Patient Safety & Empowerment

A Future where Quality, Safe, and Affordable Healthcare Is Accessible to Everyone

In 1999, the Institute for Medicine published its landmark report “To Err is Human.” It suggested that 44,000-98,000 patients in the United States died because of medical errors in our hospitals.

Last year, after reviewing electronic medical records, the Office of the Inspector General reported that 25% of Medicare patients in 2018 experienced an adverse event in a hospital, 43% of which were deemed preventable. The cost of these errors was calculated to be worth billions of dollars and approximately 180,000 patients died as a result. Many patients are fragile and susceptible to hospital-acquired conditions, including infections, pressure ulcers, and falls.

Many organizations have focused on what should be done to correct this. One of these is the Patient Safety Movement Foundation. This not-for-profit organization is made up of patients and patient advocates, healthcare experts, med-tech companies, safety experts from other industries, and academics with a goal of furthering:

• Transparency of data, so the real number of adverse events will be reported

• Evidence-based practices to prevent many of these errors

• Aligned incentives where payment is linked to quality of care

• A National Patient Safety Team that includes patients to review major causes of adverse events

Recommendations for better healthcare

Last year, President Joe Biden requested that the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) form a subcommittee on Patient Safety to address the high rate of preventable harm and deaths in patients and healthcare workers in the United States.

The chairs of this subcommittee were

Joe Kiani, founder of the Patient Safety Movement Foundation, and founder and CEO of Masimo; and Eric Horvitz, chief scientific officer of Microsoft. The members were all safety experts from industry, healthcare, and included patient advocates.

The recommendations of PCAST to President Biden were as follows:

• Establish and maintain federal leadership to improve patient safety as a national priority.

• Ensure all patients receive evidencebased solutions for preventing harm and addressing risk.

• Partner with patients, and reduce disparities and adverse outcomes.

• Accelerate research and deployment of practices, technologies, and exemplar systems of safe care.

These recommendations are all supported by the Patient Safety Movement Foundation.

Taking accountability

Patients and patient families must be involved and take part in their healthcare. There are billions of dollars to be saved by providing good, safe care.

When the Boeing jet had a wall panel blow out a few months ago, news media around the globe reported on it. The fleet

was grounded and airlines checked planes for similar problems. Several issues were discovered and fixed.

If this were to happen in healthcare when serious mistakes are made, such as removing the wrong-side kidney, processes would be put in place where mandatory checks occur before surgery starts. That is supposed to be the case now, but there are incidents that are not addressed publicly.

President Biden has expressed support for the PCAST recommendations, including “Partnering with patients and patient families to reduce disparities and adverse outcomes, and provide access to care for all.” We hope he will institute all of these measures for government-funded healthcare systems, as this will not need Congress’s approval.

A future where quality, safe, and affordable healthcare is accessible to everyone is possible, especially if we save the billions of dollars spent on treating preventable medical harm.

WRITTEN BY Michael Ramsay, M.D., FRCA CEO, Patient Safety Movement Foundation

Cover Photo Courtesy of Zimmer Biomet All photos are credited to

Wireless Falls Monitoring Alarms and Sensors

Provide Workflow-Friendly

Solutions for Patient Safety

Wireless falls monitoring alarms and sensors are designed to help nurses safeguard patients and optimize how they use their time.

WRITTEN

Beth Hudson, RN, CWCN

Clinical Affairs Manager, TIDI Products

Accidental falls in hospitals and care facilities place unnecessary burdens on patients and their families. Patient falls also have a material effect on the hospital or care facility itself, which can come in the form of higher medical costs due to patients needing to stay longer to recover and/or the need for additional surgeries. The prospect of litigation must also be considered if the falls were preventable.

Unfortunately, patient falls remain a persistent problem.

