The Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy awarded its Silver Medal to a study conducted by PHAR and researchers from Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation. This retrospective claims analysis found that the per patient healthcare cost of Cushing’s disease care was more than double the cost for diabetes care and quadruple the cost for population-based controls. The study was presented at the AMCP Nexus Conference in Boston, MA. The poster can be viewed here.
Archives for 2014
bioTheranostics’ CancerTYPE ID® Molecular Test Is a Cost-Effective Approach to Standardizing Diagnosis & Improving Metastatic Cancer Care
A study completed by PHAR and researchers at bioTheranostics Inc found that use of bioTheranostics’ CancerTYPE ID® molecular test is a cost-effective approach to standardizing diagnostic methods for patients with metastatic tumors of uncertain origin while improving patient care. The study was the first of its kind to examine the implications of molecular classification in standardizing the diagnostic process for metastatic cancer. It was designed to estimate the clinical and economic tradeoffs of using CancerTYPE ID to aid in identifying the primary site of difficult-to-diagnose metastatic cancers and to explore whether the gene assay could be used to standardize the diagnostic process and costs for clinicians, payers, and patients. It was recently published in the Journal of Medical Economics and can be read here. The full press release can be accessed here.
PHAR Announces Results from Prospective Study of the Impact of Genomic Testing in Early Breast Cancer at ASCO 2014
PHAR announced that results from the first study to assess the clinical utility of the DCIS Score Assay in management of DCIS will be presented at American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting. Clinicians and breast cancer patients must decide among multiple treatment options including breast conserving surgery, mastectomy, partial or whole breast radiation, and hormonal manipulation. Treatment recommendations are usually made using clinicopathologic factors to estimate average local recurrence risk for similar patients. The validated Oncotype® DX 12-gene assay for DCIS gives additional, independent, individual estimates of 10-year risk In association with 10 cancer centers throughout the United States, PHAR conducted a prospective observation study on the impact of the DCIS Score result on radiation treatment recommendations for patients with DCIS. The study results will be presented at ASCO’s 50th Annual Meeting in Chicago, IL, and can be viewed here.
PHAR Study on Asthma-Related Outcomes Receives Silver Medal at AMCP Annual Meeting
PHAR partnered with researchers at Genentech Inc. to study the relationship between the Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) and Asthma-Related Outcomes. Patients with low asthma medication ratio (AMR< 0.5) had worse asthma control by multiple measures including hospitalization/ED visits, OCS use, and SABA use. The number of asthma-related office visits was also slightly higher for low AMR patients. The findings support the use of AMR as a quality of care measurement for patients with persistent asthma. The Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy awarded this study a silver medal at their annual meeting. The poster presented at the AMCP Annual Meeting can be viewed here.
Robotic vs Conventional Thyroidectomy Approaches for Thyroid Disease
Dr. Gordon Sun of PHAR, along with researchers from the University of Michigan and VA Center for Clinical Management Research compared postoperative technical, quality-of-life, and cost outcomes following either robotic or open thyroidectomy for thyroid nodules and cancer. They examined relevant controlled trials, comparative effectiveness studies, and cohort studies for eligible publications to calculate the pooled relative risk for key postoperative complications, mean differences for operative time, and standardized mean differences for length of stay using random effects models. They found that the robotic approaches may introduce the risk of new complications and require longer operative times. The study can be read here.