Technology

On day 1 of this year’s Association of Community Cancer Centers’ (ACCC) National Oncology Conference, The American Journal of Managed Care® sat down for a conversation with David Penberthy, MD, MBA, ACCC’s president for the 2022-2023 term, and his brother Scott Penberthy, PhD, MS, director, Applied AI, Office of the CTO, at Google.

There have been many silver linings of the pandemic, including improvements in financial, operational, and clinical advancement efficiencies, as well as addressing the total cost of care in population health management, said Mike Koroscik, MBA, MHA, vice president of oncology, Allina Health and the Allina Health Cancer Institute.

Much of artificial intelligence (AI) is now being used in the more mundane areas of health care, figuring out where to be most helpful, so doctors can do what they do best, which is diagnostic care, noted Scott Penberthy, PhD, MS, director, Applied AI, Office of the CTO, at Google.

Kelly Price, US Head of Rare Disease at HRA Pharma, argues proving the value of the prescription digital therapeutic (PDT) market may lead to better coverage of PDTs.

Along with its position statement in Diabetologia, the group outlined recommendations that seek greater structure and consistency for automated insulin delivery (AID) manufacturers as they develop products for use by persons with type 1 and type 2 diabetes.

The authors describe a primary care–based diabetic retinopathy screening program incorporating telemedicine, strong health information technology engagement, and development of clinical informatics tools.

It is an exciting time in the field of retina for emerging technologies, said Paul Hahn, MD, vitreoretinal surgeon at NJRetina.

Posters presented at AAO 2022 found that family medicine doctors and artificial intelligence (AI) were able to screen patients for diabetic retinopathy (DR) effectively, although false negatives in AI need to be improved.

The ophthalmology practice of the future will need to manage patients more efficiently and that means incorporating more technology, said Ravi Goel, MD, spokesperson for the AAO and ophthalmologist at Regional Eye Associates in New Jersey.

Data showed that patients using diabetes technology incorporated different strategies to prevent nocturnal hypoglycemia vs patients who did not use such technology.

This new series of cases suggests that technology can help nurses remotely identify relevant health events that could be indicative of exacerbations or changes in their condition.

Ophthalmology is image heavy, which has made the specialty amenable to telemedicine and the implementation of artificial intelligence, said Grayson Armstrong, MD, medical director, ophthalmic emergency services at Massachusetts Eye and Ear, and instructor in ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School.

As health care shifts reimbursement models from fee-for-service to value-based care, new terms and phrases have been surfacing across the industry. Two of the terms emerging with increased usage are “patient engagement” and an “active patient.” But what do they mean? And why are they important?

Consumers want telehealth and telehealth can help achieve organizational goals of avoiding unplanned care, closing care gaps, and achieving care targets.

Streamlining the prior authorization process can improve care accuracy and patient access to care, writes Siva Namasivayam, CEO of Cohere Health.

Teleophthalmology not only improves access to care and lowers the cost of care, but it can reduce rates of vision loss for patients with type 2 diabetes, said Parisa Emami-Naeni, MD, MPH, assistant professor of ophthalmology at University of California, Davis, and vitreoretinal surgeon and uveitis specialist at UC Davis Eye Center.

Russell Rotondo, MD, FACC, medical director of clinical strategy and innovation for cardiology at Cohere Health, discusses the myriad positive ways utilization management programs can have an impact on patient outcomes in cardiovascular care.

This randomized, multicenter study of children and adolescents with new-onset type 1 diabetes (T1D) investigated the effect on glucose control of a closed-loop system, using C-peptide levels to gauge response

The rise of telehealth during COVID-19, its limitations, and its uncertain future.

COVID-19–driven telehealth exposure positively shifted physician respondents’ perceptions of telehealth effectiveness, and most are likely to continue use if temporary telehealth regulatory flexibility is permanently extended.

As a result of the potential of digital therapeutics to increase access to personalized care, many choose less stringent minimal control than typically seen in randomized controlled trials (RCTs).

Hatim Husain, MD, discusses how National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) treatment guidelines adjust to meet the treatment needs of patients with lung cancer.

The trial followed patients with type 1 diabetes (T1D) for 6 months, evaluating outcomes in patients struggling to achieve glucose targets with the conventional treatment.

A significant portion of patients who receive chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy experience immune effector cell–associated neurotoxicity syndrome, and this recent study suggests neurofilament light chain protein levels may hold promise as a biomarker to identify at-risk patients.

A recent review suggests point-of-care ultrasound can help home hospital care providers assess, diagnose, and monitor a range of conditions with relatively little additional training.

Medication-at-home pharmacy is an innovative method of medication management that is vital to the success of the health care system.

Hatim Husain, MD, associate professor in the Department of Medicine at UC San Diego, discuses must-haves for successful biomarker testing in lung cancer—in particular, non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)—and how the field is adapting to the targeted treatment needs of its patients.

Researchers found automated foot strike detection is viable for smartphone-based fall risk classification in patients with lower limb amputations.

Most participants were able to complete the assessments at home, and their scores correlated well with in-clinic assessments.