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While primary care physicians are incorporating more nurse practitioners and physicians' assistants into patient care teams, there is a lack of incorporation of other healthcare professionals, such as behavioral specialists, psychiatrists, and pharmacists.

A study of decade-long trends in the incidence and mortality rates of patients who develop cardiogenic shock during hospitalization for acute myocardial infarction found a decline in death rates, but not incidence.

FDA had halted work on the study drug after 2 deaths in an unrelated trial.

A new study, published in Nature Communications, has delineated a mechanism that could help explain the resistance that is emerging with the new immuno-oncology agents such as PD-1 and PD-L1.

The shared savings payments were for specialists in hip and knee replacements, knee arthroscopy, and pregnancy. These areas have been among CMS' top targets for savings, while New Jersey has been focused on reducing its high rate of C-sections.

What we're reading, February 18, 2016: one-third of clinical trial results are never published; Sandoz challenges rule for notices of biosimilar launches; and hepatitis C combination drug could reduce treatment to just 4 weeks.

Wellness programs that base financial incentives on loss aversion could result in better outcomes, according to a trial of how certain financial incentives impact physician activity among overweight and obese adults.

While patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease have a higher risk of stroke than the general population, patients who have frequent exacerbations of their illness actually have a reduced risk of stroke than those with infrequent exacerbations.

A Task Force composed of gastroenterology specialists, with a special interest in colorectal cancer, has released updated recommendations urging post-operative colonoscopy instead of endoscopy to improve survival.

The clinical trial across 3 sites in California and Washington state will involve 300 participants and report results in 2017.

The Nurse-Family Partnership expansion will bring 3200 new families into the program over 4 years. The nonprofit initiative is backed by 30 years of evidence, including a 2014 study that showed better long-term survival among 20-year-olds whose mothers were among the early participants.

Durvalumab is being developed for the treatment of PD-L1—positive patients with inoperable or metastatic urothelial bladder cancer

Patient's whose complete hospital treatment was captured by an electronic health record were up to 30% less likely to experience in-hospital adverse events.

Additional cuts to Medicare Advantage plans would unduly affect the more than one-third of beneficiaries in the low-income bracket, according to a report from America's Health Insurance Plans.

What we're reading, February 17, 2016: Pfizer pays to settle Medicaid claims case; needle exchanges will get financial boost with federal funding; and in New Jersey, Chris Christie releases budget that includes steep cuts to hospitals.

Individuals with more than one diagnosis are more likely to report to a primary care physician than to a subspecialty physician.

CMS, in collaboration with a working group of national organizations, has developed a set of Medical Oncology Measures to improve quality of care and avoid redundancy for providers of care.

Whether or not employer wellness programs work remains debated, but the real question to address is whether we are even fighting the right battle.

USPSTF's judgment that there is insufficient evidence to screen all young children for autism stands in contrast to the nation's largest group of pediatricians as well as leading autism advocacy groups.

A collaboration led by CMS and America’s Health Insurance Plans released 7 core sets of quality measures created to reduce complexity, decrease cost burden, and ensure high-quality care.

Deploying the algorithm in EHRs on a widepread basis could help find up to 400,000 Americans with undiagnosed diabetes, the researchers say.

What we're reading, February 16, 2016: Affordable Care Act enrollment for 2016 is far below initial estimates; healthcare record hacks increased 11,000% in 2015; and genetic testing hasn't seen wide adoption among consumers.

A noninvasive colorectal cancer screening test manufactured by Exact Sciences, which received CMS coverage within months of its FDA approval, is not included under Humana’s coverage policy

Relatively simple improvements could increase patient satisfaction and potentially improve the important process of imparting patient information during enrollment of cancer patients into clinical trials.

Looking at trends in economic growth, healthcare costs, and employment, researchers find that the Affordable Care Act has acted as an economic stimulus.

The requested Medicaid waiver from CMS would help deal with the Flint water crisis. Residents have been affected by lead poisoning after a state-hired emergency manager switched the city's water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint River, without following advice for pretreating the water.

Inhibiting the PIGF/VEGFR-1 signaling regressed tumor growth in obese, but not in lean mice, the author report.

The authors conclude that being overweight is not without risk, and their findings come after other estimates see the burden of chronic kidney disease increasing in the United States.

What we're reading, February 15, 2016: despite cuts to the program, enrollment in Medicare Advantage is up 50% over 5 years; orphan drug designations from the FDA up 22% in 2015; and Zika virus infections on the rise in Puerto Rico.

Justice Antonin Scalia has died at the age of 79. The absence of the conservative justice from the Supreme Court bench has set off a political firestorm and could have repercussions for upcoming healthcare cases.