The Joint Commission (TJC), for instance, identified patient falls as the most prevalent sentinel event type voluntarily self-reported to TJC by accredited or certified entities for 2022, marking the fourth consecutive year that patient falls were the leading sentinel event type reported.¹

Data released by TJC for the first six months of 2023 indicate the continuation of this trend.²

A commitment to fall prevention

To minimize the occurrence and severity of patient falls, organizations must be actively committed to establishing and maintaining a fall prevention program.

“Integrating technology options of all types, ranging from floor mats to chair and toilet sensors, into an organization’s fall prevention program helps to enhance its effectiveness,” observed Cynthia Saver, M.S., RN, president of CLS Development, Inc. “This starts with thoughtful evaluation of potential technology … to ensure it supports patient safety and fits into clinicians’ workflows.”³

One technology option worthy of consideration for use in hospitals and care facilities are wireless falls monitoring alarms, sometimes called wireless falls prevention alarms.

“Wireless systems provide two significant benefits: reduced tripping hazards for patients and staff, and greater ease and efficiency in moving

patients because the alarm and [sensor] pad do not have to be in close physical proximity,” Saver explained.³

Furthermore, a wireless falls monitoring alarm does not need to be tethered to the nurse call outlet at the head of the hospital bed. It can be mounted anywhere in the patient room, such as near the bathroom or patient room door — or even outside the door of the patient room.

Interconnectivity

The flexibility afforded by wireless falls alarm mounting accommodates nursing workflow and can help these busy professionals use their time more efficiently, an important benefit in light of today’s all-too-common staffing shortages.

TIDI Products’ wireless Posey® On Cue® PRO Alarm, for example, can be paired quickly and simply to a Posey Wireless Chair Sensor Pad, which allows the chair to be placed anywhere in the patient room, or to a Posey Wireless Toilet Sensor, which can help the nurse respect the patient’s right to privacy when used to complement an organization’s fall prevention protocol for patient toileting.

The On Cue PRO Alarm can also be paired with a Posey Wireless Nurse Call Adapter so that when the alarm sounds, the nurse call system will be wirelessly notified.

Regarding the implementation of technology for patient falls prevention, Saver adds that, “By following a few steps — such as careful patient assessment, thorough education for patients and families, regular monitoring and follow-up, and routine assessment of staff competencies — clinicians and organizations can keep staff and patients safe. These efforts will ensure that technology is effectively incorporated into care that is truly patient-centered.”³

References

1. “The Joint Commission Sentinel Event Data 2022 Annual Review.” www. jointcommission. org/-/media/ tjc/documents/ resources/ patient-safetytopics/sentinelevent/03162023_ sentinel-event-_ annual-review_ final-(002).pdf.

2. “New sentinel event data available for first 6 months of 2023.” www. jointcommission. org/resources/ news-andmultimedia/ newsletters/ newsletters/ joint-commissiononline/oct-182023/se-data/.

3. Saver, C. (2022). Role of Technology in Falls Prevention: A Patient-centered Approach [White paper]. TIDI Products, LLC.

BY

Sponsored

Empowering Patients, Improving Care Through Language Access

For the nearly 30 million Americans with limited English proficiency (LEP), language barriers can have dangerous (and even deadly) consequences in healthcare settings — miscommunicated care instructions, lack of equitable language access to medical information, and power inequities between patients and medical professionals all play a role in creating dramatically adverse outcomes for LEP patients.

Eliminating potential obstacles that hinder outcomes for LEP communities are often amongst the easiest to address and improve, but are often deprioritized. But with focus and experience, great improvements in equity and access are possible.

Companies like United Language Group (ULG) — a leading healthcare language and culture solutions provider — partner with organizations to provide comprehensive language access programs, helping providers foster trust, improve quality of care, and ensure patient safety.

“In a hospital or clinical setting, there’s no time for delays,” said Leslie Iburg, director of healthcare accounts at ULG. “It’s absolutely critical that patients and providers can communicate clearly and effortlessly, making sure everyone understands the information being shared.”

