Clinical

Despite various attempts to increase the vaccination rate among adults, Medicare beneficiaries are still susceptible to extensive cost-sharing for recommended vaccines, according to a study by Avalere.

Just 2 days after being rejected by cost regulators in the UK, ibrutinib has been approved for the frontline treatment of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia in the United States.

To discuss the challenges with the implementation of value tools, the Association of Community Cancer Centers invited a panel of experts during its 42nd annual meeting on policy, value, and quality in Washington, DC.

What we're reading, March 4, 2016: Since the passage of the Affordable Care Act, 20 million people have signed up for healthcare coverage; the FDA has a backlog of 4000 drug applications waiting for approval; and Flint, Michigan, receives expanded Medicaid coverage.

Immunotherapy represents the "next frontier" in cancer care, according to Joseph Alvarnas, MD, of City of Hope, who is editor-in-chief of Evidence-Based Oncology.

At Cancerscape, the Association of Community Cancer Center’s 42nd annual meeting on policy, value, and quality, Kavita Patel, MD, MS, spoke about the clinical imperatives of personalized medicine and the demonstration of value to all stakeholders.

What we're reading, March 3, 2016: additional funding for the opioid abuse bill was shot down in the Senate; Donald Trump releases his plan to replace Obamacare; and Christine Cassel, MD, discusses designing a new medical school.

Study finds no statistically significant duration in the use of mechanical ventilation for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease who took acetazolamide, but there was a clinically significant difference.

Two studies presented at the recently concluded 2016 Quality Care Symposium, hosted by the American Society of Clinical Oncology, proved that hospital-based palliative care programs achieve their proposed objectives.

Primary care physicians correctly estimate medication adherence of their Medicare patients only half of the time and usually overestimate adherence rates, according to a new study.

Imbruvica, developed by Janssen for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia who are unsuitable to receive chemo-immunotherapy, has been rejected by UK’s National Institute of Health and Care Excellence.

Emanuel F. Petricoin III, PhD, said patients have much to gain from "democratization" as clinical trials move beyond academic centers.

What we're reading, March 2, 2016: FDA commissioner pledges stronger efforts to develop harder-to-abuse painkillers; Olympus Corp. agrees to largest settlement for violating anti-kickback laws; and the Supreme Court hears Texas abortion case with just 8 members on the bench.

Major health information technology (IT) developers and the government are coming together to improve the flow of health information.

The pharmaceutical industry needs to rethink its approach to packaging cancer drugs into a one-size vial to avoid drug wastage and save over $1.7 billion in 2016.

Starting at the very top, with boards and management is one way that healthcare institutions can better diversify their workforce, and doing so will make health equity achievable, said Georges Benjamin, MD, executive director of the American Public Health Association.

Research led by investigators at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center has concluded that adjuvant chemotherapy improved survival compared with patients who received adjuvant chemoradiation in pancreatic cancer.

While survey results show that belief in the importance of comparative effectiveness research is largely solid, its impact is yet to be realized or acknowledged by stakeholders in the United States.

The top stories in managed care this week include findings on cancer survival disparities, CVS Health claimed drug spending growth slowed in 2015, and Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey's OMNIA plan is interfering with existing patient-centered medical homes.

Women hospitalized with coronary artery disease are less likely to receive optimal care at discharge compared with men and African Americans have an elevated risk of mortality compared with white patients, study finds.

What we're reading, February 26, 2016: drug makers are facing pressure to calculate the cost of extending a patient's life; a look at how addiction is viewed and treated in the US; and staving off the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease.

While the cost of the widely used stroke clot-busting drug alteplase has more than doubled over the past decade, Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement has remained far behind.

Research advocate Jack Whelan discusses patient involvement in their own care: how to discern which sources are the most reliable, the importance of better incorporating patient-reported outcomes into healthcare, and how patients should become more educated about their care.

A new study questions the maximum-tolerated-dose approach in cancer.

There are multiple barriers to accessing innovative oncology care from the design of healthcare benefits to a patient’s position on the federal poverty level, explained Daniel J. Klein, president and CEO of the Patient Access Network (PAN) Foundation.

What we're reading, February 25, 2016: the government will require proof of eligibility for enrollment in special sign-up periods under the Affordable Care Act (ACA); this year's flu vaccine is more effective; and 6 states are suing the Obama administration over an ACA fee.

The presence of interstitial lung abnormalities is linked to an increased risk of death, according to a new research published in JAMA.

Detecting acute HIV infections is important because this infection contributes disproportionately to the transmission of HIV and highly contagious.

Emergency room overutilization is a significant issue in oncology care and may increase healthcare expenditures while lowering the quality of patient care.

A collaborative study conducted across cancer treatment centers in the United States has identified malignant brain tumors as the most common cause of cancer-related deaths in adolescents and young adults aged 15 to 39 years.