Latest Conference Articles

Bringing together different stakeholders in healthcare to share the challenges they see and their own understanding of how to fix the problem can help make impossible things happen and bring change to the healthcare system, said Elizabeth Mitchell, president and chief executive officer, Pacific Business Group on Health.

Treating illnesses is important, but it would be a mistake to think that is the full extent of health. Panelists during the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions’ 2019 Leadership Summits, held June 24-26 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, discussed the impact of social determinants and past trauma on health and how employers can ensure they are addressing these issues to improve health and outcomes.

David Kingdon, MD, professor of mental health care delivery, University of Southampton, discussed the settings and circumstances that make it more likely that cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) will have a positive impact on patients with psychosis.

Jonathan Avery, MD, director of addiction psychiatry, New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Weill Cornell Medical Center, discussed how some psychiatrists will back away when treating a patient with co-occurring substance use and mental illness, when instead they should be leaning in to deliver evidence-based treatment.

Nicholas Robert, MD, medical director of Data, Evidence & Insights, McKesson Life Sciences, discusses the need for standardizing the use of real-world evidence for measuring endpoints in clinical practice.

Machine learning algorithms can help clinicians understand risk factors for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and match them to appropriate individualized treatments, according to Isaac Galatzer-Levy, PhD, assistant professor in psychiatry and bioinformatics, NYU School of Medicine, and vice president of clinical and computational neuroscience, AiCure.

Steven Adelsheim, MD, clinical professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, outlined the concept of duration of untreated psychosis, which connects time to treatment with outcomes, particularly in young people with psychosis.

Rob Mechanic, MBA, senior fellow at the Heller School of Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University and executive director of the Institute for Accountable Care, discusses the importance of HHS focusing on high-need patients in their 5 new primary care payment models.

Ben Jones, vice president, Government Relations & Public Policy, McKesson Specialty Health, discusses the importance of capturing real-world evidence in electronic health records (EHRs) and challenges oncologists face when trying to obtain these data from EHRs.

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can be used in conjunction with medication and community care to treat psychosis and incorporate families and caregivers into the treatment process, according to David Kingdon, MD, professor of mental health care delivery, University of Southampton.

Jason Mitchell, MD, chief medical and clinical transformation officer, Presbyterian Healthcare Services, discusses which payment models have the most potential for succeeding in value-based care.

Erich Mounce, chief operating officer, OneOncology, discusses how payment models like the Oncology Care Model are changing the way oncologists practice, as well as what practices should prioritize when looking to participate in a payment model.

Lori Raney, MD, principal, Health Management Associates, provided a definition and examples of integrated care for physical and behavioral health, in addition to explaining the strengths of the collaborative care model.

Selected technology news briefs from the 79th Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association.

The final morning session of the 79th Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association (ADA) in San Francisco, California, featured more cardiovascular and renal results from recent trials involving type 2 diabetes drugs.

Care coordination is crucial for mitigating challenges associated with aging and survivorship, explained Rose Gerber, director of patient advocacy and education for the Community Oncology Alliance.

Oral semaglutide, the first glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist in a pill, met safety benchmarks and reduced major cardiovascular (CV) events for high-risk patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) in PIONEER 6, but did not achieve superiority, according to trial results presented at the 79th Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association in San Francisco, California.

Adam Simmons, director of clinical program management, Alkermes, interviewed at the American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting, discussed the efficacy of the investigational drug ALKS 3831 (olanzapine/samidorphan) in various patient populations.

The connections among diabetes, cardiovascular (CV) disease, and kidney failure have been a theme of the 79th Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association, which featured a joint session with the American Society of Nephrology.

One of the first things you need to do to ensure scalability and sustainability of social determinants of health (SDOH) initiatives is to really understand your population, explained Susan Mani, MD, vice president of Clinical Transformation and Ambulatory Quality at LifeBridge Health.

The observational study will use information from 3 databases to compare the SGLT2 inhibitor to a competing class of therapy for type 2 diabetes. Early cardiovascular and safety data were presented Monday at the 79th Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association.

Findings reported at the 79th Scientific Session of the American Diabetes Association in San Francisco, California, show the type 2 diabetes drug dapagliflozin significantly reduced the risk of renal decline, kidney failure, and renal death.

Results from a study involving adding sitagliptin and increasing doses of metformin for patients who cannot attain glycemic control show that as glycated hemoglobin increases, it becomes harder to reach targets.

Oral semaglutide would be the first non-injectable agent in the GLP-1 receptor agonist class; these drugs produce powerful glycemic control along with weight loss.

This is probably the biggest concern that every community and cancer practice should be looking at, explained Ben Jones, vice president, Government Relations & Public Policy, McKesson Specialty Health.

One of the most important things you can do to align healthcare strategies in the shift toward value-based care is to allow your clinicians to be part of that journey, explained Jason Mitchell, MD, chief medical and clinical transformation officer, Presbyterian Healthcare Services.

Results of the CLL14 trial, which were presented today at the 2019 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago, Illinois, resulted in the approval of the venetoclax combination for these patients in May.

A number of abstracts at the 2019 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting, held May 31 to June 4, 2019, in Chicago, Illinois, featured studies that focused on using real-world data to advance research and cancer care in non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

During the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s Annual Meeting which took place May 31-June 4, 2019 in Chicago, Illinois, oncologists and representatives from UnitedHealthcare and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) took the stage to discuss oncology reimbursement reform and whether there are changes on the horizon for the promotion of higher value care.

The follow-up to the landmark TAILORx trial shows that adding a clinical risk evaluation of the breast cancer tumor may have prognostic value; the authors' recommendations are drawn from other studies.