Latest news with #healthdisparities
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Ontada Unveils Comprehensive Data on Social Determinants of Health and Outcomes of Early-Onset Colorectal Cancer at ASCO
Findings show Black and Hispanic Patients Have 30% Higher Risk of Advanced-Stage Diagnosis BOSTON, May 30, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Ontada®, a leader in real-world oncology data and insights, is proud to present its latest research findings in a pivotal oral presentation at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting. The study, titled, "Real-world Social Determinants of Health and Outcomes of Early-onset Colorectal Cancer: An Analysis of a Large Nationally Representative US Community Oncology Network," provides critical data on the impact of social determinants on the outcomes of early-onset colorectal cancer (EO-CRC) patients, and offers one of the largest studies of EO-CRC to date. Over 104,000 patients with CRC were studied, including nearly 15,000 patients with early-onset CRC. Key Data Findings Racial and ethnic disparities: A higher burden of EO-CRC was observed among patients of Black and American Indian/Alaskan Native race and Hispanic/Latino ethnicity. Obesity as a risk factor: There was a 5% higher prevalence of obesity among patients with early-onset CRC versus average onset CRC. More advanced stage at diagnosis for EO-CRC: Patients with EO-CRC have an 11% greater likelihood of diagnosis at Stage III or IV disease as compared to average-onset disease. Poorer survival associated with advancing age: At each cancer stage, patients with EO-CRC had a longer overall survival as compared to patients with average-onset CRC, reflecting existing knowledge about cancer survival decreasing with advancing age. Importance of screening and earlier diagnosis: Among all patients with CRC, including early-onset diagnosis, disease stage at diagnosis was the strongest predictor of overall survival, reflecting the importance of earlier detection and screening programs for all. "Understanding the complex interplay between social factors and cancer incidence and outcomes is crucial for developing effective, patient-centered care strategies, and this research underscores the importance of understanding and then intervening on social determinants of health to improve care for patients with EO-CRC," said Jessica K. Paulus, ScD, senior director, Real-World Research, Ontada. "Ontada's data provides a clear and compelling picture of the impact of social determinants on the outcomes of patients with EO-CRC. By leveraging our unique data emanating from the nationally representative The US Oncology Network and our measures of social determinants at scale, we can drive meaningful changes in clinical practice and policy, ultimately improving patient care and outcomes." Study Methodology This retrospective observational cohort study examined adult CRC patients within The US Oncology Network and non-Network practices, encompassing over 2,700 community-based providers treating more than 1.4 million patients annually. All patients diagnosed with CRC between 2000 and 2024 were included; patients were categorized as EO-CRC if they were <50 years at first diagnosis and average-onset (AO)-CRC otherwise. Over 104,000 patients with CRC were studied, including nearly 15,000 patients with early-onset CRC. Patient characteristics were sourced from iKnowMed, an oncology-specific electronic health record system, and descriptively summarized. Overall Survival (OS) was assessed from diagnosis using Kaplan-Meier methods. Other Research at ASCO 2025 Ontada is showcasing its research capabilities at ASCO with 12 accepted abstracts on topics such as using large language models to extract cancer data, accelerating Phase 2 clinical development with real-world data in HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer, validating real-world event-free survival in early-stage triple negative breast cancer, analyzing outcomes of BRAF-mutated melanoma patients, and providing a descriptive epidemiology of Waldenström Macroglobulinemia. "At Ontada, we are at the forefront of transforming cancer care through the power of real-world data and insights," said Christine Davis, president, Ontada. "Our extensive research at ASCO 2025 underscores our commitment to driving meaningful advancements in oncology. This research will not only highlight the critical role of real-world evidence in improving patient outcomes but also demonstrate our dedication to addressing the complex challenges faced by cancer patients and healthcare providers." Ontada is a part of McKesson, which has an unmatched portfolio of oncology businesses and partners that provide research, insights, technologies, and services that are helping address barriers and improve cancer and specialty care. At ASCO, McKesson-supported businesses including The US Oncology Network, Ontada, and Sarah Cannon Research Institute (SCRI), are part of approximately 170 accepted abstracts and presentations. These are inclusive of oral and poster presentations, educational sessions, late-breaking studies, and early-phase studies. For a comprehensive list of Ontada abstracts and presentations, visit Ontada's ASCO 2025 Site. Additionally, visit the Ontada Booth (#35093) at the McCormick Place Convention Center from May 30 – June 3 to explore the data presented at ASCO 2025 and experience Ontada's solutions firsthand. About Ontada® Ontada is an oncology technology and insights business dedicated to transforming the fight against cancer. Part of McKesson Corporation, Ontada was founded on the core belief that precise insights – delivered exactly at the point of need – can save more patients' lives. We