Andrea Bailey, PharmD, BCOPa; Morgane Diven, PharmD, BCOPa; Joseph R. Salvatore, MDa
Correspondence: Joseph Salvatore (joseph.salvatore@va.gov)
aDivision of Hematology/Oncology, Carl T. Hayden Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Phoenix, Arizona
Author disclosures
The authors report no actual or potential conflicts of interest or outside sources of funding with regard to this article.
Disclaimer
The opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of Federal Practitioner, Frontline Medical Communications Inc., the US Government, or any of its agencies. This article may discuss unlabeled or investigational use of certain drugs. Please review the complete prescribing information for specific drugs or drug combinations—including indications, contraindications, warnings, and adverse effects—before administering pharmacologic therapy to patients.
Ethics and consent
The Division of Research at the Carl T. Hayden Veterans Affairs Medical Center determined that informed consent was not required for this work.
Patients with endocrinology diagnoses were the most likely to use MMFCs but were a very small percentage of the infusion center population, which could skew the data. The surveyed individuals may not have been representative of the overall patient population. Similarly, the patient population at CTHVAMC, which is primarily male and aged ≥ 66 years, may not be representative of other veteran and nonveteran patient populations.
Conclusions
MMFC devices are being used regularly by patients as a form of CAM therapy, but few studies researching the use of CAM therapy have generated data that are as specific as this study is about the use of these MMFC devices. Although there is considerable general public awareness of MMFC therapies and devices, we believe that there is a need to quantify the use of these devices. We further believe that our study is one of the first to look specifically at the use of MMFCs in a veteran population. We have found a considerable use of MMFCs in the veteran population studied, and we also showed that whether or not veterans are using these devices, they are willing to be part of research that uses the devices. Further studies would look at a more general veteran population, look more in depth at the way and for what purpose these devices are being used, and consider the development of clinical research studies that use MMFCs.
