NEW YORK, N.Y., Dec. 15, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via PRWEB - Medivo, Inc., a leader in lab data analytics, presented its findings on testing to monitor patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia ("CML") at the 56th ASH Annual Meeting in San Francisco, CA.
In an analysis of a nationwide population of 5,500 patients with CML, Medivo's clinical affairs and data analytics teams discovered that:
- 65% of the CML patients had not been tested in accordance with National Comprehensive Cancer Network ("NCCN") guidelines (2 - 4 times per year).
- Peak of testing was found at 1 test per year (44%), and 21% of patients had not been tested even 1 time/year over a 3-year period (March 2011 - February 2014).
- Age and gender did not impact testing rates. However, regions of the United States had a significant effect, with highest average rates in the West (1.68), followed by the East (1.62), the South (1.59) and the Midwest (1.37), (p < 0.001).
According to Jason Bhan, MD, Chief Medical Officer, "These findings illustrate that a much higher percentage of CML patients than previously realized are not adhering to guidelines." Added Dr. Bhan, "Oncologists may want to consider supplementing office visits with patient educational programs that stress the importance of testing multiple times a year."
Medivo has plans for future studies in CML that will look at disease stage, time from diagnosis, comorbidities and other patient characteristics.
Medivo's Medical Editor Dr. Carol Smyth, reported that "the feedback on our research from the ASH attendees was positive. They welcomed seeing statistics on NCCN guideline adherence, and encouraged publication of the data to address the current gap in published data on BCR-ABL screening rates in patients with CML." Dr. Smyth authored the study along with Jason Bhan, MD, Tatiana Sorokina, MSc, and Niyati Parikh, MSc from Medivo, and Vivian Oehler, MD and Jerald Radich, MD from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, WA.
The poster and abstract are available for review at http://www.medivo.com/library.
About Medivo
Medivo unlocks the power of lab data to better inform treatment decisions and improve health outcomes. Medivo's clinical data experts extract proprietary insights from the Medivo Lab Value Exchange™(LVX™), an anonymized patient level clinical database of more than 30 million patients. Medivo helps deliver on the promise of precision medicine by providing decision support on the use of targeted therapeutics. Medivo enables life science companies to build clinical intelligence to optimize their sales and marketing initiatives, while enabling our clinical lab partners to realize the full value of their data assets. Founded in 2010 by healthcare entrepreneurs, Medivo's investors include Safeguard Scientifics, Inc. (NYSE:SFE) and Merck Global Health Innovation Fund (GHIF). For more information, visit http://www.medivo.com.
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