connect the full patient journey by combining technologies used by The US Oncology Network and other community oncology providers with real-world data and research relied on by all top 15 global life sciences companies. Our work helps accelerate innovation and powers the future of cancer care. For more information, visit About McKesson Oncology and Specialty Solutions It's an unprecedented time for patients living with cancer as life sciences companies race to create new, cutting-edge therapies. With cancer care becoming more targeted, providers, life sciences companies, and payers face a multitude of challenges and complexity in the development of new treatments and making them accessible to patients in need. At McKesson, our unmatched portfolio of oncology businesses and partners provide research, insights, technologies, and services that are helping to address these hurdles and improve cancer and specialty care. McKesson is fueling discovery by helping patients participate in cutting-edge clinical trials closer to home through its joint venture with Sarah Cannon Research Institute. The US Oncology Network and McKesson Provider Solutions are advancing specialty care and high-quality cancer care in the communities where patients live by supporting the practices of thousands of independent, community-based providers. Ontada®, a McKesson business dedicated to oncology, generates real-world data (RWD) and real-world evidence (RWE), and provides clinical education and provider technology to inform and improve cancer care. As a leading distributor of oncology and specialty medicines, we are ensuring medicines make their way to those who are counting on them. And through CoverMyMeds, Biologics by McKesson, and GPO services, our work continues to help patients access, afford, and adhere to their medicines. View source version on Contacts Media Contact OntadaClaire Crye, Communications281.825.9927 GCI Health on behalf of OntadaChristine Murphy, Media Relations201.230.9636 Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Business
- The Guardian
Single Black women on Covid five years later: ‘The pandemic taught me, no regrets'
It was business as usual for Jordan Madison in early 2020. Her commute included taking a bus from Silver Spring, Maryland, to her job in Bethesda. Madison, 25, was working at the time on her license to become a clinical marriage and family therapist, and worked part-time at Instacart to earn extra money. By March 2020, the world had shut down because of the Covid-19 pandemic. 'The first two weeks, I was like: 'OK, this is nice. I don't have to leave my house. This is a nice little vacation. We'll probably go back to work in like a month or so,'' Madison remembered thinking. In the following weeks, there were mask mandates and social-distancing requirements in grocery and retail stores. Gathering places – restaurants, shops, clubs and bars – were shut down. Schools were trying to figure out how to provide education online and churches were engaging their parishioners virtually. Zoom replaced in-person meetings and friends connected through FaceTime. The pandemic also laid bare the health and wealth disparities in the US, as Black people were three more times likely to be diagnosed with and die from the coronavirus. They were more likely to be essential workers – those who worked in transportation, healthcare, grocery and retail stores and meat factories – and, as a result, most likely to be exposed to the coronavirus. At the same time, as businesses were forced to close, unemployment increased in Black communities, and Black entrepreneurs, unable to get access to funds set aside for small businesses, struggled. For single Black women, the pandemic was a mix of isolation, loss of community and social connections and a return to the foundation of family. It was also an opportunity to create something new, reflect on the future and tap into the things that mattered most. When the world didn't open up by the end of April, Madison says, she 'felt like we were in a movie' and 'like life was paused'. 'Every single day was the same day. All the days started to blend together,' said Madison. 'It became hard to separate work. I was used to going into work, and so while I appreciated not having to get on public transportation, it was a lot to just be in your house all day, every day, and then be scared to be around other people.' Even though she grew up as an only child, Madison admitted, the first few months of the pandemic felt 'pretty isolating'. It was hard not being able to go out and do the things she usually did with her single friends. She eventually went home to New York, where she quarantined with her mother and grandmother until the end of June. During the time she was with her family in New York, a racial reckoning occurred in the US after the deaths of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd. Madison said she had wanted to join the thousands marching and protesting police brutality, but also needed to be safe while living with her mother and grandmother. 'So many people died in isolation,' she said, 'or, you couldn't celebrate or honor their lives because people couldn't have funerals. So I just remember being really, really grateful that, yeah, this sucks, but my life is not being torn apart the way that other people were.' Kailyn Townsend was one of those who couldn't celebrate or honor her loved ones the way her family had been accustomed to or wanted to during Covid. Her maternal great-grandmother died in April 2020, a month into the pandemic, and a few months later, in June, Townsend's father's mother passed away. 