ULG’s approach to language services within healthcare is highly attuned to the nuances of cultural relevance, while taking into consideration differing expectations and establishing a genuine connection with the community.

“Ultimately, our goal is to help healthcare organizations achieve better outcomes for LEP members and patients,” said Nic McMahon, ULG’s CEO. “ULG invests in technology combined with human healthcare expertise around language and culture, to deliver the unique balance of speed, quality, and efficiency that allows healthcare providers to achieve equitable outcomes for their LEP communities.”

Written by Omar Sommereyns

Why Transparency Is Key to Better and Safer Healthcare

We spoke with Leah Binder, President & CEO of Leapfrog Group, about the importance of transparency in healthcare and what steps can be taken to improve patient safety.

How is the Leapfrog Group involved in patient safety?

Leapfrog Group was founded by large employers who were worried about the safety of their employees when they were admitted to the hospital. They were concerned about the rates of infections, errors, and accidents and harms, because their employees were getting seriously injured and staying in the hospital a lot longer. That wasn’t just harmful to the employees and their families — which is the most important thing — but it was also expensive and wasteful.

So, they founded Leapfrog as an independent nonprofit to publicly report how hospitals were doing on safety and quality. That way their employees could make informed decisions before they went to the hospital, and they could do a better job purchasing health benefits, ultimately making sure they were getting the best care for their employees.

What are some of the most pressing issues in healthcare quality and patient safety today?

One of the biggest issues is how we recovered from the pandemic, and how we can do better next time. We want people to feel at least somewhat safe when they go to the hospital in a public health emergency.

the data before making a decision as important as where to get their healthcare. Leapfrog’s Hospital Safety Grade has been growing in influence by leaps and bounds (pardon the pun!). We see, for instance, the majority of hospital CEOs have their compensation packages tied at least in part to their safety grade. That’s a huge thing, when you start to see executives whose paychecks reflect their record on patient safety.

I’d like to see more transparency around other settings of care besides hospitals, because hospitals are not the only places where people seek care — we just have better data for hospitals right now. But we need better data on nursing homes, urgent care, primary care practices … any place where people seek care. That will give people even more information and more transparency.

Why is transparency so essential in patient care?

Transparency is the critical first step to a better healthcare system. There is no substitute for transparency. We absolutely have to be as candid and open as possible in all of our communications about healthcare.

INTERVIEW WITH

Leslie Iburg, Director of Healthcare Accounts,

ULG

We think of hospitals as where the greatest expertise should be during a public health emergency. But in fact, during the pandemic, hospitals sadly fell short on safety, and there are lots of reasons for that. But we want to examine those reasons, make sure they don’t happen again, and do better next time.

What future developments do you see improving healthcare quality and patient safety?

We will see even more public pressure for transparency. People want to see

We have found that transparency is what galvanizes real change — nothing else works as well. Patient safety is one of those issues that people have been talking about for 40-50 years, and people know what to do. But only in the past decade have we had real transparency about how hospitals are doing with patient safety, and that’s why we’re finally seeing improvement. Transparency is the indispensable first step to real change.

Ease the Pain of Non-EnglishSpeaking Patients With Better Language Support

Imagine this scenario: You’ve been in a car accident and sustained serious injuries. English is not your first language and you are struggling to communicate with emergency responders through the pain.

You’re transported to the hospital and the emergency department physician asks you where it hurts. You can only describe it in your native tongue and the doctor is at a loss to understand what’s wrong. You are admitted to the hospital and endure a battery of tests that might otherwise be unnecessary to arrive at a diagnosis.

Upon discharge, you receive care instructions that aren’t translated into your language and you struggle to comply with the care plan. This results in health complications that impact your safety and land you back into the hospital, incurring more avoidable costs.

