All posts by Turacoz Group

National Leadership Summit On Women And Education, 2019 Held At Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi

Press Release

Women Innovation and Entrepreneurship Foundation (WIFE) had conducted the second edition of the National Leadership Summit on Women and Education on 18th Feb 2019 at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi.  The Chief Guest of the summit, Shri Suresh Prabhu, Honorable Minister of Commerce, Industry and Civil Aviation addressed the gathering and acknowledged women and men who are on mission of empowering women entrepreneurs across India. The awards were focused on honoring women entrepreneurs who have set a standard in a male dominating industry. Dr Namrata Singh, Founder and Director, Turacoz Healthcare Solutions, had received an Indian Women Excellence and Leadership Award in healthcare sector for her persistent efforts, dedicated work and going extra mile to impart knowledge and experience in medical field.

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Moving to Virtual Clinical Trials

Clinical Trials, , , , ,

 

In the clinical trials industry, 80% of trials do not meet enrolment timelines, leading to a loss of $8 million per day. Delayed enrolment not only impacts trial timelines, but more trials are being cancelled because of it, preventing investigators from determining the safety and efficacy of what could be promising new therapies for patients who need them the most.  This loss can be dealt through incorporation of virtual clinical trials. Unlike traditional site based clinical trials, virtual clinical trials do not require multiple study sites. Though some research space will be required for management of a virtual clinical trial, it can generally be organized from a single facility. Also, patients need not be in proximity to sites, and the data collection requirements fit more easily into their everyday routines, improving compliance and patient engagement. Greenlight insights reported that virtual industry will reach $7.2 billion by the end of 2017, and is expected to touch $74.8 billion by 2021.

Virtual clinical trial is a new method of collecting safety and efficacy data from trial participants, from scratch of the study through execution to follow-up. The participant does not have to travel to the trial site and can make use of simple mobile applications to report general information and adverse events. Body temperature and other vital signs are send directly to the electronic data capture records via wearable sensors.

What are the benefits of virtual clinical trials?

The advantages of virtual clinical trials compared to the traditional trials are mentioned below.


Figure 1: Benefits of virtual clinical trials
  1. Maximizes patient availability and enrolment: The patient recruitment phase is longest in clinical trials and almost 80% of the study fails to reach the initial target.
  2. Overcome of mobility issues: As the patient is not required to travel to the trial site or doctor’s office, it is convenient for elderly participants residing in remote area.
  3. Keep subjects engaged with the study: Almost 40% of the phase III clinical trials subjects drop out from the study due to many factors such as inconvenience in travelling, complexity of trial design and data collection procedure. However, virtual clinical trials does not require patient to travel to clinical study sites. Also, the data collection procedure is automated which increases the patient engagement and reduces the dropout rates.
  4. Better data collection: Data collection is made easy by electronic data capture records hence; the timelines can be achieved at a faster rate.
  5. Benefits to research team: With notifications, scheduling and reporting functions, researchers are freed from performing tedious administrative duties.
  6. Reduce risk in drug development process: Real-time data analysis and data cleaning can be carried out simultaneously. Based on the real time clinical trial data, decisions to terminate drugs development can be made faster.
  7. Cost effectiveness: The reduced number of sites involved in the study leads to reduction of the cost. While trial staff will likely still be based at a single site or a reduced number of sites in multi-site trials, the operating costs will be significantly lower.

Key challenges of virtual clinical trials

  1. Sometimes
    technology may fail:     When everything
    relies on technology, challenge arises if it won’t operate optimally.
  2. Data accuracy
    problems:     As the patients will not face the
    doctor directly, doubts exist whether ideal standard treatment care is provided
    for the patient.
  3. Conservative in
    approach:     Corporate conservatism is another
    major challenge as it is difficult for the sponsors to move on from traditional
    method and trust the data generated from virtual clinical trials.
  4. Challenges in
    device selection:      There are concerns that the device model, the position at which the
    trial participants wear it and other factors could introduce variability into
    the trial results.

Pioneers in virtual clinical trials

REMOTE (Research on Electronic Monitoring of Overactive Bladder Treatment Experience) trial by Pfizer in 2011 was the first virtual clinical trial. Though, the trial faced many challenges, it was the first trial to use web and smartphone based patient recruitment. Also, the patients were not required to visit the study site.

Turacoz Healthcare Solutions aims to provide information regarding the latest trend in clinical trial industry. Turacoz is a medical communications company, which offers services to healthcare professionals in clinical research, regulatory writing, publication writing, medico-marketing writing, and support for conducting medical advisory board meetings.

To know more about us and our services, write to us at [email protected]

Financial Disclosures in Medical Publishing

Medical Publishing, , , , ,

Introduction

Financial disclosures enable the readers to evaluate the potential conflict of interest (COI) which probably builds the trust of transparency in the medical publishing’s.

