Children's Hospital Los Angeles

BETHESDA, Md., Oct. 23, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has launched a proof-of-concept precision medicine clinical trial to test new treatment combinations targeting specific genetic changes in the cancer cells of people with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). The trial, funded by NIH's National Cancer Institute (NCI), aims to accelerate the discovery of more tailored treatments for these aggressive cancers of the blood and bone marrow. Continue Reading The precision medicine trial aims to match patients to treatments based on the genetics of their cancer. Credit: National Human Genome Research Institute "NCI is uniquely positioned to conduct this type of study, which is one of a series of NCI precision medicine trials that are helping pave the way for more personalized treatment of cancer," said W. Kimryn Rathmell, M.D., Ph.D., director of NCI. "By making these trials available to patients in communities around the country, we bring cutting edge science to people where they live and ensure that what we learn from our study participants can benefit patients like them in the future." "AML and MDS are a heterogeneous group of cancers that can progress very quickly. Treatment advances depend in part on the ability to rapidly identify which subtype of cancer each patient has so that treatments can be tested for their specific cancer," said Richard F. Little, M.D., of NCI's Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis. Dr. Little is the NCI coordinator for the trial, known as the Myeloid Malignancies Molecular Analysis for Therapy Choice (myeloMATCH). "The goal of myeloMATCH is to test combinations of drugs to treat the disease in a highly targeted way and to be able to start treatment quickly after diagnosis." Initially, people enrolled in the trial with newly diagnosed AML or MDS will undergo rapid genetic testing of their tumor samples. Based on the molecular characteristics of their tumors, they will be matched to a substudy testing a treatment appropriate for the specific genetic changes and characteristics associated with their disease, if one is available, or to standard treatment if an appropriate substudy is not available. If the initial treatment works to reduce a patient's disease, they will undergo further genetic testing to match them to a subsequent substudy testing a treatment that is appropriate for the specific genetic changes associated with their remaining disease. As the amount of a patient's disease decreases, study investigators will use increasingly sensitive tools, such as biomarker assays, to identify appropriate treatments for any remaining cancer cells. The myeloMATCH trial aims to enroll several thousand people within the first few years, with new substudies rolled out over time. Blood and bone marrow samples collected from participants during the course of the trial will be used to develop and refine the assays, as well as understand what genetic changes might be associated with the development of resistance to a treatment. myeloMATCH is being conducted by the National Clinical Trials Network, with the participation of the NCI Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP). Initial substudies will be led by the SWOG Cancer Research Network, the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology, the ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group, and the Canadian Cancer Trials Group. The Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, Fred Hutch Cancer Center, and Children's Hospital Los Angeles will provide clinical laboratory support for the substudies. myeloMATCH is one of three next-generation precision medicine trials that NCI has under way. ComboMATCH is testing the effectiveness of treating adults and children who have relapsed solid tumors with new drug combinations that target specific tumor alterations. ImmunoMATCH has launched a pilot study to determine whether prospective characterization of the immune status of a tumor can be used to improve the response to targeted immunotherapy treatments, with plans to expand to larger studies in the future. All three trials are successors to NCI-MATCH, NCI's groundbreaking precision medicine clinical trial, which showed that people with advanced cancer may benefit from genomic sequencing to help plan their treatment. "When President Biden and the First Lady re-ignited the Cancer Moonshot, they set two clear goals: To prevent more than 4 million cancer deaths by 2047 and to improve the experience of people who are touched by cancer," said Danielle Carnival, deputy assistant to the President for the Cancer Moonshot. "To achieve that goal, the U.S. government is working to expand access to innovative trials like this one, bring targeted new treatments to patients, and, ultimately, save lives." Learn more about myeloMATCH and the substudies that are currently open. About the National Cancer Institute (NCI): NCI leads the National Cancer Program and NIH's efforts to dramatically reduce the prevalence of cancer and improve the lives of cancer patients and their families, through research into prevention and cancer biology, the development of new interventions, and the training and mentoring of new researchers. For more information about cancer, please visit the NCI website at or call NCI's contact center, the Cancer Information Service, at 1-800-4-CANCER (1-800-422-6237). About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit nih.gov. SOURCE NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE WANT YOUR COMPANY'S NEWS FEATURED ON PRNEWSWIRE.COM? 440k+ Newsrooms & Influencers 9k+ Digital Media Outlets 270k+ Journalists Opted In GET STARTED

