The American Journal of Medicine Launches Hepatitis C Resource Center

NEW YORK, November 14, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --

Survey Finds Majority of Primary Care Physicians Lack Confidence in Screening HCV Patients

The American Journal of Medicine (AJM) announces the availability of an original, comprehensive, online Hepatitis C Resource Center dedicated to providing primary care providers and specialists with the latest information on the screening, diagnosis, treatment and management of Hepatitis C (HCV). Elsevier, a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, publishes AJM.

In a survey of primary care physicians (PCPs) who had screened and/or cared for HCV patients within the last six months, 60 percent confirmed they were not very confident or only somewhat confident when screening patients for chronic HCV infection. AJM and Elsevier Multimedia Publishing commissioned the survey, which was conducted by Metrics for Learning, LLC.

"The mandate for population-based screening and the lack of confidence of PCPs to screen highlights an opportunity that can be addressed in our healthcare system by appropriate education," said Edward Lebovics, MD, FACP, AGAF, FACG, FAASLD, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatobiliary Diseases at New York Medical College. Dr. Lebovics is guest editor of the Resource Center.

The survey found that PCPs have misconceptions about who to screen, the risk of progression of liver disease and available therapies. Dr. Lebovics emphasized the shortage of educational resources to provide healthcare practitioners with the latest information on the screening, diagnosis, treatment and management of HCV.

AJM was encouraged to establish the Resource Center based on the current initiatives focusing on HCV screening and diagnosis, along with the advent of oral interferon (IFN)-free treatment regimens that will be published in AJM's November issue. 

About 4.1 million persons in the U.S. are infected with HCV. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force published screening recommendations for those born between 1945 and 1965, with several states including New York, Colorado, Connecticut and Massachusetts passing legislation regarding implementation of these recommendations.

The AJM Resource Center site has two major channels:

• One channel has been tailored to address the needs of internal medicine physicians and other PCPs.
• The second channel addresses needs of specialists including hepatologists, gastroenterologists and infectious disease specialists.

In addition, the Resource Center features a video message from Dr. Bryce Smith, a research health scientist at the CDC in Atlanta, Ga. Dr. Smith currently leads the Prevention Research and Evaluation Team in the CDC's Division of Viral Hepatitis and also serves as CDC liaison to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force for HCV-related recommendations. 

"There is a progressive increase in HCV-associated morbidity and mortality in the U.S. that needs to be addressed now. It is anticipated that PCPs and community practices will become increasingly responsible for the screening, diagnosis, treatment, and management of infected patients, as well as for providing access to care by specialists when needed," said Joseph Alpert, MD, AJM's Editor-in-Chief. "The educational programs, articles, and guidelines contained in this Resource Center are readily available to provide increasingly invaluable HCV disease-state and clinical knowledge to all healthcare providers in hospital- and community-based settings."

For more information and access to the AJM Resource Center, please visit http://hepcresource.amjmed.com.

The study, "Screening, Diagnosis, Treatment, and Management of Hepatitis C: A Novel, Comprehensive, Online Resource Center for Primary Care Providers and Specialists," by Dr. Lebovics and Klara Czobor, can be found at http://www.amjmed.com/article/S0002-9343(14)00888-2/fulltext.

About The American Journal of Medicine 

The "Green Journal" publishes original clinical research of interest to physicians in internal medicine, both in academia and community-based practice. The American Journal of Medicine is the official journal of the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine, a prestigious group comprised of chairs of departments of internal medicine at more than 125 medical schools across the country. Each issue carries useful reviews as well as seminal articles of immediate interest to the practicing physician, including peer-reviewed, original scientific studies that have direct clinical significance, and position papers on health care issues, medical education, and public policy. The journal's ISI factor - the international measure of cited manuscripts and scientific impact - is fourteenth in the world among all general medical journals.  The Editor-in-Chief is Joseph Alpert, MD.

About Elsevier 

Elsevier is a world-leading provider of information solutions that enhance the performance of science, health, and technology professionals, empowering them to make better decisions, deliver better care, and sometimes make groundbreaking discoveries that advance the boundaries of knowledge and human progress. Elsevier provides web-based, digital solutions - among them ScienceDirect, Scopus, Elsevier Research Intelligence and ClinicalKey - and publishes nearly 2,200 journals, including The Lancet and Cell, and over 25,000 book titles, including a number of iconic reference works.

The company is part of Reed Elsevier Group PLC, a world-leading provider of professional information solutions in the Science, Medical, Legal and Risk and Business sectors, which is jointly owned by Reed Elsevier PLC and Reed Elsevier NV. The ticker symbols are REN (Euronext Amsterdam), REL (London Stock Exchange), RUK and ENL (New York Stock Exchange).

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Elsevier
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