Health Care Delivery

A booster dose of a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine cut infection risk nearly in half, study finds.

On this episode of Managed Care Cast, we find out about efforts by a managed Medicaid health care plan in Southern California to bring prevention and intervention mental health services to schools in response to a worsening crisis among America's children and adolescents.

The risk of wound-related issues was approximately 2-fold in adult patients with hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) undergoing total hip/knee arthroplasty vs those without HS.

The analysis could help investigators better understand why a subset of patients with advanced melanoma develops resistance or does not respond to targeted therapy.

It can be hard to think about the bigger picture while in the middle of a crisis, but providers and employers should use this opportunity to work together on new and alternative models of care delivery and financing that directly affect cost, outcomes, and experience.

Although approved for use among patients with severe or refractory asthma, few studies have investigated its effectiveness among patients with comorbid mild to moderate asthma and chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP).

Advocacy and awareness; prevention and risk reduction; diagnosis, treatment, and care; caregiver support; and research were listed as actionable steps that are urgently needed to address global disparities in Parkinson disease.

When excluding the price tag of treatment, costs were significantly lower among the patients identified by early screening than among the patients identified by symptoms

The significant quality of life burden associated with symptoms of itching and/or skin pain in patients with atopic dermatitis (AD) may warrant alternate approaches to address unmet needs.

Better screenings and improved therapies have helped boost non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) outcomes, but investigators said some patient groups have seen less improvement than others.

Participants in a digital acute musculoskeletal (MSK) program experienced better pain and function outcomes vs nonparticipants, demonstrating benefits for acute and subacute MSK conditions.

Social determinants of health present many health-related challenges for Medicare Advantage (MA) plan members, something these plans are looking to overcome by diversifying their service offerings.

Endoscopic sinus surgery was associated with improvement in self-reported olfactory function among patients with chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP), in which a longer CRSwNP disease course and higher blood eosinophilia were cited as risk factors linked with poor sense of smell recovery.

Few data exist on how right ventricular fractional area change (RVFAC) may contribute to outcomes among patients hospitalized for heart failure, so that potential relationship was investigated in this new study from Japan.

The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between inpatient opioid receipt and care experiences of women hospitalized for vaginal delivery.

This new report suggests patients with high-risk cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) have improved odds when they undergo Mohs micrographic surgery.

Veterans often have characteristics and comorbidities that can make them less likely to be included in clinical trials.

Abstracts presented at this year's American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual meeting detailed the financial hardships many patients with cancer face, including those related to high-deductible health plans and clinical trial participation.

Investigators from Ghana evaluated cardiac abnormalities among persons living with HIV who were or were not on highly active antiretroviral treatment.

Successful comprehensive genomic profiling of tissue samples among patients with lung cancer was more likely to occur when samples were extracted via resections vs fluid cytology, biopsy, or fine-needle aspirations.

Although the autoimmune response that reduces β cell numbers has often been the focus of research in type 1 diabetes (T1D), findings from a new study suggest proinflammatory signaling in islet β cells may play a significant role in disease progression.

Researchers have found that resistance to the BCL2 inhibitor was driven by methylation and epigenetic silencing of PUMA.

Almost 15% of US adults have trouble falling asleep, with difficulties varying across sociodemographic and geographic categories including age, family income, and urbanization level.

Drug survival rates of biologics in patients with psoriasis were shown to be associated with their effectiveness and safety profiles, in which incidence of psoriatic arthritis, nail involvement, and other factors were indicated as effect modifiers.

COVID-19 was ranked in the top 5 diagnoses through telehealth in the Midwest, Northeast, and West regions as well as nationally in the month of April, coinciding with an increase in COVID-19 cases.

Over the past decade, the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) has sought to boost lung cancer screening rates, but several challenges remain.

Panelists at the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions 2022 Leadership Summit discussed the latest innovations in digital therapeutics and how they benefit patients on an individual and broad scale.

At AHIP 2022, Vanessa Bobb, MD, PhD, FAPA, vice president of Behavioral Health & Medical Integration at CDPHP, moderated a session on real-world study findings showcasing cost and quality benefits of value-based contracting in behavioral health. Bobb discusses findings of the study and how value-based programs can be better leveraged in mental health and substance abuse care.

Integrating primary care with behavioral health services, improving provider training on mental health, and policy changes were all noted as strategies to combat the rising mental health and substance abuse epidemic during a keynote session at AHIP 2022.

Research presented at the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology Annual Congress show the safety and efficacy of dupilumab across several progressive diseases with underlying type 2 inflammation, including eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE), severe asthma, and severe chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps.