Personalized Medicine

May 19, 2010 marked the second highly successful lecture of the Scienta Health Series

Harvard Business School Professor Regina Herzlinger, dubbed “Godmother” of consumer-driven healthcare by Money, delivered a provocative and eye-opening talk on the current state of the North American healthcare system and what is needed to initiate much-needed reforms.

While happy that healthcare will become available to millions of uninsured Americans, Professor Herzlinger fears many measures in recent U.S. healthcare legislation will further boost already excessive healthcare costs. She argues the only way to bring down costs and make healthcare more readily available to Americans is to allow them to choose and purchase their own health plans.

In an interview with Andrew Coyne for Maclean′s Magazine, Professor Herzlinger expounded on her views on North American healthcare. To read the Maclean′s article, please click here: Regina Herzlinger – Macleans May 2010.

Professor Herzlinger′s talk drew attendance from various fields, including healthcare practitioners, Ministry of Health officials, and business leaders. To see photographs of the event, please click here: Herzlinger event May 2010

About Professor Regina Herzlinger

Professor Herzlinger has authored three best-selling books on healthcare. Her most recent, Who Killed Health Care?, was selected by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as one of the ten books that “changed the debate in 2008” and was profiled in a full-page article in The Economist. Noted Merrill Matthews, “Regina Herzlinger, (is) one of the country’s most knowledgeable and articulate experts on the U.S. healthcare system.”

Professor Herzlinger received her Bachelors degree from M.I.T. and her Doctorate from Harvard Business School. She has been honored with numerous awards, including the American College of Healthcare Executives’ Thompson Book of the Year Award twice and the Academy of Healthcare Executives Research Award three times. She has been selected by the students as one of the outstanding instructors of the Harvard Business School’s MBA Program.

More on Professor Herzlinger at: http://reginaherzlinger.org/.

Economic Recession Takes Toll on Canadians’ Health

Toronto, May 6, 2010

Canadians became less physically active and resorted to eating more in response to the personal toll from effects of a tough recession through 2009.  Basic sense of purpose in life was disrupted for many, while family relationships came under pressure.

These are the major patterns reported as Scienta Health released findings of its Third Annual Q-Gap Survey in Maclean’s Magazine on newsstands across Canada today. Over 26,000 Canadians visited www.macleans.ca to complete the questionnaire, which probed for presence, frequency and intensity of approximately 150 symptoms associated with discomfort, disease and emotional stress.  Scienta Health developed the Q-Gap to graphically portray the negative impact on basic quality of life caused by symptoms of disease and premature aging.  These symptoms take a serious toll on energy, stamina, mental sharpness and concentration and, if left unchecked, lead to chronic disease.

“Canadians worked harder for longer hours and cut expenses by cancelling gym memberships – hence the decline in physical activity.  Time challenges, household budget tightening and emotional worry caused many to eat more fast foods and comfort snacks – most of which impair digestive health” reported Dr. Elaine Chin, Chief Medical Officer and Co-Founder of Scienta Health.  “Ontarians scored the highest symptom loads, Quebec the lowest – possibly a reflection of differences in work-life balance and outdoor recreation.”

“A distinct increase in the level of personal turmoil was evident in responses.  Canadians, nonetheless, complained little about frustration at work.  We believe many were thankful to continue to be employed. Young adults worried most about their personal futures and their relationships with their families”, commented lead researcher for the Survey, Dr. Virginia Florentin, an Epidemiologist and Scienta Manager of Health Analytics.

Also indicative of deterioration in eating patterns and activity were high levels of food cravings and a sense of feeling bloated.  Both indicate dietary imbalances, lack of fresh foods and eating on the run.  “Stress, too, contributed to poor digestion” said Dr. Chin. “We also found people complaining of lack of sleep, which impairs mental acuity and contributes to headaches.”

Dr. Chin reported very similar patterns evident in Scienta Health Center, where individuals experienced added business stress, increased workloads, more stringent travel conditions and reduced time with families. Personal routines suffered with impaired sleep, less physical activity and a default to poor eating habits. Resulting clinical symptoms included weight gain and noticeable increases in biomarkers used to measure pre-diabetic development and cardio-metabolic risk. Individuals complained about low energy levels, fatigue, impaired concentration and depression-like symptoms. These symptoms carried over to the workplace, creating a syndrome of ‘presenteeism’ – physically present but functioning with sub-par mental acuity and judgment.

The lead article featuring these results in Maclean’s Magazine refers to this group as ‘the layoff survivors’. To read the article on the Macleans Magazine website, please click here.

