With 2015 coming to a close, the Niche team are eager to thank all our colleagues, partners and fellow science-enthusiasts for their engagement over the last 12 months. We also want to share our best wishes for the season (what we at Niche call Niche-mas – a time when we take a break and reflect on the year that has just passed).
Looking back, 2015 has been a great year for Niche. In addition to our client projects, our team has been actively engaged in running our RASP-UK, MID-Frail and Frailomic projects. All three research programmes have been progressing well, with this year seeing publication of our first RASP-UK manuscript [1]. In total we have been managing three major grant-funded initiatives involving over 40 institutions across Europe. We also had several manuscripts written by the Niche team published on subjects like bariatric surgery [2] and the treatment of asthma. This year we have also published several of our Insider’s Insights on a range of subjects, including posters and protocols, and blogs on issues such writing style and English usage when writing. Various members of the Niche team have played active roles in the Association of Human Pharmacology in the Pharmaceutical Industry and the Pharmaceutical Contracts Management Group, making marked contributions to the putting together of the annual conferences.
In 2015, medicine saw major strides toward better patient care and treatment. High-tech mobile stroke units brought specialist diagnosis and therapy straight to patients, potentially saving brain function. Dengue fever saw its first vaccine poised for approval, addressing a disease affecting millions globally. Rapid, painless blood testing innovations promised cheaper diagnostics, though promises by the company Theranos seem hard to reconcile with what other technologies are reporting. New cholesterol-lowering PCSK9 inhibitors, which we published about in 2012 [3], emerged for patients who cannot use statins. Immunotherapies and antibody-drug conjugates offered more targeted cancer treatments. Leadless pacemakers and single-dose intraoperative radiation for breast cancer improved cardiac and oncology care. In addition, first therapies for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and new heart-failure drugs showed real clinical promise.
Looking ahead to 2016, we are expecting to be closing out our MID-Frail programme early in the year. Currently the evidence points to it being very possible to conduct exercise training in elderly diabetics and such training regimens result in positive health outcomes. We will have to wait a little longer to see the final data. We have several blogs planned detailing best practice on a variety of industry activities and several new review manuscripts in advanced stages of development. We hope to continue to release more of our industry leading Insider’s Insights, so remember to sign up for our email updates here.
Ultimately, it has been another successful year for Niche, as we continue to innovate and expand our ever-growing portfolio of projects. And 2016 promises more exciting initiatives and innovations to come.
So, it just leaves us with the one pleasant task of sharing our best wishes for the holiday season and a great start for the coming year, where we hope we can continue working with the broader scientific, medical and pharma community. In the words of Charles M. Schulz (the creator of the comic strip Peanuts which features his two best-known characters, Charlie Brown and Snoopy), “Christmas is doing a little something extra for someone.” In that spirit, I will share a little insight to helps with your festive blogs. Hashtags are just as important on Christmas as they are on any other day of the year. That’s because ‘hashtagged’ posts get an average of 12% more engagement than those without hashtags.
Use hashtags in your Christmas social media posts to drive interactions and help your business get found on busy platforms. You can use common Christmas hashtags, or even come up with your own custom Christmas hashtags of your own. Here are a few Christmas hashtag ideas that we came up with to get you going:
#christmastime #christmascheer #12daysofchristmas #12daysofgiveaways #christmascountdown #christmasdeals #christmaseve #christmasgift #christmasgiftideas #christmasgiveaway #christmaspromo #creativechristmas #elfie #elfontheshelf #healthyholidays #holidaycraze #litmas #localchristmas #merryandbright #merrychristmas #santascomingtotown #santashoutout #smallbusinesschristmas #stockingstuffers #thankyousanta #tistheseason #christmaslove #wrappedandready #naughtylist #nicelist #christmascrazy #christmasishere
References
- Heaney LG, Djukanovic R, Woodcock A, Walker S, Matthews JG, Pavord ID, et al. Research in progress: Medical Research Council United Kingdom Refractory Asthma Stratification Programme (RASP-UK). Thorax. 2016 Feb;71(2):187-9.
- Reijntjes SJ, et al. Bariatric surgery in obese older people: useful or not? Cardiovasc Endocrinol. 2015;4:60–66.
- Wierzbicki AS, Hardman TC, Viljoen A. Inhibition of pro-protein convertase subtilisin kexin 9 [corrected] (PCSK-9) as a treatment for hyperlipidaemia. Expert Opin Investig Drugs. 2012 May;21(5):667-76.
