Managed Care Calendar
- ACC 59th Annual Scientific Session
- AMCP's 22nd Annual Meeting & Showcase
Poll
MCCFR Product Bulletins
Powerful BPH symptom relief regardless of age or prostate size
Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is one of the most
common health conditions among older men. According to
the National Institutes of Health, BPH affects more than
50%ofmen over age 60 and asmany as 90%ofmen over age 70.1
BPH is not a life-threatening condition, so treatment often
focuses on controlling symptoms. Symptoms can be either
irritative (eg, frequency, nocturia) or obstructive (eg, weak
stream, straining).
Symptom severity is subjective, being based on the
patient’s reported experience. However, the International
Prostate Symptom Score* (IPSS) can be a useful evaluative
Trends in Medicare and Medicaid Managed Care: Implications for the Future
Medicare and Medicaid benchmarking data, when compared
between years, help medical directors, pharmacists,
and other practitioners foresee changes in these
programs. Tracking patterns of utilization, cost, and strategy is
especially significant now, with health care reform at the center
of political debate and with many Americans facing unemployment
and economic uncertainty.
As this document goes to press, the sanofi-aventis Public Payer
Digest is in production; it will be released in November. The
Public Payer Digest combines data that appeared in two predecessors
in the Managed Car
Product Bulletin - Axona
Hypometabolism is an ab normal
decrease in metabolic rate, in the
case of Alzheimer’s disease, a
decrease in glucose metabolism. The
human brain is considered to be one of
the most metabolically active organs in
the body, and under normal circumstances,
the brain relies on glucose
almost exclusively as its primary energy
source. An average person’s brain will
metabolize approximately 110 to 145
g/day of glucose.1
This dependence on glucose to
maintain proper function places the
brain at risk for declines in cognitive
function when the supply of glucose
is compromised or if
FINDING EFFECTIVE STRATEGIES TO MANAGE THE HIGH CLINICAL AND ECONOMIC BURDEN OF OPIOID DEPENDENCE
Orlando—During a satellite symposium
at the AMCP meeting, several
thought leaders took the podium to address
the current trends in combating
opioid dependence.
Saira A. Jan, MS, PharmD, director of
clinical pharmacy program management,
Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New
Jersey and associate professor at the
Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, Rutgers,
The State University of New Jersey,
Newark, began the session with an
overview of the landscape of opioid addiction
treatment.
According to the National Survey on
Drug Use and Health, as reported in 2007,
an estimated 5.2 millio
The Impact of Declining Walking Ability in the Multiple Sclerosis Patient
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, progressive disease of the central nervous system (CNS), characterized by inflammation, demyelination, and destruction of the motor and sensory axons within the brain and spinal cord.1 MS is thought to be an autoimmune disease.2 MS is the second most common cause of neurologic disability in working-age adults, affecting 400,000 individuals in the United States.2,3 Approximately 200 people in the United States are diagnosed every week. Globally, the disease affects about 2.5 million people.2 The disease is most often diagnosed in individuals between 20 a
Closing the Mixed Dyslipidemia Treatment
Since the 1980s, there has been significant success in the diagnosis
and treatment of dyslipidemia in the United States.
Physicians are treating a growing percentage of their patients
for the disease, most consumers have some awareness of the
importance of high cholesterol, and even pediatric treatment recommendations
are being debated. Yet with all the apparent focus
on treating cholesterol, there remains a formidable gap in the
treatment of mixed dyslipidemia and the achievement of lipids
goals by both primary care physicians and specialists such as cardiologists
and endocrinologist
THE BURDEN OF PARKINSON’S DISEASE AND THE NEED FOR EARLY DIAGNOSIS AND EARLY TREATMENT
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a progressive and disabling neurologic disorder. The disease is the most prevalent type of parkinsonism, a clinical syndrome caused by lesions in the basal ganglia, predominantly in the substantia nigra, which produces deficits in motor behavior. PD occurs when certain neurons in the substantia nigra die or become impaired. See Figure 1. Normally, these cells produce the chemical dopamine, which allows for smooth, coordinated function of the body’s muscles and movement.1-3 The symptoms of PD appear when approximately 80% of the dopamineproducing cells are damage
Special Edition: June 2009 Conference
San Francisco—With the advent of transdermal
methods of dispensing medication for the treatment of
overactive bladder (OAB), patients have the opportunity
to experience positive outcomes while avoiding some
of the side effects associated with oral formulations.
During the 2009 Society of Urologic Nurses and
Associates Annual Symposium, Diane Newman, RNC,
MSN, CRNP, FAAN, who is the codirector of the Penn
Center for Continence and Pelvic Health at the
University of Pennsylvania Health System in Phil -
adelphia, provided a presentation on the application of
oxybutynin chloride topic
Product Bulletin - Apriso
APRISOTM (mesalamine) extended-
release capsules are the
first and only once-daily 5-
aminosalicylic acid (5-ASA) featuring
INTELLICORTM delayed- and extendedrelease
delivery—for the successful
long-term* management of UC.1
UC DISEASE OVERVIEW
UC causes inflammation and
ulcers in the lining of the rectum
and the colon. This inflammation
triggers the colon to empty itself
frequently, thereby causing diarrhea.
Ulcers then form where
inflammation has destroyed the
cells that line the colon. The result is
bleeding and the production of pus.
APRISO— A TREATMENT
OPTION FOR UC
UNDERSTANDING OPIOID DEPENDENCE: Outcomes from HereToHelp
The Drug Addiction Treatment Act of
2000 (DATA 2000) was a groundbreaking
piece of legislation that allowed
physicians to prescribe schedule III-V
narcotics for the office-based opioid treatment
(OBOT) of opioid dependence. Treatment
without narcotics was already allowable.
However, narcotics were made illegal
under the Harrison Narcotic Act. As a result
of the FDA approving a schedule III-IV for
the treatment of opioid dependence, Suboxone
® (buprenorphine/naloxone) CIII and Subutex
® (buprenorphine) CIII became the only
agents available to physicians who have been
granted the