Importance

The financial disclosures are made available to the readers either in the published article or by posting the submitted financial disclosure forms online along with the published article. It allows the readers to evaluate the author disclosure with COI and analyze the financial aspect of the published material. Furthermore, it allows one to interpret the information provided in the article accordingly in the gleam of all those disclosures.

Consequences

  • Many scientific journals and funding agencies have adopted and regularized it for the authors to disclose all finance related interests to improve the uprightness of science and manage all COIs. The complete disclosure removes the inkling of hiding some relevant information regarding the object.
  • It allows the reader to draft their own opinion on whether a COI exists and what significant association it has with the study.
  • Readers and editors easily recognize that several nonfinancial forms of bias, may it be executive, cognitive, competition at academic level, or discriminatory based on personal confront can affect a study or the reviews.

Over the past few decades, only the financial disclosure has emerged as an attainable goal among the above stated, but the process has not been perfected either in concept or practice.

The financial disclosure remains a debatable topic in field of medicine with some finding the requested reporting burdensome and others still unsatisfied that declaration is pellucid, at its best.

Turacoz Healthcare Solutions, a medical communication company providing medical writing services, understands the significance of financial disclosures in medical publishing.

Turacoz provides services like scientific writing, publication writing, regulatory writing, clinical trial writing support, pharmacovigilance support, etc.

To know more about the services and to seek help, you can write us at [email protected]

New Drugs For HIV: Making An Impact On HIV Treatment

Drugs and Disease, , , , , , , ,

The global statistics for HIV/AIDS 2017 have revealed that around 37 million people across the globe were affected by HIV, out of which 1.8 million were children. 1.8 million new cases of HIV were registered in 2017, making it about 5,000 new cases per day.

Around 75% of the total people affected by HIV were aware of their condition, whereas the rest 25% were yet to be examined. HIV screening is very important and crucial for its prevention and treatment. 21.7 million HIV positive people, globally, were having the access to antiretroviral therapy (ART).

Though the deaths due to AIDS have been reduced by 51 %, globally, there is still a lot to be done for this condition. Till date, we have no cure for HIV. There are various advancements in the drugs for HIV treatment, but there hasn’t anything been invented yet that can cure HIV forever. In such a case, every new drug invented and approved is a ray of hope for many HIV patients worldwide.

New drugs approval for HIV:

Recently, the US Food and Drug Administration gave its approval to two new drugs developed for treating HIV-1, the most common form of the virus.

Over the decades, this disease has been researched upon and understood by various scientists and efforts have been made to find treatment for the same. This approval signifies the potential and improvement in the treatment of the ailment and states that the options for treating the condition have now increased.

Known drug manufacturer, Merck, announced that FDA have approved the two new antiretroviral drugs- Delstrigo & Pifeltro.

These oral medications are targeted toward those adult HIV patients who have not been exposed to antiretroviral treatments before. These medications aren’t meant for the patients who have been previously receiving the antiretroviral treatments.

The approval for these drugs was granted posted the successful phase 3 clinical trial of these 2 drugs. The trial involved 700 participants for each drug. Both the medicines had same side effect of reducing the cholesterol levels.

People with HIV are now living longer life and with the recent statistics it can be inferred that very soon HIV positive people will live longer than 50 years. In such situation they are most likely to be exposed to issues like high cholesterol. So, in such conditions, the side effects of these drugs can prove beneficial as they lower down the cholesterol.

No single drug is effective for HIV patients. So, people who are looking forward to these drugs must consult their doctor beforehand to figure out the most suited treatment for them.

Choosing a certain drug or treatment regimen depends highly on various factors such as other medical issues faced by the patient, possible side effects and drug interactions. As more and more drug being available for the treatment, customized treatments can be generated keeping in mind patient’s condition.

The complexity of HIV/AIDS is still highly misunderstood by people in general and a lot is yet to be done in treatment of HIV.

Turacoz Healthcare Solutions hopes that more and even better drugs will be manufactured in near future which will make a positive impact on the treatment of HIV/AIDS and hopes that the new drugs manufactured will help in treating HIV and benefit HIV positive people.

Being a medical communication company, Turacoz wishes for HIV positive people to live a long and healthy life. Turacoz offers medical writing services like clinical trial support, pharmacovigilance support, regulatory writing, etc. and is updated on the recent advancements in the treatment of various diseases.

To know more, write us at [email protected]

Myths about HIV/AIDS: Busted

Awareness Day/Month, , , , ,

Ever since HIV/AIDS is discovered, there have been lots of rumors surrounding it. This article aims at busting those myths and presenting the fact.

HIV-Human Immunodeficiency Virus attacks the immune system of human body and makes a person weaker and increases his disability to fight against diseases. This is caused by having unprotected sex with a HIV positive person and using shared needles/syringes for injecting drugs.

