Latest Conference Articles

The dynamic landscape of healthcare and managed care pharmacy will be deeply impacted by new and emerging specialty medications. The ever-spiraling costs of specialty medications have led many experts to question whether these treatments translate into true improvements in health outcomes or patients' quality of life.

Not surprisingly, Thomas Merrill, lead researcher, Center for Accountable Care Intelligence, Leavitt Partners, LLC, said that cost is a major work flow challenge associated with Accountable Care Organizations.

In this interview, Curtis Triplitt, PharmD, associate professor and assistant dean of research, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Permian Basin, explains why diabetes should be treated with a patient-centered approach.

Jeff Goldsmith, PhD, healthcare futurist and analyst, says that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has significantly impacted healthcare policy, in both negative and positive ways.

The patient-centered medical home (PCMH) has many key goals and components. When paneled, the majority of AMCP 2013 Nexus attendees agreed that the PCMH is best described as a practice model that organizes primary care practice operations and incentives to deliver patient-centered, coordinated, comprehensive care with the goal of improved quality and efficiency.

Since 2010, the growth and proliferation of accountable care organizations (ACOs) has increased, and the rise of this collaborative care model is not without reason. Lack of consumer engagement, lack of competition, and misaligned incentives have made care less affordable.

Richard Stefanacci, DO, chief medical officer, The Access Group, said that it is necessary for retail pharmacists to break out of their silo. Dr Stefanacci noted that retail pharmacists are being utilized within practices and stepping out of their normal roles.

Suzanne Tschida, PharmD, vice president, specialty benefits & outcomes, OptumRx, said that at UnitedHealth Group a tiering system is used for the management of specialty medications with a cost-share or copay structure.

The gold standard for measuring treatment outcomes in multiple sclerosis (MS) is the randomized clinical trial (RCT). However, RCTs are often short-sighted and biased in their execution. Dr Maria Sormani, PhD, Biostatistics Unit, Department of Health Sciences, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy, addressed this problem in a lecture on immunomodulatory treatment of MS.

In this video, Fred Lublin, MD, Saunders Family professor of neurology, director, The Corinne Goldsmith Dickinson Center for Multiple Sclerosis, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, discussed the results of his poster presentation, Natalizumab Reduces the Disabling Amplitude of Multiple Sclerosis Relapses and Improves Post-relapse Residual Disability.

Clinical trials and treatment in multiple sclerosis (MS) place an unwelcome economic burden upon countries with MS prevalence. With rising costs and a growing interest in MS clinical trials from emerging countries, new studies are needed to evaluate the significance of these factors.

Fatigue and cognitive impairment are 2 of the most common health problems associated with multiple sclerosis (MS). Recent MS studies evaluate the nature of these 2 conditions not just as side effects of MS, but as chronic conditions with varying degrees of severity based on objective assessment and self-perception.

Barry Singer, MD, director, MS Center for Innovations in Care, St. Louis, MO, said that the Affordable Care Act could cause challenges in terms of coverage.

New disease-modifying drugs in multiple sclerosis (MS) show potential for improving quality-of-life (QoL) of patients with multiple sclerosis. The clinical benefits of dimethyl fumarate and PR-fampridine were discussed at a Biogen Idec-sponsored satellite symposium at the 29th Congress of the European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ECTRIMS).

Daniel Kantor, MD, medical director, Neurologique, immediate past president, Florida Society of Neurology, said that after an initial diagnosis of multiple sclerosis (MS) is made, providers must compare risks versus benefits when choosing which agent to treat with.

Recent discussions of risk gene variation and pharmacogenitc studies were highlighted at a parallel session during the 29th Congress of the European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ECTRIMS). Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS) have identified over 100 common risk variants in just over a quarter of observed heritability.

Predictors of long-term disability and treatment failure in multiple sclerosis were discussed at a platform presentation during the 29th Congress European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ECTRIMS). In the first presentation discussed here, Marzia Romeo, MD, San Raffaele Hospital, Milan, Italy, shared findings from an observational study examining the viability of early prediction of long-term treatment failure in relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) patients treated with disease-modifying treatments (DMT).

At a satellite symposium during the European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ECTRIMS) conference, presenters focused upon the usage of disease-modifying treatments (DMT) in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS).

Self-reporting among multiple sclerosis (MS) patients was the focus of 2 posters during a Quality of Life (QoL) poster session at the 29th Congress of the European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ECTRIMS).

During a Merck Serono-sponsored satellite symposium at the 29th Annual European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ECTRIMS) conference, presenters shared research regarding patient engagement in treatment management for multiple sclerosis (MS). The presentation focused primarily on the relationship between patients with MS (PwMS) and their treating physicians.

In the last two decades we've seen really an explosion of the treatments we have for multiple sclerosis (MS), said Daniel Kantor, MD, medical director, Neurologique, immediate past president, Florida Society of Neurology.

Brenda Banwell, MD, Chief, Division of Neurology, Professor of Neurology, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, said that there are 3 areas of treatment associated with pediatric multiple sclerosis (MS).

In this video, Patricia Coyle, MD, director, MS Comprehensive Care Center, Stony Brook Neurosciences Institute, professor and vice chair of clinical affairs, Department of Neurology, SUNY at Stony Brook, emphasized the need to establish biomarkers for the treatment of multiple sclerosis.

Highlights from American Diabetes Associations (ADA) which took place on June 21-25, 2013, in Chicago, IL, are available in a newsletter published by The American Journal of Managed Care.

Rodney Hayward, MD, and Sheldon Greenfield, MD, discussed the benefits of quality care measures and explored some of the remaining areas for improvement. Some groups advocate for the use of composite quality care measures that reflect treatment guidelines and suggest that the same targets not be applied to all patients.

Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonists and dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitors are associated with additional effects beyond prolonging the effect of incretins. Laurie Baggio, PhD, reviewed many of the studies showing the independent anti-inflammatory effects of these drugs, which may be explored for future indications. These effects may help scientists understand some of the mechanisms behind inflammation in the body, as explained by Julio Ayala, PhD. Finally, concerns about pancreatitis with DPP-4 inhibitors and GLP-1 agonists may be largely unfounded, as explained by Vanita Aroda, MD.

In this session, Robert Eckel, MD, discussed new and emerging therapies for obesity. New agents fill a therapeutic gap by allowing patients to achieve weight loss between 5% and 15% of body weight, leading to improved outcomes in patients with type 2 diabetes and metabolic disease.

Ronald J. Sigal, MD, MPH, a professor of medicine, cardiac sciences, kinesiology, and community health sciences at the University of Calgary in Canada, and a Health Senior Scholar at the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research, pulls from his experience to discuss the reality of the current expectations and goals for exercise and physical activity in the overweight or obese patient with diabetes, and offers his solutions.

Philip R. Schauer, MD, the director of the Bariatric and Metabolic Institute (BMI) at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio contends that accountable care organizations (ACOs) need to recognize obesity as a legitimate disease that is the basis for many other serious conditions. He emphasizes that obesity certainly requires treatment, and surgery is an appropriate intervention for certain patients.

Carl Dean Benton, RPh, explains how pharmacists can contribute to improvements in patient care through counseling programs. With the provisions of the Affordable Care Act, many insurers may begin to recognize the benefits of pharmacist-driven counseling initiatives, and integrate these programs to help improve outcomes for patients with type 2 diabetes.