Accountable care organizations (ACOs), a byproduct of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), were designed and deployed to better coordinate and manage the delivery of care and reduce healthcare costs to the system. Theoretically ACOs are built to manage patients on the care continuum to ensure that care is coordinated to deliver quality outcomes and better, lower-cost care. Continue reading →

A multidisciplinary clinical and social intervention program aimed at patients deemedto be "superutilizers" of the healthcare system failed to make a difference in 180-day readmission rates in a randomized, controlled trial. The study casts some doubt on whether such "hotspotting" might have promise as a way to reduce burgeoning US healthcare costs, as has been hoped. The term refers to a process of predicting, identifying, and addressing the needs of superutilizers to improve their health outcomes and lessen their use of healthcare resources. Continue reading →

Clinicians have teamed with industry on a best-practices document for wearable biometric-monitoring devices to help prepare the public for what is looking to be a revolution in its relationships with both technology and healthcare professionals. Continue reading →

Promising results were observed in a small, prospective study published in JAMA, in which patients with chemotherapy-induced cardiomyopathy (CHIC) were treated with cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT).1 Certain cytotoxic agents, especially anthracyclines, as well as other anticancer treatments such as some monoclonal antibodies and tyrosine kinase inhibitors, are associated with an increased risk of cardiomyopathy. Termed CHIC, this progressive condition is believed to be due to drug-related myocyte death, resulting in ventricular remodeling, and ultimately leading to heart failure Continue reading →