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Outgoing FDA Commissioner Robert Califf, MD, has announced that Richard Pazdur, MD, who was serving as the interim director, will now be heading the Oncology Center of Excellence.

This week, the top managed care stories included news that Republicans will introduce legislation to replace the Affordable Care Act, a report found the abortion rate hit a historic low, and results showed Januvia is safe for the oldest patients, even if they have cardiovascular risk.

A Big Data approach reveals the link between well-known insecticides and melatonin, a chemical that affects sleep patterns.

What we're reading, January 20, 2017: Minnesota will help residents with steep insurance premium hikes; the director of the National Institutes of Health appointed by President Barack Obama will stay on under the new administration; Anthem will end pre-authorization for opioid use disorder treatments.

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

A collaborative study has concluded that genomic assays can be successfully used to identify diagnostic, prognostic, and treatment-relevant alterations and can help guide precision treatment decisions for pediatric brain tumors.

The use of health information technology in small primary care practices continues to rise, but a recent study found that the extent of its adoption varies based on practice size, ownership, and financial incentives.

Observers have called the mini-pump, which continuously delivers exenatide, a "game changer" because it has the potential to overcome medication adherence in the patients who are most resistant to treatment.

Shantanu Agrawal, MD, MPhil, pursued the use of analytics to prevent and identify fraud in public healthcare programs. He takes the helm of a 16-year-old group that has worked to bring consensus among stakeholders on what in healthcare should be measured.

The FDA is giving serious consideration to the economics of the drug or device development process, and to that effect, has released a draft guidance for manufacturers on how and what to communicate with payers and formulary committees.

What we're reading, January 19, 2017: California has withdrawn a request to sell health coverage for illegal immigrants; Pfizer's CEO pushes back against Donald Trump's depiction of the pharmaceutical industry; some Republican governors urge caution on Obamacare repeal.

Patients with rare diseases often turn to the Internet for information on their illness, but an analysis of some of these websites found that their content often failed to meet important quality criteria and neglected key information categories.

A new report released by the American Cancer Society indicates that while the cancer-related death rate was higher among blacks than in whites in 2014, the racial gap could reduce as minority patients increasingly gain access to insurance and subsequent healthcare.

The abortion rate in the United States hit a historic low in 2014 with 2 likely contributing factors: improved access to contraceptives and increased restrictions to abortion services.

During a Public Health Grand Rounds seminar hosted by the CDC on Tuesday, 3 experts from different vantage points within the healthcare system discussed why opioid use disorder presents unique challenges in women and what can be done to address this crisis.

What we're reading, January 18, 2017: GOP senators plan to reveal Obamacare replacement next week; McKesson to pay $150 million to settle claims that it didn't report suspicious opioid orders; and Sylvia Mathews Burwell will go on DC health insurance exchange once she leaves her post.

The trial, evaluating the programmed death ligand-1 inhibitor durvalumab, alone or in combination with tremelimumab, versus platinum-based chemotherapy, has refined its endpoints to include overall survival (OS) along with progression-free survival.

The study found only tobacco use and hypertension were worse on the heart than depression.

The report finds that the House resolution would create an increasingly unstable insurance market, and that fewer insurers would participate.

What we’re reading, January 17, 2017: a newly finalized federal rule eases record sharing of drug abuse treatment between providers; numerous rallies in support of Obamacare draw thousands across the nation; HHS nominee Representative Tom Price allegedly introduced a Congress bill that favored his stock holdings.

Among the 9 new orphan drugs approved by the FDA in 2016 were 3 treatments for rare diseases that, so far, had no approved treatments: Duchenne muscular dystrophy, spinal muscular atrophy, and severe hepatic veno-occlusive disease.

According to a new study, in addition to tumor type, stage, and the presence of comorbidities, patients receiving cisplatin-based treatments might be at an increased risk of venous thromboembolism.

Despite disagreement over the Affordable Care Act, Democrats and Republicans agree on broader issues like the need to move away from fee-for-service and the need to a better job for those with chronic conditions.

The new study in Diabetes Care comes more than a year after the initial results of the TECOS trial were presented at the American Diabetes Association Scientific Sessions.

After the Affordable Care Act allowed states to expand Medicaid eligibility for low-income residents, 25 states and the District of Columbia chose to do so by 2014. A team of researchers from Brown University analyzed data from federally funded community health centers and found increased levels of coverage and better care quality for those in Medicaid expansion states.

An experiment by Park Nicollet Health Services to document personalized pain management goals for patients in oncology clinics lowered documented pain, while physician education on cost information helped reduce treatment costs.

What we're reading, January 16, 2017: House follows Senate vote to begin Obamacare repeal process; President-elect Donald Trump teases Obamacare replacement to provide insurance for everyone; and acceptance of aid-in-dying legislation grows.

There are upwards of 408 “dedicated” internet sites that invite consumers to provide feedback on their experiences in physician offices. The lure of these sites for consumers is that they can see what others are saying about specific physicians.

A new study conducted at The University of Texas has found that a majority of federal exchanges do not include National Cancer Institute-designated cancer centers.

Since patients with COPD often have other comorbidities, researchers sought to understand patient adherence to maintenance COPD medications and adherence to treat other chronic conditions.