An update to the 12-year-old JNC 7 recommendations for hypertension management is underway and expected out in 2016, the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology announced.
The oncology "community" is apparently jumping at the chance to show support for documentary filmmaker Ken Burns' latest PBS project -- a 6-hour film examining the history of cancer.
From time to time, Dr. Michael L. Goldfein, a pediatrician on Martha's Vineyard, faces this predicament: a parent who does not want a child vaccinated. In the eyes of Goldfein and other pediatricians, immunizations represent one of medicine's greatest triumphs. But for as many as 5 percent of parents who come to his practice, these life-saving injections are seen as risky and potentially harmful. "It's a real challenge and it's quite frustrating because these people really don't listen to the facts," said Goldfein, who has practiced on Martha's Vineyard since 1977. "They feel that they have the right to decide whether or not their children can get vaccinated in spite of all the evidence."
Doctors are much more capable of successfully treating many deadly diseases when they're detected early on, which is why routine preventive screening tests are critical. And certain tests are especially important for women. Mammograms, pap smears and colonoscopies have the potential to save millions of lives. But many women still don't know when they're supposed to start getting them or how often the tests are really needed. A colonoscopy picked up Cynthia Trogisch's stage three colon cancer. The 61-year-old teacher had never been screened before.
The U.S. government on Thursday announced a cancer care initiative for Medicare beneficiaries that will link payments to oncology practices to quality of care and patient outcomes as a means of improving treatments and cutting costs. The initiative by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) as part of the Affordable Care Act, often referred to as Obamacare, comes as expensive new cancer treatments put an increasing strain on state and federal healthcare budgets. "We aim to provide Medicare beneficiaries struggling with cancer with high-quality care around the clock and to reward doctors for the value, not volume, of care they provide," Dr. Patrick Conway, the chief medical officer for CMS, said in a statement.
Doctors and academics who advise the U.S. on vaccines are considering recommending physicians be compensated for counseling people on the importance of getting shots for their children, even if the parents ultimately choose not to vaccinate. Draft recommendations presented Wednesday at a meeting of the National Vaccine Advisory Committee in Washington would also suggest establishing a minimum coverage goal for doctors, encouraging them to get more patients inoculated. The proposals, if adopted, could help doctors and public-health officials bridge a divide with parents who are worried that it's unsafe for their children to follow government guidelines for vaccines.