IRVING, Texas--( BUSINESS WIRE )-- Vizient, Inc. announced top performers in clinical quality, supplier diversity and environmental sustainability excellence. The awards recognize the achievements of participating hospitals and health systems in patient care quality and supply chain excellence and were announced at Vizient Connections Summit Sept. 17 in Las Vegas. “Top performers set a precedent in leadership and culture for other health systems and hospitals to follow," said Byron Jobe , Vizient president and CEO. "We celebrate each of these organizations for their efforts to deliver cost-effective, high-quality patient care in their communities." The Bernard A. Birnbaum, MD, Quality Leadership Award recognizes participating healthcare organizations in four cohorts through the Vizient Quality and Accountability Study, which measures performance on the quality of patient care in six domains: safety, mortality, effectiveness, efficiency, patient centeredness and equity. The study factors in measures from the Vizient Clinical Data Base and includes performance data from the HCAHPS survey and the CDC's National Healthcare Safety Network. Top performers in the comprehensive academic medical center cohort are: NYU Langone Health Rush University Medical Center UC Irvine Medical Center Houston Methodist Hospital Intermountain Medical Center Memorial Hermann - Texas Medical Center UCSF Medical Center Froedtert Health - Froedtert Hospital UC San Diego Health Northwestern Memorial Hospital Mayo Clinic Rochester The University of Kansas Hospital Keck Hospital of USC University of Utah Hospitals and Clinics Top performers in the large, specialized complex care medical center cohort are: St George Regional Hospital Houston Methodist Willowbrook Hospital NYU Langone Hospital - Long Island Cleveland Clinic - Fairview Hospital Baptist Memorial Hospital - North Mississippi ThedaCare Regional Medical Center-Neenah Novant Health Presbyterian Medical Center Memorial Hermann - The Woodlands Hospital Mayo Clinic Health System in Eau Claire NewYork-Presbyterian - Brooklyn Methodist Hospital Mayo Clinic Florida McKay-Dee Hospital Center NYU Langone Hospital - Brooklyn Utah Valley Regional Medical Center Fairview Southdale Hospital Endeavor Health - Evanston Hospital Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital AdventHealth Daytona Beach Top performers in the complex care medical center cohort are: Houston Methodist The Woodlands Hospital Houston Methodist West Houston Hospital Houston Methodist Baytown Hospital Houston Methodist Sugar Land Hospital Northwestern Medicine Delnor Hospital AdventHealth Fish Memorial AdventHealth Palm Coast Odessa Regional Medical Center Northwestern Medicine Lake Forest Hospital The Chester County Hospital and Health System Northwestern Medicine McHenry Hospital ThedaCare Regional Medical Center-Appleton Corewell Health Grosse Pointe Hospital AdventHealth New Smyrna Beach Greenwich Hospital St. Joseph Medical Center Prisma Health Baptist Hospital AdventHealth Celebration The Medical Center of Southeast Texas Saddleback Memorial Medical Center-Laguna Hills Campus UCHealth Highlands Ranch Hospital Stanford Tri-Valley Endeavor Health - Highland Park Hospital Top performers in the community hospital cohort are: Novant Health Mint Hill Medical Center Alta View Hospital Parkview Huntington Hospital Cedar City Hospital Mountain West Medical Center Lehigh Valley Hospital - Hecktown Oaks Parkview Noble Hospital University of Kansas Health Systems - Great Bend Campus Garrett Regional Medical Center Riverton Hospital Parkview Whitley Hospital Corewell Health Zeeland Hospital Fairview Northland Regional Hospital Houston Methodist Clear Lake Hospital Barnes-Jewish West County Hospital Mayo Clinic Health System in Fairmont Prisma Health Hillcrest Hospital Layton Hospital Prisma Health Greer Memorial Hospital OhioHealth O'Bleness Hospital Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin Holy Family Memorial Southeast Georgia Health System-Camden Campus INTEGRIS Grove Hospital Sharon Hospital Baptist Medical Center - Nassau Fairview Lakes Medical Center Integris Miami CHRISTUS Spohn Hospital Beeville The Rising Star Award recognizes academic medical centers that made significant improvement in care quality, measured by a rise in at least 20 positions in the annual Vizient Quality and Accountability Study from the prior year and scoring in the top 25. Rising Stars are: Penn State Health Milton S Hershey Medical Center NewYork-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center University of Chicago Medicine The Vizient Ambulatory Quality and Accountability Award measures the quality of outpatient care in five domains: access to care, continuum of care, quality, efficiency, and equity. The composite scoring system uses patient-level data from the AAMC-Vizient Clinical Practice Solutions Center ® , Vizient Access and Throughput data, as well as data from the Vizient Clinical Data Base. Top performers are: UCLA Health Systems Clinics NYU Langone Health University of Utah Health UCI Health Rush University Medical Group The Vizient Supplier Diversity Excellence Award recognizes provider clients across five cohorts on how they champion inclusion in their supply chain and accelerate economic growth in their local community. Selection criteria is based on contract purchases of minority-, woman-, veteran-, LGBT- and disabled person-owned business enterprises as a percentage of a provider client’s Vizient spend. The top performers are: Comprehensive academic medical center: University of Maryland Medical System Large, specialized complex care medical center: Novant Health Complex care medical center: Memorial Hermann Health System Pediatric cohort: Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia The Environmental Sustainability Excellence Award ranks members across five cohorts on contributions to human and environmental health through responsible purchasing decisions. Ranking is based on the purchase of products that meet Vizient's Environmentally Preferred Purchasing Standard as well as those who commit to the White House-Health and Human Services Health Sector Climate Pledge. The top performers are: Comprehensive academic medical center: Stony Brook University Hospital Large, specialized complex care medical center: Memorial Health Complex care medical center cohort: Legacy Health Community hospitals: Buchanan General Hospital Pediatric: Children’s Hospital Los Angeles About Vizient, Inc. Vizient, Inc. , the nation’s largest provider-driven healthcare performance improvement company, serves more than 65% of the nation’s acute care providers, including 97% of the nation’s academic medical centers, and more than 35% of the non-acute market. The Vizient contract portfolio represents $140 billion in annual purchasing volume enabling the delivery of cost-effective, high-value care. With its acquisition of Kaufman Hall in 2024, Vizient expanded its advisory services to help providers achieve financial, strategic, clinical and operational excellence. Headquartered in Irving, Texas, Vizient has offices throughout the United States. Learn more at www.vizientinc.com .

