Monitoring and Adjustment of Medication Therapy for Patients With Heart Disease

Overview

Existing trials for the patient with coronary heart disease evaluate the interdisciplinary team dynamic where pharmacists (pharmacotherapists) provide therapeutic recommendations in the inpatient environment. To our knowledge, only other trial has evaluated the addition of a pharmacist (or nurse practitioner) in an outpatient collaborative cardiology practice and has found no benefit. However, the investigators believe that since a cardiology based pharmacist (pharmacotherapist) in the Veterans Health Administration has physical assessment skills, a shorter cycle length between appointments, and the ability to provide medication therapy management, the pharmacotherapist should be similarly successful as seen with other pharmacist based medication therapy management practices. The investigators will assess effectiveness by using the combined endpoint of blood pressure and lipid treatment. Additionally the investigators will conduct three substudies to evaluate if the pharmacist can improve all cause mortality and cardiovascular morbidity, adherence to antihypertensives, and patient satisfaction.

Existing trials for the patient with coronary heart disease evaluate the interdisciplinary team dynamic where pharmacists (pharmacotherapists) provide therapeutic recommendations in the inpatient environment. To our knowledge, only other trial has evaluated the addition of a pharmacist (or nurse practitioner) in an outpatient collaborative cardiology practice and has found no benefit. However, the investigators believe that since a cardiology based pharmacist (pharmacotherapist) in the Veterans Health Administration has physical assessment skills, a shorter cycle length between appointments, and the ability to provide medication therapy management, the pharmacotherapist should be similarly successful as seen with other pharmacist based medication therapy management practices. The investigators will assess effectiveness by using the combined endpoint of blood pressure and lipid treatment. Additionally the investigators will conduct three substudies to evaluate if the pharmacist can improve all cause mortality and cardiovascular morbidity, adherence to antihypertensives, and patient satisfaction. This is a randomized study comparing the use of a medication therapy management clinic improves cardiac risk factors and recurrent hospitalization in patients admitted with an acute coronary syndrome. 100 subjects will be enrolled as a minimum. Patients will be randomized to usual care or enrollment in the MTM clinic where they will be seen every two months for 8 months. The primary endpoint is blood pressure and lipid changes. Secondary endpoints include satisfaction with pharmacists, medication habit changes, recurrent events.