This scene plays out thousands of times per day for non-English-speaking patients seeking care in the U.S. healthcare system, impacting nearly 25 million people, or approximately 8.6% of the population, according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

While there are laws in place to ensure that translation and interpreting services are available, an American Medical Association study found that 43% of non-native speakers who were hospitalized had communicated without an interpreter present during admission, and 40% had communicated

without an interpreter present after admission.

Accessing language solutions

Providing better language solutions for those with limited English proficiency is the obvious solution, however, the challenge is much more complex than simply providing translation and interpreting services during a health crisis. This assistance is needed across the patient’s healthcare journey to ensure they receive safe, cost-effective care on an ongoing basis, explained GLOBO CEO Dipak Patel, improving the provider and patient experience, and outcomes, while reducing unnecessary costs.

“We believe linguistically challenged patients need and deserve to have better language support at every touch point,” Patel said.

“Depending on the criticality of the situation, they may need a live interpreter present onsite, or via phone or telehealth. As technology progresses, we expect automated interpreting to become more prevalent, especially with the growing use of artificial intelligence.”

Ultimately, Patel also foresees the responsibility for linguistics support shifting from a service that clinicians deem necessary to one that the patient initiates. “We know that 70% to 80% of a patient’s

health is determined by outside influences,” Patel explained. “These factors, called social determinants of health, can include what a patient eats, where they live, whether they have transportation, and more. In the future, we envision the patient deciding when and where they need some form of translation and interpreting, so they never have to be without it.”

Leveraging automation

How patients access these services and who ultimately pays is still up for debate, however, Patel expects more automation will reduce linguistics costs to increase access. “There are a lot of places where automation can fill the gaps, from scheduling appointments to ordering food. I envision a world where linguistically challenged patients can access the right level of support for the situation at hand.”

As the healthcare industry moves from a fee-for-service model to value-based care, Patel sees linguistics as essential to achieve population health. “You can’t get there if you aren’t able to speak with patients in their language of choice. This is something that should be on every healthcare administrator’s radar.”

Written by GLOBO Language Solutions

INTERVIEW WITH Dipak Patel CEO, GLOBO

The Silent Global Epidemic

When you think about health, your mind probably goes to things like doctor’s visits, medications, or vaccines. You’ll likely consider COVID, allergies, viruses, bacteria, injury, or maybe even bug bites as the main daily threats your body could face. For most of us, today’s greatest threat to human health is rarely top-of-mind: climate change.

Climate change, like an epidemic spreading across borders without restraint, grips our communities, yet we don’t call out of work to treat it. We aren’t even treating the symptoms that we see — we just continue on and hope this disease will cure itself.

Extreme weather events, as a result of climate change, are not just dramatic spectacles on the nightly news; they are threats to our physical and mental health. Hurricanes, wildfires, and rising sea levels are forcibly uprooting entire communities more frequently than ever before. Extreme weather events are leading to water contamination, injury, and death, and are limiting access to crucial health infrastructure in their wake.

Our changing climate is also reshaping our ecosystem, introducing new health challenges. Diseasebearing insects, once confined to certain seasons and geographic locations, now roam further and longer, exposing populations to

prolonged risks. Just last year, four U.S. states reported locally acquired cases of Malaria, including the first in Texas in nearly 30 years and the first in Maryland in nearly 40 years.

Intensified heatwaves induce dehydration, heat stroke, and death, with vulnerable groups like the very old, the very young, outdoor workers, student athletes, and people who are unhoused disproportionately affected.

Climate change and mental health

The mental health effects of the climate crisis are etching permanent marks on our collective psyches. Climate-related disasters give rise to a spectrum of mental health problems, from anxiety to depression and PTSD.

The aftermath of such events has a lasting impact on those directly exposed, and even those who haven’t directly experienced them directly experienced them grapple with climate-induced anxiety; more than two-thirds of U.S. adults (68%) have reported having at least some anxiety

about climate change. We need to do more.

Just as we would take action to stop a bacterial infection in our child, we must act to stop the effects and overall causes of climate change. We must demand greater investments in building healthy, equitable, and resilient communities.

