Latest Conference Articles

The health services research poster session held in the afternoon on the penultimate day of the 50th annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) presented different perspectives on issues that determine patient care decisions. This is an important discussion, especially in light of the recent report by The Wall Street Journal on WellPoint's effort to promote oncologist adherence to standardized treatment guidelines.

The discussion on value in cancer care was rekindled today at the 50th annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, but this time on a global scale. The session, "ASCO/European CanCer Organisation (ECCO) Joint Session: Value and Cancer Care," saw participation from physicians and economists from around the world, with individual perspectives on defining value and the programs being developed to address the issue.

Velcade (bortezomib), developed by Millenium Pharmaceuticals, is a proteasome inhibitor that is currently approved for the treatment of multiple myeloma and relapsed mantle cell lymphoma. Several abstracts were presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology this year for its use in other indications.

The second day at the 50th annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology ended with a session entitled "Health Care in America in 2014: Current and Future Implications of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act" (PPACA). The presenters provided an overview of the recent and anticipated changes related to the PPACA as well as its timeline.

"The Value of Cancer Care and the Professional and Ethical Obligations of the Practicing Oncologist: A Debate" delved into the ethical issues raised by the economic reality of the rising costs of cancer care for the practicing oncologist.

ABT-199, the result of a collaboration between AbbVie and Genentech, is a selective, potent, orally available BCL-2 inhibitor. The drug is being developed in collaboration by the two companies for acute myelogenous leukemia and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).

While the incidence of cancer continues to grow, novel and targeted therapies being developed have seen much improved survival for even the deadliest of cancers. New innovations in cancer diagnosis and treatment are associated with high cost. Cancer therapy constitutes nearly 11% of the total healthcare budget, and it is rapidly growing.

On the second day of the 50th annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), a session titled, "Targeting EGFR: the next 10 years" provided a progress report on the successful targeting of the protein in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Gregory L. Fricchione, MD, of Harvard Medical School, says that primary care physicians and specialists alike can benefit from a heuristic equation that considers a patient's stress and resilience levels.

Roger Kathol, MD, president of Cartesian Solutions, Inc, and professor of internal medicine and psychiatry at the University of Minnesota, says that health reform presents several opportunities for psychiatrists.

Modern life is full of stress, and understanding how stress affects the brain is essential to developing ways to prevent its harmful effects on the body, according to Gregory Fricchione, MD, of Harvard Medical School.

Steven S. Sharfstein, MD, president and CEO of Sheppard Pratt, says that patients with mental illness who are insured under Medicare or Medicaid will feel the effect of health reform in terms of cost control and quality-focused care.

The theory behind integrated care models in mental health is easy to grasp: Those who have depression or anxiety often have other problems, such as high blood pressure or unexplained pain, so having a psychiatrist collaborate with a primary care physician (PCP) makes sense.

In 2010, the topic of integrated care in mental health was still at the edges of practice, so much so that the topic only merited a single workshop at the meeting of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) in New Orleans.

Anthony J. Rothschild, MD, says that barriers to expensive antipsychotic drugs are shortsighted. He adds that the American Psychiatric Association, in accordance with some in Congress, recently rejected a CMS decision that would have restricted the number of antidepressants and antipsychotics Medicare beneficiaries could receive.

Patrick J. Kennedy, former US Representative for Rhode Island's 1st Congressional District, says that he authored the Mental Health Parity & Addictions Equity Act in 2008, which was then incorporated into the Affordable Care Act in 2010. The parity law went into effect in January 2014, and by 2015, more health plans are expected to be covered under it.

Wayne J. Katon, MD, professor of psychiatry, director of the division of health services and epidemiology, and vice chair of the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Washington Medical School, says that the type of patient a primary care physician sees can vary depending on the type of insurance the person has.

The Affordable Care Act's (ACA) promise of broader availability of healthcare coverage, coupled with a federal law aimed at ensuring that mental health coverage is on par with that of other items in a plan, should mean that those with mental health disorders will finally get better care, right?

Thomas R. Insel, MD, the director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), started his talk with a grim picture of the nation's mental health: a January 2013 report from the Institute of Medicine found that mortality rates for US men and women under 50 years ranked last and near last, respectively, among 18 developed countries, with causes including car accidents, gun violence, and drug overdoses.

Healthcare is an industry in massive transition, and Kimberly White, MBA, Numeroff and Associates, based in St Louis, Missouri, is working front and center on helping administrators and physicians to change their business models to promote survival in an unforgiving business market.

On the final day of the National Association of Managed Care Physicians' Spring Managed Care Forum 2014 in Orlando, Jeffrey Curtis, MD, director, Arthritis Clinical Intervention Program at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, gave a clinical presentation of studies that focused on using multiple biomarkers to assess treatments of rheumatoid arthritis.

Healthcare reform has led to a resurgence of interest in various types of population-based management tools, according to David Axene, FSA, FCA, CERA, MAAA, in his presentation Innovations in ACO Partner Risk/Revenue Sharing at the National Association of Managed Care Physicians' Spring Managed Care Forum 2014 in Orlando.

In the opening presentation of the National Association of Managed Care Physicians' Spring Managed Care Forum 2014 in Orlando, entitled Are You Ready for Value-Based Payment, Christopher Kalkhof, FACHE, and Amol Navathe, MD, discussed their work assisting healthcare organizations to optimally strive for sustainable business models that will prevent margin erosion during a time when the population of healthcare consumers is increasingly aging and using more resources associated with chronic disease and end-of-life treatments.

Takaji Kittaka Jr, MD, has coordinated the integration of 3 hospitals, 2800 employees, and disparate physicians, while helping to create nurse navigator positions and population managers. Uniting all of these specialties in the common goal of achieving greater alignment was the topic of Dr Kittaka's presentation at the National Association of Managed Care Physicians' Spring Managed Care Forum 2014 in Orlando.

Neil M. Pressman, FACHE, president, Presscott Associates, discussed a variety of business models for healthcare network management in his presentation at the National Association of Managed Care Physicians' Spring Managed Care Forum 2014 in Orlando.

For Peter Libby, MD, chief of cardiology at Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, the rewards of a life in clinical research outweigh the risks.

Metformin, the go-to drug for patients diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), may help control glycated hemoglobin (A1C) levels, but it does not help prevent heart failure in heart attack patients who do not have the disease, according to a new study from the Netherlands.

Bariatric surgery has more powerful long-term effects on controlling type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) that medical therapy alone, according to the largest, long-term study comparing methods.