Hepatitis C

According to a new study presented at The Liver Meeting, combining universal screening for the hepatitis C virus (HCV) with reflex RNA PCR in pregnant women is more cost-effective than risk-based screening.

The Project ECHO program helps make local community providers into experts in specialty areas in order to improve access to care for their patients, explained Sanjeev Arora, MD, FACG, MACP, director and founder of Project ECHO and a professor of medicine at University of New Mexico.

A new study found that in 50% of patients, the standard 12-week treatment regimen for hepatitis C could be shortened to as few as 6 weeks without compromising efficacy.

Research presented at The Liver Meeting, held by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, found high rates of adherence, treatment completion, and sustained virologic response among patients infected with the hepatitis C virus (HCV) who inject drugs. These findings led authors to recommend inclusion of this subset of patients in HCV treatment programs.

Preliminary data from a new study has demonstrated that pre-emptive administration of pan-genotypic, direct-acting antiviral therapy prevents hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in HCV-negative cardiac transplant patients receiving donor hearts infected with the virus.

Project ECHO, which helps specialists disseminate knowledge to primary care providers, was created on the idea that patients should not be dying from curable diseases because they don’t have access to the right providers, said Sanjeev Arora, MD, FACG, MACP, director and founder of Project ECHO and a professor of medicine at University of New Mexico.

In this analysis of patients with newly diagnosed hepatitis C, linkage to care was largely successful in the 1945-1965 birth cohort, but treatment initiation remained low. Check out our website’s new table/figure pop-up feature! Click on the name of a table or figure in the text to see it in your browser.

Less than 2 months after receiving a report showing that pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) in Ohio billed taxpayers 8.8% more for medications used by those in the state’s Medicaid program, the state this week said it is ending its contracts with all of its PBMs and starting over in transparent contracts.

An optimized hepatitis C virus screening and linkage-to-care process reduces the number of patients lost to follow-up and improves linkage to care for Medicare, Medicaid, and commercially insured patients.

Rebekah Gee, MD, Louisiana’s secretary of the Department of Health, is working on innovative solutions to ensure patient access to costly drugs within existing financial resources.

Atul Gawande, MD, starts his new job today leading the healthcare venture started by Amazon, JPMorgan Chase, and Berkshire Hathaway; what should have been an easy resolution at the United Nations–affiliated World Health Assembly this spring became ensnared in a US-led battle against breast milk; the majority of prison inmates with hepatitis C are not getting potentially curable drug treatment.

Development, validation, and application of hepatitis C case-finding algorithms to describe the care cascade among a commercially insured population in the United States.

The success of recommendations to improve screening often rests on the availability of efficacious therapies, coverage policies, and other factors that enable and justify screening.

The FDA recently approved Vosevi-a fixed-dose combination tablet containing FDA-approved sofosbuvir and velpatasvir, and a new drug, voxilaprevi-to treat adults with the hepatitis C virus who do not have cirrhosis (liver disease).

Every year, the week beginning with Mother’s Day is designated as National Women’s Health Week, meant to shine a spotlight on the unique health challenges affecting women in America.

The oncogenic effects of the hepatitis C virus can impact patient outcomes for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and have economic implications for medical spending. This study underscores the importance of treating patients early in the disease process for savings associated with reducing the risks of HCC.

Real-world results for hepatitis C drugs have been very closely aligned to the clinical trial outcomes, which is likely due to a combination of factors, such as the effectiveness of the agents and better knowledge of using direct-acting antivirals, according to Gail Bridges, PharmD, of Accredo Health.

Hepatitis C virus treatment is often restricted in Medicaid patients. This analysis evaluates the clinical and cost impacts of treating all Medicaid patients versus the current status quo.

MD Anderson Cancer Center, which first established its oncology-focused ECHO program in 2014 has now adopted a much bigger role, of a “superhub.”

The rate of inmates infected with the hepatitis C virus is estimated at 17.4% across the United States, and can reach as high as 40% in some states. However, many inmates in state prisons are not permitted to receive the the newest and most expensive treatments for the virus.

Coverage of our peer-reviewed research in the healthcare and mainstream press.

The American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases/Infectious Diseases Society of America Guidance Panel is recommending that before patients begin antiviral therapies for the treatment of hepatitis C, that they be screened for hepatitis B, as well.