We must demand a rapid and just transition to renewable energy sources and a halt to the development of new fossil fuel infrastructure if we want to slow the destruction caused by the climate crisis. We must also invest in mental health support for communities to deal with the local stresses from pollution and climate change.

Help the planet, help ourselves

The health of the Earth and that of humanity are deeply intertwined. To advocate for our own health, we must advocate for our environment. It may seem overwhelming, given the enormity of climate change’s impacts, but through collective action, we can empower ourselves to minimize its worst impacts on health.

To protect your own health from the impacts of climate change, check the air quality index before outdoor activities and have plans for severe weather. To protect the health of others, volunteer for community-focused actions like educating students about climate change during APHA’s National Public Health Week. And ultimately, join your peers to call for swift, ambitious action from all levels of government and all sectors of the economy to protect the current population and future generations from the worst health impacts of climate change.

Climate change is not an isolated environmental issue; it is a public health crisis that demands our immediate attention and united action. Each of us, regardless of expertise, can play a pivotal role in addressing this crisis. It is time to rise, embrace our collective power, and forge a path toward a healthier present and a more sustainable future for all.

WRITTEN BY Katherine Catalano Deputy Director; Center for Climate, Health and Equity; American Public Health Association (APHA)

How Zimmer Biomet Is Improving Health Equity With Its Community Centered Care Strategy

Zimmer Biomet’s public pledge in support of health equity reflects a company-wide focus on improving lives.

We are in the midst of a health equity crisis.

“Nearly 80% of patient outcomes are tied to social drivers of health (SDOH),” noted Tamara Huff, M.D., M.B.A., founder of Vigeo Orthopedics, “which are factors outside of a surgeon’s direct control.”

The Global Health Equity Network’s Zero Health Gaps Pledge was created in response to this crisis, representing a commitment from companies in the healthcare sector to make health equity central to their businesses. Among the organizations dedicated to endorsing the Pledge is global medical technology leader Zimmer Biomet.

“I am proud to sign the Zero Health Gaps Pledge to affirm Zimmer Biomet’s decades-long commitment to tackling musculoskeletal health disparities, and hold ourselves accountable on the global stage for driving measurable and impactful strategies to bring quality medical care to underserved communities,” Ivan Tornos, president and CEO of Zimmer Biomet, said about the decision.

Commitment

Zimmer Biomet’s commitment to health equity is anything but sudden. “It’s who we are,” said Edmond Davis, senior director of health equity at the company. “It’s the mission of Zimmer Biomet to ‘alleviate pain and improve the quality of life for people around the world.’”

To this end, expanding its longtime commitment to advancing health equity through corporate philanthropy, Zimmer Biomet established a Health Equity division in 2023, and many of the nation’s foremost healthcare leaders have taken note of Zimmer Biomet’s commitment.

“Incorporating the principles of health equity can help drive future innovation, addressing the needs of all,” said Dr. Ronald Delanois, M.D., FAAOS, a board-certified, fellowship-trained orthopedic surgeon at LifeBridge Health. “Basically, words have value, but actions have greater value. This action by Zimmer Biomet is unique in the medical device space.”

Community

In order to support this commitment to health equity, Zimmer Biomet has launched a Community Centered Care (C3) framework that will work to align the interests of surgeons, hospitals, payors, and the community to increase patient access to quality healthcare within underserved communities.

“C3s’ efforts in this arena rest on a collaboration between physicians and industry leaders,” said Adam Sassoon M.D., M.S., an orthopedic surgeon at UCLA Health. “The physicians bring ‘boots-on-the-ground’

experience and industry brings emerging technology, capital, and other resources.”

