Improving Antihypertensive and Lipid-Lowering Therapy

Not Applicable

• Conditions: Hyperlipidemia; Hypertension
• Interventions: Other: Clinical Decision Support for Hypertension; Other: Clinical Decision Support for Lipid-lowering Therapy; Other: Automated Telephone Outreach for Antihypertensive Therapy; Other: Automated Telephone Outreach for Lipid-lowering Therapy

• Registration Number: NCT00876330
• Lead Sponsor: VA Boston Healthcare System

Brief Summary

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of electronic health record clinical decision support and automated telephone outreach on antihypertensive and lipid-lowering therapy in ambulatory care.

Detailed Description

The quality of care delivered in physicians' offices is suboptimal. Underuse of proven, potentially life-saving medications, such as anti-hypertensive agents and statins for lipid-lowering, is unfortunately no exception. Data from more than 70 million people collected for the 2005 HEDIS Report Card show that fewer than half of those patients at high risk for myocardial infarction have adequately controlled lipids and fewer than 70% of patients with hypertension have blood pressure controlled; annually this suboptimal treatment accounts for more than 10,000 avoidable deaths, $333 million in avoidable hospital costs, 27.2 million sick days and $4.5 billion in lost productivity.

The "care-gaps" in the management of blood pressure and lipids arise from numerous barriers to optimal practice at the level of the system, the provider, and the patient. Process evaluations of quality improvement efforts have cited several barriers as the most important: inadequate time, resources, and support; limitations in computer technology, including insufficient information management; little use of formal change processes; too many competing priorities; a lack of agreement about the desired changes; and inadequate physician engagement.

Both computerized clinical decision support (CDS) in the context of a robust electronic health record (EHR) and automated telephone outreach to patients with interactive voice recognition (IVR) to patients are promising interventions to overcome the barriers that physicians and patients encounter in treating hypertension and hyperlipidemia. While recent studies have begun to demonstrate the effectiveness of CDS in the ambulatory setting, there is an urgent need to implement and evaluate these systems in the practices of physicians practicing solo or in small groups in the community, outside the extensive HIT infrastructure of academic medical centers and integrated delivery systems.

IVR is a patient-outreach intervention that involves automated telephone calls to patients to patients in a conversation about specific health-related issues. Randomized control trials (RCTs) have shown that IVR monitoring with clinician follow-up can improve self-care, perceived health status, and physiologic outcomes among individuals with diabetes and hypertension.

The specific aim of this project is to evaluate, the effectiveness of CDS alone compared to IVR to improve the use of antihypertensive and lipid-lowering medications in community-based primary care practices.

Study Timeline

• Study First Submitted: 2009-04-03
• Study First Submitted QC: 2009-04-03
• Study First Posted: 2009-04-06
• Study Start: 2009-05
• Status Verified: 2012-09
• Last Update Submitted: 2012-09-19
• Last Update Posted: 2012-09-20
• Primary Completion: 2012-12
• Study Completion: 2013-03

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: UNKNOWN
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 6000

Inclusion Criteria

• MDs, NPs, PAs, or DOs practicing in primary care or medical subspecialties and using eClinical Works EHR
• Patients of eligible physicians who have hypertension or hyperlipidemia

Exclusion Criteria

Not provided

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: FACTORIAL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
1	Clinical Decision Support for Hypertension	Receives Hypertension and Hyperlipidemia Intervention using Clinical Decision Support.
1	Automated Telephone Outreach for Antihypertensive Therapy	Receives Hypertension and Hyperlipidemia Intervention using Clinical Decision Support.
2	Clinical Decision Support for Lipid-lowering Therapy	Receives Hypertension and Hyperlipidemia Intervention with automated telephone outreach.
2	Automated Telephone Outreach for Lipid-lowering Therapy	Receives Hypertension and Hyperlipidemia Intervention with automated telephone outreach.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
The main outcome measure will be the proportion of patients at treatment goal.	Baseline and 6 months