There are various myths about HIV. Let’s have a look at them and then get aware of the reality:

  • You can get HIV by being around a HIV positive individual: This is the most popular rumor surrounding this situation, that you can get affected by HIV by staying around a person who suffers from this disease.

Fact: You cannot get affected by HIV by shaking hands, touching, hugging, kissing or sitting together with a HIV positive person. The HIV virus transfers to your body through vaginal fluids, semen and blood of a HIV positive person.

  • HIV is caused by mosquito and insect bites: Another popular myth which says that if a mosquito bites a HIV positive person and bites you too, then you can also get HIV.

Fact: One cannot get HIV from any mosquito or insect bites. Mosquitoes never inject blood in your body, not does any other insect.

  • You cannot live long, if diagnosed with HIV: A common misconception is that if you have HIV than your life is cut-short or say is over. You will die soon.

Fact: HIV does not mean that your life is over. When it came into knowledge, there were any deaths due to it because there was nothing that we knew about this disease. But today, a lot is known about it. Though there is no fix cure for this, but still, there are certain treatments and therapies that help control the damage HIV does to your body. If one follows proper therapy and takes daily doses, one can live a normal, healthy and long life.

  • Having sex with a HIV positive person will get you HIV: Another myth, that says, if you become physically intimate with a person who is HIV positive, you can also get affected by the virus.

Fact: It is very important to understand that how HIV spreads, what are the risk factors and the preventative measures. By using quality condoms, you can lower down the risk of transmission of this virus. Practicing safe sex is the key to stay away from getting infected with this virus.

  • A woman affected by HIV will pass it on to her baby: This myth states that a HIV positive woman will pass on this virus to her baby during pregnancy and the baby with be HIV positive too.

Fact: This can only be possible in the case where no proper measures are taken to prevent the baby from the virus. A HIV positive woman can prevent her baby from getting infected by taking proper treatments at the right time. There are some treatments available that ensure safer deliver of child and keep him/her virus-free.

  • There is no need for condom if you use HIV Prevention Pill: A myth that says, one does not need to use condoms if he/she is taking a PrEP.

Fact: PrEP (HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis) is a technique through which the use of a regular antiretroviral pills can lower down the risk of getting infected by HIV by as much as 92%. But this does not state that the condoms should not be used at all. It is always good to stay on the safer side.

  • One can stop using condoms if he has an undetectable virus: A myth that says if you have suppressed your viruses to an undetectable level, you should quit using condoms.

Fact: It is true to a certain extent that a person who has suppressed his viruses completely such that they become undetectable, is less likely to transmit the virus. But this doesn’t ensure that there aren’t any factors that can increase or reduce the risk individually.

  • We are on the verge of curing HIV/AIDS: Another false claim that the cure for HIV is about to be discovered.

Fact: There are numerous researches going on and a lot has been understood on this disease. Advances are being made but we are not yet close to disclosing the cure for it. Till date, this disease has no permanent cure and only certain drugs are available which can help control the damage.

  • Straight men and the ones who do not take IV drugs cannot get HIV: Misconception that only gays can get affected by this virus called HIV.

Fact: Though men involved in homosexual sex are more likely to develop HIV, heterosexual contact can also get you affected. Around 3 in 4 women and 1 out of 6 men have this situation.

  • You cannot have children if you’re HIV positive: A very common misconception stating that a HIV positive cannot conceive and extend family.

Fact: It is not necessary that you will not be able to have children if HIV positive. There are certain ways and treatments that can help you conceive. Though HIV is a sexually transmitted disease, there are various options you can consider for conceiving, depending on which partner is HIV positive.

Turacoz Healthcare Solutions aims at spreading awareness regarding HIV/AIDS and debunk any myths or misconceptions surrounding it and make people understand the reality.

Turacoz is a medical communication company and provide services like medical writing, regulatory writing, publication writing,  pharmacovigilance, etc. So, being related to pharma industry, we believe in raising awareness among masses for certain diseases and help them in knowing the truth.

To avail our services or for any query or help, you can contact us at:

[email protected]

Time for India to adopt orphan drugs

Drugs and Disease, , , ,

What are orphan drugs?

The term orphan drug refers to any drug or biological product intended for treatment, prevention or diagnosis of a rare disease. The definition of rare disease varies across countries but typically considers the prevalence of the disease, severity and existence of alternative therapies. As per WHO, a disease is considered rare if it affects ≤ 1 in 1000 population. In Unites states, a condition is rare if it affects fewer than 200,000 people in the country while in European union, it’s for < 1 in 2000 people.

Examples of rare disease include genetic disease, rare cancers., infectious tropical disease and degenerative disease. Oncology products account for greatest number of orphan drug designations.

Why Orphan?

