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Although it’s difficult to generalize the impact of social determinants of health, addressing them is fundamental to improving overall healthcare quality for member populations.

A team of 20 scientists in the fields of informatics, statistics, epidemiology, systematic reviews, cancer biology, and nutrition have developed a tool that will assess the links in published human studies between lifestyle factors and cancer.

Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JP Morgan Chase & Co are partnering to deliver healthcare in a new way to their employees; a fitness app accidentally revealed the locations of military bases and personnel through a global heat map; a bill that would ban abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy fell short of the 60 votes needed in the Senate.

Empagliflozin (Jardiance) and another SGLT2 inhibitor, canagliflozin (Invokana) have been competing aggressively; both have clinical trial results showing cardiovascular benefits.

Shifting care for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) from the hospital to the home reduced hospital readmissions by 64% and emergency department visits by 52%, a Canadian program found.

Officials at Omada Health said the PREDICTS trial was planned long before CMS decided not to include virtual providers in this spring's launch of the Medicare Diabetes Prevention Program. But a spokesperson said the company hopes the growing body of evidence in support of virtual programs will "assuage any concerns."

For many people on traditional Medicare plans, healthcare costs are a rising burden and are expected to consume a larger share of total income by 2030, according to an analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Majority of Americans don't know the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate was repealed or are unsure; health providers and anti-abuse agencies are collaborating to better care for victims of domestic abuse; preventive care doesn't reduce overall costs, but it does improve quality of life.

Even though much more remains to be done on an island where half of its US residents still lack power, the situation is improving for cancer patients in Puerto Rico, doctors and organizations said recently in interviews with The American Journal of Managed Care®. In Puerto Rico, more than 75% of the cancer care is delivered in the community, not hospitals.

Only 5% of rare diseases have treatments, but approximately half have patient advocacy organizations; these groups have the potential to play major roles in positively influencing research and development of drugs, clinical trials, and regulations by championing funding and awareness efforts, forming connections between experts and drug developers, advocating for changes to regulation to expedite research, facilitating patient registries, or other initiatives.

The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) recommends that CMS guard cancer patients from high out-of-pocket costs that will impede patient access to life-extending cancer drugs, according to the society’s comments regarding proposed financial revisions to the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit Program (Part D).

The gold standard test for colon cancer detection is for patients to undergo a colonoscopy. However, the development of the fecal immunochemical test (FIT) provides patients with a noninvasive option that can be completed at home and would allow patients to forego the colonoscopy, if results are negative.

Every year, central lines are associated with causing blood infections in an estimated 400,000 patients with cancer. However, new research has found that changes in the microbiome may be responsible for some or many of the infections usually attributed to central lines.

The current flu season is already bad, but it hasn’t peaked yet. Here are 5 things about the current flu season and why it has been so harsh.

The most common reasons pepole give for never being tested for HIV is that they were "unlikely to have been exposed to HIV" and they were “never offered an HIV test," according to a National Health Statistics Reports.

The FDA approved the first radioactive drug, or radiopharmaceutical, to treat a rare type of cancer that affects the pancreas or gastrointestinal tract called gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (GEP-NETs). Lutathera (lutetium Lu 177 dotatate) is cleared for adult patients with somatostatin receptor-positive GEP-NETs.

A new report from the National Quality Forum (NQF) outlines a systematic approach to address how to coordinate the unmet health needs of patients in the areas of food and housing—areas that ultimately affect care outcomes. The guidance for Medicaid programs is targeted at advancing efforts to collect and use data about individuals’ social needs and increase collaboration between communities and healthcare providers to improve beneficiaries’ health.

Coverage of our peer-reviewed research and news reporting in the healthcare and mainstream press.

Medicare's refusal to expand physician education funding will exacerbate the staffing shortage that is growing as baby boomers retire.

This week, the top managed care news included Senate confirming Alex Azar as the new HHS Secretary; a report found that healthcare prices rose in 2016; the accountable care organization movement continued to expand.

Via Pathways covers more than 2000 different patient representations in cancer care.

FDA panel rejects claim that smokeless cigarettes result in less harm and disease; big data might be able to shed light on the health effects of weight gain; healthcare is not a key issue among voters in battleground states.

The latest technological advances in the healthcare field will provide more accessible, affordable, and efficient healthcare for patients worldwide, according to a discussion at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

Non-Hispanic black women diagnosed with HER2-negative, lymph node-negative breast cancer who had recurrence score testing had higher estimated risks of distant recurrence than their non-Hispanic white counterparts.

https://www.pharmacytimes.org/landing/1104

In its first birth defect surveillance report about the Zika virus, the CDC said Thursday there was a 21% increase in certain birth defects “strongly linked” to the virus in the areas most affected by local transmission: south Florida, south Texas, and Puerto Rico. The CDC said it continues to recommend that pregnant women not travel to areas with risk of Zika, including US areas with endemic transmission. It also said healthcare providers should remain vigilant about these possible outcomes.

High cost sharing is associated with reduced and/or delayed access to targeted therapies under Medicare Part D for patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma, suggesting that financial barriers play a significant role in treatment decisions, according to a study published in Cancer Medicine.

Analysis finds ties between pharmaceutical industry and federal government are deepening; Mississippi readies a Medicaid work requirement waiver; research identifies danger of interactions between herbal supplements and prescription medications.

The United Kingdom's government will lead efforts to decrease loneliness, which can have disastrous health consequences.

The annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology (ACC), which runs March 10-12, 2018, in Orlando, Florida, will open with cardiovascular outcomes results for the PCSK9 inhibitor alirocumab (Praluent). The meeting also features updates on anti-inflammatory drugs, the use of SGLT2 inhibitors in heart failure, and how cardiology is shifting to new healthcare delivery models.