Estimate the impact of notifying both patients and their clinicians of the presence of incidental coronary artery calcium (CAC) on initiation of lipid-lowering therapy in patients with ASCVD who are not receiving lipid-lowering therapy.
This is a randomized quality improvement (QI) project evaluating the impact of notifying patients and their clinicians (primary care, cardiologists, neurologists, or vascular surgeon) of incidental CAC detected on a prior chest CT scan. Patients will be identified by screening previous non-gated chest CT scans and electronic health records. The presence of CAC will be confirmed by a radiologist. Eligible patients will be randomized to: 1) notification of presence of CAC with a CT scan image; 2) notification of presence of CAC without a CT scan image; 3) or usual care.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
DOUBLE
Enrollment
233
Notification Patients randomized to notification will receive a message sent by either the electronic health record (EHR) patient portal or US mail that will inform them of the CAC identified on their previous chest CT scan (with or without an image) and a recommendation that they discuss this finding and initiation of lipid-lowering therapy with their clinician. The clinicians will be notified of these findings by an earlier EHR message that will be sent 2 weeks before the patient notification. Two months after the initial notification, patients and their clinicians who are randomized to notification arms will receive a second message similar to the initial notification.
Stanford University
Stanford, California, United States
Initiation of lipid-lowering therapy
Number of patients who had initiation of lipid-lowering therapy
Time frame: Month 6
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