A Randomized Controlled Trial to Evaluate an EHR-based PAD Screening Tool

This protocol represents a pilot randomized-controlled trial evaluating the effect of an electronic health record (EHR)-based peripheral artery disease (PAD) screening tool on rates of new non-invasive testing, diagnosis and treatment of PAD over a 6-month period. An EHR-based PAD screening tool will be applied to the Stanford EHR, which will generate a group of patients of varying risks of having undiagnosed PAD. Patients with the highest risk of having undiagnosed PAD will then be evaluated for inclusion in this study. 1:1 randomization will be performed on a consecutive basis until study enrollment is completed (25 patients per arm).

Physicians of patients randomized to the intervention arm will be sent notification via an EHR message detailing the patient's risk of undiagnosed PAD and suggestions for referral to vascular medicine for risk assessment and/or non-invasive ankle brachial index (ABI) testing. The primary outcome is number of patients receiving ABI testing for PAD at 6 months, with secondary outcomes including number of new PAD diagnoses, number of new referrals to cardiovascular specialists (vascular medicine, vascular surgery, and/or cardiology) and number of patients receiving initiation of new cardiovascular medications (anti-platelet agents, statins, and/or antihypertensive agents).