The purpose of the research was to determine the effectiveness of care for seniors in the acute phase of illness or injury admitted to acute geriatric units compared to seniors not admitted to these specialized centres.

“It is the first study to quantify the effectiveness of an innovative function-focused approach to older adults' acute hospital care,” says 91ŃÇÉ« Professor Mary Fox of the graduate program in nursing in 91ŃÇÉ«'s School of Nursing, Faculty of Health. She is the first author of the article, “”, published online Friday in the . It will also be published in an upcoming print version of the journal.

Mary Fox

As the principal investigator of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research-funded study, Fox conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of 13 trials involving 6,839 acutely ill or injured octogenarians. Acute geriatric units are those with at least one Acute Care for Elders (ACE) component, either patient-centred care, frequent medical review, early rehabilitation, early discharge planning or prepared environment. The goal of ACE components is to prevent hospital-acquired complications and functional deterioration associated with common hospital medications, treatments and procedures for older adults.

The researchers also found that seniors admitted to acute geriatric units had less delirium and were more likely to be discharged home as opposed to a nursing facility.

“It demonstrated that this approach has significant beneficial effects in improving both patient- and system-level outcomes over usual care,” says Fox. “Hospital administrators may anticipate cost savings of approximately $246 per person, per length of hospital stay (in US dollars, standardized to year 2000) and a reduced length of hospital stay by more than half a day, when compared to usual care.”

Seniors aged 65 and older are considered the “core business” of hospitals. They account for 40 per cent of all hospital care days even though they comprise only 14 per cent of the Canadian population.

“As older adults account for 50 per cent of Canadian hospital expenditures,” says Fox, "this cost difference may represent a significant future source of financial saving to Canada's health-care system while improving patient outcomes.”

It is known that older adults face a higher risk of functional decline, falls, pressure ulcers and delirium when hospitalized, which is associated with increased hospital costs, institutionalization and death. “These poor outcomes are more often not related to their illness, but to other things, like not getting up and walking around while in the hospital or receiving treatments, such as drugs and catheters that make it difficult to move around. There are things that fall through the cracks,” says Fox. Early intervention is crucial in helping to circumvent these risks.

The goal is to develop senior-friendly hospitals by informing and engaging decision makers – clinicians, hospital administrators, policymakers and funders – about the best interventions to prevent physical, cognitive and psychosocial functional decline. Acute geriatric care units would not only save hospitals money, but provide the most beneficial care for seniors.

91ŃÇÉ« nursing Professors Malini Persaud, Deborah Tregunno and Ellen Schraa, along with 91ŃÇÉ« librarian IIo-Katryn Maimets, were co-authors of the study, which included a team of researchers from 91ŃÇÉ«, Ryerson University and the University of Toronto.

The study was also supported by a 91ŃÇÉ« Faculty of Health Junior Faculty award.

By Sandra McLean, YFile deputy editor

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91ŃÇɫ’s daily e-bulletin to research stories on the research website.

The post Seniors fare better in acute geriatric care units with function-focused approach appeared first on UAP 2026-30.

The study, published by the , reports that companies profit steadily from marketing large numbers of new drugs – mostly minor variations on existing medications – with little to no health benefit for consumers.

Joel Lexchin

“Put simply, a massive amount of money is spent on marketing – far more than R&D,” says study co-author Dr. Joel Lexchin, a physician and professor in 91ŃÇɫ’s Faculty of Health. “Most of the R&D is directed at developing drugs that can generate revenue for the drug companies, rather than at finding significantly better drugs for unmet medical needs.”

The study points out that a brief spike in the number of drugs with new active ingredients (called “new molecular entities, or NME’s) in the mid-1990s created an innovation scare giving drug companies more leverage to pump out large numbers of spinoff drugs. “In fact, the spike was followed by a decline, and then a levelling off to the usual pattern. The number of NME’s being approved and marketed has not declined significantly, nor is the approval process for new drugs as difficult as the pharmaceutical companies make it out to be,” says Lexchin.

Since the mid-1990s, independent reviews have concluded that about 85-90 per cent of all new drugs provide few or no clinical advantages for patients. The small, steady increase in clinically superior drugs contrasts with the FDA granting priority review status to 44 per cent of all NMEs from 2000 to 2010.

The study’s lead author, Donald Light, a professor at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, says obvious conclusions can be drawn from this timing.

“Interestingly, this increase in the percentage of drugs with a priority designation coincides with companies beginning to fund the FDA’s approval process in 1992,” Lexchin says. “The low bars of being better than placebo, using surrogate end points instead of hard clinical outcomes, or being non-inferior to a comparator, allows approval of medicines that may even be either less effective and/or less safe than existing ones.”

While big pharma cries foul about the "patent cliff" – profits lost from major drugs like Lipitor going off patents – Lexchin and Light believe their patent-protected minor variations provide a solid cushion of profit.

Lexchin says the real innovation crisis is a conflict between commercial viability and consumer need.

“The drugs we need are not being researched and brought to market, largely because it’s more efficient and hence more profitable to simply create spinoff cures,” he says.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91ŃÇɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

The post Drug companies profit through lack of innovation, says researcher appeared first on UAP 2026-30.