Mary Caffrey

The number of cases of COVID-19 nationwide moved past the 20,000 mark, of which more than half are in New York state, a fact that Gov. Andrew Cuomo said was a function of the state testing more people.

As coronavirus dominates the airwaves and the internet, it’s worth knowing that in 2006, a study found that local television news had become the number one source of medical information for most Americans.

Research highlighting these trends, based on 10 million death records pulled from a CDC database, will be presented at the American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Session together with World Congress of Cardiology (ACC.20/WCC), which is taking place as a virtual meeting March 28-30.

“These are times of unprecedented and unimaginable challenges for our health care system."

Giving statins to women before they undergo treatment for breast cancer may help prevent the heart damage caused by some well-known therapies, including trastuzumab.

Harvard's Ashish Jha, MD, MPH, was senior author on a popular 2015 paper that addressed care fragmentation among those with chronic illness.

The big news at the American College of Cardiology meeting always comes early Saturday right after the opening showcase, and this year March 28 will bring the VICTORIA trial—or, a Vericiguat Global Study in Subjects With Heart Failure With Reduced Ejection Fraction (HFrEF).

This week’s selection was one of our most-read articles of 2018.

How can community oncology practices keep up with changing federal regulations and the constant fl ow of new scientific evidence, while delivering quality care in the era of payment reform? The answer, said panelists at Patient-Centered Oncology Care®, is to stay independent by working together.

Implementing alternative payment models in oncology is a complicated process. The models are not perfect, especially the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Oncology Care Model (OCM), although several panelists saw improvements in the proposed successor model, Oncology Care First (OCF).

How well patients say they are faring, both during and after cancer treatment, is more important than ever to payers. But measuring that feedback isn’t easy, and ensuring that measurement is fair to both patients and providers is harder still.

Payers have a crucial role in the future of community oncology, said Jeffery Patton, MD, of OneOncology, because it’s in their interest to help this lower-cost option thrive.

A special issue takes a wide-ranging look at the cost of prescription drugs.

Rebecca Kaul, MBA, vice president and chief innovation officer at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, said the best technology improves the patient experience.

During a discussion at The American Journal of Managed Care®’s Patient- Centered Oncology Care® meeting in Philadelphia, panelists outlined the efficacy of the 2 FDA-approved therapies, Medicare reimbursement for CAR T-cell therapies, and the pace of innovation in healthcare.

Of the women in the 2017 study over age 75, 63% had a mammogram.

Barriers to better treatment start with the basic definitions of heart failure. Classifications in use for decades, such as the New York Heart Association system or the left ventricle ejection fraction measure, need an overhaul, and the field should take a precision medicine approach that brings analytics and biomarkers to the cause.

While there are similarities to the Oncology Care Model, the new model has features “that could have a substantial impact on practices that choose to participate,” the authors write.

With our current issue of Evidence-Based Oncology™ focusing on clinical pathways in cancer care, we look back at one of our most-read papers of 2016.

As today’s employers try to balance the need to provide healthcare for their workers while keeping an eye on cost, they are banding together to learn more about cancer care and how to gain value for the millions they are spending. Last fall during the Community Oncology Alliance Payer Exchange Summit, leaders from employer and purchasing groups shared experiences from their members in a roundtable discussion.

The 2007 paper examined the elevated risks for cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes for patients who have schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.

Writing for the panel, Judge David Sentelle said HHS Secretary Alex Azar ignored predictions that thousands of people would lose their healthcare coverage.

Competing trials are under way that may show that the benefits of SGLT2 inhibitors in heart failure are a class effect.

The article identifies issues such as poor socioeconomic background and lack of family and social support as factors in poor medication adherence, which today are recognized as social determinants of health

The plan represents the latest element of the Trump administration’s comprehensive approach to renal care, which seeks to keep patients from advancing to dialysis. For those who do, the plan promotes transplants and home dialysis options.

The most detailed look ever at data for rosiglitazone, the diabetes drug marketed by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) as Avandia, shows the one-time blockbuster significantly raises the overall risk of heart problems or cardiovascular death, calling attention to the need for more transparency in data collection.

This week's paper from our editors-in-chief presented the idea of tying a prescription drug's cost-sharing to its clinical value to the patient.

Results come at the decision point for practices: Will it be 1-sided or 2-sided risk?

CMS said it is expanding coverage of next generation sequencing (NGS) for use as a diagnostic for patients with germline breast and ovarian cancer, paving the way for Medicare beneficiaries to receive more personalized medicine. However, an advocate said the wording of CMS' decision could actually limit testing access for some women with breast or ovarian cancer.

The authors write that the drug's apparent cardioprotective effects in the angiotensin II stressed mice—the decreased fibrosis, reduced inflammation and oxidative stress—all merit further study.