Author Interviews, Heart Disease, JAMA, Outcomes & Safety, Race/Ethnic Diversity / 09.08.2017
Racial Gap in Survival After In-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Nearly Closed
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Lee Joseph, MD, MS
Postdoctoral fellow at University of Iowa
Division of Cardiovascular Diseases
Department of Internal Medicine
University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine
Iowa City
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: In-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA) is common and affects more than 200,000 patients every year. Although survival for in-hospital cardiac arrest has improved in recent years, marked racial differences in survival are present. A previous study showed that black patients with in-hospital cardiac arrest have 27% lower chance of surviving an in-hospital cardiac arrest due to a shockable rhythm compared to white patients. Moreover, lower survival in black patients was largely attributable to the fact that black patients were predominantly treated in lower quality hospitals compared to white patients. In other words, racial disparities in survival are closely intertwined with hospital quality, and this has been borne out in multiple other studies as well
In this study, we were interested in determining whether improvement in in-hospital cardiac arrest survival that has occurred in recent years benefited black and white patients equally or not? In other words, have racial differences in survival decreased as overall survival has improved. If so, what is the mechanism of that improvement? And finally, did hospitals that predominantly treat black patients make the greatest improvement in survival?
To address these questions, we used data from the Get With The Guidelines-Resuscitation, a large national quality improvement registry of in-hospital cardiac arrest that was established by the American Heart Association in the year 2000. Participating hospitals submit rich clinical data on patients who experience in-hospital cardiac arrest. Over the last 17 years, the registry has grown markedly and currently includes information on >200,000 patients from > 500 hospitals. The primary purpose is quality improvement. But it has also become an important resource to conduct research into the epidemiology and outcomes associated with in-hospital cardiac arrest.
Using data from the Get With the Guidelines-Resuscitation, we identified 112,139 patients at 289 hospitals between 2000-2014. Approximately 25% of the patients were of black race and the remainder were white patients. We constructed two-level hierarchical regression models to estimate yearly risk adjusted survival rates in black and white patients and examined how survival differences changed over time both on an absolute and a relative scale.
Dr. Ash[/caption]
Arlene S. Ash, PhD
Department of Quantitative Health Sciences
University of Massachusetts Medical School
Worcester
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: State Medicaid programs (and other health care purchasers) often contract with several managed care organizations, each of which agrees to address all health care needs for some of their beneficiaries. Suppose a Medicaid program has $5000 to spend, on average, for each of its 1 million beneficiaries. How much should they pay health plan “A” for the particular 100,000 beneficiaries it enrolls? If some group, such as those who are homeless, is much more expensive to care for than the payment, plans that try to provide good care for many such people will go broke. We describe the model now used by MassHealth to ensure that plans get more money for enrolling patients with greater medical and social needs. In this medical-social model, about 10% of total dollars is allocated by factors other than the medical-morbidity risk score.
Dr. Hernandez[/caption]
Inmaculada Hernandez, PharmD, PhD
Assistant Professor of Pharmacy and Therapeutics
University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy
Pittsburgh, PA 1526
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: A few months ago, the results of the FOURIER trial were published. This trial was the first one to evaluate the efficacy of PCSK9 inhibitors in the prevention of cardiovascular events, since the approval of these agents was based on trials that evaluated their efficacy in reducing levels of LDL-C. The results of the FOURIER trial did not meet the expectations generated by prior studies that had simulated how much the risk of cardiovascular events should decrease based on the observed reduction in LDL-C levels. A few hours after the publication of the results of the FOURIER trial, Amgen (evolocumab´s manufacturer) announced that it would be willing to engage in contracts where the cost of evolocumab would be refunded for those patients who suffer a heart attack or a stroke while using the drug.
Dr. Kochunov[/caption]
Peter Kochunov PhD
Professor
Maryland Psychiatric Research Center
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Schizophrenia is a debilitating disorder that strikes young people at the point of entering adulthood. In the past, we and others demonstrated that patients with schizophrenia are characterized by deficits in the white matter of the brain. White matter is the part of the brain that serves the backbone of cerebral networks transmitting information and interconnecting brain regions.
In this report, we link the impaired white matter of the brain in schizophrenia patients with the disorder-related deficits in the processing speed. We also showed that mental processing speed is a fundamental cognitive construct that partially supports other functions like working memory in patients, where processing speed acting as the intermediate between white matter deficits and reduced working memory. This interesting relationship between processing speed, working memory, and white matter is most obvious in white matter regions most vulnerable to schizophrenia. That was the main finding of the study.
Dr. Jacobs[/caption]
Dr. Lisa K. Jacobs MD
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Baltimore, Maryland
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Breast preservation is the preferred treatment for many women diagnosed with breast cancer. The most common question that a patient will ask after the surgery is, “Did you get it all?” In the ideal case, this is accomplished in a single outpatient surgery with very good cosmetic results. In our study, Beyond the Margins-Economic Costs and Complications Associated with Repeated Breast-Conserving Surgeries we evaluated the detrimental effects of an unsuccessful initial surgery due to positive surgical margins. Using private insurance claims data, we found that 16% of patients planning breast preservation required a second breast-conserving surgery and an additional 7% converted to mastectomy. Of those patients that required additional surgery there was a 56% ($16,072) increase in cost and a 48% increase in complications. Those complications include infection, hematoma, seroma, and fat necrosis. This study demonstrates that repeated surgery has not only cosmetic consequences, but also has financial implications and increased risk.
Dr. Adrian Harel[/caption]
Dr. Adrian Harel, PhD
Chief Executive Officer
Medicortex Finland
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Every 15 seconds, someone in the United States suffers a new head injury. Of the 2.5M people treated in hospital emergency rooms each year, 80,000 become permanently disabled because of TBI. Currently, there are no reliable diagnostic tests to assess the presence or severity of an injury on-site, nor are there any pharmaceutical therapies that could stop the secondary injury from spreading. Accurate diagnostics would benefit especially mild cases of TBI (concussions), which, if occurring repeatedly, may cause neurodegenerative conditions such as Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (which is typical for athletes in NFL and Ice-hockey).
We have performed extensive preclinical research comparing fluid biopsies from normal and injured lab animals. The results showed some unique biomarkers released as a biodegradation products after head injury. The data served as the basis and confirmation for our patent applications to protect the biomarker concept.
Medicortex has completed a clinical proof-of-concept trial in collaboration with Turku University Hospital (Tyks). Samples from 12 TBI patients and 12 healthy volunteers were collected and analyzed for the presence and for the level of the biomarker in state-of-the-art laboratories. The study demonstrated the diagnostic potential of the new biomarker in humans and it confirmed the prior preclinical findings. This was a significant milestone for Medicortex.