'I was able to make it to my great-grandmother's funeral, but it was kind of weird because everybody was socially distanced,' the Memphis native remembered. 'We didn't get to do a lot of the traditional things that we do [at funerals].' Townsend says she didn't make it back home to her paternal grandmother's funeral because she missed her flight due to the protests over George Floyd's murder. 'There was a lot going on that year, and I was very isolated,' said Townsend, 30. Townsend, a graduate of Howard University School of Law, was months into a one-year clerkship at the Small Business Administration when the pandemic hit. After her clerkship ended, it took her several months to find another job. 'It took a toll on my self-confidence, on my morale. I ended up filing for unemployment, so I had some money to stay afloat, but it was just a lot of uncertainty and worrying about if I would ever find a job or what that would look like,' Townsend said. But it was during this time that Townsend explored her creative side and nurtured her inner artist. She learned after her grandmothers' deaths that they had never gotten to pursue their artistic interests: playing the piano and writing poetry. It inspired her to begin writing her own poetry. When Townsend got a new position in the federal government, she realized she was no longer interested in a career in the legal field. But it wasn't easy to leave. She had moved to the big city from the deep south, gotten a law degree and passed the bar and was expected to climb the corporate ladder and be a big success. But after four years at the job, she moved back to Memphis and is now looking for a position in the creative arts. 'The catalyst was the deaths of those matriarchs in my family,' said Townsend. 'They left without any or many people knowing that they had an artistic or a creative side. I don't want to die and people not know the things that I'm interested in or the things that I want to put out into the world.' The deaths of two people close to her during and after the pandemic also prompted Napiya Nubuya to rethink her future and what mattered most to her. The 35-year-old founder and CEO of the Next IT Girl had only been in Atlanta a little more than a year before the pandemic hit. 'I loved being downtown. I loved being in Midtown. Loved riding the scooters. I was outside. I was having a good time – trying all the new things, going all the places. I just loved being out in Atlanta. I was excited to be in this new city,' said Nubuya, who is from Charleston, South Carolina, and described the beginning of the pandemic as a loss of freedom. 'I think as soon as the pandemic had happened, I was just like: 'What do I do? What is life now like?' I was also trying to find my community, my tribe before the pandemic.' Nubuya's employer had cut her salary 25% because of the uncertainty of the pandemic. At the same time, her rent increased by hundreds of dollars. She didn't have friends nearby and she missed home. Eventually, the IT professional got a new job, but it required her to work long hours as technology skills became more in demand during the pandemic. 'I took a very hard hit in my work-life balance. I was averaging probably 50 hours a week,' remembered Nubuya. 'The mental strain was starting to weigh on me.' So Nubuya, who turned 30 just a few months into the pandemic, relocated back to South Carolina in the fall of 2020, where she had family and community. She used the opportunity of social distancing, office closures and remote work to travel, visiting places such as Arizona, New Mexico, Tanzania and Kenya. 'I was traveling all the places that were on my bucket list because I was like: 'I'll never get this time back again.' I felt like this was my Eat, Pray, Love,' she said, referring to the 2006 memoir by Elizabeth Gilbert about traveling through Italy, India and Indonesia after a difficult divorce, which was adapted into a film in 2010. Nubuya said: 'I had the independence to create the spaces and opportunities I wanted to be in. It was doing what I wanted, when I wanted, going to places, waking up late, eating what I wanted. There was this sense of independence.' In December 2022, Nubuya took a leave from work to help care for her father, who had stage four metastatic stomach cancer. He died in January 2023. Months before learning of her father's diagnosis, Nubuya had been at the side of a good friend and member of her non-profit who was also struggling through a cancer battle; she died in May 2022. Burned out, Nubuya said, she couldn't go back to work in a corporate environment. Instead, she reluctantly stepped into a leadership role at the non-profit she had founded in 2015, Next IT Girl, which focuses on introducing girls of color to the IT profession. Nubuya said she had never imagined that she would be an entrepreneur. She was content with 'getting my check every two weeks, my benefits'. But she looks back now and realizes that she had been running from her calling. While the pandemic was one of the scariest times in history, the step away from 'normal' life gave some an opportunity to reflect and reconnect, travel, write books and explore new ideas. Nubuya's burnout and personal tragedies during the pandemic gave her the push to leave corporate America. The isolation of the pandemic helped Townsend leave an unfulfilling career in the legal field. And the pandemic gave Jordan Madison the time and space to start her own virtual mental health practice (Therapy Is My JAM). 'The pandemic taught me the importance of valuing community. Isolation is deteriorating to your mind, to your body, to your work,' Nubuya said. 'The pandemic taught me, no regrets. Do what you feel, and take chances. You can get back up, but don't take your last breath with any regrets.'
