Guest Opinion: The lone private holdout, Regence continues to exclude or limit coverage for key autism therapies. Next month, the state Supreme Court will decide whether to make them. Will the state Supreme Court force Regence to cover autism treatments? Credit: http://www.classactionsnews.com Regence BlueShield is now the lone remaining major health insurer in Washington State that refuses to reimburse parents for treatment prescribed to their autistic children. On June 12, Regence will defend its position before the Washington Supreme Court in O.S.T. v. Regence BlueShield. That's when the Supreme Court will consider whether to affirm a lower courts ruling that ordered Regence to cover speech, occupational and physical therapy treatments for autism. Today we all have friends who have been touched by autism. In the past 10 years, diagnoses of childhood autism have skyrocketed. Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is now more common than childhood cancer, juvenile diabetes and pediatric AIDS combined. In 2013, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated the prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorder was one in 50 for children aged 6-17. That represents a 72 percent increase since 2007. Scientific research shows that early intervention and treatment of children with autism is highly effective. The … Continue reading →

CLEVELAND (AP) - The Cleveland Clinic is trying a new approach to reducing the crucial minutes that pass between when a person has a stroke and when treatment begins. This summer, the medical center will launch a mobile stroke unit, a $1 million, high-tech vehicle that will respond to 911 calls about suspected strokes. The unit will be equipped with the technology used to diagnose strokes and the drugs that treat the vast majority of the condition. Were essentially bringing the emergency room to the patient, Dr. Peter Rasmussen, director of the clinics Cerebrovascular Center, told The Plain Dealer, (http://bit.ly/1kwNleg). Most of the 795,000 strokes in the U.S. every year are ischemic, or, caused by a clot that blocks blood flow, starving brain cells. The drug TPA can dissolve those clots and reduce disability but only if its received within three to four hours of the first symptoms, and the sooner the better. Yet only about 5 percent of patients receive it, in part because many stroke sufferers dont get to the hospital in time for testing to tell if theyre a candidate. Rasmussen said the clinic has been working for years to cut down the time it takes to … Continue reading →

WAYNESBORO >> Waynesboro Hospital was awarded the Get With the Guidelines Stroke Silver Quality Achievement Award by the American Heart/American Stroke Association for the treatment of stroke patients. Having previous received the Bronze Award, Waynesboro Hospital received the Silver Award after meeting specific quality achievement measures and sustaining them for more than a year. "This is a time for your community to celebrate the kind of care you're providing them," said Steve Dentel, senior director of quality improvement initiatives for the American Heart/American Stroke Association, who presented the award. "Yes, it's about numbers, but it's mostly about patients actually being able to walk back into the hospital instead of having a disability." Get With the Guidelines Stroke program helps hospital teams provide the most up-to-date, research-based guidelines with the goal of speeding recovery and reducing death and disability for stroke patients. "We are dedicated to always improving the quality of stroke care provided at the hospital," said Melissa Dubrow, chief operating officer at Waynesboro Hospital. "This award demonstrates our commitment to provide patients with care based on the American Heart/American Stroke Association's guidelines." According to the America Heart/American Stroke Association, stroke is the number four cause of death and a … Continue reading →

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 1-Jun-2014 Contact: Glenna Picton picton@bcm.edu 713-798-4710 Baylor College of Medicine HOUSTON (June 1, 2014) Baylor College of Medicine scientists defined a previously unrecognized genetic cause for two types of birth defects found in newborn boys, described in a report published today in the journal Nature Medicine. "Cryptorchidism and hypospadias are among the most common birth defects but the causes are usually unknown," said Dr. Dolores Lamb, director of the Center for Reproductive Medicine at Baylor, professor and vice chair for research of urology and molecular and cellular biology at Baylor and lead author of the report. Cryptorchidism is characterized by the failure of descent of one or both testes into the scrotum during fetal development. In the adult man, the testes produce sperm and the male hormone, testosterone. Hypospadias is the abnormal placement of the opening of the urethra on the penis. Both birth defects are usually surgically repaired during infancy. Cryptorchidism occurs in about 3 percent of full term male births. Similarly, the incidence of hypospadias is about 1 in 125 births. Lamb and colleagues used a method of genome wide screening (essentially a molecular karyotype) called array comparative genomic hybridization to study children with these … Continue reading →

When the Food and Drug Administration recently a promising new lung cancer drug named Zykadia four months ahead of schedule, it heralded the medication as a breakthrough therapy. The drug isnt meant for everyone with the devastating disease, which kills an estimated 160,000 Americans each year. Or even for the majority of patients with its most common form, non-small-cell lung cancer. Rather, Zykadia is designed for a sliver of patients about 5percent who have advanced non-small-cell lung cancer and have a specific gene mutation that causes tumors to become resistant to existing treatment. For them, and only them, the drug has the proven potential to shrink tumors and extend lives. The FDAs speedy approval of Zykadia offered the latest evidence that the age of personalized medicine, while long predicted, is increasingly becoming reality. For reasons scientific and economic, one-size-fits-all blockbuster drugs are giving way to treatments tailored to individuals genetic makeups and aimed at narrow subsets of broader diseases. Its a new world, said Wendy Selig, president of the Melanoma Research Alliance, the largest private funder of research on the disease, which this year is expected to kill nearly 10,000 Americans. Were segmenting what we thought of as large diseases … Continue reading →

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 1-Jun-2014 Contact: Sarah Avery sarah.avery@duke.edu 919-660-1306 Duke University Medical Center DURHAM, N.C. A collaborative effort between Duke Medicine researchers and neurosurgeons and scientists in China has produced new genetic insights into a rare and deadly form of childhood and young adult brain cancer called brainstem glioma. The researchers identified a genetic mutation in the tumor cells that plays a role in both the growth and the death of a cell. Additionally, the mutation to the newly identified gene may also contribute to the tumor's resistance to radiation. The findings, published online in the journal Nature Genetics on June 1, 2014, provide both immediate and long-term benefits. Knowing that this mutation may render radiation ineffective, patients could be spared that therapy. The mutation would also serve as a strong candidate for drug development. The researchers conducted genetic tests and found that many of the tumor cells had a mutation in a gene called PPM1D, which causes cells to proliferate and avoid natural death. It is the first time this mutation has been found to be a major driving force in the development of brainstem gliomas; it is not evident in other brain tumors. If tumors have this PPM1D … Continue reading →