Publications by authors named "Ervant J Maksabedian Hernandez"

Objective: To describe patients' perspectives on the burden associated with methotrexate (MTX) or tumor necrosis factor inhibitor (TNFi) use in psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Methods: Between May 2019 and March 2020, patients receiving MTX and/or a TNFi for either PsA or RA were randomly sampled from the FORWARD data bank and were invited to participate in semistructured telephone interviews. Interviews explored patients' perspectives on treatment burden and experiences with MTX and TNFi and were conducted until data saturation was achieved.

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Objective: To examine the prevalence of side effects with methotrexate (MTX) and tumor necrosis factor inhibitors (TNFi) among patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Methods: This retrospective analysis, conducted between January 2000 and January 2019, used data from the FORWARD databank. Adult patients enrolled in the registry with self-reported and physician-confirmed diagnosis of PsA or RA were included if they had completed at least one questionnaire before initiating and within 12 months following initiation of MTX or a TNFi.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study aimed to analyze how the introduction of biosimilars affects the prices, usage, and spending on targeted immune modulators (TIMs) for rheumatoid arthritis between 2013 and 2019.
  • Results showed that higher biosimilar uptake led to significant price drops for TIMs, with molecules having over 60% biosimilar uptake seeing price reductions between 21.2% and 59.3% after exclusivity milestones.
  • The findings suggest that while biosimilars can reduce costs significantly for medications like adalimumab, effective market dynamics and formulary placements will be essential to maximize these savings for patients and payers.
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Objective: To evaluate the predictive performance of logistic and linear regression versus machine learning (ML) algorithms to identify patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) treated with target immunomodulators (TIMs) using only pharmacy administrative claims.

Methods: Adults aged 18-64 years with ≥1 TIM claim in the IBM MarketScan commercial database were included in this retrospective analysis. The predictive ability of logistic regression to identify RA patients was compared with supervised ML classification algorithms including random forest (RF), decision trees, linear support vector machines (SVMs), neural networks, naïve Bayes classifier, linear discriminant analysis (LDA), quadratic discriminant analysis (QDA), and K-nearest neighbors (k-NN).

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Article Synopsis
  • - This study aimed to analyze the treatment approaches and healthcare costs for patients with newly diagnosed psoriatic arthritis, using data from the IBM MarketScan databases, and assessed how these factors varied by provider specialty.
  • - The research included 2,132 patients, primarily treated by rheumatologists, who favored oral medications like methotrexate, while dermatologists more often prescribed biologics, leading to higher unadjusted healthcare costs for dermatology care compared to rheumatology.
  • - Despite the differences observed in treatment patterns and initial costs, further analysis indicated that the type of healthcare provider did not significantly influence the overall healthcare costs when accounting for patient characteristics.
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Objectives: We examined patient-reported outcomes (PROs) in The Study of Etanercept And Methotrexate in Patients with Psoriatic Arthritis (PsA); a 48-week, phase 3, randomised controlled trial that compared outcomes with methotrexate (MTX) monotherapy, etanercept monotherapy, and MTX+ etanercept in patients with PsA.

Methods: Efficacy endpoints included: mean changes from baseline and proportion of patients who reported improvements≥minimal clinically important difference (MCID) at week 24 in treatment groups for Health Assessment Questionnaire-Disability Index, Patient Global Assessment (PtGA), Patient Global Assessment of Joint Pain (PtGAJP) and Medical Outcomes Study Short Form-36 Questionnaire (SF-36) Physical Component Summary (PCS), and Mental Component Summary, and eight domain scores. PROs were analysed as reported (observed), without multiplicity adjustment; therefore, p values are descriptive.

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Background: Patients with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis (RA) occasionally increase their doses of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors, especially the monoclonal antibody origin drugs such as adalimumab and infliximab, after inadequate response to the initial dose. Previous studies have evaluated the cost-effectiveness of various sequences of treatment for RA in the United States but have not considered the effect of dose escalation.

Objective: To assess the cost-effectiveness of etanercept and adalimumab by incorporating the effect of dose escalation in moderate to severe RA patients.

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Objectives: Pharmacologic treatment for psoriatic arthritis (PsA) includes traditional oral small molecules (OSMs), tumor necrosis factor inhibitors (TNFis), and newer oral therapies such as a phosphodiesterase-4 (PDE4) inhibitor and a Janus kinase inhibitor. We aimed to describe treatment patterns and health care costs for treatment-naïve patients with active PsA initiating pharmacologic treatment.

Study Design: This was an observational, retrospective study.

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Background: Targeted immunomodulators (TIMs) are used for the treatment of moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and include biologic and nonbiologic medications with different mechanisms of action. Data describing disease activity levels in RA are not directly available in claims databases but can be determined using a claims-based effectiveness algorithm. Rheumatology has benefited from the recent introduction of new drugs, many with new mechanisms of action.

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This systematic review addresses the question: What are the effects of medication-assisted treatment (MAT) that use buprenorphine, buprenorphine combined with naloxone, methadone, or naltrexone for opioid use disorder (OUD) on functional outcomes compared with wait-list, placebo, treatment without medication, any other comparator, or each other (e.g., buprenorphine versus naltrexone)? Functional outcomes investigated included cognitive (e.

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