Considering the high cost of drug development and lower patient pool, it becomes unviable for pharmaceutical companies to invest in these rare diseases, thus naming them orphan. In lack of proper diagnostic tools and treatment options, the patient’s suffering widens and poses a challenge for the doctor, society and the Government. To overcome this, the government and several NGOs provide incentives to drug companies to develop and market such drugs. The support is extended by the federal legislature through various research grants, market exclusivity, access to centralized facilities, free scientific advice, tax credits and fee reduction.

Adoption of Orphan drugs

Orphan designation may be granted at any stage of drug development if proper scientific justification is provided for its intended use. Efficacy, safety and quality of the drug should be satisfied to receive market authorization.

USA was the first country to pass orphan drug act in 1983 followed by Japan in 1993, Australia in 1997 and EU in 2000.

It is difficult to understand that countries like India and China being two of the largest in terms of population size still lack the designation of orphan drugs and national legislation for them. It creates a substantial negative impact on patients affected with such diseases.

The rare diseases are estimated to affect 72-96 million people in India. Though rare disease policy was drafted by Indian Government in 2017, it has yet to see the light of the day. The policy is the first major step by the government which recommends genetic counselling, as well as pre-natal and antenatal screening. Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has launched a registry for Indian rare diseases to collect data for policy framing and guide future research. Beyond funding, a more holistic approach and faster implementation is the need of the hour to facilitate the adoption of orphan drugs.

Turacoz Healthcare Solutions takes an initiative to sensitize general population and pharmaceutical companies on the challenges faced by people affected with rare disease and take adequate steps via regular screening to limit such conditions. Turacoz is a medical communication company that provides scientific/medical/ regulatory writing support to the industry and is serving their clients in developing new drug applications, protocol writing for research, and medico marketing support. To get the assistance you can get in touch with us at [email protected]

It’s about the Blue Circle: Diabetes, its types and challenges

Awareness Day/Month, , , , ,

Not everything sugar is good for you! The overdose of sweetness in your life can be fatal as the threat called ‘Diabetes’ is hovering over the head of millions of people around the globe. It has emerged as the leading cause of blindness, kidney failure and lower limb amputations, globally.

The worldwide commonness of diabetes among grown-ups of the age 18 years and above has ascended from 4.7% in 1980 to 8.5% out of 2014, i.e. 108 million to 422 million.

In 2016, an expected 1.6 million deaths were straightforwardly caused by diabetes. Another 2.2 million deaths were inferable from high blood glucose in 2012. As per WHO estimates, diabetes was the 7th prominent cause of deaths in 2016. Diabetes has been prevalent in the middle and low-income nations.

When talking about Asian countries, India accounts for the most number of diabetic people. As per WHO, India is on the top of the list of the countries with highest number of diabetic people. Currently India represents 49% of world’s diabetic population, with around 72 million cases in 2017 and this figure is expected to rise by more than double by the next decade.

A month dedicated to Diabetes:

The month of November is observed as Diabetes month and November 14th of every year is celebrated as World Diabetes Day in order to raise awareness about Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, considering the gravity of the ailment.

The theme for the year 2018-2019 is “The Family and Diabetes”.

We all have come across a pink ribbon for breast cancer awareness, a red ribbon for AIDS awareness, etc. The World diabetes is denoted by a Big Blue O.

The blue colour is intended to summon the shade of the sky, and the circle is an image of solidarity. This symbol thus stands for “unite for diabetes”.

What is diabetes?

Diabetes is a critical, long lasting condition where your blood glucose level is extreme. It is chronic disease in which he pancreas either are unable to produce insulin or the body is not able to efficiently use the insulin formed.

Be it any type of diabetes, it holds one thing in common which is that they cause the patients to form extreme level of glucose (sugar) in their blood. It is true that the human body needs glucose as it is the source of energy but excessive formation of it is not good for the body.

Glucose is formed when our body breaks down the carbohydrates which we consume in form of solids or liquids and this glucose is then diffused to the blood. A hormone named ‘Insulin’, secreted by pancreas, helps the glucose in the blood to enter the cells and provide us energy.

A non-diabetic person’s pancreas realizes when the glucose enters the blood and eventually releases the right amount of insulin helping the glucose to enter the cells. This whole process doesn’t function properly in a person affected by diabetes.

The 2 main type of diabetes are: Type 1 and Type 2. They’re diverse conditions, yet they both are serious.

Type 1 and type 2 diabetes:

People with Type 1 diabetes are not capable of making insulin, but the case differs for the person with Type 2 diabetes. The person with latter form of diabetes has either insufficient amount of insulin produced, or the insulin formed doesn’t work effectively. Around 90-95% of a diabetic cases accounts for Type 2 diabetes.

