Value Peer-spectives

The completion of the Breast Cancer Treatment Plan and Summary Standard and Implementation Guide, the first phase in a set of interoperability standards, was announced at the 2013 annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).

Hospital readmissions for chronic diseases, including cancer, are associated with a significant and often preventable financial burden in the United States.

Just this month, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) published a report titled “Delivering High-Quality Can­cer Care: Charting a New Course for a System in Crisis.”¹ This consensus report convened a committee of experts to examine the quality of cancer care in the United States and formulate recommendations for its improvement.

The past several years have seen significant consolidation in the healthcare industry. The cost of healthcare in the United States is currently estimated to be 18% of the gross domestic product (GDP), and the costs are projected to increase disproportionately to the GDP during the next decade.

A new study led by researchers at the National Institutes of Health shows that a set of proteins in the body produces a large number of mutations in human DNA, indicating that these naturally produced mutations are just as powerful as cancer-causing agents in producing tumors.

Many presentations at the 2013 annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) focused on new research involving immunotherapy, including drugs for melanoma and lung cancer that have shown great success in prolonging life in patients with advanced disease.

Quality measures and patient satisfaction are increasingly being tied to a proportion of physicians’ reimbursement, according to a new report from the Medical Group Management Association-American College of Medical Practice Executives (MGMA-ACMPE), “Physician Compensation and Production Survey: 2013 Report Based on 2012 Data.”

The new US Senate bill for the Veterans Affairs (VA) system provides $3.7 billion for the VA System information technology, which includes $251.9 million for an integrated electronic health record system and $119.4 million for the Veterans Benefits Management System claims systems.

>A new study supported by the National Institutes of Health Pharmacogenomics Research Network represents a step forward toward personalized medicine in breast cancer prevention among women who are at high risk for the disease.

A novel study offers a new explanation for the geographical differences seen in Medicare costs across the nation.