Natasha Yetman, Author at The Rheumatologist

Articles by Natasha Yetman

Evidence Lacking for Tests for Psoriasis Patients Using Biologic Agents

Will Boggs, MD | July 25, 2015

NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Various organizations recommend dozens of screening and monitoring tests for patients with psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis who are using systemic biologic agents, despite sparse evidence to support any of them. “At a population level, these medications have proven to be very safe and the evidence does not support such extensive and frequent…

Anthem to Buy Cigna to Create Biggest U.S. Health Insurer

Ankur Banerjee | July 24, 2015

(Reuters)—Anthem Inc. said on Friday it would buy Cigna Corp. in a deal valued at $54.2 billion, creating the largest U.S. health insurer by membership. The deal—the biggest ever in the health insurance industry—comes three weeks after Aetna Inc agreed to buy Humana Inc for $37 billion and is part of an industry-wide consolidation following…

Americans Want Medicare to Help Negotiate Down Drug Prices

Kylie Gumpert | July 21, 2015

NEW YORK (Reuters)—A vast majority of Americans say the Medicare health program for the elderly should be able to negotiate with drug companies to set lower medication prices, a practice currently prohibited by law, according to a survey released on Friday. The poll conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 87% of people surveyed…

Did Reports of Side Effects Contribute to Drop in Bone Drug Use?

Lisa Rapaport | July 20, 2015

(Reuters Health)—Media reports raising safety concerns about osteoporosis drugs known as bisphosphonates may have contributed to a sharp drop in their use—even though U.S. doctors and drug regulators haven’t recommended against taking them, a study suggests. Fosamax (alendronate sodium) won U.S. marketing approval in 1995. Widespread use of the drug and others like it over…

Certolizumab Pegol Effective for Treating Rheumatoid Arthritis

Reuters Staff | July 19, 2015

NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Certolizumab pegol, a humanized anti-TNF antibody fragment conjugated to polyethylene glycol, is effective for treating early rheumatoid arthritis (RA) with poor prognostic factors, according to results from the C-OPERA study. Certolizumab is approved in the U.S. and other countries for treating inflammatory diseases, including RA, but its effectiveness in methotrexate-naïve early RA…

Fulfilling ‘Three Wishes’ Helps ICU Staff Honor Dying Patients

Randi Belisomo | July 18, 2015

(Reuters Health)—Doctors and nurses in a Canadian intensive care unit found that asking dying patients—or their families—to make three simple wishes, and then fulfilling those wishes, helped bring peace to the end-of-life process and ease grief. Patients and families were invited to participate in the “Three Wishes Project” after a decision was made to withdraw…

Tofacitinib Not Tied to More Malignancies in RA Patients

David Douglas | July 17, 2015

NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—The oral Janus kinase inhibitor tofacitinib (Xeljanz, Pfizer) does not increase the risk of malignancies, according to pooled data from more than 5000 rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. In an April 22 online paper in Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, Dr. Lisy Wang of Pfizer, Groton, Connecticut, and colleagues noted that in RA…

Bigger May Not Be Better for China’s ‘Super Hospitals’

Alexandra Harney | July 17, 2015

ZHENGZHOU, China (Reuters)—Just before midnight, the pavement outside the glowing high-rise towers of the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University is littered with slumbering bodies. Splayed on colourful mats or tucked into folding cots, these are patients’ relatives. Inside, beds line hallways and crowd elevator lobbies, while relatives share gurneys with patients and doze in…

Family History Not Linked to Clinical Presentation, Treatment Response of RA

Will Boggs, MD | July 16, 2015

NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Having a family history of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) does not appear to influence the clinical presentation or treatment response of RA to standard medications, researchers from Sweden report. “At first we were a bit surprised by our findings,” Dr. Thomas Frisell from Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm told Reuters Health by email. “Patients…