Biomarker Commons

When Colin Hill’s father was diagnosed with later-stage prostate cancer last summer, he was treated the same as every other patient with the illness.

This standardized approach bothered Hill, who believes medicine should approach each patient’s illness as unique, with medication tailored to the person’s history and biology.

“You show up to the hospital, and it’s like Groundhog Day,” Hill said, with patients being cared for the same way, over and over again. “It’s this outdated standard of care created for this hypothetical average patient. But no one’s an average patient.”

KineMed Inc. (www.kinemed.com) today announced the renewal of a non-exclusive research collaboration with Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) for the advancement of novel approaches towards metabolic disease, in particular Type II Diabetes. The collaboration will employ KineMed’s unique dynamic proteomics technology platform to map the impact of potential drug candidates on specific metabolic pathways.

The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) recently announced a new approach to measuring quality that will provide a more sensitive gauge of risk factors and make it possible to create clinically meaningful incentives for providers to improve disease prevention.

Quest Diagnostics (NYSE: DGX), the world's leading provider of diagnostic information services, recently announced the availability of two new blood tests for aiding the early diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), an autoimmune disorder that can cause debilitating joint damage.