In a great post, "Doctor as Designer" Joyce Lee laments the "sad state of product and design in healthcare," and asks "when will device and drug companies create user-centered innovations that actually improve the lives of patients instead of their bottom line?" I heartily agree with Dr. Lee's point, and think the question can be extended to the rest of the health care system. Dr. Lee uses two examples to compare health care to consumer goods. Heinz took a product design -- the glass ketchup bottle -- that had been around for over a hundred years, and greatly improved the user experience by changing to a squeezable "upside down" bottle. This not only kept the ketchup from concentrating at the bottom but also avoided the need to hold the bottle at a special angle or to tap at a particular spot just to get the ketchup out...
Epinephrine
See the following -
EpiPen Delivers Epinephrine and Healthcare Insight: Price Gouging and Medical Extortion
The header image is a chart that was part of an article by Bloomberg — written over two years ago (May, 2014). The data itself goes back 9 years. Mylan's price gouging was front and center this week, but the issue has been actively percolating for years. It has also erupted before and it will again. Everyone's squawking and legislators are "looking into it," but it won't be solved this year — or even this election cycle. Here's why...
- Login to post comments
Exorbitant Prices Are Just One Reason to Loathe the Company That Makes the EpiPen
It’s not hard for pharma companies to appear villainous, but Mylan, the maker of the EpiPen, may be in a class by itself. Mylan has drawn the ire of patients, consumer groups and now Congress for raising the price of the device 400% since it acquired EpiPen in 2007. The implement, which delivers life-saving medicine for severe allergy sufferers, can now cost more than $300 per pen. It’s only sold in pairs and must be purchased every year because the drug, epinephrine, loses potency over time. Sales of EpiPen are now in excess of $1 billion annually...
- Login to post comments
Hackers Created a $30 DIY Version of the EpiPen
The EpiPen is a potentially life-saving device for those with severe allergies or asthma. The problem is that it costs $600 in the US. For those with or without respiration woes, the EpiPen represents what’s wrong with drug manufacturing nationally, namely high prices and manufacturer monopolies. Mylan, maker of the EpiPen, raised the device’s price 300% in seven years from 2009 to 2016, mostly because it could...
- Login to post comments
Pardon Me, Your Interface Is Showing
- Login to post comments