Latest Conference Articles

Looking at how burnout affects specialties differently shows that it’s not a work–life balance issues, but a systems one, said Kathleen Blake, MD, MPH, vice president for Performance Improvement at the American Medical Association.

Officials with GlaxoSmithKline said COLUMBA is the first long-term study for an anti-IL5 biologic to treat severe asthma that has been reported.

Attendees at the American Thoracic Society 2018 International Conference, meeting in San Diego, California, heard details that led to FDA's recent expansion of the indication for GlaxoSmithKline's Trelegy Ellipta, including findings that the once-daily combination also provides significant mortality benefits over a dual therapy that is often the combination patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are taking when triple therapy is recommended.

Calvin Knowlton, BScPharm, MDiv, PhD, chief executive officer and founder of Tabula Rasa HealthCare, discusses innovative practices that have been introduced in Enhanced Medication Therapy Management (eMTM) and what he sees in the future for eMTM improvement and innovation.

Beyond helping with co-payment assistance for patients with cancer, CancerCare helps with practical and emotional supports for patients, explained Michele McCourt, senior director of the CancerCare Co-Payment Assistance Foundation.

Tina Joseph, PharmD, BCACP, assistant professor, college of pharmacy, Nova Southeastern University, discusses the role of pharmacists in helping manage chronic diseases and the transition for integrating pharmacists into value-based care models.

Lee Newcomer, MD, MHA, private consultant, discusses the differences between UnitedHealthcare's pilot episodic payment model and CMS models.

Gathering data to use it to improve care delivery is easier said than done, explained Charles Saunders, MD, CEO of Integra Connect.

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, discusses how technology can lower healthcare costs for OB/GYN patients.

While technology continues to improve, healthcare has not always been quick to keep up with changes. Panelists at The American Journal of Managed Care®’s Accountable Care Delivery Congress highlight the ways their organizations are using technology to improve care.

So far, the move to accountable care has been promising, but more needs to be done to encourage providers into risk, said panelists at The American Journal of Managed Care®’s Accountable Care Delivery Congress.

Brian Litten, JD, chief strategic officer, Tabula Rasa HealthCare, discusses how Medication Therapy Management (MTM) services work to improve health outcomes, challenges with the adoption of MTM services, and how CMMI's Enhanced MTM Model addresses these challenges.

Former Ambassador Nancy Brinker discusses the future of the Susan G. Komen Foundation stating, "It's time for major innovation."

Mary Norine Walsh, MD, immediate past president of the American College of Cardiology, discusses the cause of the recent increase in maternal mortality, and the importance of team-based care to address it.

Integrated care teams will create more value for the patient, but there are multiple challenges in the creation of these teams, said Mark Soberman, MD, MBA, FACS, former president of the Association of Community Cancer Centers.

Haywood Brown, MD, immediate past president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecology (ACOG), discusses the importance of postpartum follow up, and the reasoning behind ACOG's recently revised committee opinion.

Employers may be intimidated by the idea of purchasing healthcare, but they are getting more involved in it and they are in a position to transform the market and promote value-based care, said Suzanne Delbanco, PhD, MPH, executive director of Catalyst for Payment Reform, during her keynote at The American Journal of Managed Care®’s Accountable Care Delivery Congress.

Pulling data out of an electronic health record (EHR) to be analyzed can be difficult because that’s not what these systems were typically created to do, said Pamela Tobias, MS, RHIA, CHDA, administrator of oncology services at Lehigh Valley Health Network.

Creating integrated cancer care teams is part of a paradigm shift that requires thinking of care delivery in a different way, explained Thomas Asfeldt, MBA, RN, director of Outpatient Cancer Services at Sanford Cancer Center.

Financial toxicity has been on the rise, but there has been movement toward reducing the burden through better communication and shared decision making, 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.

An interdisciplinary approach to patient care is very important because the treatment of gynecologic cancers can be very complex, explained Oliver Dorigo, MD, PhD, associate professor, obstetrics and gynecology, Stanford University Medical Center.

Kimberly Lenz, PharmD, clinical pharmacy manager, MassHealth/Office of Clinical Affairs, University of Massachusetts Medical School, discusses identifying patients most at risk for misusing or abusing controlled substances and how approaches to treatment differ for these patients.

M. Kristina Wharton, MPH, of the Department of Global Health Management and Policy at Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, recommends shifts in policies that could expand federally qualified health centers.

We have to decide if we’re prepared to not cover low-value treatments as we shift to value-based care, said Robert Navarro, PharmD, clinical professor, College of Pharmacy, University of Florida.

Both large and small causes of burnout need to be addressed, said Barbara Balik, EdD, MS, RN, co-founder of Aefina Partners and senior faculty at the Institute of Healthcare Improvement.

In a poster presentation at the 73rd Annual Scientific Convention of the Society of Biological Psychiatry meeting in New York, New York, May 10 to 12, researchers reported about an adjunctive investigational drug therapy for major depressive disorder, alone and together with a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), in rats resistant to SSRIs.

The field of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has grown in recent years due to veterans returning from wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and at the 73rd Annual Scientific Convention of the Society of Biological Psychiatry meeting in New York City, May 10 to 12, one of the nation’s leading experts decided to focus his presentation on the topic on memory consolidation.

Our knowledge of the human microbiome has only been developed over the past decade, according to Elaine Hsaio, PhD, assistant professor of integrative biology and physiology at the University of California, Los Angeles, at the 73rd Annual Scientific Convention of the Society of Biological Psychiatry meeting in New York City, May 10 to 12. Hsaio presented about how the microbiome influences brain function, development and behavior.

Martha Gaines, MD, JD, LLM, founder and director of The Center for Patient Partnerships, clinical professor of law, University of Wisconsin Law School, explains how The Center for Patient Partnerships helps patients understand their disease, identify their treatment options, and recognize resources available to them.

Chronic pain is a serious problem in the United States and particularly so for veterans. At the 73rd Annual Scientific Convention of the Society of Biological Psychiatry meeting in New York City, May 10 to 12, Jennifer C. Naylor, PhD, presented results from a randomized control trial of 92 veterans with chronic low back pain treated with pregnenolone or placebo.