Latest Conference Articles

At this year's Patient-Centered Oncology Care® 2020 virtual conference, purported lack of incentives, transparency in the supply chain of pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) operations, and the overall health care system will be discussed.

During a featured discussion at this year’s Patient-Centered Oncology Care® 2020 virtual meeting, innovations and subsequent challenges in employing these advances within the treatment of cancer will be addressed.

Obesity is common in the general population and research has shown it can increase the risk of multiple sclerosis (MS), as well as increase diagnostic delays, explained Ruth Ann Marrie, MD, PhD, director of the Multiple Sclerosis Clinic at the University of Manitoba.

Nurses often get involved with patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) before their diagnosis and then work to educate them on the disease and its care, said Amy Perrin Ross, APN, MSN, CNRN, MSCN, Neuroscience Program Coordinator at Loyola University Medical Center.

To the extent that some factors are modifiable, the takeaway for clinicians is to encourage their patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) to adopt healthy habits.

The drug, mastinib, reduced the chance of a confirmed disability progression by 37% in phase 2b/3 study results.

With more multiple sclerosis (MS) treatments becoming available, it is now possible to better personalize approaches, explained speakers during a session at MSVirtual 2020: 8th Joint ACTRIMS-ECTRIMS Meeting.

It is well known that women are disproportionately affected by multiple sclerosis (MS), but there remains a lack of understanding regarding gender differences in response to treatments for MS, said Riley Bove, MD, assistant professor of neurology at the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences.

Do patients with multiple sclerosis who have been on disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) for decades need to keep taking them? John Corboy, MD, professor of neurology, University of Colorado Denver, School of Medicine, and co-director of the Rocky Mountain MS Center at Anschutz Medical Campus, explains what is known about this area.

A minority of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) have primary progressive disease, and it has few treatment options.

Many patients with secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS) are actually being misclassified and treated as if they have relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS), which can have an impact on research, treatment, and health care planning, said Jan Hillert, MD, PhD, professor and senior physician at Karolinska Institutet.

The analysis, which was released on the first day of the meeting, was one of many that tried to demonstrate that earlier treatment in newly diagnosed and younger patients may forestall disease progression and disability.

Understanding each patient's individual story is vital in the transition to patient-centered care. Additionally, matching patients with physicians of the same race and background can boost comfortability among patients.

There is a push to diagnose multiple sclerosis (MS) earlier, which can lead to misdiagnosis if the diagnostic criteria aren’t used properly, explained Patricia K. Coyle, MD, director of the MS Comprehensive Care Center and professor of neurology at Stony Brook University Neurosciences Institute.

Providers need to focus on detecting and treating cardiovascular complications in at-risk patients, and not get lost in the fact they have COVID-19, said Manan Pareek, MD, PhD, FAHA, FESC, an internal medicine hospital resident at the Yale University School of Medicine.

If you change the narrative and package SGLT-2 inhibitors as a form of cardiovascular risk modulation, cardiologists may be more likely to get involved in diabetes management, said Javed Butler, MD, MPH, MBA, chairman for the Department of Medicine at the University of Mississippi.

During the surge of the pandemic in the Northeast, we saw about a 40% reduction in cardiovascular admissions, while there was a higher rate of mortality among patients who came in, said Deepak L. Bhatt, MD, MPH, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital Heart & Vascular Center and Harvard Medical School.

It is imperative individuals with cardiovascular diseases remain active despite COVID-19 lockdowns, said Antonio Pelliccia, MD, senior consultant and chief of cardiology at the Institute of Sports Medicine and Science, of the Italian National Olympic Committee.

Below are selected abstracts presented at the European Society of Cardiology 2020 Congress, which was held in a virtual format due to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.

The first study of its kind reports that patients should keep taking well-known heart medications.

It's a great time to be a doctor treating patients with heart failure, given the development of 2 fantastic new treatments within the space of 5 years, said John McMurray, MD, FRCP, FESC, professor of medical cardiology in the Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences at the University of Glasgow.

The new guidelines can help cardiologists better advise patients with CVD on physical activity, said Antonio Pelliccia, MD, senior consultant and chief of cardiology at the Institute of Sports Medicine and Science, of the Italian National Olympic Committee.

A study finds that a partner's participation in a lifestyle change program can be a key to success, especially for weight loss.

It's interesting that we saw such a clear U-shaped mortality curve for serum bicarbonate levels in a patient population where we usually don't think about measuring bicarbonate, said Manan Pareek, MD, PhD, FAHA, FESC, an internal medicine hospital resident at the Yale University School of Medicine.

Having 2 trials that both show benefits of SGLT2 inhibitors in heart failure hospitalizations can only encourage the use of these drugs, said John McMurray, MD, FRCP, FESC, professor of medical cardiology in the Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences at the University of Glasgow.

Advances in imaging have made assessment of atherosclerosis non-invasive, while the EVAPORATE trial demonstrates how cardiac CT can assist in looking at a host of different therapies, said Matthew Budoff, MD, professor of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and investigator at The Lundquist Institute.

Results from the second major renal outcomes trial for an SGLT2 inhibitor affirm the role of the class in preventing renal decline and kidney failure.

The PARALLAX study points to potential benefits from sacubitril/valsartan in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, which has no approved treatments.