Interviews

Nat Turner, co-founder and CEO of Flatiron Health, explains how data can be used for finding potential patients to be included in clinical trials.

When looking at the value of a medication, pharmaceutical companies are looking at outcomes, including ones that encompass patient centricity, said Ira Klein, MD, MBA, FACP, senior director of healthcare quality strategy for the Strategic Customer Group at Janssen Pharmaceuticals.

Community oncology practices need to think outside of the box to keep up with competition and be successful, said Robin Shah, vice president of Provider Marketing and Strategy at Flatiron Health

Brenda Schmidt is CEO of Solera Health, an integrator that serves as the “back office” for both community-based and digital providers of the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP), an evidence-based program that has been shown to reduce incidence of people with prediabetes progressing to type 2 diabetes. In April, Medicare will take the historic step of launching the DPP for beneficiaries, and Solera has been at the forefront of helping providers navigate the policy and technical hurdles to serve clients who will take part in the DPP.

Rick Doubleday is the executive vice president, and chief commercial officer at Dexcom. He is responsible for the sales, marketing and customer service functions. Previously, Doubleday led all sales and marketing functions for the company, driving the acceleration of worldwide awareness and adoption of Dexcom continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). Doubleday visited The American Journal of Managed Care® this fall to discuss bringing the Dexcom G5 to Medicare beneficiaries.

The biggest barriers to stopping the transmission of HIV are both the large population of infected people not receiving treatment and the lack of pre-exposure prophylaxis for high-risk individuals, said Thomas C. Quinn, MD, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Global Health.

Community oncologists have a major role in accelerating treatment development and providing them to patients, said Amy Abernethy, MD, PhD, the chief medical officer, chief scientific officer, and senior vice president of oncology at Flatiron Health.

Bobby Green, MD, MSCE, senior vice president of clinical oncology at Flatiron Health, discusses analyzing patient data to improve the overall care delivery and its challenges involved with being so early in the process.

Although patients and physicians both recognize the need to discuss obesity, the lack of resources, time, and expertise often prevents physicians for offering care and patients from asking for it, explained Todd Hobbs, MD, Novo Nordisk’s vice president and chief medical officer.

Nat Turner, co-founder and CEO of Flatiron Health, discusses how oncologists use data to assist them in meeting the requirements in new payment models.

Naiyer A. Rizvi, MD, director of thoracic oncology and immunotherapeutics at Columbia University Medical Center discusses using PD-L1 expression on a tumor to identify patient response to treatment.

Community oncologists face a challenge in getting patients into clinical trials, but new technology could help them get access to those trials, explained Tesh Khullar, senior vice president of provider solutions at Flatiron Health.

Data needs to be more organized so it is more available and useful at the point of care, said Amy Abernethy, MD, PhD, the chief medical officer, chief scientific officer, and senior vice president of oncology at Flatiron Health.

Linda Schwimmer, president and CEO of the New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute, discussed the impact of data on lowering the state’s C-section rates, which are among the highest in the country.

On December 5, 2017, FDA approved Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide, a once-weekly glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. Todd Hobbs, MD, Novo Nordisk’s vice president and chief medical officer, spoke with The American Journal of Managed Care® just ahead of FDA’s action.

Practices now should have at least 1 person who understands analytics, as their prevalence and importance grows in the field, explained Nat Turner, co-founder and CEO of Flatiron Health.

Bobby Green, MD, MSCE, senior vice president of clinical oncology at Flatiron Health discusses the future of clinical trials and how the software tool, OncoTrials, can be used to help match patients to trials.

Results from the FOURIER trial have provided convincing data that there is no downside to aggressively lowering cholesterol with PCSK9 inhibitors, and studies have shown there are cardiovascular benefits associated with Repatha, but reimbursement remains challenging, said Eliot A. Brinton, MD, FAHA, FNLA, president of the Utah Lipid Center.

Linda Schwimmer, president and CEO of the New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute, discusses the impact of the group’s report, Medicaid 2.0, which outlined how the state can bring healthcare transformation principles to a program that consumes a fifth of the state budget. New Jersey elected a new governor in November, and the blueprint was widely seen a policy recommendation for the next administration.

A non-fasting test to measure low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol has many advantages for patients and physicians, but payers can also see some benefits, explained Eliot A. Brinton, MD, FAHA, FNLA, president of the Utah Lipid Center.

Diabetes prevention is about a change in lifestyle that will lead to internalized benefits that reduce risk, explained Paul Chew, MD, chief medical officer of Omada Health.

Real-world evidence isn't usually used for regulatory decisions, but the FDA is poised to start using it more, and there are challenges to using real-world data in clinical trials that will need to be navigated, said Nat Turner, co-founder and CEO of Flatiron Health.

As oncology moves toward more deep diagnostic testing and as standard of care continues to quickly evolve, technology advancements are necessary to continue to improve patient access to clinical trials, explained Amy Abernethy, MD, PhD, the chief medical officer, chief scientific officer, and senior vice president of oncology at Flatiron Health.

New approaches for measuring quality need to be developed to get frontline caregivers involved in the early stages of quality measure decisions, said Peter Aran, MD, medical director of population health management at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Oklahoma.

Aaron Lyss, director of value-based care for Tennessee Oncology, discusses the lessons that’s were learned after experiences with the Oncology Care Model.

Biosimilars for core therapeutics in cancer are starting to come out, and community oncologists need to understand what that means for their business, as well as what proposed policy changes could mean for reimbursement, explained Tesh Khullar,

With 30% to 40% of people in the workforce at risk for prediabetes, it is important for employers to embrace diabetes prevention in the workplace, said Paul Chew, MD, chief medical officer of Omada Health.

New Jersey is 1 of 3 states that will test a new set of metrics to assess how well new payment models have penetrated markets, explained Linda Schwimmer, JD, president and CEO of the New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute, which will lead the process in New Jersey.

Most practices are not ready to transition to the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) payment models, although there is a leading group of practices that are more prepared to make the switch, said Aaron Lyss, director of value-based care for Tennessee Oncology.

Clinicians have some influence over social determinants that affect the health of patients, but it’s important for partnerships to be developed to further improve the negative impacts of certain determinants, said Charlie Fazio, MD, senior vice president and medical director of HealthPartners.