In both types of diabetes, the glucose is unable to enter the cells and thus start accumulating into blood, causing various health issues such as heart problems, issues with eyesight, adverse effect on kidneys, etc.

Symptoms of Type 1 diabetes:

  • Polyuria (increased frequency of urination)
  • Feeling excessively thirsty (polydipsia)
  • Frequent hunger
  • Weight loss
  • Changes in eyesight
  • Tiredness

Symptoms of Type 2 diabetes:

These are almost similar to the Type 1 diabetes but may remain undiagnosed in initial or early stage and hence the complications arise.

Other rare types of diabetes are:

  • Maturity onset diabetes of the young (MODY): A rare types of diabetes that runs in family and is caused by a change or mutation in a single gene. So if any parent has this mutation, there are 50% chances that their child will inherit it from them and even can develop it before the age of 25 irrespective of their weight, lifestyle, etc.
  • Neonatal diabetes: It is spotted under the age of 6 months. In it the mutation of genes affects the insulin formation resulting in a high blood glucose level. Around 20% of people affected by this have developmental delay or epilepsy. It’s different from Type 1 diabetes on the point that Type 1 doesn’t affect a person below the age group of 6 months.
  • Wolfram syndrome: A rare type of genetic disorder which is also acknowledged as DIDMOAD syndrome, pertaining to its 4 common features (Diabetes Insipidus, Diabetes Mellitus, Optic Atrophy & Deafness).
  • Alstrom syndrome: It is also a rare genetically inherited condition which has features like Retinal decay, loss of hearing capacity, obesity, kidney failure, rheumatic problems, etc.

People suffering with Type 2 diabetes have quite a few issues when monitoring their health, like:

  • Monitoring their blood sugar level at regular intervals, throughout the day.
  • Consuming a diabetic-friendly diet
  • Exercising on daily basis to stay fit and maintain weight.
  • Taking the daily dose of medications.
  • Frequently visiting the doctor for check-ups.

What makes this a tedious task is that only 1% of diabetic people’s time is spent under the guidance of a healthcare expert, rest 99% are managing it on their own. Self-management is the toughest form of management.

Adhering to a strict and healthy diet becomes quite a difficult task for people today, considering their hectic life schedule.

The most crucial aspect in case of diabetes is early diagnosis. The prediabetes is very important in determining the factors related to Type 2 diabetes. When talking about the challenges in diabetes diagnosis, the awareness of the disease is the most crucial part. The prediabetes stage is the phase when one needs to get alert in order to avoid further complications in diabetes and reach out for early and timely diagnosis.

What is prediabetes?

It is concerned with the pre-diagnosis of diabetes. It is basically a warning signal for a person whose blood sugar level is higher than normal. Though it is not considered as diabetes, but still implementing a healthy lifestyle from thereon can help reduce the risk of forming Type 2 diabetes later.

By adapting a healthy lifestyle, eating healthy and exercising daily and maintaining a healthy weight can prevent prediabetes from converting into diabetes.

Prediabetes strikes when your body starts encountering trouble with the use of insulin. It is yet not clear as to what causes the insulin process to go astray in some people.

Here are the risk factors that contribute to the development of prediabetes:

  • Weight issues: Being overweight i.e. having a BMI more than 25 can result in prediabetes.
  • Absence of exercise: Not doing any form of physical activity can result into mismanagement of weight and leading to problem like obesity which is the root cause of prediabetes.
  • Family history: If someone in your close blood relation or a family member near to you has diabetes, then you are likely to develop it too, as it is hereditary in nature.
  • Age: Getting older has its own set of cons and one such is the risk of developing diabetes. People with age 45 & above can expect to be at the risk of prediabetes and post 65, this risk increases even more.
  • Other health issues: People with high blood pressure/hypertension are at the risk of getting type 2 diabetes.
  • PCOS: In women, PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome), wherein multiple cysts get formed into ovaries, increases the risk of developing prediabetes as one cause for these cysts can be insulin resistance.
  • Gestational diabetes: If a woman has developed diabetes during the pregnancy, there are higher chances of developing prediabetes in the long run.

Challenges in health management during diabetes:

  • Absence of disease arbitration for pre-diabetics: As per American Diabetes Association, the predominance of diabetes has hiked up by 40%, during the last decade. Without any mediation, these numbers will constantly rise in the coming years. 1 in every 3 adults is suffering from prediabetes, but dismally only 7-10% are informed of it. In the absence of intervention, around 30% of such people will fall prey to Type 2 diabetes in a time-span of 3 years.
  • Cohesion with medication: Diabetic people juggle between the costs, avenues, competing arrangements and absence of awareness when they struggling to adhere to the medication.
  • Expensive treatments: The treatment expenses for diabetes are really high. The minimum cost care is impediment, early diagnosis and treatment soon after to minimize the chances of any complications.
  • Inclusion for meds and supplies associated with diabetes: The patients today bear a huge responsibility towards their healthcare costs. Along with the payment of rising insurance premiums, they also have to cope-up with the extra costs of co-pays, co-insurance, etc.

