Health Care Delivery

The patients must always come first, emphasized Milena Murray, PharmD, MSc, BCIDP, AAHIVP, associate professor at Midwestern University College of Pharmacy, who practices at the Northwestern Medicine Infectious Disease Center in Chicago.

A pair of abstracts presented at Kidney Week 2020 underscore the relationship between social determinants of health (SDOH) and chronic kidney disease (CKD) in military populations and the challenges of tracking these factors.

The FDA has approved new indications for Foundation Medicine's liquid biopsy assay and also its tissue-based companion diagnostic for solid tumors.

Robin Gelburd, JD, president of FAIR Health, discusses consistent telehealth use throughout the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

The Trump administration finalized rules aimed at making health care pricing more visible and transparent to those with with health insurance from employers or the individual market.

At the Alliance for Better Health’s CONVERGE Virtual Conference, experts discussed the role social determinants of health (SDOH) play in community-based health initiatives.

When the first biologic to treat asthma was approved by the FDA in 2003, it needed to be administered subcutaneously in the physician’s office. Now, there are 3 options available for at-home use: mepolizumab, benralizumab, and dupilumab.

Study results demonstrate the multimillion-dollar savings achieved among patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) following treatment initiation with sacubitril and valsartan.

Patricia Salber, MD, MBA, of The Doctor Weighs in, speaks with Aledade co-founder, Farzad Mostashari, MD, about how his company is keeping physicians independent through value-based care.

Can a population health framework focused on a certain set of patients with chronic disease (ie, chronic kidney disease [CKD]) improve care in the primary care setting?

With the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) evident in patients with renal disease, a discussion at Kidney Week focused on ways to engage them in clinical trials.

Recognizing chronic kidney disease (CKD) can lead to earlier implementation of interventions among patients, ultimately reducing the risk of end stage renal disease, said Shweta Bansal, MD, FASN, associate professor of medicine in the nephrology division at the University of Texas Health Center at San Antonio.

Understanding patients’ social determinants of health (SDOH), including their past experiences with discrimination and medical mistrust, can help improve patient-reported outcomes (PROs), according to new research.

The use of estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) equations in assessing chronic kidney disease (CKD) for Black patients may lead to underdiagnosis and undertreatment, according to a nephrologist speaking at Kidney Week.

Early treatment of infants with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) can drastically improve motor function for patients, explained Jill Jarecki, PhD, chief scientific officer at Cure SMA.

The decision to go on dialysis is often automatic, but using a shared decision-making process reduces the chance that a patient will regret it later.

In the first wave of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, patients with axial spondyloarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and psoriatic arthritis didn’t have an increase in disease activity despite an interruption in in-person interactions.

People who experience acute kidney injuries (AKIs) in the hospital have higher rates of cardiac disease and death compared with those who have been discharged, said Benjamin Griffin, MD, a nephrologist and assistant professor of internal medicine at the University of Iowa.

Recent research explored opportunities to improve care for those with acute migraine.

Despite the benefits of switching to a different mode of action in the second line, almost half of patients with rheumatoid arthritis were cycled to a second tumor necrosis factor inhibitor.

Heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) is when the heart’s left ventricle can only pump out 40% or less of the blood it contains, resulting in less oxygen-rich blood being disseminated to the body than it actually needs.

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy does not always lead to a durable response, and we are trying to figure out why, noted Michael R. Green, PhD, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

2020 is the 25th anniversary of The American Journal of Managed Care® and the October’s issue of the journal features an interview with Dr Kavita Patel, a nonresident fellow at the Brookings Institution and a primary care physician.

Increased time spent in front of computer screens, less time spent sleeping, and less access to gyms have led my patients to have a lot more migraines, said Peter McAllister, MD, a neurologist, board certified headache specialist, and medical director of the New England Institute for Neurology and Headache.

New data show that despite major improvements in survival rates in patients with multiple myeloma (MM), older patients with the malignancy have benefited less than younger patients.

Recent guidelines have renewed the focus on treating severe asthma. During 2 panels at CHEST 2020, experts discussed key updates, limitations of the guidelines, and more.

Shared decision-making is very important when it comes to choosing biologics for patients, emphasized Nicola Hanania, MD, MS, pulmonary critical care physician and director, Airways Clinical Research Center, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas.

Challenges remain, in light of new guidelines, when making treatment decisions for patients with severe asthma, noted Megan Althoff, MD, PhD, second year fellow, University of Colorado, Division of Pulmonary Sciences and Critical Care Medicine.

Abstracts presented at CHEST 2020 looked at improving diagnosis of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) with machine learning and the development of intensive care unit delirium in hospitalized patients with ARDS.

Maryland’s coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) task force on vulnerable populations leveraged data on social determinants of health to rapidly pinpoint populations most at risk of severe COVID-19 complications.