Clinical

The FDA plans to mine data submitted by patients on the site PatientsLikeMe.

With the explosion of new therapies in cancer care, the risk of each new therapy must be clearly understood in making treatment decisions. In a special issue on cardio-oncology in Evidence-Based Oncology, a publication of The American Journal of Managed Care, Texas Oncology's Dr. Debra Patt discusses the challenge of translating what is known from clinical trials to real-world patients, who may be older and have more health problems.

A Women's Health Initiative clinical trial has found that overweight or obese postmenopausal women are at an increased risk of aggressive breast cancer.

Glooko, a mobile support platform for diabetes care, helps fill the gaps created by the shortage of endocrinologists. Self-care is key to reducing the number of hypoglycemia incidents.

Combination therapy in diabetes care can offer benefits but might not be right for certain populations or at certain stages of care.

Trials that lead to FDA approval provide payers little information about the comparative differences between new therapies, and especially for their value for individual patients.

A study published in the Medical Journal of Australia found that a TV program questioning the link between statin use and cholesterol reduction resulted in more than 60,000 Australians reducing or discontinuing the medication.

With a growing world population and a growing proportion of elderly, more people are living in suboptimal health around the world. A third of the world's population experienced more than 5 ailments in 2013, according to a study published in The Lancet.

With more patients surviving cancer comes more effort to ensure that treatment itself does not shorten life, especially by damaging the heart. A special issue of Evidence-Based Oncology that takes a look at the growing specialty of cardio-oncology starts with a feature on the program at Massachusetts General Hospital.

This week the American Diabetes Association Scientific Sessions was held in Boston with results on 2 cardiovascular outcomes trials for diabetes drugs, and FDA advisory panels voted in favor of 2 PCSK9 inhibitors.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee is drafting language that will help create an in vitro center within the FDA to define risk categories for laboratory-developed tests (LDTs), and set timelines to accelerate the approval process for LDTs.

Considerations such as the potency of the drug, the practicality of the regimen, and the price go into decision-making.

What patients have heard from others with diabetes matters when they receive a diagnosis, according to the opening speaker at Patient-Centered Diabetes Care 2015.

There was a strong connection between the proportion of patients a physician already had enrolled in hospice care and whether or not other patients would enroll in hospice, according to a study published in Health Affairs.

Delegates from the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics have voiced a strong support to banning non-medical exceptions to childhood vaccination, citing a danger to public health.

State policies have had little impact on closing the margin between supply and demand for organ donations, according to a study published this month in JAMA Internal Medicine.

The drug, baricitinib, is a JAK-STAT inhibitor being developed for rheumatoid arthritis. Research by scientists at the Unviersity of Michigan found a key role for the pathway in diabetic patients suffering from kidney disease.

The study found that early palliative care consultations in hospitalized cancer patients significantly reduced the cost of hospital stays.