Every problem comes with a solution and so is the case with diabetes. Here are the solutions for the complexities of diabetes management:

  • As mentioned, that early diagnosis is very crucial, staying alert and vigilant about the early symptoms is very important which helps in early detection of diabetes. Symptoms like excessive hunger and urination, excessive thirst, fatigueness, etc. are to be watched out for and in case of any doubt consulting with the physician will help in the diagnostics of prediabetes.
  • A fasting plasma glucose test is used to detect diabetes (126 mg/dl & more) or prediabetes (100mg/dl-125mg/dl) and provides with the measurement of blood glucose, post eating for a minimum of 8 hours.
  • Oral Glucose Tolerance is used to measure blood sugar, post 8 hours of eating anything and post 2 hours of drinking glucose drink. It tests diabetes (200mg/dl & above) and prediabetes (140mg/dl-199mg/dl).
  • There is a random plasma glucose test which in conducted test blood sugar irrespective of when the food is consumed. With particular symptoms like excessive urination, hunger or thirst and weight loss, etc., values of 200mg/dl or more is tested.

Type 1 diabetes is diagnosed earlier as compared to Type 2 diabetes as the symptoms are quite evident and it requires immediate medical care. In case of Type 2 diabetes, the symptoms are too mild to be detected early and can go unnoticed for 7-10 years, inviting more complications and greater health risks.

Now it is about the lifestyle choices that you make. The sedentary lifestyle which people lead today has given birth to various health issues, diabetes being the main. Try to live a more active and healthy lifestyle to prevent yourself against this disease. Healthy eating and healthy living is the key to a healthy life. Being aware regarding the disease can help reduce the risk of its development.

Turacoz Healthcare Solutions-a medical communications company, understands the complexity of diabetes and acknowledges that the hectic schedule of the corporate has fuelled the condition. Turacoz practices a healthy working style for its employees. Practicing desktop yoga, eating healthy and taking breaks in-between work is the culture practiced here. Turacoz values its employees and understands the fact that ‘health is wealth’ and is constantly working towards making work-life healthier for the employees and practicing a active and healthy living style.

Turacoz follows a ‘NO-STRESS’ policy for its employees and believes in keeping the work environment friendly and healthier to avoid any work or workstation related stress and pressure, as stress is also a key factor in triggering diabetes among people.

“Healthy living, healthy eating and healthy working are the mantra for Turacoz Healthcare Solutions”.

 

 

Breast cancer does not define you nor does it end your life!

Awareness Day/Month, , ,

The month of October is dedicated to breast cancer to create awareness regarding this prevalent cancer in women, globally. Breast cancer accounts for up to 25% of all new cancers diagnosed in women worldwide. With this being such a serious health issue, it is important to raise awareness about the same.

Here are few of the stories from some of the brave breast cancer survivors:

1. This story is of Kajal:

“My world fell apart on learning that I had breast cancer. It was discovered that my tumor was 1.2 cm and my cancer turned out to be both estrogen and progesterone positive. I cried my eyes out. I was only 24, it wasn’t the time for me to be dealing with cancer. I had different dreams and aspirations but now everything was so different.

I had no family history of breast cancer, so I never ever imagined that I would be going through this. My family and the doctors were my greatest support at this very terrifying phase of my life. Post discussions it was decided that I would be going through double mastectomy. My doctors weren’t concerned about the preservation of fertility until they discovered that I would be needing chemotherapy.

I was clueless when asked that whether I wanted to freeze my eggs, considering that I was so young. But I went on for it. I didn’t wanted to give up on my long hair locks but seeing them fall out in chunks was heartbreaking and I ended up shaving my head.

I was scared to look at myself in the mirror. I was frustrated, sad and miserable complaining why it had to be me! Life was so unfair. But I came in touch with other women who were fighting the same ailment as me. Slowly I began to regain the lost spirit and strength and was determined to defeat cancer. I decided to be a fighter. Everyone around me was so supportive.

It has been 1 year, and I have survived various round of chemo and radiations and I am still going strong. To all the young girls out there struggling with cancer, I would say that don’t let cancer break you, your dreams and your soul. Pull up your socks and fight back and you would emerge victorious.”

2. Neeta’s story:

“Life was going smooth. I got married to the love of my life at the age of 32. We were thinking of a beautiful future ahead, but my world flipped upside down on learning that I had breast cancer. I was noticing a lump on my right breast and ignored it for several days think of it as a normal cyst. My husband insisted that I once get it checked. I had an ultrasound, escalated to mammogram and then biopsy to confirm that I my diagnosis would be for stage 2 triple negative breast cancer.