Davis acknowledges that Zimmer Biomet’s ambitious equity goals can’t be reached alone. “It will take strategic partnerships with hospital systems, community-based organizations, payors, and with medical societies like the J. Robert Gladden Orthopaedic Society, which has been committed to addressing health disparities for well over two decades,” he explained, noting the company’s goal of impacting at least 1 million patients that lack access to quality orthopedic care by the end of 2028.

From pledge to action

Zimmer Biomet is also aggressively leveraging technology to combat health inequities. Of particular note is a new co-marketing arrangement with RevelAi (formerly Azra Care).

“Integrating AI into healthcare is not just about technological advancement, but about creating a more just, equitable healthcare system,” explained Christian Péan, M.D., M.S., RevelAi’s CEO and an orthopedic surgeon at Duke Health. “We aim to enable personalized interventions that extend beyond clinical care to encompass socioeconomic and cultural factors.”

Zimmer Biomet’s commitment to health equity hasn’t gone unnoticed. “They are the only company I am aware of that has a robust health equity agenda totally ingrained in all of their business units,” noted Nana Sarpong, M.D., M.B.A., an orthopedic surgeon at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. “I believe they will surpass their goal of 1 million patient impacts easily!”

With its expertise as a bold and innovative MedTech company, Zimmer Biomet’s commitment to address health equity will help more people access the care they need when they need it.

Written by Jeff Somers

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Why Advocating for Healthcare Workers Means Better Outcomes for Patients

Sarah Warren is a nurse and influencer with over 100,000 followers on her @shesinscrubs Instagram account. We talked to her about the state of nursing and the healthcare industry, and what can be done to better support healthcare workers so they can take better care of patients.

What changes have you seen directly affecting nurses?

When I became a nurse working in adult progressive care in an acute care hospital, I experienced burnout, disillusionment, bullying, and lateral violence from my leadership. We doubled our unit capacity in six months because there was an incentive to have as many observation beds as possible.

There was often a focus on getting patients discharged as quickly as possible, even if it would have been beneficial to provide care longer. We became overextended because you’re expecting and demanding an unrealistic amount of labor from your workforce. Then we blame the individuals, instead of the environment that is causing patient harm.

How can patients stand up for their own rights within the healthcare system?

I started a national peer support network for healthcare workers, Don’t Clock Out, to talk about how exploitation leads to moral distress and emotional numbing. Through peer support, we help connect healthcare workers who are going through similar things to each other.

We have to build community together with the help of patients through telling our stories, and helping patients understand that if we aren’t cared for, and if we’re abandoned by our institutions, that impacts patient safety and our ability to care for them. It’s not that we don’t want to provide safe, high-quality care. It’s that under these systems, and all of these layers that contribute to harm, we’re just navigating them and treading water.

How Nurses Are Keeping You Safe in the ICU

In an intensive care unit (ICU), nurses treat seriously ill patients and provide critical care. These specialized staff members are the closest clinicians to patients, monitoring advanced equipment like ventilators, feeding tubes, and catheters, and administering sedatives and pain medications.

Given their frequent interactions, direct care nurses are ideally positioned to understand patients’ needs and identify opportunities for improvement. And yet, most nurses do not see themselves as innovators.

In 2012, the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) sought to change that perspective by launching AACN Clinical Scene Investigator (CSI) Academy. In this project-based program, teams of two to four nurses work together to address a patient-care challenge in their units.

For example, nurses in the cardiac surgical ICU at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles observed errors and discrepancies in patients’ IV drips, pacemaker settings, and chest-tube water levels. They attributed these errors to the lack of a standardized handoff report, which communicates patient information between nursing shifts and hospital units.

INTERVIEW WITH Sarah Warren Nurse; Founder, Don’t Clock Out

The team collected feedback from the staff and created a new handoff tool that focuses on patient safety checks. They introduced the new report with visual aids and incentivized its use by asking nurses to enter their handoff partner into a raffle when the new handoff routine was completed.

Since the project’s launch, discrepancies and errors have reduced dramatically, and the unit culture has an increased focus on safety.

