Evidence should not be used to enforce mandates
Evidence-based medicine. It is what we all strive to provide. It means employing the most up-to-date knowledge to the approach of medicine, from preventive care to screening to the diagnostic work-up and treatment. Wherever the data point us, that’s what we should do. Yet putting it into practice can sometimes be the most challenging part of being a doctor.
I was reminded of just how difficult it is when my patient, Jody (identifying information changed), had a recurrence. She had been diagnosed with a rare type of ovarian cancer 2 years earlier. At surgery, it was confined to the pelvis without evidence of abdominal spr...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - October 5, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/don-s-dizon" rel="tag" > Don S. Dizon, MD < /a > Tags: Physician Cancer Source Type: blogs
Robert Herjavec on Improving Cancer Care, Healthcare IT Security, Innovation, and Investment
Last weekend we attended the Stanford Medicine X conference that brought together a variety of people involved in every aspect of health care. Even a few investors were present, but none more famous than Robert Herjavec. He’s the “nice guy” on Shark Tank, the TV show where entrepreneurs pitch their businesses to wealthy investors. His fortune comes from building Herjavec Group, Canada’s largest cybersecurity provider. He was invited to help judge the finals of the Astellas Oncology C3 Prize, a contest designed to help foster technologies that can improve cancer care. We were offered an opportunit...
Source: Medgadget - September 23, 2016 Category: Medical Equipment Authors: Editors Tags: Exclusive Source Type: blogs
Number One Palliative-Themed Movie? Wit
by Amy Clarkson(Margaret Edson,author of Wit, will be speaking at the 2016 Palliative Care in Oncology Symposium, so we are sharingthis review from our Arts and Humanities site, originally published in 2009. - Ed.)There are many movies out there with palliative themes, as we can attest to withour top 10 movie post, which garnered much comments. One of my all time favorites, also made number 1 on our top 10 palliative-themed movies list; Wit.I first saw this movie in medical school. In fact,according to the IMDb, this movie is known for being shown at medical schools as an example of how not to practice medicine. Also,...
Source: Pallimed: A Hospice and Palliative Medicine Blog - September 8, 2016 Category: Palliative Care Tags: cancer film media play review Source Type: blogs
Consider screening for BRCA more regularly
When I talk to my patients, one of the greatest concerns I hear is regarding the fear that they might get a cancer at some point in their life. It is a very reasonable fear, as cancers of the female reproductive tract and breasts are not as rare as we might like. Perhaps educated by Angelina Jolie’s announcement of her BRCA mutation in 2013, many women now ask me about BRCA testing. In the past, I referred to genetic counseling for this, but more recently I have become more educated on exactly who qualifies for testing, and send quite a few BRCA tests out of my office myself.
Across the board, somewhere between 1 in 8 an...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - September 7, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/nicholas-fogelson" rel="tag" > Nicholas Fogelson, MD < /a > Tags: Conditions OB/GYN Source Type: blogs
Everyone Ride/Run Against Cancer Everyday (ERRACE) Spotlight
TheERRACE (Everyone Eide/Run Against Cancer Everyday) organization was founded by a group of professionals to spread awareness about cancer. They hold an annual riding/running event where they raise funds for cancer research, and inspire the community to lead healthier and more active lives. The ERRACE event for 2016 was held this past July and if you want to check out some of the photos from it,click here. They were able to surpass their donations goal of $100,000 and raised $127,579 total to be donated to the Helen& Harry Gray Cancer Center and LIVESTRONG. We talked to Andy Caputo, one of the founders of ERRACE, ...
Source: LIVESTRONG Blog - August 31, 2016 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: LIVESTRONG Staff Source Type: blogs
Narrative Matters: On Our Reading List
Editor’s note: “Narrative Matters: On Our Reading List” is a monthly roundup where we share some of the most compelling health care narratives driving the news and conversation in recent weeks.
In this month’s Narrative Matters essay, former Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Louis Sullivan writes about growing up in rural Georgia and entering medical school as the only black student in his class. Sullivan graduated from Boston University School of Medicine in 1958 with only $500 in debt — hard to fathom when, today, med students might finish school owing some $150,000 to $250,000. Sulli...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - August 12, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: Jessica Bylander Tags: Elsewhere@ Health Affairs Featured Narrative Matters On Our Reading List opioids Veterans Source Type: blogs
How Precision Medicine Can Save More Lives and Waste Less Money (Part 1 of 2)
We all have by now seen the hype around the Obama Administration’s high-profile Precision Medicine Initiative and the related Cancer Moonshot, both of which plan to cull behavioral and genomic data on huge numbers of people in a secure manner for health research. Major companies have rushed to take advantage of the funds and spotlight what these initiatives offer. I think they’re a good idea so long as they focus on behavioral and environmental factors. (Scandalously, the Moonshot avoids environmental factors, which are probably the strongest contributors to cancer) . What I see is an unadvised over-emphasis on...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - August 9, 2016 Category: Information Technology Authors: Andy Oram Tags: Genomic Health Record Healthcare Analytics Healthcare Reform Personalized Medicine Precision Medicine Behavioral Health Cancer Moonshot Environmental Factors Genetics Genomic Testing Genomics Source Type: blogs
Genetic Testing
So if you have a family history of breast or ovarian cancer, there is a strong chance you have one of the two BRCA genes. And now if you have BRCA1, there is a significantly increased risk of uterine cancer - 22 times higher in a recent small study.I read that and said 'wow!'. I am somewhat surprised this was never figured out before.Earlier this week I was talking with a friend and she was tested for BRCA back in the early 2000's when the testing was just starting. She told me that the testing is now done differently as technology has changed. And the test now includes several other genes including ones for colon cancer. ...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - July 2, 2016 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: coping genetic testing Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, June 27th 2016
In conclusion, we showed for the first time that 7-KC induces oxidative stress via lysosomal dysfunction, resulting in exacerbation of calcification.
