AJMC® in the Press, August 25, 2017

An article on HealthImaging.com discussed the findings of a study published in the August issue of The American Journal of Managed Care^® (AJMC^®). In “The Hospital Tech Laboratory: Quality Innovation in a New Era of Value-Conscious Care,” the authors wrote that value-based trends will influence the development of new medical technology focused on information processing and decision support. The HealthImaging.com article explained that this will represent a shift away from the environment where “imaging advances stood among the most conspicuous precipitators of resource consumption.”

Business Insider reported that the behavioral health technology company AbleTo had raised $36.6 million in funding, partially from strategic investor Aetna, which has collaborated with AbleTo on several interventions since 2011. The findings of one such program were published in a 2015 AJMC^® article titled “Leveraging Remote Behavioral Health Interventions to Improve Medical Outcomes and Reduce Costs.” The study showed that AbleTo’s Cardiac Health Program resulted in 31% fewer hospital admissions and 48% fewer days hospitalized for program participants.

An article on PatientEngagementHIT.com discussed 3 lessons from retail that can improve consumer-centered healthcare, including the idea that patients have strong purchasing power. It referenced a study in the June issue of AJMC^®, titled “Patients’ Views on Price Shopping and Price Transparency,” which found that patients rarely used a price transparency tool due to barriers like competing decision factors and a lack of salience. To enhance consumer-centered care, providers “should continue to push cost transparency tools and make the tools more accessible,” the PatientEngagementHIT.com article stated.

A new JAMA study suggesting that steroids are not effective for the treatment of acute chest infections was summarized in a MedPage Today article that quoted Mark Ebell, MD, the author of a 2015 study published in AJMC^® that found almost half of patients filled an antibiotic prescription for a respiratory tract infection. The findings of that study, “Antibiotic Use for Viral Acute Respiratory Tract Infections Remains Common,” together with the recent JAMA research “clearly showed that the use of corticosteroids is not appropriate” in these populations, Ebell told MedPage Today.