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The most popular stories of the week on AJMC®.

Screening mammography is important for reducing race- and ethnicity-associated triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) disparities among African American and white American patients. At present, there is a 40% higher mortality rate among African American women compared with white American women.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) occurs at a higher rate in individuals who have HIV compared with those who do not, and it has a global incidence of more than 380 million people. The progressive lung disease is also diagnosed at a younger age in HIV-positive persons compared with their HIV-negative counterparts, and higher rates of smoking may be to blame.

Researchers recently examined 18 diseases represented by outpatient visits to a hospital in Taiwan to determine patterns of the effect of air pollution on different organs and found evidence that concurrent occurrences of diseases show that the immune system tries to create protective defenses.

This week, top managed care stories included the United States grappling with coronavirus; oncologists warning that a new payment model represents a major shift; findings that Medicaid expansion did not always result in community investment.

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

Rates of opioid poisoning in children point to a greater need for mental health services among this age group to prevent suicide; lung cancer screening rates fall below recommended levels for at-risk patient groups; not all deaths from opioid-related causes are reported as such.

Sleep duration among adolescents aged 9 to 11 was shown to influence elements of mental health, including depression, anxiety, impulsive behavior, and cognitive performance, according to study findings.

Updated results from the EASEL study show that lower risks of cardiovascular (CV) events, CV death, and CV mortality accompany initiation of canagliflozin, a sodium glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitor, in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) and high CV risk compared with use of other drugs.

The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) released its final evidence report on acute treatments of migraine on February 25. The Institute’s last report on migraine treatment was released in 2018.

Express Scripts’ insulin coverage decisions are questioned; the United States may have its first coronavirus case of unknown origin; obesity rates are on the rise among US adults.

For patients undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation, higher diversity of intestinal microbiota at the time of neutrophil engraftment was linked with lower mortality, according to study findings published today.

Researchers determined 2 aspects of Epstein-Barrvirus, levels of anti–Epstein-Barr virus nuclear antigen-1 antibodies and history of infectious mononucleosis, act together and independently to increase risk of multiple sclerosis, according to a study published in Frontiers in Neurology.

In nonprofit hospitals within states that expanded Medicaid, significant decreases in uncompensated care was reported, with additional increases in unreimbursed Medicaid expenses indicating that Medicaid expansion had no substantial effect on community benefit spending.

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.

A nonprofit in Philadelphia can open a safe injection site for intravenous drug users; clinical trial sponsors could be deemed noncompliant for not posting their data; Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals agrees to pay $1.6 billion in ongoing opioid crisis lawsuit.

It’s not a question of if coronavirus becomes a worldwide pandemic, but when, the CDC said Tuesday.

In a preliminary study to be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 72nd Annual Meeting, researchers found that patients with Parkinson disease who participated in a table tennis exercise program once a week for 6 months exhibited an improvement in their motor skills.

Health-related quality of life (QOL) improved in 54% of patients 18 years or older with relapsed/refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (R/R DLBCL) after therapy with tisagenlecleucel (Kymriah; Novartis), one of 2 FDA-approved chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies. The patients’ general health, vitality, physical function, and social function improved the most.

Abbott recently announced a partnership with Insulet Corporation to integrate its glucose-sensing technology with an automated insulin delivery system for patients with diabetes. Specifically, Abbott’s FreeStyle Libre system will become compatible with Insulet’s Omnipod Horizon, in an effort to “offer personalized automated insulin delivery and care for people living with diabetes.”

Out-of-network primary care may be associated with higher per-beneficiary spending in Medicare accountable care organizations (ACOs), reported a recent study published in Health Affairs.

Drugmaker Moderna Inc. sent out its first batch of a experimental coronavirus vaccine to be tested in humans; eptinezumab, sold as Vyepti and developed by Lundbeck, was approved by the FDA as a migraine prevention therapy; a US appeals court upheld a Trump administration rule on abortion referrals.

Recommendations abound for when women at average risk for breast cancer should begin yearly mammography screening, ranging from age 40 to 50. Questions remain, however, on the optimal age at which to stop. However, with over 50% of women older than age 75 still undergoing mammography, is there a truly safe age at which to stop what has been shown to be a life-saving practice if it does not decrease their mortality from breast cancer?

The association between migraine and several gastrointestinal (GI) disorders prompted investigations into the bidirectional relationship between the GI system and central nervous system. Researchers call this association the “gut-brain axis,” and they evaluated direct and indirect evidence linking migraines to the axis in a recent review published in The Journal of Headache and Pain.

The FDA approved Eli Lilly’s dulaglutide (Trulicity) for the reduction of major adverse cardiovascular events in adults with type 2 diabetes (T2D), with and without established cardiovascular disease (CVD), according to a press release.

Researchers developed a structurally colored contact lens sensor with tunable colors to assist in point-of-care diagnoses of common eye diseases, according to a study published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry B.

Nonprofit hospitals with the highest net income were shown in a study to devote the smallest proportion of earnings to charity care; FDA approves a novel drug to lower low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C); the White House is seeking emergency funding from Congress to fight the novel coronavirus.

Drug developers have made significant strides in understanding narcolepsy in recent years. Now, those advances are translating into a robust pipeline of potential new therapies.

In a major study of a Chinese medical insurance database, investigators found the prevalence and incidence of the disease in China is similar to those of its neighbors, but lower than countries in the West.

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.