Pediatric innovation in mental health is the theme of the INVEST Digital Health Pitch Perfect contest at Pegasus Park in Dallas on September 18, held in collaboration with Health Wildcatters. In interviews with executives from The Consortium for Technology & Innovation in Pediatrics and KidsX accelerators, they shared some of the challenges of pediatric mental health and some of the exciting developments in this space. To view the agenda and register for INVEST Digital Health, click here. Deepa Shah is the head of operations and strategy at KidsX, an accelerator run at the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles with a network of 47 member hospitals that help with the applicant vetting process and validating new tech. Shah describes the accelerator’s sweet spot as pre-seed stage to Series A. Mental health is one of the areas of interest in addition to hospital-at-home tech, care journey navigation and triage, health literacy and AI automation. Sponsored Post What Healthcare Can Learn from Costco The path forward is clear: employers must evaluate their health plan the same way they do their Saturday shopping excursion. By Jeff Bak, Imagine360 CEO and President KidsX, launched in 2020, works with member hospitals to refine and validate startups’ technology. Teleo, a telemental health platform for children aged 5-18, is part of the 2024 cohort. It seeks to improve access, quality, and efficiency of mental health care delivery to children. Another cohort company is Welfie, which helps pediatric mental and behavioral health providers to deliver health equity through health education, care planning, monitoring, and wraparound services to improve pediatric population health. Shah noted that last year, KidsX added a research track. “We previously focused on operational pilots but hospital systems wanted to be part of the validation process for early stage companies,” Shah said in a phone interview. Dr. Juan Espinoza is a director and principal investigator with the Consortium for Technology & Innovation in Pediatrics (CTIP). He also serves as Chief Research Informatics Officer for Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute at Lurie Children’s Hospital and Associate Director of the Center for Biomedical Informatics and Data Science at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. In addition, he’s a clinical adviser to KidsX. Espinoza called attention to the mental health crisis in the U.S. and the longstanding taboos around conditions such as ASD and ADHD. “That stigma impacts both patients — their sense of self and their desire to seek help. But it also impacts the healthcare system and what we prioritize.” presented by Sponsored Post The Promise of Value-Based Care and MedTech Innovation Monica Vajani, Executive Director for mHUB’s MedTech Accelerator, discusses how mHUB is helping innovators transition healthcare towards value-based care. By Monica Vajani - mHUB Espinoza identified depression, anxiety, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder and screening for developmental delays as the mental health priorities for pediatrics from a clinical standpoint. Beyond that, wellness and resilience tools are critical to providing children and teens with tools to deal with stress in their lives. “Pediatrics is massively underserved and underfunded, so we look for opportunities to drive pediatric healthcare forward, where we can use our networks, resources and knowledge to catalyze the advancement of a given technology that’s addressing a real need for pediatric populations,” Espinoza said. “That means that our portfolio has everything from Class Three interventional cardiac devices to Class One products that are intended to improve the way that families manage cables and connections with their devices.” One challenge in pediatric innovation is that many of the pediatric health tech and medtech companies KidsX and CTIP work with are relatively young — barely 10 years old at most. Another complexity is identifying the best go-to-market model for these kinds of technologies. Self-pay isn’t a scalable option but it can also be challenging to predict which technologies payers will reimburse. The concept of prescribing digital solutions is still a relatively new one, after all. And self-pay isn’t scalable. Vertically integrated hospitals that have a vested financial interest in making effective low-cost and scalable solutions available to their patients offer one path forward. It can also be tough to generate evidence beyond the research stage because there just hasn’t been enough adoption of pediatric tech. Value-based contracting could also be a promising way to advance the future of pediatric tech adoption. To register for INVEST Digital Health, click here.