Fox News
3 days ago
- Health
- Fox News
Medical professionals say schools have gotten too political, citing ‘unscientific modes of thinking'
Two medical professionals argued in a new report that "medical school has gotten too political," citing "unscientific modes of thinking." "Medical students are now immersed in the notion that undertaking political advocacy is as important as learning gross anatomy, physiology, and pharmacology," the authors wrote in The Chronicle of Higher Education. Sally Satel, a lecturer in psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine, and Thomas S. Huddle, a professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham's Heersink School of Medicine, cited several instances of political sentiments affecting the medical school industry. They noted that researchers are "promoting unscientific modes of thinking about group-based disparities in health access and status." "The University of Minnesota's Center for Antiracism Research for Health Equity decrees 'structural racism as a fundamental cause of health inequities,' despite the fact that this is at best an arguable thesis, not a fact. (The center was shut down last month.) The Kaiser Family Foundation states that health differentials 'stem from broader social and economic inequities,'" the authors write. Satel and Huddle pushed further by detailing an incident that occurred at the University of California, San Francisco, Medical Center. The institution not only called for a ceasefire in the Gaza war between Israel and Hamas, the authors wrote that staff chanted "intifada, intifada, long live intifada!" which "echoed into patients' rooms." The New York Times reported last summer that the protesters at the University of California, San Francisco, chanting "intifada" consisted of medical students and doctors. Such an incident lays out more deeply the consequences of medical schools prioritizing politics over instruction on professional imperatives, according to the authors. "These doctors were not putting patients first — if anything, they were offending and intimidating patients. They were putting their notion of social justice first," they wrote. The two medical professionals cite other instances where medical schools are steeped in politics, such as endorsing "racial reparations" and instituting "antiracism" training in order to qualify for a medical license in the wake of George Floyd's death. Satel and Huddle offer medical professionals "guidelines" for how to "responsibly" meet patients' needs while leveraging their "professional standing to effect change", including advocating for policies that "directly help patients and are rooted in professional expertise while ensuring that their advocacy does not interfere with their relationships with their colleagues, students, and patients." Satel, a practicing psychiatrist, told Fox News Digital that she is the medical director of a methadone clinic that represents a clinical setting. In response to Fox News Digital's request for comment, Huddle said that his "academic career has been as a clinician teaching how to care for patients while caring for them."
