Kelly Davio

Multiple studies have demonstrated that black Americans tend to receive more intensive, higher-cost care at the end of life, and have higher rates of hospitalization and lower rates of hospice enrollment. A new study sought to determine whether racial variation exists among hospice enrollees in rates of hospitalization and hospice disenrollment, and whether that variation could be explained by systematic differences in hospice provider patterns.

A new study, published in The Korean Journal of Internal Medicine, sought to identify the factors associated with time to diagnosis of early RA after the onset of symptoms, and found that older age, higher educational level, higher income, and small joint involvement were all positive factors for early diagnosis of RA.

While personalized medicine has the potential to detect the onset of disease early and preempt disease progression, this promising field of medicine faces unique challenges in the US healthcare marketplace.

US healthcare spending is on the rise, and is expected to comprise over 20% of the gross domestic product by 2025. Current expenditures are expected to double by 2060 if the pace of spending in the past decade continues. In this healthcare landscape, in vitro diagnostics (IVD) have increasingly become the subject of scrutiny, as IVDs are perceived as contributing to soaring costs.

Though rheumatoid arthritis (RA) often leads to destruction of joints, the bone marrow environment appears to be an important site for the pathological processes of RA. A new study investigating interleukin-17 (IL-17) in bone marrow explored the role that this cytokine plays in inflammation and the process of bone destruction.

A University of California San Diego School of Medicine and Moores Cancer Center research team studying new drugs that could break resistance to cancer immunotherapy has received a 3-year, $600,000 translational grant from the V Foundation for Cancer Research.

Clinical trial transparency is high among large pharmaceutical companies, according to a new study, although there remains room for improvement in companies’ reporting of their data.

A systematic review of the FDA’s Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) found elevated reporting for both tofacitinib (Xeljanz) and ruxolitinib (Jakafi) for thromboembolic adverse events (AEs), suggesting the possibility of a class-wide issue with Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitors.

A newly published retrospective study in The Annals of Thoracic Surgery found that lobectomy improved survival in patients with early-stage lung cancer compared with SBRT.

While African Americans are 3 times more likely than Caucasians to be diagnosed with multiple myeloma (MM)—and twice as likely to die of the disease—they are underrepresented in MM disease research.

A newly published study finds that oral glucocorticoid use has decreased over time, with both reduced initiation and increased cessation of treatment with these drugs.

The “nocebo” effect, a phenomenon that occurs when a patient’s negative perception of a therapy causes a treatment to have a worse outcome than would otherwise be expected, has become a topic of increasing interest in the world of biosimilars as some patients begin to transition from familiar, high-cost biologics to new, lower-cost biosimilars.

The National Center for Health Statistics has issued its early estimates from the National Health Interview Survey, conducted between January and June 2017. The report presents selected estimates, based on data for 39,480 people in the first 6 months of the year, on health insurance coverage for the US population.

A recent study evaluated the treat-to-target strategy by assessing whether patients with early rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who start methotrexate as monotherapy had similar or worse outcomes compared with patients who started with adalimumab plus methotrexate.

Recently reported results of a phase 3 study found that patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) who received intravenous golimumab (Simponi) had significantly greater improvements in the signs and symptoms of PsA through week 24 than did patients who received placebo.

Medical health research spending in 2017 is likely to increase, primarily due to an additional $2 billion earmarked for the National Institutes of Health, but the long-term outlook for research and development is uncertain. The authors cite the current administration’s calls for large cuts to federal research funding across non–defense-related areas as a potential cause of reduced spending on health research.

Recently reported results from Hydroxyurea Study of Long-Term Effects (HUSTLE) support the use of hydroxyurea in children, and indicate that a preferred dosing strategy should target an HbF endpoint of greater than 20%.

A recent report from Price Waterhouse Cooper’s Health Research Institute says that, while electronic health records have become ubiquitous in recent years, the systems still have significant room for improvement.

In a Tuesday panel discussion at The American College of Rheumatology’s 2017 Annual Meeting in San Diego, California, representatives from HHS, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the CDC outlined ongoing federal initiatives to address the parallel problems of pain and opioid addiction.

On Tuesday afternoon, the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) and the National Psoriasis Foundation (NPF) presented a draft of their new, jointly developed clinical guideline for treating psoriatic arthritis (PsA), at the ACR 2017 Annual Meeting.

In a Tuesday session at the American College of Rheumatology’s 2017 Annual Meeting in San Diego, California, Greg Mertz, MBA, FACMPE, managing director for Physician Strategies Group, LLC, presented a talk title “Value Contracting: Opportunities of Fantasy?” in which he outlined the current landscape for performance-based contracting.

Kamala Nola, PharmD, MS, professor at the Lipscomb University College of Pharmacy, provided an overview of the drugs that have been approved in the past year for the treatment of inflammatory conditions during a session at the 2017 American College of Rheumatology Annual Meeting,

During a session at the 2017 American College of Rheumatology Annual Meeting in San Diego, California, a cardiologist joined rheumatologists to give a detailed look at the relationship between rheumatic conditions and cardiovascular disease.

A panel discussion, titled, "Holy MACRA! How to Survive and Thrive in the New Era of MACRA, MIPS and APMs," was presented on Sunday at the 2017 American College of Rheumatology (ACR) Annual Meeting in San Diego, California.

The title "Reshaping the Relationship Between Physicians and PBMs" suggested that the Sunday session at the 2017 American College of Rheumatology’s Annual Meeting in San Diego, California, would focus on reconciling the goals of providers and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), but physicians’ challenges in dealing with PBMs quickly became the primary focus of the panel discussion.

Among the most anticipated sessions at the 2017 meeting of the American College of Rheumatology in San Diego, California was “The Great Debate: Biosimilars…to Switch, or Not to Switch? That Is the Question.”

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act introduced this week by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas, proposes to lower individual tax rates for low- and middle-income Americans, increase the standard deduction, and add a new family tax credit, but the proposed legislation also has far-reaching implications for healthcare.

The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) has announced the receipt a 3-year grant, totaling $13.9 million, from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation (LJAF).

Bayer has announced the FDA’s acceptance of its Biologics License Application (BLA) for BAY94-9027 for the treatment of hemophilia A in adults and adolescents aged 12 years or older.