Interviews

Dawn Averitt, founder of The Well Project and Women's Research Initiative on HIV/AIDS, has been living with HIV for 33 years.

The Oncology Care Model (OCM) was a great program that led to practice transformation and improved patient care, but there needs to be a way to address the high cost of cancer therapies, said Marcus Neubauer, MD, chief medical officer of the US Oncology Network.

In an interview for ESC Congress 2021, Deepak L. Bhatt, MD, MPH, executive director of interventional cardiovascular programs at Brigham and Women’s Hospital Heart & Vascular Center and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, describes the treatment outlook for patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF).

Therapies that block adenosine triphosphate (ATP) can reduce the irritation that causes cough, and some currently being studied also don’t have taste side effects that can confound clinical trial results, explained Ron Eccles, BSc, PhD, DSc, emeritus profess at Cardiff University.

Deepak L. Bhatt, MD, MPH, outlines the benefits of starting patients on sodium glucose co-transporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors while they are hospitalized.

Todd Schlesinger, MD, FAAD, director, Dermatology and Laser Center of Charleston and Clinical Research Center of the Carolinas, explains the process of Mohs surgery for removing skin cancers and preserving healthy surrounding tissue.

Ezio Bonifacio, PhD, addresses barriers inhibiting widespread screening for type 1 diabetes (T1D), and offers insights on whether all individuals should be screened, or only those known to be at genetic risk for the disease.

Michael E. Wechsler, MD, a pulmonologist at National Jewish Health, discusses the challenges associated with differentiating similar eosinophilic conditions, including eosinophilic asthma, from one another.

The Oncology Care Model (OCM) is scheduled to end in just a few months, but with no new model in place to succeed it and practices still struggling during the pandemic, OCM should continue in its current form, said Kashyap Patel, MD, CEO of Carolina Blood and Cancer Care Associations, current president of the Community Oncology Alliance, and co-chair of Patient-Centered Oncology Care®.

The pandemic has acted as a catalyst to increase the use of digital health and telemedicine, allowing providers to continue to deliver great care and even reach their rural patients, said Debra Patt, MD, PhD, MBA, executive vice president of Texas Oncology.

Rajesh Rajpal, MD, chief medical officer, global head of clinical medical affairs, Johnson & Johnson Vision, addresses ongoing and future innovations in eye lens technology and instruments for cataract surgery.

The emergence of new COVID-19 variants and the lower-than-anticipated vaccination rates could lead to a greater use of pegfilgratim biosimilars in cancer settings, explained Kashyap Patel, MD, CEO of Carolina Blood and Cancer Care Associates.

Having the option of receiving care in their community instead of a large hospital located hours away is not only a benefit for many patients, but research is showing community oncology practices are a low-cost, high-quality provider of care, explained Jeff Patton, MD, executive chairman of Tennessee Oncology and CEO of OneOncology.

Remote patient monitoring includes urgent care uses, long-term monitoring to help keep patients with cancer out of the hospital by monitoring the effects of oncology treatment at home, and even voice monitoring to check for altered mental status, said Elizabeth Kwo, MD, MBA, MPH, the deputy chief clinical officer at Anthem BCBS, and a speaker at the 10th anniversary of Patient-Centered Oncology Care® conference.

This London-based charity intervenes in the short term when its clients come up against roadblocks that prevent ready access to good levels of nutrition, whether that crisis is nutritional, physical/mental health, housing, or financial related.

With empagliflozin, we now have evidence that another treatment for patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) is possible, said Stefan Anker, MD, PhD, FESC, professor of cardiology, Department of Cardiology, Charité Campus Virchow Clinic, Berlin, Germany, and principal investigator of the EMPEROR-Preserved study.

Camillo Ricordi, MD, FNAI, discusses some of the potential risks faced by patients with type 1 diabetes who undergo islet transplantation.

Clinicians are finding that there really is no basis to recommend probiotics for patients with Clostridioides difficile infection, that instead they may cause harm, said Colleen R. Kelly, MD, FACG, gastroenterologist and associate professor of medicine at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.

Leslie Eiland, MD, offers insights on whether use of certain technologies among patients with type 1 diabetes (T1D) will continue after the pandemic ends.

Iksha Herr of Microsoft previews her talk on leveraging data and artificial intelligence (AI) in health care, which will be a high point of this year's Patient-Centered Oncology Care® (PCOC) conference.

The Patient-Centered Oncology Care® (PCOC) conference, taking place in a hybrid format September 23-24, 2021, provides a space for oncologists, payers, health care system leaders, and others to delve into different possibilities to improve care, according to Joseph Alvarnas, MD, of City of Hope, editor-in-chief of Evidence-Based Oncology™ and co-chair of the meeting.

Looking forward to the 10th anniversary of the Patient-Centered Oncology Care® (PCOC) conference, taking place in a hybrid format September 23-24, 2021, Joseph Alvarnas, MD, of City of Hope, editor-in-chief of Evidence-Based Oncology™, and co-chair of the meeting, discusses the takeaways that attendees can expect to hear about in the areas of patient care, payment and quality, and multidisciplinary collaboration among specialists.

Differentiated service delivery models can be employed to incorporate other chronic disease needs for patients with HIV, emphasized Helen Bygrave, MD, Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders).

Michael E. Wechsler, MD, a pulmonologist at National Jewish Health, discusses the conditions that can develop as a result of abnormal eosinophilic activity.

Rajesh Rajpal, MD, chief medical officer, global head of clinical medical affairs, Johnson & Johnson Vision, discusses the surgical options available to patients undergoing cataract surgery.

Reducing the risks of secondary neutropenia, exposure to COVID-19, mortality, and financial toxicity were all major reasons the use of pegfilgrastim biosimilar gained traction during the pandemic, said Kashyap Patel, MD, CEO of Carolina Blood and Cancer Care.

Patients who undergo transplant face an increased risk of skin cancer because of their immunosuppressed status, explained Christine Ko, MD, professor of dermatology and pathology at Yale University.

Having one of the lowest adult HIV prevalence rates in the world is a significant public health success story, explained Jason Myers, PhD, CEO of the New Zealand AIDS Foundation.

Gary Lyman, MD, MPH, an oncologist and hematologist, discusses how doctors are managing patients who present with later-stage cancers as a result of barriers to screening measures imposed by the pandemic.

David McIntyre, MD, FRACP, describes lessons learned from the pandemic for ensuring appropriate continuation of care for pregnant patients with diabetes.