Latest Conference Articles

As costs for cancer care continue to rise, Pontchartrain Cancer Center does benefit and cost analyses for all patients before they start therapy and also takes into account any social needs they might have, said Kathy W. Oubre, MS, chief operating officer at Pontchartrain Cancer Center.

More practices than expected seem to be interested in staying in the Oncology Care Model (OCM) and taking on downside risk, said Mike Fazio, senior vice president of client services, Archway Health.

There’s a question as to whether these metrics actually translate into what’s actually driving quality care, explained Loren Meyer, MD, president of HCA Physician Services, during a session at the National Association of Managed Care Physicians 2019 Fall Managed Care Forum being held October 10-11 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Mary Montgomery, MD, associate physician in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and an instructor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, discussed emerging treatment strategies for managing HIV during a session at the National Association of Managed Care Physicians 2019 Fall Managed Care Forum, held October 10-11 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

During a session at the National Association of Managed Care Physicians 2019 Fall Managed Care Forum being held October 10-11 in Las Vegas, Nevada, Kathryn Phillips, PhD, founding director of the University of California, San Francisco Center for Translational and Policy Research on Personalized Medicine (TRANSPERS), discussed the emergence and rise of genetic testing, the challenges of determining value and reimbursement, and what’s ahead for these tests.

As of November 2018, Medicaid is the largest healthcare program in the United States, covering 1 in 5 Americans, and over two-thirds of beneficiaries are enrolled in private managed care plans. Alongside this trend are shifts in care delivery under Medicaid, as well as challenges and solutions being posed by value-based care models, all of which was discussed during a session at the National Association of Managed Care Physicians 2019 Fall Managed Care Forum being held October 10-11 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

During a session on population health management at the National Association of Managed Care Physicians 2019 Fall Managed Care Forum, held October 10-11 in Las Vegas, Nevada, Cary Shames, DO, CHCQM, ABQAURP, vice president and chief medical officer, Sharp Health Plan, discussed using an integrated population health model to drive better quality and satisfaction of care while lowering costs.

Value-based models continue to enter the healthcare system, affecting a variety of fields, including primary care. And while success stories have been shared by payers and CMS touts these models as a way to “save” primary care, that's not the current reality, said Theresa Hush, chief executive officer of Roji Health Intelligence, LLC, during a session on population health management at the National Association of Managed Care Physicians 2019 Fall Managed Care Forum, held October 10-11 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is now being used in healthcare practices to risk stratify patients and identify interventions that will work, said John Frownfelter, MD, FACP, chief medical officer of Jvion.

A recent survey of patients with bipolar I disorder showed the extent to which they are so bothered by side effects to antipsychotic (AP) medications that they will stop taking them, or will trade more symptoms for fewer side effects.

The year 2018 was when cannabidiol (CBD) "jumped the shark," according to a nurse practitioner who works with patients who use it.

The idea that zero suicides are possible must begin with “the radical conviction that ideal healthcare is attainable,” said C. Edward Coffey, MD, affiliate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Medical University of South Carolina.

Genetics are increasingly playing a role in various aspects of healthcare, and mood and psychiatric disorders are no exception.

A proper diagnosis between bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder have important implications as treatment decisions differ based on the diagnosis

Unraveling the possible causes and triggers of agitation in people with dementia is worthy of detective work, according to a recent presentation.

The survey results demonstrate an unmet need for new oral antipsychotics with favorable risk-benefit profiles, researchers said.

Clinicians need to keep certain facts about mental illness and unintended pregnancy in mind when treating female patients of reproductive age, said an expert in mental illness, pregnancy, and women's health.

As data continues to show increases in the rates of suicide in the United States, healthcare systems are grappling with addressing the issue in an effective and sustainable way.

Medication adherence is critical not only to clinical outcomes, such as preventing readmissions, but also to containing costs, with adverse outcomes as a result of nonadherence often resulting in higher costs for both the patient and the healthcare system. Ensuring adherence can be especially challenging among people with mood and psychotic disorders.

Jon Grant, MD, JD, MPH, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience at the University of Chicago and expert in severe and complex cases of obsessive compulsive disorder, discusses evidence-based approaches to this little-understood disease.

Emerging technologies have the potential to push psychiatry into a new era of evidence-based care, with improved treatment and access.

During the second plenary at the National Association of ACOs fall meeting, Meridith Seife, deputy regional inspector general, Office of Evaluation and Inspections in the HHS Office of the Inspector General, presented results from a government report identifying strategies of high-performing accountable care organizations that had improved care quality while cutting costs.

In the next 5 to 10 years, providers and health systems need to be thinking about how all the pieces of a new system that delivers holistic, value-based care fit together, said Will Shrank, MD, chief medical officer, Humana, during the opening plenary at the National Association of ACOs fall meeting.

To make headroom for expensive, potentially curative therapies in the pipeline, the healthcare needs to remove ineffective care from the system, said Susan Dentzer, visiting fellow at the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy.

A joint session of ECTRIMS and the European Academy of Neurology assesses important topics in measuring relapse and progression in multiple sclerosis (MS).

Patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) have a generally increased risk of cardiovascular disease, and some evidence is emerging that disease-modifying treatments may alter this risk. Thomas Frisell, PhD, coordinator of the Clinical Epidemiology Unit, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, discusses whether newer treatments for MS, such as ozanimod, may present an improved cardiac safety profile for patients with MS versus older treatments, such as fingolimod.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) can be a challenging disease to diagnose because of its broad range of symptoms and because of the fact that many other syndromes can mimic MS. Additionally, the McDonald Criteria, which are clinical, radiographic, and laboratory criteria used for diagnosing MS, are sometimes misapplied, according to 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.

Healthcare does not necessarily need to be disrupted, but it does need to evolve and utilize technology so that cancer care can move beyond the conventional walls of the healthcare delivery system, said Susan Dentzer, visiting fellow at the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy, during her keynote speech at the Quality Cancer Care Alliance’s Leadership Summit.

Results for ozanimod, which is under review by FDA and European regulators for treatment of relapsing multiple sclerosis (MS), were presented in poster sessions September 12, 2019, at ECTRIMS 2019, the 35th Annual Congress of the European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis, taking place in Stockholm, Sweden.

Age is an important factor in the disease burden of multiple sclerosis (MS), as rising age both impacts disease course and brings with it additional risk of comorbidities. However, disease duration may be an even more important factor than age in reaching disability milestones, according to Viktor von Wyl, PhD, project leader, Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Prevention Institute, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.