May/June 2012

Patients' incomplete understanding of the healthcare information provided to them poses a significant danger and creates a need for payer-provided health literacy education programs.

While studies have identified multiple causes for medication nonadherence, interventions have been largely unsuccessful. Opportunity exists to improve adherence and positively impact healthcare quality and costs.

Fidaxomicin has shown promise as an effective treatment option for Clostridium difficile infections, but no pharmacoeconomic studies have been performed to date.

A carvedilol to bisoprolol interchange program was carried out in a Singapore hospital with substantial cost savings of US$116 per patient-year without increase in adverse outcomes.

Examination of the cost-effectiveness of rasagiline versus other approved first-line Parkinson disease therapies indicated that rasagiline was either cost saving or cost-effective in all cases.

Results from Eisai Inc's online national survey of cancer patients, published in the 2012 Eisai Oncology Digest, provide insight into how patients view their treatment.

Among the highlights: presentations on the challenges faced by states in utilizing comparative effectiveness research, and on the significance of hypoglycemia in diabetes therapy.

New and forthcoming oral anticoagulants, which do not require prothrombin time monitoring, will offer patients and providers additional therapeutic options.

As the Supreme Court nears its decision on the constitutionality of ACA, healthcare reform is already pushing inexorably forward.