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CareDx’s HeartCare Multimodality Service Receives Medicare Coverage for Heart Transplant Surveillance

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AUGUST, 02, 2023

HeartCare Combines Testing Using Both AlloMap Gene Expression Profiling and AlloSure Donor-Derived Cell-Free DNA

BRISBANE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– CareDx, Inc. (Nasdaq: CDNA), a leading precision medicine company focused on the discovery, development, and commercialization of clinically differentiated, high-value healthcare solutions for transplant patients and caregivers – today announced Medicare coverage for HeartCare, a multimodality testing service that includes both AlloMap® Heart and AlloSure® Heart, in a given patient encounter, for heart transplant surveillance. Coverage is effective April 1, 2023. AlloMap Heart and AlloSure Heart are also covered by Medicare individually. Read the complete press release on CareDx.com.

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A Million Lives Saved and Counting

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For each organ transplanted in the U.S., Richmond’s UNOS makes it possible.

By Caroline Kettlewell

Heather James spent much of her young life fighting to breathe. Born with cystic fibrosis, she was losing that fight by the time she’d reached 19. In November of that year, with her lung function at barely 15 percent, her doctors “didn’t think I was going to make it to the New Year,” she recalls.

Then a stranger saved her life. Heather would never meet the woman who gave her a new pair of lungs, a liver, and a second chance at life. It was a gift that Heather, now 29, honors every day. Read the full story in
Virginia Living.

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Just a few minutes of vigorous physical activity a day significantly reduces cancer risk

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By Matthew Shinkle

Small amounts of vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity appeared associated with lower risk for cancer, according to a study published in JAMA Oncology.

“Even though study participants were not doing any structured exercise, about 94% recorded some vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity; 92% was done in very short bursts lasting up to 1 minute,” Emmanuel Stamatakis, PhD, MSc, BSc, professor of physical activity, lifestyle and population health at the School of Health Sciences at The University of Sydney, told Healio. Read the full article in Healio.

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Kidney Transplants From HIV-Positive Patients Likely To Save Lives

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By Judy Stone

A new study in Lancet showed that it is safe for HIV + people to be living kidney donors. People living with HIV (PLWH) have long faced stigma and discrimination. The new report shows that donors do not face a higher risk of end-stage kidney disease. This was a concern because PLWH have a higher likelihood of kidney disease from their HIV itself, and antiretroviral (anti-HIV) medicines carry kidney and liver toxicities.
Read the complete article in Forbes.

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How a heart transplant brought 2 moms together — and led them to ‘America’s Got Talent’

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By Lottie Elizabeth Johnson

Most contestants who go on “America’s Got Talent” have the same aspiration: They want to achieve stardom.

For many of the acts on the competition show — whether it’s singing or dancing or ventriloquism or magic — the “AGT” audition is a major stepping stone on the path to success and fame. Read the full story in Yahoo Entertainment.

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UW Medicine surgeons saved a patient with dual-organ transplant

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By Lily Ramsey, LLM

Doctors in Seattle are reporting a history-making case in which a patient received two donor organs, a liver and a heart, to prevent the extreme likelihood that her body would reject a donor heart transplanted alone. In this innovative case, the organ recipient’s own healthy liver was transplanted, domino-like, into a second patient who had advanced liver disease.

The dual-organ recipient, Adriana Rodriguez, 31, of Bellingham, Washington, has recovered well since the Jan. 14, 2023, procedures, said Dr. Shin Lin, a cardiologist at the UW Medicine Heart Institute.
Read the complete article in News Medical Life Sciences.

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Those who engage in creative activities report better mental health

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By Kate Young

A poll found that people who engage in creative activities are more likely to report better mental health, according to a press release from the American Psychiatric Association.

According to July’s Healthy Minds Monthly Poll, which surveyed 2,202 adults from June 15 to June 18, 46% of Americans use creative activities to review stress or anxiety, and those who rate their mental health as very good or excellent are more likely to engage in creative activity more often than those who rate their mental health as fair or poor.
Read the full article in Healio.

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Another HIV Patient Possibly Cured With Stem Cell Transplant

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— But this case is unique, researchers say

By Ed Susman

BRISBANE, Australia — Another HIV patient has been off antiretroviral medication for 20 months without detectable HIV levels after he underwent stem cell transplant to treat cancer — but, unlike previous “cures,” this patient’s donor stem cells did not have the mutation that confers resistance to HIV. Read the full story in MedPage Today.

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Transplant May Be Reasonable for Certain CRC Patients With Liver Mets

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— OS rates could be over 80% depending on clinical predictive factors

By Mike Bassett

For a select group of patients with colorectal cancer and unresectable liver metastases, liver transplant may be a reasonable option, according to results from a prospective, nonrandomized controlled cohort study.

Overall, among 61 patients who underwent liver transplant, the median disease-free survival (DFS) was 11.8 months (95% CI 9.3-14.2), with a 5-year DFS rate of 18.3%, and the median overall survival (OS) was 60.3 months (95% CI 44.3-76.4), with a 5-year OS rate of 50.4%, reported Svein Dueland, MD, PhD, of Oslo University Hospital in Norway, and colleagues. Read the full article in MedPage Today.

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Race-specific approach to spirometry disadvantages Black patients

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By Elana Gotkine

A race-specific approach to spirometry interpretation results in a lower lung allocation score (LAS) for Black patients and a higher LAS for White patients, according to a study published online May 26 in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society.

J. Henry Brems, M.D., from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, and colleagues examined the impact of a race-specific versus race-neutral approach to spirometry interpretation on LAS among 8,982 adults (90.3 percent White; 9.7 percent Black) listed for lung transplant in the United States between Jan. 7, 2009, and Feb. 18, 2015. At listing, the LAS was calculated using a race-specific and race-neutral approach. Read more in Medical Xpress.

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