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Practical and commonsense research from Ontario's Physician's Services Incorporated Foundation: Let them drink apple juice!

Today in JAMA online (the Journal of the American Medical Association) a delightfully practical article was published regarding how to help little children recover from gastroenteritis (stomach flu.) The authors, Doctors Stephen Freedman, Andrew Willan, Kathy Boutis and Suzanne Schuh, compared the health of over 600 children aged 6 months to 5 years, when given a medical rehydration solution to drink versus diluted apple juice along with the fluids that the child preferred. These children were not chronically ill or severely dehydrated, but were sick enough to have been brought by their parents to the emergency department and were at risk for needing hospitalization or intravenous fluids.

In previous studies oral rehydration with electrolyte solutions such as Pedialyte, which contain over twice as much sodium and 6 times as much potassium as sports drinks, along with much less sugar, had performed well in preventing hospitalization or return to the emergency department. Theoretically, children would need electrolytes to replace the ones lost in diarrhea or from vomiting, and extra sugar would just draw more fluid into the intestines, worsening the diarrhea. In the children studied in this recent research, however, giving a teaspoon of dilute apple juice every 2-5 minutes and treating vomiting with a very effective anti-nausea medication, ondansetron, by mouth, worked at least as well, actually significantly better than the same routine using bottled electrolyte solutions. This was particularly true in the children who were over 2 years old and so had definite taste preferences. Children given dilute apple juice and then liquids that they preferred were less likely to be admitted to the hospital or need intravenous hydration than children who were provided oral electrolyte solutions.

There has been a magic associated with giving children Pedialyte or similar solutions for their mild intestinal ills, despite the fact that it is more expensive (1 liter costs about $9, though may be as cheap as $5 when bought in bulk) and doesn't taste very good. Children mostly don't mind it, but some really do, which can be a big factor when they are feeling queasy. This study presents evidence to allow parents to give their children pretty much any liquid that sounds good, making an extra trip to the pharmacy with a sick child unnecessary.

Now oral electrolyte solutions and apple juice have both been available from many manufacturers for many years. What drug company, then, would be interested in funding this lovely research? None, of course. Could it have been funded by a governmental agency? Yes, I guess so, though much of that grant money is very hard to get. This study, though, was funded by a private foundation with a very interesting story.

In 1947 physicians in Ontario, Canada, joined together to create a pre-paid health plan. The physicians pro-rated their fees to stay within budget, and eventually 8000 doctors participated. In 1969, the Physician's Services Incorporated health plan ceased to exist and was replaced by a state run entity, now the Ontario Health Insurance Plan. There was still money in their account when they stopped providing services (they must have been doing something right) and the physicians decided to use it to create a foundation to improve the health of the citizens of Ontario. The original investment of those physicians was $16.7 million, and in the years since inception over $167 million has been paid out in grants. They now have around $90 million from which they fund over $3 million in grants yearly.

If you are interested, read the 2015 annual report for the foundation. The projects they fund are wonderful. There are little grants, one for $5500 to a physician who wanted to study lower doses of a testosterone product for female to male transsexuals. There are larger grants as well. There is a project to grow mats of human cartilage from small numbers of cells to heal the damage of osteoarthritis, reducing the need for joint replacements. There is a fellowship for a researcher who will take scientific research and bring it to the bedside, this year a nutritional expert who works on creating healthy diets. The money granted to this person is to free them up to do work that will not provide them any likely financial benefit. There is a study to look at the side effects and impacts of those side effects on patients who take the (often not very effective) drugs for Alzheimer's disease. There is a study looking at whether giving children who receive antibiotics in the hospital a probiotic milk product (kefir, I'm thinking) reduces their risk of getting antibiotic associated diarrhea. The studies are all like that: practical, meaningful, unlikely to increase healthcare costs and likely to improve health. They are studies that are not often done in the US, where drug companies are our major funding source, expecting to make more money selling drugs than they spend on research.

The PHI foundation is much smaller than the Rockefeller, Howard Hughes or Bill and Melinda Gates foundations which privately fund research in the US. Even so, they helped Dr. Freedman et al publish a paper that will allow the next generation of babies and toddlers to drink dilute apple juice rather than electrolyte solutions and be more likely to stay out of hospitals as they recover from their tummy troubles. Their other grants are just as good. They are a model of medical research funding I have not seen before. They are private individuals, doctors even, who have worked together to do something great. They are not super rich philanthropists, drug companies or federal government agencies.  This organization is making a powerful and positive impact by funding and encouraging researchers who are wise and curious.

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