purchases throughout the year
3. Maintain your checkbook stubs
4.  File every bill in organized folders
5. Track the cost basis for all taxable investments
6. Journal deductible items as and when they occur

You may be slapped with penalties depending on your nature of underpayment.

In case of serious under payments resulting from fraud, you may be slapped with 75% penalty.  For tax violations and more serious case of tax evasion, the person could be convicted to prison. In toto audits are unpleasant but you need not dread them if you have kept the financial records organized and up to date.

To learn more on the importance of Pre-planning an anticipated audit, how to analyze an Information Document Request (IDR), and how to solicit a client's cooperation in developing an Audit Plan attend this webinar IRS Audits – Step by Step

What is an EDC system or Electronic Data Capture System?

An EDC system is a software for storing patient data that are collected during clinical trials. Usually the data is first recorded on paper, and then transcribed into the system and stored in an electronic case report form (eCRF). Today almost all clinical trials are using EDC software to replace paper records with electronic records. EDC systems are being adopted by sponsors, contract research organizations (CROs), and sites to carry out both simple and complex trials in all phases of research. Though there are a lot of EDC vendors, a few organizations build their own in-house system. Most EDC systems offer diverse features, but generally EDC software is designed to rationalize data collection.

The advantages of EDC systems over paper records are:

1     Data security
2.   Easy access to the data
3.   Organization
4.    Accuracy
5.    Compliance
6.    Cheaper

How to choose investigators who can be compliant with FDA inspectional requirements for electronic data capture and direct data entry? How to identify study data elements that require hard copy source documentation? How to design your e CRF to address the origination, authorization, and signature inspectional requirements To get answers for all these questions attend the webinar FDA Electronic Data Capture Guidance - What is the impact on Investigator Site Inspectional Source Record Requirements?

Deficits in Telecommuting

Telecommuting is a typical arrangement by which an employee works away from the worksite (such as working from home or library, or business center) for a specific time of period.

The purpose of the Telecommuting concept is to create flexible working conditions to employees to help them integrate their work lives and personal lives more effectively and better manage issues such as care giving, commuting, community service and continuing education. Successful telecommuting arrangements serve the needs both of individual employees and their unit/departments. The focus of the arrangement is on meeting operational needs and job performance.  It is mandatory to have a written agreement clarifying both parties’ expectations for telecommuting purpose. 

To learn more on what are the legal risks involved in "telecommuting" and employees working from home? How do you protect safety sensitive information when employees are working outside the office? How do you keep up with “hours worked” for those who are not exempt under the Fair Labor Standards Act? Attend this webinar Legal Risks & Issues in the Virtual and Telecommuting Working Environment

Customer Centricity in Healthcare Industry

Off late like any other industry the healthcare organizations also started to recognize that a consumer-driven model of care has become the latest norm. As per the consumer psychology, they make the buying decisions based on how they connect with a brand or company, and this is applicable to even the health care industry, for example if a patient is made to wait or he/she do not understand how his/her bill was calculated, they will move to other organization for treatment.

Here are four tips to ensure customer centricity in healthcare industry.

• 1     Provide better access- Patients expect healthcare services to be more accessible from home or wherever they are. Healthcare providers must provide more flexibility, home visits and telemedicine facility.
• 2  No more waiting in queues—It irks a patient to wait to see the doctor in spite of obtaining an appointment. In order to fix this issue the healthcare organization must work robust on scheduling the appointments and treating the patients with courtesy and giving them the privileges of a valued customer.
• 3    Revamping cost- The key objectives of any patient are better service at less cost. To deliver these two an organization must work on a more effective model that brings down the cost and provide value for money services by enhancing the quality for the target patient customers.
• 4   Seek experts help-If the health care personnel do not have ample expertise to lead an organization to such a wide transformation, he must seek the help of an expert to ensure support in delivering a more customer-centric experience on the right path.

To learn more on what and why customer centricity is important to healthcare? Why have we moved from provider-centered focus to patient-centered focus? The impact that a patient-centered focus has on healthcare operations? Attend this Webinar Customer Centricity and Quality Management in Healthcare