Oncology

Triage pathways can transform practices and save practices and CMS money by keeping people out of the emergency department and hospital, said Ray Page, DO, PhD, president and director of research at The Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders.

Some of the health policies coming out of Washington, DC, are clever, but there might be too much coming out for practices to keep up with, said Michael Kolodziej, MD, vice president and chief innovation officer at ADVI Health, Inc.

This study explores the causes of emotionally adverse patient experiences in cancer care and presents a taxonomy for analyzing free-text patient data.

Patients with cancer who receive high doses of bisphosphonates, used to treat bone cancer, can experience jaw damage. New preclinical research published in Bone Science Direct could prevent these patients from experiencing this loss of jawbone tissue after routine oral surgery.

During a session at Asembia’s 15th annual Specialty Pharmacy Summit, Greg Simon, president, Biden Cancer Initiative, outlined commitments that came out of the Cancer Moonshot, the work of the Biden Cancer Initiative, and ongoing challenges that patients with cancer face.

The oncology drug pipeline has experienced rapid growth over the past decade, driven by innovation in cell therapies, immunotherapy, and precision medicine, according to a specialty pipeline update presentation at Asembia's 15th annual Specialty Pharmacy Summit, held April 29 to May 2 in Las Vegas.

Every week, The American Journal of Managed Care® recaps the top managed care news of the week, and you can now listen to it on our podcast, Managed Care Cast.

With all the regulatory changes that CMS and HHS are rolling out, community oncology practices are facing significant changes in how they take care of patients, said Barry Russo, chief executive officer of The Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders.

The core of the work that care coordinators do is done behind the scenes so that all of the core information is in the chart when the doctor is meeting with the patient, said Jessa Dunivan, patient services manager, Northwest Medical Specialties.

This week, the top managed care news included a study demonstrating that diabetes drug canagliflozin cuts the risk of renal failure and death; the FDA approving the first targeted therapy for metastatic bladder cancer; approximately half of all cancer deaths are attributable to modifiable risk factors.

Using oncology care pathways and treatment pathways has helped practices use evidence-based data to facilitate them to be sure they are using the right drug for the right patient at the right time, said Ray Page, DO, PhD, president and director of research at The Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders.

https://www.pharmacytimes.org/on-demand/the-era-of-parp-inhibition-in-cancer-management-patient-selection-and-deciding-when-to-use-in-treatment-enduring

AJMCtv® interviews let you catch up with experts on what’s new and important about changes in healthcare. The interviews provide insights from key decision makers-from the clinician to the health plan leader to the regulator. When every minute in your day matters, AJMCtv® interviews keep you informed. You can access the video clips at www.ajmc.com/interviews.

Managed care updates.

Regulatory and clinical updates.

When breast cancer spreads, it often goes to the bones, and new research has found that exposure to dim light at night may contribute to this spread. Results from the animal study were presented at ENDO 2019, the annual meeting of the Endocrine Society.

There are disparities in access to innovative therapies and entries into clinical trials, but FDA's recent proposed guidance could help close gaps, said John W. Sweetenham, MD, senior director of clinical affairs and executive medical director, Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah.

Conference coverage updates from the Community Oncology Alliance's annual meeting.

Updates from the Association of Community Cancer Centers annual meeting.

Policy updates from the National Comprehensive Cancer Network's annual meeting.

Clinical updates from the National Comprehensive Cancer Network's annual meeting.

We learned that a true patient-centered approach would be a combination of objective, numerical, centripetal measures defined in the Oncology Care Model (OCM) and subjective centrifugal emotions, aspirations, and expectations. We created smart teams, enabling an efficient transition from volume to value. These exercises were similar to building a higher pyramid on top of what we already achieved during our journey toward Patient-Centered Speciality Practice (PCSP) accreditation by the the National Committee for Quality Assurance in 2015. Although the transition to being a PCSP was speciality agnostic and truly patient centric, the OCM gave us a blueprint that was specific to the needs of PCCC.

In an article published in Electronics Magazine on April 9, 1965, Intel cofounder Gordon Earle Moore noted that the number of transistors in an integrated circuit doubled every year. He extrapolated that this rate of growth in computing power would continue to double every 2 years throughout the late 1960s and in to the 1970s and 1980s. The prediction, which became known as Moore’s Law, proved prescient. Intel and other industry leaders took this as both a prediction for the pace of innovation and a push for the industry to create “computing [that] would dramatically increase in power, and decrease in relative cost, at an exponential pace.” From 1965 to today, the technologies, depth of innovation, and corresponding impact from discoveries made in the pursuit of achieving and sustaining Moore’s vision have affected our lives in profound and unexpected days. Conversations rarely take place today without someone glancing at a smartphone to close a business deal, to let family know they will be late, or to post pictures of the conversation on a social media site.

Utilizing community resources is an important way to help patients who have poor social support systems get the care they need, said Abra Kelson, MSW, LSWA-IC, medical social work supervisor, Northwest Medical Specialties.

Academic medical centers and a group representing community oncology practices have both raised concerns about CMS’ proposed reimbursement plan for chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, the individually manufactured gene treatments that are revolutionizing cancer care. The plan will be finalized next month, a year after the federal government launched a national coverage analysis to determine how to pay for these lifesaving yet expensive cancer treatments.