Peter Wehrwein, Managing Editor

The proportion of cancer patients who are 50-64 is increasing while the proportion of those 65 and older is shrinking, according to American Cancer Society researchers.

Overall cancer mortality in the U.S. continues to decline but there are some worrying trends in incidence and wide racial disparities.

States can use federal money that would otherwise support ACA marketplace premium tax credits to set up programs that offer health insurance to low-income people whose incomes are too high to make them eligible for Medicaid.

Acceptance is greater in oncology than in other specialties.

Total healthcare spending grew by 4.1% in 2022 and healthcare spending accounted for 17.3% of GDP, which is in the range of the spending numbers prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services actuarties. The proportion of Americans with health insurance reached 92% in 2022, an all-time high.

A preparation designed to restore the gut microbiota showed positive results on 14 long COVID symptoms according to results reported in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.

A California retinal specialist argues in a JAMA Ophthalmology viewpoint article that an independent panel of retinal specialists and statisticians should assess the data from clinical trials of Syfovre (pegcetacoplan) because of the lack of a complete FDA scientific analysis of the drug and of peer-reviewed publication.

Angela Branche, M.D., an infectious disease specialist at the University of Rochester School of Medicine, says the gaps are in a precise understanding of who is at risk for serious illness from respiratory syncytial virus and therefore who should get vaccinated.

New infections are decreasing, but U.S. statistics reveal some significant disparities.

U.S. and United Nations health officials have set ambitious 2030 goals for ending HIV and AIDS. It looks like those efforts will fall short unless there is a burst of progress in the next few years.

Paying in installments with adjustments according to how well a gene therapy works is one way payers are coping with therapies with list prices in millions of dollars.

By identifying patients with glaucoma who are socially vulnerable, clinicians might intervene sooner and prevent the worsening of visual impairment, he said.

The corresponding author of a study published in Health Affairs of the research supporting 20 FDA-authorized prescription digital therapeutics (PDTs) sees some positives but also an overall lack of rigor and the need for at least one high-quality clinical trial for each PDT.

Prescription digital therapeutics (PDTs) have great potential for treating a wide range of conditions, so studying the quality of the evidence supporting their efficacy and safety is important, says the corresponding author of a study on PDTS published in this month's Health Affairs.

There were some positive findings. But of the 20 FDA-authorized prescription digital therapeutics (PDTs) identified by researchers, only two met all the criteria for high-quality research. The results were published in Health Affairs.

Ejection fraction is a key factor in how clinicians diagnose, classify and treat heart failure. But you might not know it if you depended solely on ICD-10 codes.

Researchers reported positive results at the AHA meeting today from a small, 48-patient study of lepodisiran, a short interfering RNA therapy designed to reduce lipoprotein(a) levels.

Ten patients have been treated with the CRISPR-based gene therapy, the drug developer's chief scientific officer announced today, and high doses have had the intended effect of lowering LDL cholesterol. One study volunteer died five weeks after the infusion from cardiac arrest, but the company says the death was unrelated to the therapy and no changes were made to the study.

A study that randomized villages in China to an intensive blood pressure-lowering program or usual care showed a 15% decrease in all-cause dementia from the program.

Positive findings from their placebo-controlled trial show that angioplasty is an evidence-based, first-line treatment for patients with stable angina and that they needn't necessarily be treated first with antianginal medications, say the ORBITA-2 investigators.

Results from the SELECT trial presented at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions meeting suggest that the GLP-1 inhibitor may have a role in cardiovascular disease protection beyond weight loss and diabetes.

Otsuka American Pharmaceutical is tracking payer practices and attitudes about digital therapeutics with a series of four surveys.

One patient had complications that resulted in no light perception — effectively, blindness — in the the treated eye.

Approximately one-third of the patients assigned to 16-week intervals of 8-mg formulation of Eylea changed to a 24-week interval during the second year of. the study, according results presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology. The PHOTON study enrolled people with diabetic macular edema.

Albert S. Khouri, M.D., a professor of ophthalmology at the Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, discusses teleophthalmology’s role in outreach efforts and improving ophthalmic care in the emergency room.

Albert S. Khouri, M.D., says ophthalmic care lends itself to telehealth because it is image based. As with many other areas of medicine, the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated adoption.

Delivering medication in the suprachoroidal space would be less invasive than intravitreal injections used to deliver many eye treatments.

Private equity (PE) can bring capital investment to retina specialty practices and significantly increase the incomes of the physicians, said a proponent during a debate on private equity at the AAO meeting. The retina specialist arguing against PE said physicians lose control of their practices and the loyalty of their staff and that profits get prioritized over patients.

Suber S. Huang, M.D., MBA, a panelist for a session about late-breaking research, said the presentation about Syfovre complications among patients treated at the Wolfe Eye Clinic in Iowa is one of the most important of this year's annual meeting. Five patients experienced complications from the new drug for geographic atrophy.

Results at 96 weeks were similar to those at 48 weeks. The FDA approved the 8-mg formulation of Eylea (aflibercept) in August 2023.