Latest Conference Articles

Neil M. Pressman, FACHE, president, Presscott Associates, discussed a variety of business models for healthcare network management in his presentation at the National Association of Managed Care Physicians' Spring Managed Care Forum 2014 in Orlando.

For Peter Libby, MD, chief of cardiology at Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, the rewards of a life in clinical research outweigh the risks.

Metformin, the go-to drug for patients diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), may help control glycated hemoglobin (A1C) levels, but it does not help prevent heart failure in heart attack patients who do not have the disease, according to a new study from the Netherlands.

Bariatric surgery has more powerful long-term effects on controlling type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) that medical therapy alone, according to the largest, long-term study comparing methods.

Should patients with moderately elevated levels of triglycerides be treated, even while cardiologists await the results of a trial that may provide a definitive answer?

The triple aim promised by healthcare reform-better quality care, greater patient satisfaction, at a lower cost-will play out procedure by procedure, as physicians find ways to deliver better care and find savings.

Evidence linking sugar-sweetened sodas to cardiovascular damage has been the subject of studies presented by the American Diabetes Association and even on 60 Minutes. Now, diet sodas are getting their turn.

Wendell Primus, PhD, the veteran legislative aide for US House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-California, got right to the point when he asked those gathered for the 63rd Scientific Sessions of the American College of Cardiologists if, so far, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was helping them, as opposed to their patients.

From a session called How to Navigate the Maze of Pharmacotherapy in Diabetes? to oral abstracts and posters, the relationship between cardiac risks and rising incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus received plenty of attention Saturday at the 63rd Scientific Sessions of the American College of Cardiology, being held in Washington, DC.

Results from 3 phase 3 studies unveiled Saturday showed that investigational treatment for hyperlipidemia, evolocumab, significantly lowered low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, that the results were sustained over time, and that the drug was well-tolerated without neurological side effects that are of concern to US Food and Drug Administration.

A more individualized view of what drives the onset of non-small cell lung cancer is raising treatment hopes as new therapies emerge and are under development, said Leora Horn, MD, MSc, of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, who presented an overview Friday at the National Comprehensive Cancer Network's 19th Annual Conference: Advancing the Standard of Cancer Care, held in Hollywood, Florida.

The title of the talk by Celestia S. Higano, MD, New Developments in the Treatment of Hormone Refractory Prostate Cancer, was notable in the use of a term that has been replaced over the past decade with castration resistant. It was a change that Dr Higano, of the Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington, admits she did not support at the time.

Advances in treating multiple myeloma have transformed the field over the past decade, giving clinicians more effective therapy options for newly diagnosed patients who are candidates for stem cell transplant and those who are not.

Friday's session of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network's 19th Annual Conference: Advancing the Standard of Cancer Care, featured a well-attended roundtable, The Affordable Care Act: Where Are We Now? Moderated by Clifford Goodman, PhD, of The Lewin Group, the wide-ranging discussion featured panelists Christian G. Downs, JD, MHA, Association of Community Cancer Centers; Liz Fowler, PhD, JD, Johnson & Johnson; Michael Kolodziej, MD, Aetna; Lee H. Newcomer, MD, MHA, UnitedHealthcare; Mohammed S. Ogaily, MD, Henry Ford Health System; W. Thomas Purcell, MD, MBA, University of Colorado Cancer Center; and John C. Winkelmann, MD, Councillor, American Society of Hematology, Oncology Hematology Care, Inc.

Fox Chase Cancer Center's Crystal Denlinger, MD, presented Optimal Post-Treatment Surveillance: Is More Really Better?, addressing a topic that challenges not only patients and their physicians, but also payers as the nation moves toward a healthcare system defined by the maxim "better quality at a lower cost."

On Friday, new prostate cancer screening guidelines that seek to balance overtreatment concerns with the need to preserve gains in curbing prostate cancer mortality were unveiled at the National Comprehensive Cancer Network's 19th Annual Conference, Advancing the Standard of Cancer Care, held in Hollywood, Florida.

In his talk, Melanoma Guideline Update: New Agents and Opportunities for Treatment, John A. Thompson, MD, of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington, first showed the preferred list of treatments for advanced or metastatic melanoma: ipilimumab, vemurafenib, dabrafenib, dabrafenib plus trametinib, high-dose interleukin-2, and the drugs-to-come in the category: clinical trials.

Who should receive genetic counseling and screening for colorectal cancer (CRC)? And how early should annual colonoscopies happen once those at risk are identified? These are important questions with equally important and complex answers.

Life-saving therapies that halt cancer can take a toll on the skeletal system, leaving survivors with bone loss or more serious injuries such as broken wrists, ribs, or hips. Watchful attention, screening, and therapy are needed to prevent these outcomes.

Did you think biology only involved studying people, animals, and plants? How about tumors, or maybe cells? Keep going. Smaller. A lot smaller.

A sunrise session on climate change, followed by Tuesday's poster session on allergen immunotherapy at the 2014 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI) in San Diego, California, highlighted the irony: Thanks in no small part to the cost of navigating the approval process of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Europe has more options to treat seasonal allergies, even though America has far more ragweed.

The American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI) on Monday released its second list of overused tests and procedures that allergists, primary care physicians, and patients should question before they occur. The list represents the fruits of the Academy's second year of participation in the Choosing Wisely initiative, and was presented at a press conference during the Academy's meeting in San Diego, California.

Taking care of asthma patients costs the nation $56 billion a year, and included in that total are the costs of the many sufferers who do not properly follow their prescriptions.

Researchers seeking to reduce the dangers of peanut allergies have seen encouraging results in recent years from oral immunotherapy. But many questions remain: How large of a dose? For how long? And, once treatment ends, does its effectiveness last, or does it eventually wear off?

Two oral immunotherapy treatments for allergic rhinitis being developed by Merck and ALK-Abello, which received separate approvals in recent months from the Allergenic Products Advisory Panel (APAC) of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA),1,2 are the subject of results presented Monday at the 2014 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology in San Diego, California.

Some of the same themes being raised across medicine-how to balance the quality of care with soaring therapy costs, and how to unleash the power of genomics to tailor treatment-were part of Saturday's workshop Hot Topics in Pediatric Allergy and Immunology. The session of the American Academy of Pediatrics took place during the 2014 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology in San Diego, California.

Asthma is among the diseases for which adherence presents challenges, both to physicians and to manufacturers of therapies. Two studies presented Saturday at the 2014 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology in San Diego, California, discuss an attempt by one manufacturer, Merck, to overcome the problem through the development of an adherence estimator called AE.

The introduction for Eric J. Topol, MD, who gave the keynote address Saturday at the 2014 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI) in San Diego, California, ended with the usual instruction: Please silence your cell phone.

Laura Beerman, director, customer segment analysis, Decision Resources Group, presented a discussion that highlighted the early results of accountable care organizations (ACOs). She said that while the Pioneer ACOs created a large initial buzz, their cost savings has varied widely.

In a panel discussion moderated by Neil Minkoff, MD, CEO of FountainHead HealthCare, panelists examined the current state of healthcare exchanges, both public and private. Panelists included Dennis Falci, MBA, director, US managed markets training, sales training and leadership development, Sanofi-Aventis SA; Thomas Kaye, director of consulting pharmacy, Prescription Formulary Exchange, LLC; and Sheri Sellmeyer, vice president, market analysis, HealthLeaders-InterStudy, a Decision Resources Group Company. They analyzed the current benefit models required by public exchanges, and the rising popularity of the private counterparts, offering a glimpse into the new healthcare marketplace now unfolding.