Empowering nurses

More than 500 nurses in over 100 hospitals have participated in CSI Academy, with projects addressing patient safety issues like injuries, infections, and falls. Teams also seek to improve their unit environment by looking critically at staffing models, employee satisfaction, and nurse confidence.

By empowering nurses to be change agents and innovators, patient safety increases and clinicians are more engaged. As Regan Morimoto, a CSI Academy participant from New York Presbyterian/Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital, said, “I had a lot of ideas, but didn’t know how to focus them or where to go. CSI Academy lit a flame and I’ve been unstoppable.”

WRITTEN BY Marian Altman, Ph.D., RN, CNS-BC, CCRN Clinical Practice Specialist, AACN

How Personalized Medicine Improves Outcomes for Cancer Patients

Following recent discoveries about the molecular activities of cancerous cells, some physicians are embracing a new way of treating cancer patients called personalized medicine.

During the last two decades, technological advancements have delivered groundbreaking new insights into the molecular activities of cancerous cells. Most significantly, we have learned that every person’s cancer — like every person — is biologically unique.

Guided by these discoveries, some physicians have begun to embrace a new way of treating cancer patients: personalized medicine.

Also referred to as precision medicine, personalized medicine focuses on understanding and influencing the unique set of cancer-related molecular interactions occurring within each patient’s body. The goal is to address the root causes of each patient’s disease and develop treatment plans that are tailored to each individual.

Targeted therapies, cell-based immunotherapies, and early detection tests are playing leading roles in advancing the frontiers of personalized medicine for cancer patients.

Targeted therapies

Targeted therapies disrupt the activity of mutated proteins that promote cancer growth.

Cancer occurs when genes mutate inside otherwise healthy cells. The mutations cause cancerous cells to produce dysfunctional proteins, called oncoproteins, that prompt uncontrolled cellular reproduction. The rapidly spreading cancerous cells crowd out healthy ones, disrupting the body’s ability to function normally.

Oncologists can use genetic tests to identify the unique set of oncoproteins fueling the growth of each patient’s cancer. Targeted therapies disrupt specific oncoproteins.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved targeted therapies for more than 30 types of genetically defined cancers, including certain forms of breast, lung, and colon cancers.

Cell-based immunotherapies

Cell-based immunotherapies teach the immune system to recognize and destroy cancerous blood cells. To administer the therapies, scientists extract and genetically modify a patient’s immune cells to attack cells that exhibit cancer-associated proteins.

Cell-based immunotherapies are believed to have cured some leukemia patients. The FDA has also approved cell-based immunotherapies for the treatment of some lymphomas and multiple myelomas.

Early cancer detection testing

Advanced early detection tests for cancer can spot disease-associated genetic material and proteins

circulating in the bloodstreams of seemingly healthy people. Such testing promises to deliver unprecedented benefits to patients and health systems by finding cancers at earlier stages, when they may be easier and less expensive to treat.

Health systems across the world are studying the long-term effects that broad-based early detection testing may have on healthcare costs and patient outcomes. Some providers have become early adopters.

The impact of personalized medicine for cancer patients

Targeted therapies, cell-based immunotherapies, and early detection tests are hallmarks of a new era of personalized medicine in cancer care. By providing physicians with new opportunities to alleviate the root causes of cancer and detect cancers at earlier stages in their development, personalized medicine can enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of cancer care.

WRITTEN BY Lincoln Nadauld, M.D., Ph.D. President and CEO, Culmination Bio

Immunotherapy: The Potential To Unlock More Therapeutic Options for Advanced Prostate Cancer

In the fight against advanced prostate cancer, patients and their loved ones often feel limited in their treatment options. However, hope is on the horizon in the form of immunotherapy.

Chemotherapy, radiation, and oral medication have been the standard prostate cancer treatments for years, but for some patients, these methods may offer only temporary relief. However, PROVENGE, the first FDA-approved cellular therapy for advanced prostate cancer, is giving new hope to patients and their families.

