Latest Conference Articles

A late afternoon extended education session on the first day of the 2017 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting in Chicago, Illinois, was a discussion on the state-of-the-art uses for immunotherapy in the management of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Checkpoint inhibitors have begun to revolutionize bladder cancer treatments, but the benefits in prostate cancer are a little less clear at this point, explained Daniel George, MD, of the Duke Cancer Insitute.

When using real-world data, researchers must be careful to avoid several common pitfalls that can bias their results, according to Richard J. Willke, PhD, chief science officer of ISPOR.

Among the sessions of the ACO & Emerging Healthcare Delivery Coalition Spring 2017 meeting was a panel discussion on population health strategies. According to Sachin H. Jain, MD, MBA, president and CEO of CareMore, the discussion was optimistic about the future of the healthcare system, particularly due to the new therapies and technologies that are being developed.

Analysis of data available within a national hospital-based registry showed that the diagnosis of stage I disease increased for female breast cancer, colorectal cancer, and lung cancer following implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

According to the study, to be presented at the 2017 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting, vaccination resulted in an 88% overall reduction in vaccine-type infections and a 100% reduction among men, in the young adult population.

The Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP) is working with Congress to improve communication both in the pre- and post-approval settings between pharmaceutical companies and payers, according to Susan A. Cantrell, RPh, CAE, CEO of AMCP.

The 340B program has evolved significantly since its passage, but there are still important changes needed, like clarifying the target patient population. The complicated rebate system for payers and drug manufacturers is also a consequence that should be addressed, said Neil Minkoff, MD, chief medical officer of EmpiraMed.

Senate Republicans are faced with a tall task to create a healthcare bill that repeals the Affordable Care Act because they've made conflicting promises. According to David. M. Cutler, PhD, of Harvard University, Senate Republicans have set themselves up for a situation where they can't meet all of their promises.

Amidst a turbulent political climate as Republicans endeavor to enact the American Health Care Act, the shift to value-based contracts will continue due to the other market forces in play, explained Clifford Goodman, PhD, moderator at the ACO Coalition spring live meeting in Scottsdale, Arizona, and senior vice president and director at the Center for Comparative Effectiveness Research at the Lewin Group.

When MedPAC released several proposals to control Part B reimbursement costs, the ideas within them were not a surprise, explained Leah Ralph, director of health policy at the Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC). However, the ACCC has some concerns about how these proposals could impact cancer patients’ access to care.

Given the chance to suggest a healthcare policy change to lawmakers, Michael Griffin, president and CEO of Daughters of Charity Services, would recommend making Medicaid available to all Americans. Griffin said this would reduce cost while greatly expanding access.

As the amount of healthcare data and information exchange continues to grow, so does the threat of data breaches and cyberattacks, according to Lee Barrett, executive director of the Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission.

As the capabilities and benefits of e-prescribing become more widely known, states will likely continue enacting requirements to drive the uptake of this new technology, explained Doug Hillblom, PharmD, president at Arena Healthcare, LLC.

James D. Chambers, PhD, MPharm, MSc, of Tufts Medical Center was named the 2017 recipient of the Bernie J. O'Brien New Investigator Award at the ISPOR 22nd Annual International Meeting. He highlights the trends he is most looking forward to seeing develop over the next year and the next 5 years.

Gene therapies have tremendous potential. They are a short treatment that could have lifelong effects. However, the very expensive therapies have a lot of unknowns and raise a number of ethical and practicality questions.

Cost-effectiveness thresholds can do more than just guide determinations on whether drugs have value, explained Patricia Danzon, PhD, professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Using these thresholds as a requirement for reimbursement provides an incentive for research and development focused on producing new drugs that will be considered effective enough to pay for.

The notion of letting Medicare negotiate drug prices has been around for years, but has recently gained new traction under President Donald Trump. Panelists at the ISPOR 22nd Annual International Meeting, held May 20-24 in Boston, Massachusetts, discussed the complexities of allowing Medicare to negotiate prices and whether or not it would produce meaningful savings.

Measure developers have a number of challenges to consider when developing a new measure and getting it implemented, explained Matthew Pickering, PharmD, RPh, associate director of research and quality strategies at the Pharmacy Quality Alliance (PQA).

Thresholds can be useful to focus the conversation around the value of treatments in healthcare even if stakeholders have different views on what thresholds should be, explained Steve Pearson, MD, MSc, president of the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review.

Is it possible to leverage social networks to influence response to treatment among an untreated population? During the second plenary at the ISPOR 22nd Annual International Meeting, held May 20-24 in Boston, Massachusetts, Nicholas Christakis, MD, PhD, of Yale University, described his research into social network interventions.

A tailored approach to value assessment will help drive innovation and impact patient outcomes and access to care, said Ilene Hollin, PhD, MPH, of the National Pharmaceutical Council.

Of the payers who have an outcomes-based contract in place, only 9% view them as being very successful, while 50% say they are somewhat successful. Panelists agreed that flexibility is necessary for these contracts to succeed.

Every 5 years, the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) has to be reauthorized. This year the program has to be reauthorized by September, and that normally would have happened by now, except the issue has flown under the radar with the other big healthcare issues dominating Congress' attention, explained David. M. Cutler, PhD, of Harvard University.

Stakeholders’ perspectives can vary, and their different preferences matter when it comes to value assessment, but only if the right questions are being asked.

While there is a lot of uncertainty about what the final Senate healthcare reform bill will look like, Gail Wilensky, PhD, of Project HOPE, expects the bill will ultimately be to the left of the House bill in order to get the moderates on board.

Healthcare is a complicated issue with few, if any, easy fixes. The important thing is that the country continues to move forward, according to panelists during the first plenary at the ISPOR 22nd Annual International Meeting, held May 20-24 in Boston, Massachusetts.

About 40% of new specialty drugs in 2017 are expected to be for orphan drug indications, which is keeping with the trend; however, an upcoming investigation into potential abuses of the Orphan Drug Act could have an unknown impact on development and prices, said Aimee Tharaldson, PharmD, senior clinical consultant for emerging therapeutics at Express Scripts.