Patients with irritable bowel disease (IBD) who experience symptoms of anxiety or depression are at an increased risk of poorer disease outcomes including resistance to steroid therapy.1 According to new research from a team of China-based investigators, anxiety and/or depression symptoms were significantly associated with worsened outcomes in IBD management. The findings call for expanded research into the correlation between psychiatric wellness and systemic improvement in IBD care.
Author: Abhay Panchal
Private equity investment in the healthcare sector is booming, and Democratic lawmakers are concerned, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. Private equity firms have been responsible for 56 percent of physician practice acquisitions since 2019, according to an American Hospital Association report, and PE firms are among the fastest-growing acquirers of healthcare groups. Bain & Co. reported private equity firms own at least 130 rural-serving hospitals. When private equity firms invest in hospitals and physician practices, there are higher costs, according to research done by the University of Chicago and published in BMJ. The researchers examined 55…
Despite advances in treatment, a large proportion of patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) do not achieve or stay in remission even after further lines of treatment have been given. Up until now, one major obstacle has impeded our interpretation of studies focusing on patients suffering from this chronic condition: the lack of standard criteria and terminology among authors. Under the guidance of the endpoints cluster of the International Organization for the Study of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IOIBD), a group of experts held a consensus meeting to propose a common operative definition for “difficult-to-treat IBD.” It’s the first step to…
Abstract: Clinical trials have led to major advances in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) care over the last few decades, yet in that time most clinical trial protocols in IBD have remained markedly the same. Many IBD protocols often still require face-to-face visits and monitoring, hospital-based medication administration, paper-based forms and questionnaires, and short follow-up periods resulting in limited long-term data. These factors have recently been recognized as likely contributors to the low recruitment and lack of diversity of participants across clinical trials in IBD. However, with increasing technological advances, there is now an opportunity for improvement. This article assesses a…
The AGA applauded the reintroduction of the Treat and Reduce Obesity Act into the 118th Congress as this bill would expand Medicare coverage for screening and treatment of obesity by health care providers specializing in obesity care. The Treat and Reduce Obesity Act of 2023 (TROA; H.R. 4818/S. 2407), a bipartisan and bicameral bill seeks coverage under Medicare Part D for FDA-approved medications to treat obesity.
Psychological therapies may lead to short-term benefits in quality of life for patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), but the same cannot be said for disease activity, results from a systematic review and meta-analysis suggested. Looking at data from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published from 2016 to 2023, psychological therapy led to improvements in quality-of-life scores versus control treatment among patients with active IBD in four RCTs at therapy completion (standardized mean difference [SMD] 0.68, 95% CI 0.09-1.26), though no benefit was noted for anxiety scores in two RCTs (SMD -1.04, 95% CI -2.46 to 0.39).
CHICAGO—The total costs for a single endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography procedure at a large-scale endoscopy center are essentially half of those at smaller centers, and a 0.2% increase in infection rate added nearly $100 per ERCP, regardless of location, according to a new study. The researchers analyzed capital costs, fixed equipment costs and varying infection rates associated with reusable duodenoscopes during ERCPs. The infection rate across the published studies in the analysis averaged 0.9%. In a simulation of different infection rates, they found that a drop in infections of 0.2% decreased costs by the same amount—$97.19 per procedure—regardless of the volume…
Although the number of women in healthcare has continued to rise over the past few decades, procedural-predominant specialties still lag in terms of representation. This trend is evident in gastroenterology with less than 20% of practicing gastroenterologists in the U.S. being female.1 As such, representation in positions of leadership in the specialty remains rare. When Michelle Kang Kim, MD, PhD, was named Chair, Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition at Cleveland Clinic last year, she became one of just a handful of gastrointestinal chairs in the county.
Dr. K continues his interviews at Digestive Disease Week. This time he’s hearing from the voices of the practices. To stream our Station live 24/7 visit www.HealthcareNOWRadio.com or ask your Smart Device to “….Play Healthcare NOW Radio”.
It started with a conversation over dinner, three doctors mulling over a perplexing question: why is the U.S. healthcare system run by politicians instead of people with clinical expertise? Unlike in law and financial services, there is no independent board – no high court or central bank – that provides oversight of the complex U.S. healthcare industry. Instead, healthcare policy is set at the Cabinet level, under the Department of Health and Human Services. And consider this: Only four physicians have ever been named to head HHS (and not a single nurse or other healthcare professional.