Benefits of Clinical Trial Management System

A Clinical Trial Management System (CTMS) is a software system used by pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries to deal with clinical trials in clinical research. This systematic software system manages and maintains planning, reporting and executing several functions, along with contact information of the participants. That’s not all one can also track deadlines and set milestones. Any new drug or medical device or therapeutic product prior to a final launch in the market, undergoes a clinical trial which is a medical research related study carried out on humans to ensure the efficiency and safety of those products. Many pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, and clinical research organizations (CRO) have made precise and proper managements of such clinical trials as their priority. Clinical trial management system assists in analysis and storage of drugs associated clinical data. This software system in mainly used to manage large chunk of informative data which includes a great amount of preparation, planning and reporting. This software also renders data to a business intelligence system. Its user-friendliness allows clinicians to keep a tab and manage the clinical trials, especially the one which are very complex in nature.

Globally, Clinical trial management system market is worth approximately US $534.0 million in 2016 and is predicted to grow at a CAGR of 11.5% during the forecast period from 2016 to 2021. The global acceptance of the CTMS software is on demand owing to the efficiency and significance of the outcomes and also the fact that it lessens the cost of amount invested on clinical trials. Major factors which are driving the lucrative growth of CTMS market are rising adoption of CTMS solutions in clinical trials, and increased R&D expenses of the biopharmaceutical pharmaceutical companies. Nevertheless, the acute insufficiency of trained and skilled professionals to function the latest CTMS solutions and restrained budget of small to medium sized biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies along with small CROs are hindering the future growth of this market.

Categories and Treatment of Pressure Ulcers

Pressure ulcers are many a time termed as bedsores, pressure sores or decubitus ulcers. These are localized skin injuries or inherent tissue which generally occurs over a bony protrusion as a result of pressure along with a combination of friction. These pressure ulcers happen owing to the pressure applied to soft tissues which partially or completely block the blood supply to that particular tissue.

These types of ulcers mostly happen to people who have not moved in a long time such as been bedridden or been on a wheelchair. The most common places on the body where these ulcers usually occur are over a bony prominence such as sacrum/ischium, heels, hips (trochanter), even knees, ankles, elbows, back of the head (occipit) and ears, coccyx, and at the back of the shoulders. It has been proved that a few other external factors can also encourage the tolerance of skin for any kind of pressure and eventually increasing the chances of pressure ulcer development. Microclimate (skin wetness because of sweating or incontinence), diseases that lessen the skin’s sensation (paralysis or neuropathy), protein-calorie malnutrition, and diseases that reduce blood flow to the skin (arteriosclerosis) are a few examples. The rate at which these pressure ulcers heal might get affected owing to the age of an individual, his/her health conditions – for instance diabetes, any kind of infection, or arteriosclerosis, having smoking habit, or consuming any anti-inflammatory drugs.

Classification and Treatment of Pressure Injury

Pressure injuries which occur due to pressure ulcers are usually classified depending on the intensity of the damage which has been suffered.

Stage 1 – When the skin remains intact with some visible changes and redness

Treatments – Keep the affected area clean and dry. Apply moisture barrier cream and reduce the pressure on that particular area by repositioning the body.

Stage 2 – When the skin becomes partially thick and has dermis or epidermis

Treatment – Clean the affected area with saline and small amount of hydrogel application is needed. Also, change the dressing every day. Off load the pressure ulcer area by distributing the weight to other places.

Stage 3 – Excessive thickness with necrosis of hypodermic tissue which might extend to underlying fascia

Treatment – Saline cleansing and hydrogel application. Cover the wound with non-adherent dressing and change regularly. Seek the help of a medical practitioner before the wound worsens.

Stage 4 – Complete thickness with skin loss with extreme tissue damage along with muscle and bone damage

Treatment – As this is the extreme stage of pressure ulcer, it might involve surgical procedure and severe medication depending upon the condition.

Apart from the above-mentioned treatments, there are also many products such as pressure relief mattress and bed pads, anti-bedsore mattress/cushions, etc., available in the market which helps in getting some relief from the pressure ulcers. Also, remember to keep yourself hydrated at all times, as dehydration might lead to rapid worsening of the pressure ulcer.

Brief Description of mHealth (Mobile Healthcare) Ecosystem

M-Health ecosystem refers to the habitual practice of rendering health services and health-related information with the help of mobile and electronic devices such as smart phones, tablets, PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) and wireless infrastructure. mHealth is the most important branch of the e-health (electronic health) and most of the times referred to as wireless health or digital health. mHealth ecosystem helps in providing one-to-one care and treatment for patients living in remote areas who do not have access to any personal medical care and are suffereing from acute illnesses. mHealth is drastically changing the way the world functions today because of the constantly evolving strategy.

 mHealth being ubiquitous, cost efficient along with the personalization of mobile devices are rendering unanticipated possibilities to provide healthcare services as quick and efficient as possible. mHealth is a sub-domain of electronic health technology and is emerging at a lightning speed with far reaching implications for the complete healthcare ecosystem. As per a recent survey, the total number of individuals using mobile monitoring devices with incorporated cellular connectivity surpassed one million in 2012 and is predicted to reach 7.10 million by the end of 2017. mHealth empowers people to opt for healthier lifestyles by making use of wireless monitoring devices in order to better manage acute diseases.