CHIMERIC ANTIGEN RECEPTOR CANCER THERAPIES CAN NOW TARGET SOLID TUMORS
https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2016/06/chimeric-antigen-receptor-cancer-therapies-can-now-target-solid-tumors/
If the research community is to win in the fight to cure cancer, and win soon enough to matter for all of us, then the focus must be on technology platforms that can be easily and cheaply adapted to many different types of cancer. The biggest strategic problem in the field is t...
Source: Fight Aging! - June 26, 2016 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Chimeric Antigen Receptor Cancer Therapies Can Now Target Solid Tumors
If the research community is to win in the fight to cure cancer, and win soon enough to matter for all of us, then the focus must be on technology platforms that can be easily and cheaply adapted to many different types of cancer. The biggest strategic problem in the field is that most of the expensive, time-consuming efforts to develop new therapies are only applicable to one or a few of the hundreds of types of cancer. Immunotherapies based on the use of chimeric antigen receptors are an incremental step towards solving this problem, an improvement on the present situation because this technology may cut the cost of tail...
Source: Fight Aging! - June 22, 2016 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
We need to stop sugarcoating our cancer prognoses
Mrs. Liu, who was only 58 years old, had metastatic ovarian cancer. Despite radical surgery and chemotherapy, her disease persisted. Worse yet, her PET scan from a few months ago revealed that she had carcinomatosis — numerous deposits of cancer showered throughout her abdomen. This particular night, she starting having more nausea and couldn’t eat or drink anything without vomiting. So, she came to the ED. I was called into consult, and after talking with her, I laid hands on her abdomen: it was firm, unmistakably full of tumor. The subsequent CT scan confirmed that she had a malignant bowel obstruction. And now ...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - June 21, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: James Wu, MD Tags: Physician Emergency Surgery Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, June 20th 2016
We examined the engraftment and differentiation of alkaline phosphatase-positive NSCs expanded from the postnatal subventricular zone (SVZ), 3 months after grafting into the intact young or aged rat hippocampus. Graft-derived cells engrafted robustly into both young and aged hippocampi. Although most graft-derived cells pervasively migrated into different hippocampal layers, the graft cores endured and contained graft-derived neurons.
The results demonstrate that advanced age of the host at the time of grafting has no major adverse effects on engraftment, migration, and differentiation of grafted subventricular zone...
Source: Fight Aging! - June 19, 2016 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Support New York State’s Oncofertility Legislation
As I have discussed in previous blogs, fertility preservation for cancer patients is very expensive and it is rarely covered by insurance. Cost is the primary barrier for why cancer patients do not preserve their fertility before undergoing lifesaving, yet potentially sterilizing, treatments. One cycle of IVF is on average $12,400 and estimates for ovarian tissue cryopreservation range from $5,000-$30,000. Furthermore, annual storage fees for frozen gametes and embryos can run up to hundreds of dollars a year. For many, especially while in the midst of a life-threatening health emergency, these costs are prohibitive, and f...
Source: blog.bioethics.net - May 27, 2016 Category: Medical Ethics Authors: Bioethics Today Tags: Health Care Reproductive Medicine assisted reproduction cost oncology Patient Advocacy Reimbursement syndicated Source Type: blogs
A story that showed me how cancer is a social disease
Young women get gynecologic cancers, and I have had my share of conversations about ovarian cancers with women in their 20s and 30s. It rarely happens, but when it does, it is devastating. I make it a point to talk with them about their present and their future; although it is something I try to do with all of my patients regardless of age, it is somewhat more important that I do it when my patients are young. Yet, even with all of my experience gained through years of practice, I was not prepared for Lyn*.
I had read her chart before we met. I knew she was only 16, diagnosed with a rare ovarian germ cell tumor. She had ha...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - May 23, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Don S. Dizon, MD Tags: Conditions Cancer Source Type: blogs
HHS Issues Health Equity Final Rule
On May 13, the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a final rule implementing section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act. The rule finalizes a proposed version issued in September of 2015, analyzed in this blog at that time. The final rule was accompanied by a press release, summary, and series of fact sheets.
Section 1557 of the ACA provides that an individual shall not, on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age, or disability, be
excluded from participation in,
denied the benefits of, or
subjected to discrimination under
any health program or activity of whi...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - May 14, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: Timothy Jost Tags: Equity and Disparities Featured Following the ACA Insurance and Coverage Medicaid and CHIP Medicare age discrimination disability discrimination health equity national origin discrimination racial discrimination sex discrimination Source Type: blogs
