Today’s Wall Street Journal article “Putting Drug Development in Patients’ Hands” features Dr. Jay Tenenbaum’s Web-based company CollabRx. CollabRx aims to expand patient-funded research further by connecting individuals or small numbers of patients with the tools and services they need. The article highlights CollabRx’s work with a Melanoma Research Alliance (MRA) grantee, the John Wayne Cancer Institute, provides information about MRA, and includes a quote from FasterCures president Greg Simon.

The American Health Information Community is going out of business at the end of the year and will be replaced by an unnamed organization, known familiarly as A2. In this article, one of the leaders of the new organization discusses how the new organization will work to mesh data standards for medical research with its work on standards for e-health records.

Dr. Bernadine Healy's column discusses that strategically ramping up work in cancer genomics and a newer area of exploration, cancer stem cells, is what will lead to improved treatments, provided the money, talent, and technological resources are there. Greg Simon's testimony before the Senate HELP committee is mentioned.