Revolutionizing cancer treatment

PROVENGE (sipuleucel-T) is an immunotherapy that utilizes a patient’s own immune cells to fight prostate cancer. The process involves collecting immune cells through leukapheresis, a procedure similar to donating blood. These cells are then activated to identify and target prostate cancer cells when infused through IV back into the patient. Full treatment consists of three cycles, about two weeks apart.

INDICATION

A beacon of hope

This approach to treatment has shown promising results for patients like Euvon, a Stage IV metastatic prostate cancer patient who has undergone PROVENGE therapy.

“Having my blood extracted from me … morphed into fighting agents … and put back inside of me so that my blood and my immune system could fight the fight that my body was made to fight, made all the sense in the world,” he said.

For patients like Euvon, immunotherapy offers a beacon of hope in their fight against advanced prostate cancer. PROVENGE has no contraindications. This means patients do not have to wait for traditional treatments to fail before trying immunotherapy.

“When Euvon was on the standard medication, it stopped working after about a year,” said Euvon’s wife, Janet. “He didn’t qualify for chemotherapy,

PROVENGE® (sipuleucel-T) is a prescription medicine used to treat certain men with advanced prostate cancer. PROVENGE is an established cellular immunotherapy and is customized to each individual by using his own immune cells.

IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION

Before receiving PROVENGE®, tell your doctor about any medical conditions, including heart or lung problems, or if you have had a stroke.

Tell your doctor about any medicines you take, including prescription and nonprescription drugs, vitamins, or dietary supplements.

The most common side effects of PROVENGE include chills, fatigue, fever, back pain, nausea, joint ache, and headache. These are not all the possible side effects of PROVENGE treatment.

PROVENGE is made from your own immune cells, which are collected during a process called leukapheresis. The cells are processed, returned, and then infused back into the patient through an IV (intravenous) infusion about 3 days later. This process is completed in 3 cycles, about 2 weeks apart. Each infusion takes approximately 1 hour and requires 30 minutes of post-infusion monitoring.

PROVENGE infusion can cause serious reactions. Tell your doctor right away if you:

• Have signs of a heart attack or lung problems, such as trouble breathing,

radiation, or surgery. He was too far advanced. PROVENGE sounded really positive. We could hope for a future because it was less invasive.”

With the success stories of patients like Euvon, and the support of healthcare providers and the FDA, it is clear PROVENGE provides a unique mechanism in fighting prostate cancer by unlocking the power of the entire immune system to extend patients’ lives.

Unfortunately, many patients are not aware of the availability and benefits of this treatment. Increased awareness about immunotherapy for the treatment of prostate cancer may help prolong lives and offer hope to the hundreds of thousands of families affected by prostate cancer each year. Talk to your doctor to determine if PROVENGE is right for you.

WRITTEN BY Taylor Rice

To learn more, visit provenge.com

chest pains, racing or irregular heartbeats, high or low blood pressure, dizziness, fainting, nausea, or vomiting

• Have signs of a stroke, such as numbness or weakness on one side of the body, decreased vision in one eye, or diffculty speaking

• Develop symptoms of thrombosis which may include: pain and/or swelling of an arm or leg with warmth over the affected area, discoloration of an arm or leg, shortness of breath, chest pain that worsens or deep breathing

• Have signs of infection such as a fever over 100°F, redness or pain at the infusion or collection sites

• Tell your doctor about any side effect(s) that concerns you or does not go away. For more information, talk with your doctor.

You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit www.fda.gov/medwatch or call 1-800-FDA-1088.

To report an adverse event, please email our Pharmacovigilance department at drugsafety@dendreon.com, or fax adverse event details to 833-464-0123. Please provide details pertaining to the adverse event and provide contact information so that our Pharmacovigilance team may contact you with any questions.

Euvon and his wife, Janet | Photo courtesy of Dendreon