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The Community Oncology Alliance (COA) retains the spirit of an upstart advocacy group, while working to look ahead at innovative technologies, care delivery trends, and other events that threaten independent practices, said oncology leaders while attending their annual meeting this week.

In this session at AMCP 2023, speakers broke down the challenges many managed care organizations face when wanting to collect detailed data on health disparities and proffered potential strategies that may help to facilitate gathering these data to address inequitable health care access.

Scott Soefje, PharmD, director of pharmacy cancer care at Mayo Clinic, explains the various ways drug dose rounding can reduce waste, reduce costs, and make drug administration more efficient.

Dupilumab is the first biologic to significantly improve lung function in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), according to topline results released Thursday.

Some challenges linking medication adherence to medical cost offsets include the potential of reverse causality, omitted variable bias, how adherence is measured between studies, and the outdated nature of some of the most-cited literature, said Ben Urick, PharmD, PhD, principal health outcomes researcher at Prime Therapeutics.

The Biden administration might implement changes on how it would fund private Medicare Advantage (MA) plans; by the end of 2022, drug shortages increased by almost 30%; the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) is expected to bring major changes to the US health system.

Manmeet Ahluwalia, MD, MBA, chief, Solid Tumor Medical Oncology; deputy director; and chief scientific officer at Miami Cancer Institute, spoke on the short- and long-term goals for Miami Cancer Institute’s Center for Equity in Cancer Care & Research in improving minority patient enrollment in clinical trials.

On the first full day of conference activity at AMCP 2023, a morning session examined prior authorization (PA) through a lens of refining the current process and the potential role of clinical trial data in PA criteria.

Recent papers highlight possible role of inflammation in connections between COVID-19, cancer markers.

Protection against COVID-19 and vaccine effectiveness increased after receiving 1 or 2 booster doses compared with a primary series alone, but vaccine effectiveness generally declined as the time since last dose increased.

The survival benefits of immune checkpoint inhibitors varied in young patients versus older patients with advanced non–small-cell lung cancer, a recent study found.

The US organ transplant system might face an overhaul in a proposal to be announced on Wednesday after years of criticism; the FDA may decide whether to approve additional COVID-19 booster vaccinations for vulnerable populations; a new study finds the same, small breast cancer risk in multiple forms of hormonal birth control.

Kashyap Patel, MD, immediate past president of Community Oncology Alliance (COA) and CEO of Carolina Blood and Cancer Care Associates, talks about bringing together different stakeholders in the oncology space in order to benefit patients and providers.

Many people believe health equity is such a big issue that there is not much an individual practice can do to address it, explained Susan Sabo-Wagner, MSN, RN, OCN, executive director of clinical strategy, Oncology Consultants of Houston.

Data from the LIBERTY AD PRESCHOOL trial, and its ongoing open-label extension analysis show that dupilumab is safe and clinically effective, and can lead to statistically significant symptom improvement among patients aged 6 months to 17 years who have moderate to severe atopic dermatitis (AD).

A prespecified overall survival analysis of the phase 3 ZUMA-7 trial found that axicabtagene ciloleucel (axi-cel) led to better outcomes vs the historical standard of care for relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma (R/R LBCL).

American Indians and Alaska Native individuals had lower estimates of incidence of diabetic retinopathy than had been reported.

Following the course of lung function in treatment-naïve patients, researchers found that lung function decline does not accelerate prior to mechanical ventilation.

Minnesota looks to create abortion refuge for patients and providers; Moderna’s expected price single dose of COVID-19 sits at $130; FDA staff sees a "clinical benefit" in Biogen’s ALS drug.

On this episode of Managed Care Cast, we feature several leaders in diversity, equity, and inclusion advancing health equity in their respective organization’s policy and practice initiatives.

Specific dosing regimens of treatments prescribed by blood specialists have not been widely studied, despite the advent of newer hemophilia therapies, the researchers said.

Jessica Allegretti, MD, MPH, medical director of the Crohn's and Colitis Center, Brigham and Women's Hospital, discusses the standard of care for the prevention and treatment of primary and recurrent Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI).

A panel assembled at the American Academy of Dermatology 2023 Annual Meeting encouraged the audience of dermatologists to advocate together for needed changes in payment, access, and practice.

Dermatologists recommended biologics at similar rates in scenarios describing Black, Hispanic, and White patients with moderate to severe psoriasis.

Topics to be addressed at the annual conference, which will bring more than 1900 attendees to Kissimmee, Florida, include the Enhancing Oncology Model, efforts to regulate pharmacy benefit managers, and 340B reform.

Baseline risk assessment that includes prior treatment history for cancer, prior cardiovascular events, and markers for potential heart damage are all important, emphasizes Tochi M. Okwuosa, DO, cardiologist and director of cardio-oncology at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.

Subanalyses of data from the LIBERTY PN-PRIME and LIBERTY PN-PRIME2 studies illustrate how dupilumab for prurigo nodularis can better patient outcomes, including quality of life and symptom burden.