Forbes
02-06-2025
- Health
- Forbes
AI Can Revolutionize Women's Healthcare – Here's How
People who look closely at clinical data and medical research are recognizing that in the past, women have been left out. One aspect of this is a narrow view of what women's health encompasses – and a historic lack of paying attention to the unique ways that women's bodies differ from men's. A New York Academy of Sciences article expresses some of these disparities – that women were not generally included in medical research until the mid-1990s, that a woman's diagnosis tends to happen later than a man's in many cases, and that some conditions more common to women take a long time to be diagnosed, or receive less research. Brooke Grindlinger writes about a panel at SXSW in 2024 that talked about how much of this clinical research on women has been relegated to specific and narrow applications to reproductive health. 'There's so much more to women's health than that,' said Christina Jenkins, MD, a panelist and a general partner at Convergent Ventures. 'We consider 'women's health' as a specific practice… focused on things that are unique to women, which are those reproductive organs and [associated conditions] Of course, AI has also brought better diagnosis and new approaches to mammography: Maureen Salamon writes at Harvard Health Publishing about applications to breast cancer, while acknowledging that this is far from the only aspect of women's health that's being explored with the new technologies. There's also a focus on the vast trove of data that come from wearables, and thoughts on how they can contribute. 'In coming years, A.I. may be able to produce personalized breast cancer risk assessment scores, which offer a more detailed picture of an individual woman's risk for the disease,' Salamon writes. 'Currently, women's breast cancer risks are calculated using questionnaires that ask about factors such age, ethnicity, family history of breast cancer, breast biopsy history, breast density, when they first had a menstrual period, and — for those who have children — how old they were when they first gave birth. All of these issues can influence breast cancer risk.' In a recent TED talk, Lily Janjigian went over some of the ways that we are addressing women's health right here at MIT. We've heard a lot about this in recent conferences and events where people are excited about clinical improvements with AI. But Janjigian's story is unique – as she points out in her TED talk, she was on a sports team at MIT, and ended up developing stress fractures. Then she looked around and asked why these rates of injury were so much higher among female athletes. (getty image: a female athlete) The result was a focus on whether women's health is getting the billing that it deserves. 'We don't know a lot about women's health,' she said, referencing a statistic from McKinsey, that less than one percent of medical research looks into women's health, beyond work on female cancers. 'This ends up (leading to) really unfair outcomes for women.' Then she found MIT's Female Medicine through Machine Learning office (check it out here) where the focus is on exploring women's health with the new tech, and, as Janjigian pointed out, looking at patterns in large data sets for things like endometriosis. She showed how scientists can group three elements of data: genetic data, biological data, and symptoms – and bring those together for diagnosis and patient care. 'AI can finally let us questions about women's about women's health that we haven't been able to answer in the past. So why are we not going and deploying it everywhere we can?' The answer, Janjigian suggested, is that in some ways, AI is not a perfect solution. It can extend bias, she noted, with the wrong approach. 'AI systems are a reflection of what and who we choose to value, so let's make sure that we're all part of that from the start,' she said. More on AI's Power Good research calls for a deliberative approach, but there's another reason I think that AI will be helpful here It has to do with the attention mechanism, and how traditional research has worked. Stephen Wolfram, for one, is fond of talking about how AI's attention differs from that of humans, and what that means for our use of AI tools. In light of that, the above experts talk about the disparities – how human research has focused on men's issues and men's health. Well, when you're using AI data, you're working on the data sets that come in. So there's an opportunity to reduce the bias, and bring a broader lens to healthcare in general, and to women's health in particular. In other words, the same capabilities that let AI do great work in radiology diagnosis could help to focus in on how certain conditions affect women, with really great surveys of female clinical trials and resulting solutions. This is something a lot of people are excited about, and we should keep watching as we continue to integrate these solutions into our lives.
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
HCR to host info sessions at 7 predominantly African American churches
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) – HCR Home Care will hold informational sessions on thebenefits and availability of home health care at seven predominantly African Americanchurches in the city of Rochester on Sunday. The sessions are part of the company's care project, which aims to help African American residents over age 65 by improving access to services, removing barriers to home health care and reducing health disparities that disproportionately affect people of color. Monroe County has provided ARPA grant funding to support the diverse care project's education and outreach efforts. HCR's nonprofit partner, HCR Cares, received grant funding for the project from Greater Rochester Health Foundation. HCR Home Care will make presentations to parishioners after Mother's Day services at thefollowing churches: New Life Fellowship, 330 Wellington Avenue, from 10-11 a.m. Mt. Olivet Baptist Church, 141 Adams Street, from 10-11 a.m. First Church of God, 334 Clarissa Street, from 10:30 a.m. until noon. Prayer House Church of God by Faith, 270 Cumberland Street, from 10:30 a.m. until noon. In Christ New Hope Ministry, 155 Pinnacle Road, from 10:30 a.m. until noon. Helping Hands Missionary Baptist Church, 703 Joseph Avenue, from 11 a.m. until 1:30p.m. New Bethel CME Church, 270 Scio Street, from 10-11 a.m. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
