The American journal of managed care
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Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the fastest rising cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States, increasing by 2% to 3% annually, with a dismal 5-year survival rate of 18%. The Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer criteria used to guide treatment considers performance status and assessment of liver function by Child-Pugh score in addition to tumor size and location. Curative therapies for HCC include surgical resection, liver transplantation, and tumor ablation. ⋯ Patients with advanced HCC are at a high risk of adverse effects because of baseline hepatic dysfunction, comorbidities associated with chronic liver disease, and potential drug-drug interactions. Improved tolerance of therapies for advanced HCC may lead to reduction in treatment discontinuation and contribute to better patient outcomes. Managed care pharmacists should understand the recent efficacy and safety data, guideline recommendations, and treatment algorithms for management of HCC.
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Despite chronic cough being one of the most frequent reasons for both primary care and specialty physician visits, its diagnosis and treatment remain challenging. The most common causes are upper airway cough syndrome, asthma, and gastroesophageal reflux disease; however, new research has implicated a cough hypersensitivity syndrome that may link many underlying etiologies. To accurately diagnose and treat patients with chronic cough, a thorough understanding of the various definitions, epidemiology, and pathophysiology is crucial. This article reviews these factors as well as the healthcare and socioeconomic burden of chronic cough.
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Surgical patients often leave the hospital with many questions and concerns after their surgery and will contact their providers to get answers. The growth of patient-provider communication (PPC) technologies allows for many new opportunities to study postoperative patient-initiated communication. We aimed to characterize a growing body of literature on postoperative patient-initiated communication. ⋯ As health systems adopt new technologies for PPC, understanding how and why patients initiate contact with providers postoperatively can inform efforts to strengthen PPC broadly. Moreover, research on sociodemographic variation in communication patterns after surgery can help address communication gaps that patient groups may experience. Future research can build upon this work to improve patient outcomes and increase clinic efficiency.
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Cardiovascular disease (CVD) continues to disproportionately affect disadvantaged populations, leading to calls to address social determinants of health (SDOH) as a preventive strategy. Our aim is to create a weighed SDOH score and to test the impact of each SDOH factor on the Framingham risk score (FRS) and on individual traditional CVD risk factors. ⋯ The addition of self-reported SDOH data has a dose effect on CVD risk factors. Future studies should address how to intervene to address social factors.
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To evaluate the association between regional market factors and experience with patient-provider communication in primary care services of safety net hospitals. ⋯ Findings from this study raise concerns that safety net hospitals could be unfairly penalized by value-based payment programs and Medicare Hospital Compare. Such policies and programs could improve resource allocation by accounting for regional market factors before acting on quality of care measures.