Americans Dread Health Insurance Shopping Despite Exchange Improvement
December 9th 2014The federal government may have made strides to improve the health insurance exchanges since last year's open enrollment, but a majority of Americans view shopping for health insurance as just as bad as or worse than doing their taxes.
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New Stroke Care Delivery Model Reduces Disability, Costs
December 9th 2014A new stroke care delivery model developed by researchers at the Stanford Clinical Excellence Research Center could lower US healthcare costs by as much as $1.6 billion per year, according to a study published in Stroke.
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ASH Presents Second Round of Tests, Treatments to Question Under Choosing Wisely Initiative
December 9th 2014Overuse of scans, transfusions, and the length of time on anticoagulants received attention in the latest round of recommendations presented Monday, as part of the initiative across medicine to improve patient care with an eye toward controlling costs.
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SPIRIT 2: Dasatinib Superior to Imatinib in Newly Diagnosed CML
December 9th 2014Results from a large phase 3 prospective randomized open-label trial, comparing imatinib 400 mg with dasatinib 100 mg daily, were presented by Stephen O'Brien, MD, professor of hematology, Newcastle University Medical School, Newcastle upon Tyne, England.
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EPIC Trial Shows Ponatinib Effective in CML
December 9th 2014On Monday, the third day of the 56th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology, held December 6-9, in San Francisco, Jeffrey H. Lipton, MD, PhD, chief, presented results from the EPIC trial, evaluating ponatinib in patients with newly diagnosed chronic phase chronic myelogenous leukemia.
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Dr Susanne Saussele Defines When Patients With CML Should Change Therapy
December 8th 2014Although guidelines from the National Comprehensive Cancer Network and recommendations from the European LeukemiaNet do not identify a failure time point for major molecular response in patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia, a study at the 56th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology was able to pinpoint when treatment is not working.
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Congressional Republicans to Grill Obamacare Consultant at Hearing
December 8th 2014Republicans in the US Congress plan to renew their attacks on President Barack Obama and his signature healthcare plan on Tuesday when they grill a consultant who said "the stupidity of the American voter" helped ensure the law's passage.
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Healthcare Law Is Not One-Size-Fits-All, and Here's Why
December 8th 2014One criticism of the Affordable Care Act is that it imposes a costly, one-size-fits-all standard, drastically increasing premiums by requiring everyone to buy health insurance that covers the same mandated benefits. This is not so.
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Federal Health IT Strategic Plan Outlines 5 Key Goals
December 8th 2014The updated federal health information technology strategic plan is an attempt to collect, share, and use interoperable health information to improve care; enhance individual, community, and public health; and advance research.
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Evaluating Safety, Efficacy, and Outcomes of TKIs in CML
December 8th 2014A poster session on the second day of the 56th annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology, held December 6-9, San Francisco, was dedicated to trials evaluating therapeutic options in chronic myelogenous leukemia. Data presented included safety, efficacy, managing comorbidities, and biological differences that drive response to therapy.
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Jan Geissler Explains Differing Perceptions for Living With CML
December 8th 2014Perceptions of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) and how to live with it are very different for patients and physicians, and a strong dialogue is needed to overcome the disparity, according to Jan Geissler, co-founder of the CML Advocates Network.
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TKIs and Molecular Response in CML: the EURO-SKI Study
December 8th 2014On the second day at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology 2014, Francois-Xavier Mahon, MD, PhD, Bordeaux Hospital, INSERM 1035, Bordeaux, France, shared the results from the European LeukemiaNet Stop TKI (EURO-SKI) study; the trial used tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) in CML to define prognostic markers to increase the rate of patients in durable deep molecular response after stopping TKI.
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Bigger Regulatory Challenges in Diagnostics Than in Therapeutics, Industry Expert Says
December 8th 2014Representatives from industry and the FDA share perspectives on the state of regulation for therapeutics and diagnostics at the 56th annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology, being held in San Francisco.
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Dr Elaine Fuchs Explains How Stem Cell Discoveries Fuel Cancer Therapeutics
December 7th 2014Isolating and comparing cancer stem cells with their normal counterparts has allowed researchers to identify hundreds of differences that can be used to target therapies, said Elaine Fuchs, PhD, an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the Rockefeller University.
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Dr Yousuf Zafar on Addressing Patient Costs
December 7th 2014Discussing out-of-pocket costs with patients and how they can deal with the costs is critical for physicians, Yousuf Zafar, MD, MHS, associate professor of medicine at the Duke Cancer Institute and the Duke Clinical Research Institute, said at the 56th ASH Annual Meeting in San Francisco, California, from December 6-9.
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Financial Incentives Top Motivation for EHR Adoption
December 6th 2014Financial incentives and the need to share patient information are the top motivations for physicians adopting electronic health records, according to a data brief from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.
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ONC Taps Jon White as Acting Deputy National Coordinator
December 6th 2014Jon White, who in October was named acting chief medical officer for the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, on Monday was announced as the agency's acting deputy national coordinator as it searches for a replacement for the recently departed Jacob Reider.
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Marketplace Renewals: State Efforts to Maximize Enrollment into Affordable Health Plan Options
December 6th 2014For 2015, marketplaces' ability to conduct an effective renewal process for current enrollees is constrained by their information technology capacity, the short time period for open enrollment, and limited resources for outreach and consumer assistance.
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