Providers

Use of digital health tools appears to have leveled off in 2019, according to one study, but another finds that use of telehealth is poised to grow considerably.

The local community doctor has an important role in recognizing, diagnosing, and managing myelofibrosis, said Naveen Pemmaraju, MD, associate professor in the Department of Leukemia at MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Unlike many other cancer rates that have been on the decline, liver cancer rates for new liver and intrahepatic bile duct cancer cases have been rising. This October, which is Liver Cancer Awareness Month, Global Liver Institute is joining with more than 30 other leading health and medical organizations, to issue a global call-to-action to increase the 5-year survival rates for patients with liver cancer from 18% to 36% by 2030.

Childhood conditions can have a long-lasting impact on the health of those individuals into their adulthood.

Less than half of Medicare patients newly diagnosed with blood cancer are receiving treatment for their cancer shortly after diagnosis, which may be attributed to the high cost burden they face, according to a new report from Milliman commissioned by The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

As costs for cancer care continue to rise, Pontchartrain Cancer Center does benefit and cost analyses for all patients before they start therapy and also takes into account any social needs they might have, said Kathy W. Oubre, MS, chief operating officer at Pontchartrain Cancer Center.

Serum neurofilament light chain is associated with brain atrophy and disability worsening, which means it can be used as an objective surrogate of ongoing disease activity in multiple sclerosis (MS), according to research published in JAMA Neurology.

While freestanding emergency departments (EDs) can reduce wait times and reduce the burden on overcrowded EDs, they increase utilization of emergency care and local market spending.

Pairing a cyclin-dependent kinase 4 and 6 (CDK4/6) inhibitor with fulvestrant significantly improved overall survival (OS) for women with hormone receptor (HR)-positive, human epidermal growth factor 2 (HER2)-negative advanced breast cancer, according to 2 abstracts presented at the European Society of Medical Oncology 2019 Congress.

Lisa Lancaster, MD, assistant professor of medicine at Vanderbilt Health, discusses how sleep apnea is a comorbidity for other lung diseases, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and interstitial lung disease.

Millennials and Generation Z consumers are driving significant change in the US healthcare system.

Data from EXPLORE, a prospective, multinational, natural history study, is used to characterize disease activity and clinical management of patients with acute hepatic porphyria (AHP) who experience recurrent attacks. The findings highlight the high unmet need for effective treatments.

Every week, The American Journal of Managed Care® recaps the top managed care news of the week, and you can now listen to it on our podcast, Managed Care Cast.

The change to the public charge rule has had a negative impact on immigrant patients, who are disenrolling or declining to enroll in Medicaid and are delaying or avoiding care, according to a survey of community health centers.

This week, the top managed care news included a new guide that balances curbs on opioid abuse with the needs of patients with chronic pain; HHS proposed reforming antikickback rules to help boost value-based care; a report found flaws with Medicaid work requirements.

More practices than expected seem to be interested in staying in the Oncology Care Model (OCM) and taking on downside risk, said Mike Fazio, senior vice president of client services, Archway Health.

While measurement of minimal residual disease (MRD) at the end of induction is an important prognostic factor in acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), there is a gap in education among community oncology providers, according to an abstract presented at the Society of Hematologic Oncology 2019 Annual Meeting.

Patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) have a higher risk in general of infections, but the risk varies depending on their treatment, according to a new study in JAMA Neurology.

Who will care for America's growing aged population in the coming decades? Today on the podcast, we're speaking with PHI, a New York-based nonprofit organization that works to improve long-term services and care for the elderly and those with disabilities by focusing on the job quality of those providing day-to-day hands-on care—low-paid home health care aides and nursing assistants.

Two recent abstracts presented at the European Respiratory Society International Congress investigated the decision-making and care management for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients.

Two abstracts presented at ECTRIMS 2019, the 35th Annual Congress of the European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis, looked at patterns among patients newly diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS).

Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) may be considered the gold standard for generating clinical evidence, but there is growing interest in using real-world evidence. However, only a small portion of clinical trials could be replicated in the real world, according to a new study published in JAMA Network Open.

In an effort to educate clinicians about the issue of forcing patients in pain to suddenly halt opioid use, HHS released a guide that emphasizes patient-centered care and recommends against a rapid taper or stopping opioids all at once, while a patient living with chronic pain both welcomed the guide and expressed concern.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is now being used in healthcare practices to risk stratify patients and identify interventions that will work, said John Frownfelter, MD, FACP, chief medical officer of Jvion.

Although minimal residual disease (MRD) is increasingly being used to predict treatment outcomes and as a surrogate marker of progression-free survival, there remains controversy over whether it is ready to be used in treatment decision making.

A recent survey of patients with bipolar I disorder showed the extent to which they are so bothered by side effects to antipsychotic (AP) medications that they will stop taking them, or will trade more symptoms for fewer side effects.

Pimavanserin may be an effective treatment option for patients with Parkinson disease who develop Parkinson disease psychosis, according to a recent study published by Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment.

Myelofibrosis has a very heterogeneous disease presentation, which means patients with it can present to the clinic with a number of different symptoms, explained Naveen Pemmaraju, MD, associate professor in the Department of Leukemia at MD Anderson Cancer Center.

While current guidelines recommend that only women with breast cancer who have a family history or who meet clinical criteria undergo genetic testing, a new cost-effectiveness analysis suggests that genetic testing should be expanded to all women with breast cancer.

The marketplace is working to analyze and clean up real-world evidence so it can be used to inform decisions on treatment and coverage, said Scott Gottlieb, MD, former FDA commissioner (2017-2019).