All News

An audit feedback intervention is an approach used to help providers translate evidence into behavior change, and at ID Week, 1 abstract showed that it helped reduce antibiotic prescribing for acute respiratory infections (ARIs). Another report showed that antibiotic prescribing rates for ARIs at medical centers operated by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) have steadily declined since 2010. ID Week is an annual conference focused on many different infectious disease topics.

Two studies presented at the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research 2018 Annual Meeting last month specifically addressed men’s bone health and compared their risks with those of women.

Previous phase 3 studies have demonstrated the efficacy of nebulized glycopyrrolate inhalation solution (GLY) for treating patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). In a recent study, researchers conducted a secondary analysis and found that nebulized GLY demonstrated efficacy and was well tolerated for up to 48 weeks in subjects with COPD with or without background long-acting beta2-agonist (LABA).

A study found a lack of consistent and comprehensive coverage throughout the country, identified coverage-related challenges to accessing asthma care within states, and found substantial gaps between guidelines-based asthma care and coverage by state Medicaid programs.

Health plans sold through Iowa’s Farm Bureau will ask applicants if they have any pre-existing conditions, and some applicants could be denied coverage based on their answers; Congress this week approved rare bipartisan legislation aimed at curbing opioid use disorder, giving lawmakers something to campaign on ahead of the November midterms; a new study sought to assess the cost to produce insulin and to examine how biosimilar insulin, if manufactured on a large scale, could reduce the cost of treatment for patients with diabetes.

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

The type of cancer a provider treats can determine how well he or she performs under the Oncology Care Model (OCM), according to research from Avalere Health that was presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology Quality Care Symposium.

This week, the top managed care news included the Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded to 2 people for research into immunotherapy; physician-run accountable care organizations bring savings for Medicare; research highlights the health impacts of sexual harassment and assault.

The ornithine decarboxylase 1 (ODC1) gene, for the first time in humans, has been linked to a new pediatric disorder leading to macrosomia, macrocephaly, developmental delays, alopecia, hypotonia, and hearing loss, according to a new report.

This week, infectious disease specialists from different organizations are meeting in San Francisco for ID Week, an annual conference focused on many different infectious disease topics and their intersection with cancer, HIV, respiratory diseases, and more. Two abstracts presented results about what is needed to prevent complications in cancer care, one about patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with prolonged neutropenia, and one examining the frequency of antimicrobial complications following initiation of palliative chemotherapy.

Pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) will have to disclose some information about their compensation and relationships with payers.

Researchers developed a set of items based on a previous literature review and patients’ focus groups and tested it on a wide set of patients with episodic and chronic migraine.

Although what is known about the impact of rising minimum wages on health is just beginning, the research that is available points to some important health benefits, according to a new policy brief in Health Affairs. And, a possible new source of data to mine could arise over the next few years, stemming from Amazon's announcement this week that it will raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour for its employees in the United States.

Cervical cancer could be eliminated in Australia within the next 2 decades because of a free government program to vaccinate children against the human papillomavirus; employers have slowed enrollment in high-deductible health plans amid a very tight labor market and a postponement of a tax on healthcare coverage; President Barack Obama’s 2010 healthcare law is threatening Republicans in the midterms who have spent years railing against it and seeking its repeal.

Patient adherence to medication is a complex issue, particularly so for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). A recent study finds that adherence is related to need perception and to the functional severity of the disease.

On the heels of various reports that have highlighted the challenges of treating back pain, Palmer College of Chiropractic and Gallup released their fourth annual survey of attitudes about and experiences with chiropractic care. The 2018 Gallup-Palmer College of Chiropractic Annual Report: Managing Neck and Back Pain in America is the latest effort by the college to see if public perceptions of chiropractic care match the ones held internally.

In the United States, an estimated 40% to 75% of women have experienced sexual harassment in the workplace, and an estimated 36% of women have experienced sexual assault. At the same time as lawmakers are addressing sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh, 2 new papers, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, highlight the prevalence and health impacts that harassment and assault can have.

For 2017, New Jersey's largest insurer made particularly good progress in certain diabetes measures and in cancer screenings.

Two studies presented at the 2018 Infectious Disease Week conference held in San Francisco, California, add to a pile of research demonstrating the positive impact of collaborative, multidisciplinary care in the HIV population, specifically on viral suppression.

A once-weekly dose of carfilzomib (Kyprolis) in combination with dexamethasone has been approved to treat patients with relapsed or refractory (R/R) multiple myeloma. The approved regimen improved progression-free survival and had a better overall response rate than a twice-weekly regimen.

Patients who receive an antibiotic prescription report being happiest with their doctor’s visit, whether or not they needed the antibiotic; the FDA has collected more than 1000 pages of documents from Juul’s headquarters as part of a surprise inspection into its sales and marketing practices; on any given day, an average of 36.6% of American adults are eating fast food, and the proportion eating fast food increases with income.

Improvements in chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, approved last year by the FDA for leukemias and lymphomas, were a focus of a session by a National Cancer Institute (NCI) researcher who spoke at the CRI-CIMT-EATI-AACR International Cancer Immunotherapy Conference taking place in New York City this week.

A recent open-label, single-arm, phase 2 study sought to assess evaluate an alternative dosing regimen for adults myelofibrosis (MF) to assess whether such a regimen could mitigate anemia.

While the integration of social determinants of health (SDOH) into electronic health records (EHRs) may be feasible, substantial barriers to adoption exist.

The chairman of the board of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) told the hospital’s staff that the former chief medical officer, José Baselga, MD, had “crossed lines” and had gone “off the reservation” in his outside dealings with health and drug companies; more than any other industry, the pharmaceutical industry benefits from a patent strategy that allows small changes in existing drugs to confer continued patent protection; public health officials are worried that the latest Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo may be spinning beyond their control and could spill over into Uganda and Rwanda.

A new study has found that people living with HIV are at an increased risk of both first and second primary cancer incidence.

Nobel Prize winner James Allison, PhD, pioneering T-cell researcher, said the award represents the triumph of science and shows the value of research, even if it does not immediately lead to a scientific or commercial success.

A test that uses next-generation sequencing (NGS) has been approved to detect and monitor minimal residual disease in patients with multiple myeloma (MM) and B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

James P. Allison, PhD, and Tasuku Honjo, MD, PhD, led the basic science experiments that showed the potential of checkpoint inhibitors, creating a fourth pillar in the treatment of cancer.

A single leukemia cell was able to reproduce and cause a deadly relapse of pediatric B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) after it had bonded with the leukemia-targeting chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) lentivirus and infused back into a patient. The case of the cell that became resistant to CAR T-cell therapy was published in the journal Nature Medicine Monday.