Outcomes/Effectiveness Research

Blood pressure control persists after physician-pharmacist intervention ends

One of the most successful strategies for controlling blood pressure (BP) is a team-based approach using a physician-pharmacist collaborative model. Patients treated with this approach sustain blood pressure control as long as 18 months after the intervention ends, according to a new study. The Iowa-based study found significantly higher BP control in the 82 patients receiving the physician-pharmacist intervention than the 146 patients in the control group up to 18 months after the intervention. At the end of the 6-month intervention, the overall difference in BP control between the 2 groups was 32 percent; after 18 months, this difference remained at 31 percent.

In the intervention group, pharmacists were encouraged to assess medications and BP at baseline, at one month, by telephone at 3 months, and more frequently as necessary. For patients whose BP was not controlled, pharmacists recommended to the physician an adjustment to their antihypertensive medication. Pharmacists did not provide additional care to the patients in the control group. At 18 months after the intervention, 67.1 percent of the intervention patients and 36.3 percent of the control patients had blood pressure control. The researchers conclude that there is prolonged benefit on BP from a pharmacist intervention. The study was supported in part by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (HS16094).

See "Sustained blood pressure control following discontinuation of a pharmacist intervention," by Danielle M. Wentzlaff, Pharm.D., Barry L. Carter, Pharm.D., Gail Ardery, Ph.D., and others in the Journal of Clinical Hypertension 13, pp. 431-437, 2011.

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