Cancer and diabetic patients using mHealth monitoring devices which constantly monitors medication schedule have been showing better adhesion to the guidelines of the treatment. At the primary care provider end of the mHealth ecosystem using mobile monitoring devices allows smart alert systems which notifies medical practitioners through a platform which is cloud based when a particular patient is not consuming his/her medicines and an intervention is needed. Many government organizations across the world have been investing to a great extent in mHealth ecosystem. The more mHealth ecosystem grows, the technology will emerge as a prime factor in impacting the overall healthcare industry.

What are Hemofiltration Generators and How do they work?

Hemofiltration Generators are machines used in hemofiltration procedure which is a therapy very similar to hemodialysis. This process is used in case of renal failure as a substitute to the function of kidneys. As compared to hemodialysis, hemofiltration is more often than not used in case of severe and acute renal failure or acute kidney injury (AKI) and that too in intensive care settings. The procedure involves the patient’s blood to pass through the hemofiltarion generators which separates out water and waste products from the blood and then adds the replacement fluid (a fluid to preserve the blood volume and supplies electrolytes) just before injecting the treated blood back to the patient’s body.

Hemofiltration is a prolonged, lengthy and uninterrupted process which generally needs 12 to 24 hours per session and is performed on a regular basis for as much as needed depending on the patient’s condition. Also, acute renal failure can be reversed effectively if the diagnosis is done at an early stage with an immediate appropriate treatment. The hemofiltration generators work slightly different from that of the machines used in hemodialysis, meaning the filtration method of both these machines are different. While both the methods involve a use of semi-permeable membrane to filter the blood, hemofiltration generators use convectional heat along with diffusion. The convectional heat enables positive pressure of the fluid to thrust out solutes and water via the filtering membrane, and therefore the hemofiltration generators are more effective than that of a hemodyliasis machine. The heat mechanism of the machine solves the underlying problem in diffusion alone by enabling the filtration of solutes of various sizes at a similar rate; and this rate of blood filtration of differently-sized solutes are balanced with the help of hemofiltration and dialysis one behind the other. It is a procedure which is termed as hemodiafiltration.

Different Functions of a Hemofiltration Generator:

·         To imitate the physiology and functions of the native organ

·         Repairing and maintaining of homeostasis

·         Qualitative and quantitative blood purification

·         Avoid complex and good clinical tolerance

·         Render conditions preferring the early recovery of renal function

Presently, there is an elevated demand of hemofiltration generators on a global level. This is owing to a few key factors such as rise in the number of acute kidney injuries (AKI), rising geriatric population with increasing number of ICU patients. Nonetheless, the complicated procedure and its cost per session, along with strict regulations and insufficiency of trained ICU nurses in the United States are hindering the market growth.

United States Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitors Industry 2016 Market Research Report

In the past decade, technology overall has been evolving constantly especially in the field of medical science. Furthermore, it has led to innovation of several electronic tools which are used for diagnosing and treating various numbers of disorders which was earlier very difficult. One such innovation is the Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring (ABPM) device which is also termed as ausculatory monitor. This device is used to continuously monitor your blood pressure levels at equal intervals of time (usually after every 15 to 20 minutes) while you are busy doing your day-to-day activity moving around. It records and keeps a track of the pressure levels for an entire 24 hours. This device uses a technique wherein a stethoscope reads the blood pressure levels together with a sphygmomanometer. It is an automated comprises of an inflatable arm cuff which can be adjusted to fit right in any size of the upper arm and it attached to an aneroid manometer.

Ambulatory BP monitors make use of cuff oscillometry method to identify diastolic, systolic, heart rate and mean blood pressure. ABPM devices render exact and valuable diagnostic data as compared to other blood pressure monitoring devices which are used at home or in hospitals. This device is of most value to record blood pressure values of different types of conditions associated with hypertension such as the following:

·         Hypertension because of frequent monitoring

·         Episodic hypertension (sometimes referred as panic disorder)

·         Autonomic nerve disorder (dysautonomia)

·         Masked hypertension (MH)

·         Abnormally low blood pressure because of antihypertensive medications

·         Distinguish between true hypertension and white collar hypertension

·       Assessment whether the antihypertensive medications is altering the early morning BP upsurge

Globally, there is a rising demand of ABPM devices as they are the most precise than any other blood pressure monitoring devices. This market is gaining lucrative growth owing to the rise in the number of patients suffering from either high or low blood pressure all over the world. Presently, there are approximately one billion people across the world suffering from high BP and the number is predicted to reach 1.56 billion by 2025.

For further market data on Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring (ABPM) devices, please refer to QY Research Groups’ market report on : http://www.qyresearchgroups.com/report/united-states-ambulatory-blood-pressure-monitors-industry-2016-market-research-report