Oncology Business Management

The readministration of a cytotoxic antineoplastic agent is a well-established management paradigm in a number of malignancies, yet it is generally believed such a strategy may not prove beneficial if the patient experiences disease progression while receiving the therapy.

While the sustainable growth rate (SGR) debate has been put off for 2014, what should physicians be looking to as the transition to ICD-10 has been delayed for the second time in two years?

Amid a growing recognition of the need to improve the process of developing oncology drugs, the novel I-SPY 2 clinical trial in breast cancer has demonstrated the potential to deliver new, effective treatment options more rapidly to patients who would most benefit while dramatically reducing the time and costs currently required to evaluate experimental therapies.

Providers cited issues related to insufficient standards, concerns about how privacy rules can vary among states, difficulties in matching patients to their records, and costs associated with exchange

The Senate is expected to consider and vote on a bill passed by the House on March 27 that includes language to patch the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula for 12 months and delay ICD-10 implementation until at least October 1, 2015

Provider-based research networks (PBRNs) make clinical trials available to community-based practices.

The FDA's Molecular and Clinical Genetics advisory committee has unanimously supported the safety, efficacy, and positive risk-benefit profile of the noninvasive stool-based DNA test Cologuard in a 10-0 vote.

It looks like trouble continues for a bill that would delay payment cuts to physicians who treat Medicare patients for one year

The blood-based colorectal cancer (CRC) screening test Epi proColon passed the scrutiny of the FDA's Molecular and Clinical Genetics advisory panel in a close 5-4 vote with 1 abstention in support of the claim that the test's benefits outweigh its risks

Patients fear being a "guinea pig" or receiving a placebo, healthcare providers do not have time to keep up with all of the clinical trial information or talk with patients in depth, conducting clinical trials is very expensive for healthcare systems, and funding continues to decline for research.

Practice managers who need to understand the ins and outs of Medicare's resource-based relative value scale (RBRVS) can purchase an updated physician guide from the American Medical Association.

A physician's confidence level in his genomic knowledge plays a significant role in attitudes towards genomic tests, especially in tests that look for changes in DNA that are taken from patients' tumor samples

Founded in 1987, Gilead Sciences made a name for itself in 1996, when it launched Vistide, a treatment for cytomegalovirus retinitis in patients with AIDS.

Small practices face all the difficulties of health IT implementation without the benefit of big budgets and numerous staff to diffuse the burdens, according to EHRIntelligence.com.

Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) and mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) can improve sleep for patients with cancer, but CBT-I continues to be the best nonpharmacologic option

William K. Oh, MD, professor of medicine, hematology and medical oncology, urology, The Mount Sinai Hospital, discusses a biomarker development trial in metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC).

Patients were no more likely to switch away from lower-tiered physicians than higher-tiered physicians within their health plan, especially if the physician was considered the patient's personal doctor

During the course of a 74-year life cut short by his sudden death in 2008, Folkman changed the world repeatedly with bold ideas that ranged from implantable pacemakers and subcutaneous birth control to an entirely new field of medical study: how diseases like cancer recruit blood vessels from the body via angiogenesis.