Physician experts from 10 regionally based academic practices in the US formed an expert panel with the purpose of developing a consensus on the appropriateness of medical therapies for grade 1-2 unresectable neuroendocrine tumors of the pancreas (PNETs). The panel was facilitated using the RAND/UCLA modified Delphi process, a systematic method for group decision making. The panel statements agreed with-and increased the detail of-previously published PNET guidelines. The full results of the expert panel were presented at a poster session of the 94th Annual Meeting & Expo of ENDO in Houston, Texas.
Archives for June 2012
Comprehensive Analysis of Acromegaly Presented at ENDO 2012
PHAR investigators along with experts from Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation and Stanford University School of Medicine collaborated to produce comprehensive research on acromegaly, a chronic and debilitating disorder caused by excessive growth hormone secretion. Research topics ranged from the prevalence of acromegaly complications and treatments to healthcare utilization and costs within the United States. The most common complications of acromegaly were musculoskeletal abnormalities, hypopituitarism, sleep apnea, and reproductive system abnormalities. In addition, although acromegaly is rare, annual costs are high with the risk of hospitalization being more than 50% higher in patients with sleep apnea or musculoskeletal complications and nearly three times higher in patients with cardiovascular disease than in patients without complications. Two posters were presented at the 94th Annual Meeting & Expo of ENDO in Houston, Texas, that outline the research findings.
PHAR’s Strong Presence at ISPOR 2012-6 Posters Presented at Annual Meeting
PHAR researchers contributed to 6 posters that were presented at the 17th Annual International Meeting of the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) in Washington, DC. Poster topics ranged from PNETs to healthcare utilization and cost of uncontrolled epilepsy. A synopsis of each poster is listed below:
- An analysis of acromegaly treatment patterns using a novel graphic method revealed patterns of treatment as well as insights about adherence and persistence in the treatment of the disease.
- An evaluation of treatment patterns for several FDA-approved drugs for myelodysplastic syndrome showed that, among other findings, most patients are given supportive care rather than hypomethylating agents for treatment.
- A comparison of annual overall and healthcare-related costs between adult patients with stable and uncontrolled epilepsy found that, regardless of disease stability, both are associated with a significant economic burden and that uncontrolled epilepsy is associated with greater costs.
- A comparison of healthcare utilization between patients with stable and uncontrollable epilepsy found that patients with uncontrollable epilepsy use significantly more healthcare services.
- An expert panel on the appropriateness of medical treatment in patients with unresectable midgut gastrointestinal neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) developed a consensus for scenarios not covered in other guidelines.
- An expert panel facilitated by the RAND/UCLA modified Delphi process produced consensus statements on the appropriateness of medical treatment in unresectable non-midgut NETs.
Better Cancer Screening Does Not Save Money, but Does Provide Good Value
According to the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services, one major goal of health reform is to “lower health care costs through better health care quality.” Improved quality can take many forms-one of them is greater use of simple, low-cost, cancer screening tests, like mammograms. Researchers at PHAR, LLC, the UCLA Center for Surgical Outcomes and Quality, and RAND developed a framework to assess the cost-effectiveness of improving compliance in the US with the Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set, a comprehensive set of quality indicators. The investigators found that improving quality on three cancer screening measures (cervical, breast, and colon) might save lives, but it will not save money. Results were presented at the 2012 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting. View the abstract at the ASCO Annual Meeting website ; the poster is available for download here.