Latest Conference Articles

The importance of care coordination and the role of diabetes educators in the primary care practice is a theme of the 2016 meeting of the American Association of Diabetes Educators, taking place in San Diego, California.

Using an algorithm to recommend insulin dosing, both in and out of the hospital, was shown to improve glycemic control and aid population health management.

The diabetes advocacy community has long sought Medicare coverage for continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) systems, but the technology has been deemed "precautionary." Abstracts presented at last week's ADA Scientific Sessions could help build a case for updating FDA's clearance to use CGM for dosing, removing a hurdle to Medicare coverage.

The pair of studies evaluating the technology were presented at the American Diabetes Association and simultaneously published in the Journal of Diabetes Science and Technology.

Reseachers are studying whether drugs that have been approved for treating type 2 diabetes can be used in combination with insulin to avoid both variablity in blood glucose and weight gain.

A packed session greeted the highly anticipated results of the LEADER trial, which found that the GLP-1 receptor agonist liraglutide has cardiovascular benefits in high-risk patients with diabetes.

Data from CDC consistently show that low-income, minority groups are at higher risk for diabetes, for genetic but especially for environmental reasons.

Evidence presented Sunday at the 76th Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association comes as competition is heating up over a pair of therapies that combine insulin with a GLP-1 receptor agonist.

Poster presentations at the American Diabetes Association Scientific Sessions compared canagliflozin, an SGLT2 inhibitor, to sitagliptin, a popular DPP-4 inhibitor, using claims data.

In an ADA session called "Follow the Money," panelists led by Joslin Diabetes Center's Robert A. Gabbay, MD, PhD, FACP, discussed the diabetes cost burden, insulin costs, and payment models.

Speakers at the 76th Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association discussed current donor transplant successes and engineering challenges of efforts to generate islet cells in the laboratory.

A poster at an ADA session on barriers and facilitators to novel care found that top concerns of patients with diabetes often have nothing to do with the disease. Other studies looked at which comorbidities contribute the most to readmissions or length of stay, and how an intervention that focused on transitions of care reduced A1C in patients with uncontrolled diabetes.

Robert M. Anderson, EdD, of the University of Michigan, has spent his career spreading a message that patients respond best when education programs address what they want, not what an expert thinks they need.

A group in Israel presented a study that evaluated the price trend of 30 anticancer agents following their launch, and found that prices may increase by as much as 44% even after adjusting for inflation.

A poster presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) found that the cost per median month of survival for daratumumab was lower compared with 2 other novel treatments in multiple myeloma.

With value frameworks still in their infancy, Michael Kolodziej, MD, national medical director for oncology strategy at Aetna, doesn't see how his company can use them just yet. In fact, these frameworks may never be used by insurers, but only for shared decision making between the patient and provider.

A session at the ongoing annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) provided an overview of ASCO's recently updated value framework and their quality program, the Quality Oncology Practice Initiative.

While several clinical trials have tried to identify a programmed death-1 or programmed death ligand-1 expression—dependent response, it’s been an uphill task. During one of the sessions at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, researchers were tasked with sharing their data on any breakthroughs or leads with biomarker-based treatment.

CancerCare provides oncology patients with many services that offer both educational and financial support as well as any help the patient may need with his or her family, such as child care and housekeeping needs. However, Patricia Goldsmith, CEO of CancerCare, explained that there are many financial challenges, including transportation and high out-of-pocket costs, that oncology patients continue to face.

The key to driving down costs, or at the very least making costs more predictable, is integrating pathways into the Oncology Care Model program, said John L. Fox, MD, MS, associate vice president of medical affairs at Priority Health.

Drug costs are a significant contributor to rising healthcare costs, along with the cost of healthcare services. How can providers and patients work together to find a solution to this problem?

During a session on the second day of the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, experts discussed treating patients with chimeric antigen receptor T cells (CAR-T cells).

Though Cigna’s reimbursement medical home model is still in its very early stages, Bhuvana Sagar, MD, national medical director of Cigna Healthcare, explained that discussing value in healthcare and getting back to smarter spending as well as better outcomes for patients should be the focus of all industry stakeholders.

New immunotherapies and biologics that are changing the landscape when it comes to treating patients are the most exciting development in oncology in the last year, according to Lucio Gordan, MD, of Florida Cancer Specialists.

As immunotherapy continues to show promise in solid as well as liquid tumors, clinicians have been evaluating these agents in combination. During a session on the second day of the ongoing annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, in Chicago, IL, the results from some of these trials were shared.

On the first day of the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, healthcare experts from the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, compared and contrasted the care models that are widely adopted in each nation.

More than 400 comments were sent in regarding the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO)'s Value Framework, and they will be incorporated as the framework evolves, explained Stephen Grubbs, MD, vice president for clinical affairs at ASCO.

One of the important findings from the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s report is that cancer mortality has gone down, said Debra Patt, MD, MPH, MBA, director of public policy at Texas Oncology.