I was shattered. I knew being a cancer patient means taking all those painful chemo sessions and a lot more and going through various side-effects of the therapies. All I could think of was that it couldn’t have happened to me. I felt helpless but my husband, family and the doctors comforted me and made me believe that I could be cured.

As the chances for pregnancy would eventually decrease with chemo, I went through IVF and got my eggs freezed in hopes of becoming a mother someday. It all began then. I have completed 17 rounds of chemo and dealt with various extra drugs helping me to fight cancer.

I cried seeing my hair fall. I sometimes didn’t had strength to even speak loudly and I ended up crying silently blaming god for my condition. I was dealing with fatigue, nausea and some neuropathy issues.

Undergoing 30 rounds of radiations was not half as painful as the mental and emotional pain I was going through. At one point I even stopped thinking of any future fearing that there might be no future for me. But the support I received from my family, husband, doctors and friends dragged me out of the big black hole of depression I was plunged into.

I came in contact with other cancer patients and interacting with them I learned many things that helped me cope up with this frightening disease. I learnt to be thankful for each day I was breathing, realizing how precious life was. I felt blessed to have such a supporting husband and lovely family and friends besides me, who stood out for me in my toughest times.

It has already been 4 years now and I am all better. I do visit my doctors for health checkups and other essential. I have learned to live even better post cancer. May be not in the best possible way, but I feel cancer has made me a better human being.

Never give up and keep up the spirit. Nothing can bring you down, not even cancer. Just learn how lucky you are to be alive. Learn to give and spread happiness all around.”

Turacoz Healthcare Solutions stands in support of all the women and men dealing with breast cancer and wants to convey them a message that:

“Cancer is not the definition of you. Cancer is just a situation that happened to you. It does not need to define you personally. Gather all your strength and courage and fight against it. No ailment is stronger than your will to live. Be brave, be bold. Wear your pink gloves on and punch the cancer in its face!”

Significance of Publication Planning

Publication Writing, , , ,

Publication planning is that part of the pharmaceutical landscape that ensures that data from pharma companies (clinical trials, commentaries on drug/device class, and other publications supporting the efficacy of drug/device) is disseminated through medical journal articles–an important aspect of pharma companies’ overall marketing strategy. To publish a mix of editorials, primary and secondary publication, and review papers is the goal of efficient publication planning. Strategic publication planning can maximize product visibility throughout its life cycle. The launch of new drug/device in the market can be successful if the key clinical messages reach the target audience at the right time, for which publication planning is essential. The most successful drugs launched in the last 10-15 years have ridden on the back of a very well-implemented publication strategies. Overall, publication planning aids in the accurate reporting of scientific research, thereby promoting ethical transparency at every stage of medical research through the involvement of investigators, journal editors, and publication professionals.

An effective publication planning team is the key to an efficient publication plan. It is the publication planning team that creates a proactive plan to deliver client‑focused solutions and enable strategic planning and timely implementation of the publication plan. The first step in a publication plan is a “GAP analysis”, which can identify gaps in the literature. Thereafter, the team does an analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) comprising product strengths, weaknesses, market opportunities, and market threats to understand which areas need maximum focus during implementation of the publication plan. For example, if the product in question has more safety issues compared to its competitors, then the publications would mostly be aimed to showcase that the safety concerns are unfounded. The publication planning team also analyzes the Health Economics and Outcomes Research (HEOR) related to the product and various competitors available in the market. In addition, it is the responsibility of the publication planning team to discuss issues related to authorship and data interpretation, and to ensure all the professionals involved in the publication process meet scientific and ethical standards. A good publication planner gets the best key opinion leaders (KOLs), study investigators, and a publication agency (if needed) to write the papers. This allows authors to concentrate only on scientific discussion, and not on logistical issues. Moreover, it encourages transparent communication between researchers and contributors.

There are also a few ethical issues that the publication planning team needs to deal with. These are shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Ethical issues relating to publication planning

Apart from ethical considerations the publication strategy team should know the audience; whether they intend to reach out to primary-care physicians, specialists, allied health specialists, managed care specialists, hospital pharmacists, retail pharmacists, formulary managers, and calibrate their publication plan accordingly. Based on this, they should select the journals for publication. Although publishing in a top-tier journals is prestigious, and adds substantially to a product’s first impression, it should be balanced against the length of time to publication. Prestige cannot make up for a publication that arrives too late. Early publication planning helps to ensure both goals are achieved. Finally, ensuring that a publication coincides with important meetings is an important part of efficient publication planning. This can ensure that the medical representatives at these scientific meetings have evidence to back their claims regarding the drugs/devices they are promoting.

With new guidelines such as GPP3 in place, there is an increased scrutiny on publication planning. Therefore, understanding good publication practices for providing structure and ethical implementation of the publication plan are important.

