Cancer patients without insurance or with Medicaid don’t get the same trial benefits

PORTLAND, OR – Cancer patients with no health insurance or those enrolled in Medicaid, the federal low-income health insurance program, see smaller survival benefits from experimental therapies in clinical trials, according to study results published today in JAMA Network Open. The SWOG Cancer Research Network study is the first to examine whether treatment effects from…

Obese adults facing Medicaid expansion gap

Despite overall increases in insurance coverage for low-income individuals in Medicaid expansion states, some gaps remain for individuals who are obese. That’s according to a recent study by a team of researchers at the University of Georgia. The findings, published in the journal Obesity, show a slower uptake of Medicaid enrollment among low-income obese individuals…

UBC discovery opens new avenues for designing drugs to combat drug-resistant malaria

For the first time, UBC researchers have shown a key difference in the three-dimensional structures of a key metabolic enzyme in the parasite that causes malaria compared to its human counterpart. The finding, recently published in the International Union of Crystallography Journal, brings researchers one step closer to developing new therapies to combat drug-resistant malaria.…

Two new AHA statements focus on heart failure: How social determinants can affect outcomes; impact on caregivers

DALLAS, April 30, 2020 — Treatment for heart failure should take into consideration a patient’s social determinants of health – their overall living environment, socio-economic status, as well as the needs of unpaid family caregivers, according to two new scientific statements from the American Heart Association, published simultaneously today in the Association’s flagship journal Circulation.…