| Automatically Reminding Providers to Intensify Hypertension Therapy
Who is the intervention targeting?
Providers of African American and Hispanic patients with cardiovascular disease
What intervention is being evaluated?
A computerized decision support system that reminds physicians to intensify hypertension therapy when a patient has uncontrolled hypertension.
Where is this intervention taking place?
A network of 14 primary care clinics that are part of a non-profit, academic medical center with an integrated longitudinal electronic medical record system that requires providers to write any outpatient prescriptions electronically.
Lead Organization
Brigham and Women's Hospital
Why might this approach work?
Racial and ethnic differences in blood pressure outcomes may be largely attributed to differences in providers' aggressiveness in managing patients with hypertension based on patients' race and ethnicity. A prior study aimed at reducing these disparities found that reminding providers about appropriate medication class prescribing for hypertension was not enough to improve health outcomes. This intervention goes one step further to help providers overcome clinical inertia. At the time they open a patient's record at an office visit, providers will be notified to intensify their patient's anti-hypertensive therapy if the patient's most recent blood pressure is poorly controlled.
How will this intervention be evaluated?
This project will evaluate the intervention using an 18 month cluster-randomized controlled trial to examine the effectiveness of computerized decision support prompted therapy recommendations on:
Principal Investigator:
LeRoi S. Hicks, MD, MPH
Assistant Professor, Brigham and Women's Hospital
|
