AJMC Peer Exchanges Focus on Reducing Cardiovascular Mortality, Treating Diabetic Macular Edema

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEJune 22, 2016

PLAINSBORO, N.J.—The American Journal of Managed Care Peer Exchange, a video series that connects clinical experts with representatives from the payer community, has produced new installments on two key topics in diabetes care: diabetic macular edema and groundbreaking cardiovascular outcomes research.

The first series, “Diabetes-Related Complications: A Focus on Diabetic Macular Edema,” discusses the challenges of identifying and screening those patients with diabetes who are most at risk of developing DME, a degenerative eye condition that can cause blindness if not properly treated. Often, the symptoms of DME can resemble other less serious conditions, including normal aging. This is unfortunate, because today’s therapies—the anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) therapies—offer the opportunity to “turn off” the disease process. To view the segments in this series, click here.

Peter Salgo, MD, a board-certified anesthesiologist at New York Presbyterian Hospital, served as moderator of the session. Joining him were panelists John W. Kitchens, MD, of Retina Associates of Kentucky; Steven Peskin, MD, MBA, FACP, senior medical director of Horizon Healthcare Innovations; and Rishi P. Singh, MD, staff physician at the Cleveland Clinic and assistant professor of ophthalmology at Case Western Reserve University.

The second series, “Reducing Cardiovascular Mortality in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus,” discusses the burden of diabetes on the healthcare system, as well as recent studies and competing sets of clinical guidelines that pose a difficult question: how aggressively should physicians treat high-risk patients? Then, the panel moderated by Dennis P. Scanlon, PhD, professor of health policy and administration at Penn State University, reviews evidence from the EMPA-REG OUTCOME trial, which in September 2015 produced the first results under an FDA directive to show that not only did the therapy empagliflozin pose no cardiovascular risk to diabetes patients, but it also offered a cardioprotective benefit. Empagliflozin is part of the therapeutic class sodium glucose co-transporter (SGLT2) inhibitors, which work by sending excess glucose out of the body through the urinary tract. To watch the video segments, click here.

Experts taking part in the panel included Robert A. Gabbay, MD, PhD, FACP, senior vice president and chief medical officer at Joslin Diabetes Center; Michael Gardner, MD, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Missouri; Zachary Bloomgarden, MD, an endocrinologist with Mount Sinai Hospital; and John A. Johnson, MD, MBA, senior medical director at WellCare Health Plans.

Brian Haug, president of Managed Markets, Pharmacy, and Rare Disease and publisher of AJMC, said the Peer Exchange program offers an opportunity for the payer voice to be heard alongside the insights from leading clinicians. “Our two programs in diabetes care are very timely, since outcomes in this area are increasingly tied to reimbursement as we move away from fee-for-service,” Haug said. “Anyone who makes decisions about diabetes care will find these discussions of how to evaluate ‘value’ useful in that process.”

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The American Journal of Managed Care is the leading peer-reviewed journal dedicated to issues in managed care. AJMC.com distributes healthcare news to leading stakeholders across a variety of platforms. Other titles in the franchise include The American Journal of Accountable Care, which publishes research and commentary on innovative healthcare delivery models facilitated by the 2010 Affordable Care Act. AJMC’s Evidence-Based series brings together stakeholder views from payers, providers, policymakers and pharmaceutical leaders in oncology and diabetes management. To order reprints of articles appearing in AJMC publications, please call (609) 716-7777, x 131.