Inhibitors of phospholipase A2 and their therapeutic potential: an update on patents (2012-2016)

Introduction: The regulation of the catalytic activity of the various phospholipase A₂ enzymes is of high importance because these enzymes are involved in various pathological conditions such as arthritis, cardiovascular diseases, neurological diseases, and cancer. Thus, a great effort has been devoted in developing synthetic inhibitors as new agents to treat inflammatory diseases. Some of them have reached clinical trials.

Areas covered: This review article discusses the phospholipase A₂ inhibitors presented in patent literature from October 2012 to June 2016, their activities in vitro and in vivo as well as the results of clinical trials using synthetic PLA₂ inhibitors.

Expert opinion: None of the inhibitors studied in clinical trials have reached the market yet. The failure of lipoprotein-associated PLA₂ inhibitor darapladib to reduce the risk of major coronary events suggests that this enzyme may be a biomarker of vascular inflammation rather than a causal pathway of cardiovascular diseases. These findings, together with the failure of secreted PLA₂ inhibitor varespladib for the treatment of cardiovascular disease, indicate that deeper knowledge on these enzymes is needed. Inhibitors of cytosolic PLA₂ are in clinical trials against psoriasis and atopic dermatitis.     

Decomposition of potential efficiency gains from hospital mergers in Greece

This paper evaluates the technical efficiency of 71 Greek public hospitals and examines potential efficiency gains from 13 candidate mergers among them. Efficiency assessments are performed using bootstrapped Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) whilst merger analysis is conducted by applying the Bogetoft and Wang methodology which allows the overall potential merger gains to be decomposed into three main components of inefficiency, namely technical (or learning), scope (or harmony) and scale (or size) effects. Thus, the analysis provides important insights not only on the magnitude of the potential total efficiency gains but also on their sources. The overall analysis is conducted in the context of a complete methodological framework where methods for outlier detection, returns to scale identification, and bias corrections for DEA estimations are also applied. Mergers are analyzed under the assumptions of constant, variable and non-decreasing returns to scale in an input oriented DEA model with three inputs and three outputs. The main finding of the study indicates that almost all mergers show substantial potential room for efficiency improvement, which is mainly attributed to the pre-merger technical inefficiencies of the individual hospitals and therefore it might be possible to be achieved without the need of implementing full-scale mergers. The same -though, at a lower extent- applies to the harmony effect whilst the size effect shows marginal or even negative gains.     

From predictions to prescriptions: A data-driven response to COVID-19

Health Care Management Science - The COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented challenges worldwide. Strained healthcare providers make difficult decisions on patient triage, treatment and care...     

Validation of the Artificial Intelligence-Based Predictive Optimal Trees in Emergency Surgery Risk (POTTER) Calculator in Emergency General Surgery and Emergency Laparotomy Patients

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Identifying important motivational factors for professionals in Greek hospitals

Background  

The purpose of this study was to identify important motivational factors according to the views of health-care professionals in Greek hospitals and particularly to determine if these might differ in the public and private sectors.