To learn more about the results of the Maclean’s-Scienta Health Q-Gap Survey, please click here.

For more information please contact Elaine Chin: dr.chin@scientahealth.com.

Scienta Health took and analyzed data from over 26,000 Q-Gap respondents to graphically portray the negative impact of symptoms of disease and premature aging on basic quality of life. These symptoms take a serious toll on energy, stamina, mental sharpness and concentration and, if left unchecked, lead to chronic disease.

“Canadians worked harder for longer hours and cut expenses by cancelling gym memberships – hence the decline in physical activity.  Time challenges, household budget tightening and emotional worry caused many to eat more fast foods and comfort snacks – most of which impair digestive health” reported Dr. Elaine Chin, Chief Medical Officer and Co-Founder of Scienta Health.  “Ontarians scored the highest symptom loads, Quebec the lowest – possibly a reflection of differences in work-life balance and outdoor recreation.”

The above represents only one of many discoveries by the Scienta Health team.

To sample more tasty information tidbits from the Q-Gap Survey, click here: Scienta Q Gap report

The Scienta Health Series

This year Scienta Health is hosting four private lectures by world-renowned experts in medical teaching, practice, research and healthcare delivery to share their insights and stimulate more informed discussion on the critical topic of healthcare.

The Series focuses on what leading practitioners are thinking and doing today and on the impact of their innovations, many of which will surprise as they rapidly gain impact in diagnosis and treatment of debilitating and deadly diseases.

The Scienta Health Series lecture schedule

April 15, 2010 – “Successful Aging: Important Advances in Protecting Your Brain“

Dr. Martin Samuels – Chair of Neurology, Harvard Medical School

May 19, 2010 - “Consumer-Driven Healthcare Innovations“

Professor Regina Herzlinger – Nancy R. McPherson Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School

October 7, 2010 – “Genotyping Tumors can Cure Cancers”

Professor Leif Ellisen, M.D. – Harvard Medical School and co-director, Translational Research Laboratory, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center

“Successful Aging: Important Advances in Protecting Your Brain”

Renowned Harvard neurologist Dr. Martin Samuels was our first guest speaker of the Scienta Health Series.

About our speaker

Dr. Martin Samuels is Chairman of Neurology at the Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston and Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School. He is an internationally renowned teacher-clinician, a premier diagnostician and a leading authority on the relationships between neurology and general medicine. He has edited several seminal neurology textbooks, developed a definitive instructional video on clinical neurology for practicing physicians, and authored numerous articles and book chapters.

Dr. Samuels has won numerous awards, including the first Harvard Medical School Faculty Prize for Excellence in Teaching, and the A.B. Baker Award of the American Academy of Neurology for lifetime contributions in neurological education. In 2007, he was the recipient of the H. Houston Merritt Award from the American Academy of Neurology for clinically relevant research.

About the lecture

Speaking to a packed room, Dr. Samuels gave a spirited and interesting discourse on the physiological events behind aging and what we could do to take care of our brains in order to minimize, if not entirely avoid, the effects of aging.

Dr. Samuels: “What is good for the heart is also good for the brain!”

The well-attended lecture included some well-known figures from Canadian business and society. To see who was in attendance, click Scienta Health Series, April 15, 2010.

Prior to speaking at The Scienta Health Series, Dr. Samuels was interviewed by Kate Filion for Macleans Magazine. To read the full article, click on the following link:  An Interview with Dr. Martin Samuels. To read the article on the Macleans Health Blog, click here.

Scienta clients gain access to leading specialists and centers of excellence for acute care in Harvard Medical School’s affiliated teaching hospitals

TORONTO, Feb. 16 /CNW/ – Scienta Health today announced that it has entered into an agreement with Boston-based Partners HealthCare, the leading academic medical network in the U.S. Partners HealthCare includes major teaching hospitals affiliated with Harvard Medical School: the Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, McLean Hospital, a treatment and research leader in mental illness, chemical dependency and learning disabilities; and Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, a top-ranked rehabilitation facility.

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If you genuinely believe your people are your most important asset, you will know you cannot afford for them to be giving less than their best.

Presenteeism in your organization – physically at work but delivering impaired judgment, supervision, quality, productivity or customer service – is a serious hidden drag on your competitiveness.

Progressive leaders know it pays to have healthier employees. Direct benefits include reduced healthcare costs, improved attendance and productivity. Indirect and harder to measure are the effects of poor lifestyle habits — lack of sleep, stress, poor nutrition, inactivity — on critical thinking, decision-making, customer interaction, creativity and more. Improving the health of your people is an investment in the quality of your human capital — your competitive advantage in today’s knowledge-based economy.

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