Corporate Health and Regulation Flashcards
What is meant by “corporate health”?
-programs put in place to promote the health and wellbeing of their employee populations
- corporations or organizations (pfizer, johnson&johnson)
Describe the Medical-Industrial Complex (MIC).
- strong allegiances between the health corporations, physicians, insurance firms, and health equipment suppliers
- The state both fosters and regulates PRIVATE CORPORATE INTERESTS in health (primary goal is that the PUBLIC is PROTECTED)
Why is it highly unlikely that calls for greater controls over corporate health will succeed?
- The fragmentation and delegation of state policy to local, global, and personal responsibilities (hard to federal to step in when we have our own rules based on province!)
- The state’s support for “bio-capitalism” and “info-capitalism”
side note: free-market type system, is this ethical? –> gives company’s leeway to help ensure government allows to have competition gives a strategy to ensure consumers get offered a lot of choice in terms of products and services and costs are lowered…its unethical if commericialism is present!!!!)
Name the 3 types of health corporations and give examples of each one.
- New Products –> drugs, assistive devices
- Health Care Services –> health insurance
- Infrastructural Support –> platform tech for telehealth care
What does it mean to say that health has become a “commodity”?
Health has become a market of goods and services
How does the World Bank promote the interests of corporate health?
to get bank loans, countries must first agree to cut back in publicly administered/funded health care
therefore, reduced state participation enhances the role of the PRIVATE sector!
What is meant by the term “buyability” and to what health areas does it apply?
Buyability = interest in investing , determines market expansion in drugs, diagnostics, hospital support services, ambulatory clinical care
pros = easy access, speedy exit if things go wrong , relatively stable demand for goods and services
What are the major fields of corporate innovation in health tech?
- Genetics
- eHealth
- Tissue-related tech
Describe 3 areas of strategic importance to corporate health relating to genetics?
- Pharmacogenetics
- targets the genetic origins of diseases
-ex; SNPs (affect function of enzymes in liver, determine whether a patient is good, bad or poor metabolizer of drug) - Genetic Diagnostics /tests
- translates corporate science from the lab to the clincic
- tests can be advertised and sold to the public
- ex: DNA paternity testing - Bio-banking of genetic information
- long term analyses that associate genes with lifestyle, illness patterns, and demographic info
-corps hold onto genetic info in these banks!!
- lots of concerns about ownership, how info is given out, and access by private companies
Can you patent genes in Canada?
YES
Can you patent life forms in Canada?
NO –> higher life forms cannot be patented in canada
ex: oncomouse court case
What domains are important for corporations in e-Health?
- prevention –> lifestyle apps (weight management)
- cure –> diagnostic, monitoring systems
- care –> smart homes, hospital monitoring systems
- health info management –> electronic medical records
What concerns are there with e-health?
- control of system info
- data protection and privacy
- monitoring systems –> $$$, high level of demand
- clinical errors becoming “digitally embedded”
- third party users
What is Tissue-related Technologies?
- has to do with stem cells
- Uncertainty about what is defined as a
human tissue engineered product.
– Has created a regulatory vacuum. - Drivers: short supply and high demand for
organ transplants and more conventional
forms of tissue replacement (e.g., blood
donation).
– Goal is to provide unlimited supplies
of lab cloned products.
– At present, relatively few profitable
products are on the market.
- Complex relationships between donor and
eventual users (e.g., embryo donation).
– References to “waste” to distance it
from donors and set aside its status
as human.
