Interviews

Diabetes Can Break Your Heart is an important initiative that highlights the vital need for heightened education on the link between diabetes and heart failure, especially with American Heart Month looming, said Javed Butler, MD, MPH, MBA, professor of physiology and chairman for the Department of Medicine at the University of Mississippi.

Research has shown that fedratinib favorably impacts health-related quality of life for patients with myelofibrosis across the board, said Ruben Mesa, MD, director of UT Health San Antonio MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Making benefit design more nuanced through the inclusion of employee variables could help increase the impact of value-based insurance design for employers, said Bruce Sherman, MD, chief medical officer of the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions.

Financial barriers and perceived implicit biases were both barriers that families of children with acute leukemia raised regarding access to care issues that might have delayed diagnosis, said Lena Winestone, MD, assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco.

As a result of the opioid epidemic, there have been instances where it has been difficult to treat patients with pain related to their sickle cell disease because of new policies in place intended to curb addiction and overdoses, said C. Patrick Carroll, MD, director of psychiatric services, Sickle Cell Center for Adults, associate professor of psychiatry, Johns Hopkins Medicine.

Sarah Tasian, MD, attending physician in the Division of Oncology at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, highlights the coming advances in pediatric acute myeloid leukemia (AML) that she is the most excited for.

While minimal residual disease (MRD) has been a topic of research for at least a decade, right now it is more top of mind than ever before for people treating cancer, said C. Ola Landgren, MD, PhD, professor of medicine and chief of the Myeloma Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer.

An array of different techniques, including direct primary care, are being used by employers to manage healthcare costs while keeping care affordable for employees, according to Bruce Sherman, MD, chief medical officer of the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions.

Quality of life is an important end point in clinical trials, and it is important to discuss that with regulatory agencies, said Ruben Mesa, MD, director of UT Health San Antonio MD Anderson Cancer Center.

There are numerous conditions, including many rare and difficult to recognize disorders, which can be mistaken for MS, said Andrew Solomon, MD, associate professor of neurological sciences and division chief of multiple sclerosis at Larner College of Medicine, The University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont.