Latest Conference Articles

Screening patients for financial distress remains a challenge, but it’s important to find those patients early and start financial planning discussions immediately, said oncology financial navigator Clara Lambert, BBA, OPN-CG, chair of the Association of Community Cancer Centers' Financial Advocacy Network Advisory Committee.

A retrospective analysis conducted by researchers at the University of Louisville has found that less than 2% of the more than 7.5 million eligible smokers were screened for lung cancer in 2016 despite recommendations by the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF). These results will be presented at the 2018 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting, June 1-5, Chicago, Illinois.

Electronic health records, interoperability, and quality measures are the biggest stressors causing clinician burnout, said Kathleen Blake, MD, MPH, vice president for Performance Improvement at the American Medical Association.

Mary Norine Walsh, MD, immediate past president of the American College of Cardiology, discusses the risks for pregnant women with hypertension.

Use of the mobile and sensor technology, CYCORE—CYberinfrastructure for COmparative Effectiveness Research—to remotely monitor symptoms in patients with head and neck cancer (HNC) undergoing radiation therapy found CYCORE patients had lower symptoms overall and specific to HNC. These results are a part of the research to be presented at the upcoming 2018 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting, June 1-5, Chicago, Illinois.

It is important to have financial discussions early and often with patients and framing the conversation in the right way, said Yousuf Zafar, MD, MHS, of the Duke Cancer Institute and a member of the Association of Community Cancer Centers Financial Advocacy Network Advisory Committee.

Without data, research on efforts, and an understanding of the local resources, addressing social determinants of health in a meaningful way won’t be possible.

During a press cast hosted by the American Society of Clinical Oncology ahead of the annual meeting, women with HER2-positive early-stage breast cancer who were treated with trastuzumab (Herceptin) for 6 months had a similar rate of disease-free survival as women who received the drug for 12 months, which is the current standard of care.

Curtis Lowery, MD, chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and director of the Center for Distance Health, talks about the ANGELS program that he founded at his practice and the benefit it provides to patients.

In general, practices and health systems don’t do a good job of integrating technology into practice, partly because most of the technology they use isn’t well suited to their needs, explained Charles Saunders, MD, CEO of Integra Connect.

Success for integrated cancer care teams rely on a few things, such as having a champion, commitment, and strong communication, explained Thomas Asfeldt, MBA, RN, director of Outpatient Cancer Services at Sanford Cancer Center.

Healthcare is experiencing something fundamentally different with nontraditional mergers across industries, explained Ted Okon, executive director of COA, at the 2018 Community Oncology Conference.

There's the potential for new nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and multiple sclerosis drugs to be approved in 2019, said Aimee Tharaldson, PharmD, a senior clinical consultant in Emerging Therapeutics for Express Scripts.

Donna Hansel, MD, PhD, of University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine, explains her use of human bladder cancer cells in her research.

Guidelines can help address issues of cost and variation, especially in complex diseases, said Derek Raghavan, MD, PhD, FACP, FRACP, president, Carolinas HealthCare System's Levine Cancer Institute.

Pharmaceutical companies have helped in the shift to value-based care through value-based prices, as well as outcomes- and performance-based risk-sharing contracts, explained Robert Navarro, PharmD, clinical professor, College of Pharmacy, University of Florida.

Technology can be used to make it easier for patients and practices to participate in clinical trials, while also easing some of the burden on research staff, said James Hamrick, MD, MPH, Kaiser Permanente and Flatiron Health.

The endgame for both the health system and the payer is always the patient, so we try to focus on treating patients in the most cost-effective manner with the most clinically appropriate evidence-based approach, explained Ashley Pappas, PharmD, MHA, assistant director of pharmacy, University of North Carolina Hospitals.

Burnout among physicians is only getting worse, but there are ways an organization can put a program in place to address or even prevent burnout, said James Grayson, administrative chief of staff at West Cancer Center.

As new treatments come to market that have a substantial impact on diseases, or even cure them, the healthcare system is facing the challenge of how to value these treatments. A panel of experts highlighted what evidence there needs to be, methods of valuing therapies, and the ethical implications of having cures.

Often when financial navigators have discussions related to cost with patients, they have to start out defining the patient’s insurance benefits, said oncology financial navigator Clara Lambert, BBA, OPN-CG, chair of the ACCC Financial Advocacy Network Advisory Committee.

On the closing day of the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research 23rd Annual International Meeting, in Baltimore, Maryland, stakeholders gathered to grapple with the role of value assessments in a healthcare landscape that is increasingly focused on the use of precision medicine in treating disease.

Data from the Mayo Clinic suggest that smokers who have quit longer than 15 years may need to be screened for lung cancer, yet they fall outside the window recommended by the United States Preventive Services Task Force.

Digital health can improve care around the world, but if used poorly could exacerbate existing disparities, said Ejim E. Mark, MD, MPH, MBA, CEO and founder of Access Healthcare Foundation.

In order to start evaluating the economics of new cures, the scope of the evaluation needs to be as broad as possible and be able to wrestle with uncertainty, said Steven Pearson, MD, MSc, founder and president of the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review.

Advances in medicine have produced breakthroughs in the treatment of a number of rare diseases, but these advances often come at a high cost. A multi-stakeholder panel at the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research 23rd Annual International Meeting, in Baltimore, Maryland, addressed the question of how to define value in the always evolving and ever more expensive treatment landscape.

As new therapies come to market, there is the good news that patients are cured or living longer, but it has to be balanced by the bad news that these treatments are far more expensive, said Paul Billings, senior vice president advocacy for the American Lung Association.

Only a small percent of patients eligible for assistance programs actually enroll, and Vivor is working with pharmaceutical companies to make the process of using patient assistance programs smoother, said Ian Manners, founder and CEO of Vivor.

In some ways, the United States is progressive in its use of real-world evidence, but there are still areas where other countries do a better job of incorporating such evidence into the health system, explained Adrian F. Hernandez, MD, MHS, vice dean, clinical research, Duke University School of Medicine.

Researchers based at the University of Michigan compared patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) in Medicaid expansion states with those in nonexpansion states, focusing on 18 specific conditions identified as severe illnesses that could be avoided through better preventive care.