Latest Conference Articles

The US healthcare system is in need of transformation. The United States spends more than any other industrial country on healthcare, yet regardless of demographics, life expectancy is shorter and the US population is less healthy compared with populations in other countries. Collaborative efforts and a focus on the Triple Aim will be key in improving the quality and cost-effectiveness of healthcare.

The PILL Service is a care transition program designed to support older adults with cognitive impairment and help them maintain independent function. This program, which has resulted in improved clinical and economic outcomes, is characterized by a team effort focusing on proactive medication review and patient-centered medication reconciliation.

Safe use of prescription drugs continues to be a key topic for discussion and education. As part of the 2013 Medication Safety Collaborative, this presentation provided a federal-, state-, and local-level overview of ways healthcare providers (physicians, prescribers, nurses, pharmacists) and individuals can take part in contributing to solutions.

Judy Murphy, RN, the deputy national coordinator for programs and policy in the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT in Washington, DC, updated participants regarding the efforts under way under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act to promote improvement in the quality of healthcare through health information technology.

Increasing numbers of patients are using the emergency department (ED) for acute healthcare needs. Infectious diseases such as urinary tract infections and skin and soft tissue infections (cellulitis) rank among the top diagnoses made in the ED. While empiric treatment of these infections is common, it is critical that results and susceptibilities are reviewed to ensure appropriate therapy. Pharmacists are in a unique position to lend expertise in this area to improve outcomes and reduce readmissions.

Dr Thomas Roth, PhD, presented on the evolution of our understanding of insomnia, and the importance of insomnia in the context of other disease states. Roth noted that insomnia is primarily a disorder of increased wakefulness from a pathophysiologic standpoint, and presented data to support this. Presenting the effect of improved sleep on diseases such as depression, worker productivity, and cardiovascular disease, Roth revealed rich prospects for the future of sleep medicine in treating a variety of disorders.

In this video, Phyllis Zee, MD, Associate Director, Center for Sleep & Circadian Biology, discusses the relationship between circadian disruption and metabolic disease.

In this video, Denise Sharon, MD, PhD, Clinical Director and Founding Partner, Comprehensive Sleep Medicine Center of the Gulf Coast, discusses how insurers have responded to the availability of therapies and changes in clinical practice guidelines for RLS.

In a session on the neurobiology of sleep loss in humans, Andrea Spaeth, Daniel Aeschbach, PhD, and Clare Anderson, PhD, presented findings about the effects of sleep deprivation on various biological measures in humans.

In this video, James Horne, PhD, Director, Sleep Research Centre, provides his opinion on the relationship between lack of sleep and obesity.

In this presentation, Dr. Van Dongen discussed the pharmacology of various treatments for sleep disturbance associated with shift work. Dr. Van Dongen discussed the issues associated with use of medications to improve the alertness of sleepy workers.

In this video, Jennifer Martin, PhD, Assistant Professor, UCLA, David School of Medicine, discusses how the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral treatment for insomnia among patients with dementia compare with current pharmacologic strategies.

The electroencephalogram (EEG) provides important information to aid clinicians in the diagnosis of epilepsy. However, EEG techniques are associated with certain limitations, as discussed in the presentation by Bradley V. Vaughn, MD.

Daniel George, MD, Director, Prostate Clinic, Genitourinary Oncology, Duke Cancer Institute, specifically discusses the immunotherapy agent, sipuleucel-T (Provenge) used in the treatment of prostate cancer.

Michael Kolodziej, MD, National Medical Director for Oncology Strategies, Aetna, says that the rapid emergence of precision medicine was one of the more interesting topics discussed at the ASCO 2013 Annual Meeting.

Ongoing shortages of common oncology chemotherapies have compelled physicians to substitute more expensive drugs, delay or suspend clinical trials, or even skip doses of chemotherapy, according to survey results gathered by a team from the University of Pennsylvania.

Michael Kolodziej, MD, National Medical Director for Oncology Strategies, Aetna, discusses the financial challenges associated with the combination of newer novel agents in breast cancer treatment.

Over the 20 years I've been treating breast cancer, I think this is the one area where we've really lagged behind in terms of making progress, said Andrew Seidman, MD, attending Physician, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY.

Ovarian cancer survivors could have an option for treatment after chemotherapy, based on the outcome of a phase III study of an approved oral therapy for kidney cancer and soft tissue sarcoma.

Two-thirds of the metastatic myeloma patients in a phase II study were still alive a year after receiving a new combination therapy, compared to slightly more than half of patients receiving a standard monotherapy for the cancer, according to results presented today at the 49th Annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago.

In this video, Jennifer Martin, PhD, Assistant Professor, UCLA, David School of Medicine, shares her thoughts on how non-pharmacologic treatments for the management of insomnia has evolved over the past few years and how the increased use of behavioral treatments might affect insurance coverage.

Sleep disorders are common in patients with epilepsy; approximately 70% of patients with epilepsy experience problems with sleep. In his presentation, Dr Erik St. Louis discussed the impact of sleep on seizures, as well as the effects of comorbid sleep disorders on epilepsy.

In his presentation, Gary H. Gibbons, MD, director of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health, described the functions of his organization and discussed the potential for improvements in the understanding of disease states in the digital age.

Michael Kolodziej, MD, National Medical Director for Oncology Strategies, Aetna, says that in regard to payers impacting the use of immunotherapies, most payers have decided they will respect the judgment of the Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the National Comprehensive Cancer Network.

In this video, Thomas Roth, PhD, Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Wayne State University School of Medicine, provides his opinion on the most important advance in our understanding of insomnia pathology in recent years.

The importance of prompt empiric therapy is clear: it leads to better survival among patients with both community- and hospital-acquired infections. Tools such as antibiograms are used to help guide antibiotic selection. However, broad-based antibiograms may not always be appropriate for all areas of an institution.

In this video, Daniel George, MD, Director, Prostate Clinic, Genitourinary Oncology, Duke Cancer Institute, shares his thoughts on the most exciting data to be presented on immunotherapies at the ASCO Annual Meeting 2013.

Although medication safety in hospitals has improved in the past decade, substantial issues persist. This presentation by representatives of the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) reviewed the top 10 issues and presented strategies for improving outcomes.

Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) is a common hospital-acquired infection that is associated with a high clinical and economic burden. Because of this management of CDI is quickly becoming a part of institutional quality measures.

An ongoing phase I study of patients who have experienced relapsed and/or refractory multiple myeloma has found that this population was largely able to tolerate a new oral 20S proteasome inhibitor after receiving other prior treatments.