Laura Joszt, MA

An inquiry by 10 Democrats on the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs into whether or not the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) would research medical marijuana in veterans suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and chronic pain was met with denial.

Artificial intelligence (AI) can be trained with data sets to recognize patterns and improve healthcare outcomes. But first, healthcare needs to get better at using normal intelligence to solve problems, said panelists at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco, California.

It’s true, pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) are complicated, admitted Tim Wentworth, president and CEO of Express Scripts, during his presentation at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco, California. However, the company is built to succeed in the future of healthcare, he said.

While public funding through the National Institutes of Health has created a foundation for healthcare research, the private sector can benefit from getting more involved, said Bill Gates, philanthropist and co-founder of Microsoft.

A new guideline from the American Psychiatric Association to treat alcohol use disorder focuses on the use of evidence-based pharmacological treatments.

Draft framework from the Office of the National Coordinator on Health IT seeks to build a single on-ramp to advance interoperability in the United States through the Trusted Exchange Framework.

A newer method for calculating low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol is more accurate than the older method that required people fast before blood was drawn.

New immuno-oncology agents are providing durable survival for some patients, but the cost of these treatments is very high, which is a cause for concern. In a new study in JAMA Oncology, researchers sought to assess how value frameworks defined the efficacy of new immuno-oncology agents.

Patients with cancer may have more options for oral cancer medications, but high out-of-pocket costs still present a barrier to access, according to a new study in Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Low medication adherence is a problem in healthcare, in general. However, adolescents with chronic health conditions also have low adherence, but they are at a critical age when they can create routines and health behaviors that optimize disease management as they become adults.

With reimbursement increasingly tied to outcomes, health systems and practices are trying to find ways to reduce costs while delivering better care. Some of the most-read articles in The American Journal of Managed Care® (AJMC®) in 2017 included an analysis of the benefits of treating everyone with hepatitis C with new, expensive treatments, a program to reduce readmissions, and a look at the impact of value-based contracting in Medicare Advantage.

Physicians caring for patients with severe congenital neutropenia should be ready to detect issues with multiple systems in the body, explained Seth Corey, MD, of the Virginia Commonwealth University and the Massey Cancer Center & Children's Hospital of Richmond, during a session at the 59th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting and Exposition in Atlanta, Georgia.

Using lessons learned from the past 4 years of working with 10 states and Puerto Rico, the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices Health Division has released a road map to guide states in establishing state-level solutions to care for complex populations.

For the most part, it’s well known that eating healthy and in moderation is more beneficial to our health. In 2017, there were a number of news stories that drove that knowledge home.

A new sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 medication to treat type 2 diabetes is joining the field: the FDA approved ertugliflozin (Steglatro) from Merck and Pfizer as a single therapy and in combination with Merck’s sitagliptin (Januvia), a DPP-4 inhibitor, or with metformin.

AJMC®TV interviews let you catch up on what’s new and important about changes in healthcare, with insights from key decision makers—from the clinician, to the health plan leader, to the regulator. When every minute in your day matters, AJMC®TV interviews keep you informed. Access the video clips at ajmc.com/interviews.

A group of 7 organizations wrote to CMS Administrator Seema Verma, urging the agency to support independent physicians and practices in the move to value-based care.

Currently, clinical guidelines offer little guidance on deintensifying care, which is critical for balancing overuse and underuse of services.

The FDA was busy in 2017, with a number of notable approvals, including the first chimeric antigen receptor T-cell treatment. In a session at the 59th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting and Exposition in Atlanta, Georgia, employees from the FDA presented data on 5 new drug approvals in leukemia and lymphoma in 2017.

The top 5 most-read news stories included clinical content, such as an FDA approval, and policy news, such as Medicare reimbursement coverage.

In a session at the 59th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting and Exposition in Atlanta, Georgia, Brian Curtis, PhD, of the BloodCenter of Wisconsin Blood Research Institute, highlighted drugs other than chemotherapy that may cause neutropenia in patients.

Despite effective pharmacology, many patients with asthma have impaired quality of life, but a new breathing retraining intervention can be used as a nonpharmacological intervention to treat asthma.

An analysis of behaviors, community environment, policy, clinical care, and outcomes data has found a disturbing trend in mortality in the United States, with premature deaths, drug deaths, and cardiovascular deaths all increasing.

Overuse of medical services has been a costly issue in US healthcare for decades. Now in its fifth year, the Choosing Wisely initiative from ABIM Foundation seeks to increase conversations between physicians and patients to help them make wise decisions about appropriate care and reduce the use of low-value services.

Los Angeles County found that investing in supportive housing and combating homelessness among people with complex medical and behavioral health issues ultimately saved the county money.

WIth different societies and organizations releasing contrary guidelines around breast cancer screening, experience with past patients or friends and family members could influence physicians' decisions around when to start screening mammography.

Abdominal aortic aneurysm is a cardiovascular disease for which 45,000 operations are performed yearly in the United States, but a new study found that targeting lipids may improve long-term outcomes.

A study of patients with severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in Poland, The Republic of Korea, and the United States identified substantial differences in respiratory symptoms and other respiratory illnesses.

CVS Health has proposed purchasing health insurer Aetna in a $69 billion deal that could disrupt the pharmacy benefit management business and "remake the consumer healthcare experience," according to CVS Health's president and CEO.

CMS is focusing on patient empowerment and unburdening physicians, said CMS Administrator Seema Verma during her keynote speech at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology’s Annual Meeting.