Turacoz Healthcare Solutions (THS), a medical communication company, offers services to healthcare professionals in clinical research, regulatory writing, medico marketing writing, publication writing and support for conducting medical advisory board meetings. Turacoz understands the importance of a good publication which is in line with the new GPP3 guidelines. We follow the same updated guidelines for all our publications and comply with all legal, ethical and regulatory requirements. To know more about our specialization, please do visit our services section.

Are you at the risk of Breast Cancer? Read this & find out.

Health & Fitness, , , , ,

Breast cancer is the most prevalent form of cancer in women. Though it also affects men, the incidence rate is quite low. Early detection (be it any type of cancer) increases the chances of survival in case of this deadly ailment.

For better and timely diagnosis, it is very important to detect the early signs of breast cancer. In this blog we will be discussing the signs of breast cancer.

Have you ever paid attention to your breasts?

How often do you check your breasts?

Ever noticed anything unusual around that area?

These questions are very crucial when it comes to determining the signs and symptoms of breast cancer. Start with having a look carefully at your breasts.

How to check your breasts?

You don’t need any special training to check your breasts. Each woman has a different set of breasts and you should know how your breasts normally feel like or look like. When you know this, you will easily be able to spot anything unusual in your breast area.

Check the whole area around your breast including your armpits & upper chest and if you notice anything unusual, get yourself checked by a doctor.

What to check?

Check for any lumps around your breast area, upper chest or even around armpits. Lumps can be the primary symptom of breast cancer. Pain in breast can also be a sign of breast cancer but usually it is not in most cases. Pain in your breast can be due to other reasons as well but if an unexplained pain prevails over some time, it is advisable to get it checked by a doctor.

Checking your breasts for any signs of breast cancer follows a simple formula: TLC: Touch, Look, Check

  • Lumps are not visible, but they can be felt. Look for any lump or swelling in your breast, armpits and upper chest.
  • Check for any changes in shape or texture of your breasts. A change in size or shape of your breasts might be an indicator of something fishy, for instance one breast appearing larger than the other one.
  • Have a look closely at the texture of your breasts. Look for any puckering or dimpling of the breast skin.
  • Closely examine the color of the breasts. If you notice any redness or inflammation on your breasts, get it checked by a doctor.
  • Notice whether your nipples look different than usual. A change like inversion of one of the nipples if present (these are usually pointed outwards), then consult a doctor.
  • If there is any unusual discharge from your nipples, immediate action is required.
  • Check for any rashes or crusting on your nipples or the areas nearby.

If you notice any of the above symptoms (also presented in Figure 1), then go and see a doctor. It is not necessary that having any of these symptoms is the sign of breast cancer, but it is always safe to have a breast screening post consulting with a doctor. Doctor would examine and if further check-ups required, he will refer you to the specialists accordingly.

Are you at the risk of Breast Cancer? Read this & find out.

Figure 1: Symptoms of breast cancer in women

Do you need to check your breasts often?

Well, as a precautionary step or rather say to be on the safer side and to be aware of this disease you can check your breasts at regular intervals. You can check them monthly or bi-monthly or how often you feel like.

Once you start checking them regularly you will be able to identify even the slightest change taking place in them, be it due to age or at various times of a month. Your breasts can feel sore or heavy before or during your periods, heavier and bigger during pregnancy and you might notice this change if you know your breasts well.

In the similar way if anything is odd with them, it would be noticeable when you are aware of the normal/usual appearance of your breasts.

Breast cancer in men:

Men also have breast tissue, but they are very much less developed as compared to the ones of women. This is also the reason why breast cancer in men is a rare phenomenon.

But, still, we cannot feign ignorance to the fact that men too, are affected by breast cancer.

 

Signs & symptoms of breast cancer in men:

If someone in your family had breast cancer, you have some chances of getting it, but again it’s not definite that you will. Regularly checking your breast is a wise option especially if you have a genetic record of Klinefelter’s Syndrome (history of breast cancer in family).

The breast tissues in men are mostly behind the nipple area & the pigmented region known as areola. Breast cancer in men usually appears around the nipple area as a lump (Figure 2).

Are you at the risk of Breast Cancer? Read this & find out.

Fig. 2: (a) Shows changes in the look of the nipple or areola (direction change in nipple); (b) shows discharge from nipple or nipple ulcers; (c) Shows lump formation around nipple or armpit

If you find any of these symptoms, go and consult a doctor. In case cancer is detected, you can get an early diagnosis, ensuring better and faster recovery. If not, then, any other problem might also get solved in time.

Turacoz Healthcare Solutions requests every men & women to pay close attention to these specific parts of their body and help themselves in early detection of breast cancer, if present.

An early detection increases your chances for better treatment and recovery.