Comparative effectiveness of pharmacist care delivery models for hepatitis C clinics.

PURPOSE: The optimal health care delivery models for providing services to patients with infections caused by hepatitis C virus (HCV) remain unknown. Pharmacist involvement may be a key component of optimal HCV care delivery. We examined the comparative effectiveness of a pharmacist-managed HCV clinic versus a pharmacist-assisted HCV clinic. METHODS: This retrospective cohort study used electronic health record data on patients ≥18 years old initiating HCV treatment at a pharmacist-managed clinic or a pharmacist-assisted clinic within a single health-system between January 2015 and June 2017. Outcomes included treatment completion, sustained virologic response 12 weeks following treatment completion (SVR-12), and dispensation of direct-acting antiviral agents at the institution-based specialty pharmacy. Inverse probability of treatment-weighted (IPTW) logistic regression models were used to compare outcomes between the 2 clinic models. RESULTS: A total of 127 patients initiated HCV treatment therapy: 64 patients from the pharmacist-managed clinic and 63 patients from the pharmacist-assisted clinic. The cohort had a mean age of 55 years, was 51% male, and 68% white. In IPTW analyses, there was no difference in treatment completion (odds ratio [OR], 1.1; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.1-13.8; p = 0.93), achievement of sustained virologic response at 12 months (SVR-12) (OR, 1.0; 95% CI, 0.2-4.5; p = 0.62), or use of institution-based specialty pharmacy (OR, 0.6; 95% CI, 0.2-1.7; p = 0.33) between pharmacist-managed and pharmacist-assisted clinics. CONCLUSION: There were no significant differences in outcomes between patients receiving care at the pharmacist-managed HCV clinic and the pharmacist-assisted clinic. Given the frequency of SVR-12 achieved in both groups, both pharmacist-managed and pharmacist-assisted clinic models may be reasonable alternatives for providing outpatient HCV care.

Outcomes of "diabetes-friendly" vs "diabetes-unfriendly" ß-blockers in older nursing home residents with diabetes after acute myocardial infarction.

AIMS: To assess whether nursing home (NH) residents with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) preferentially received "T2D-friendly" (vs "T2D-unfriendly") ß-blockers after acute myocardial infarction (AMI), and to evaluate the comparative effects of the two groups of ß-blockers. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This new-user retrospective cohort study of NH residents with AMI from May 2007 to March 2010 used national data from the Minimum Data Set and Medicare system. T2D-friendly ß-blockers were those hypothesized to increase peripheral glucose uptake through vasodilation: carvedilol, nebivolol and labetalol. Primary outcomes were hospitalizations for hypoglycaemia and hyperglycaemia in the 90 days after AMI. Secondary outcomes were functional decline, death, all-cause re-hospitalization and fracture hospitalization. We compared outcomes using binomial and multinomial logistic regression models after propensity score matching. RESULTS: Of 2855 NH residents with T2D, 29% initiated a T2D-friendly ß-blocker vs 24% of 6098 without T2D (P < 0.001). For primary outcomes among residents with T2D, T2D-friendly vs T2D-unfriendly ß-blockers were associated with a reduction in hospitalized hyperglycaemia (odds ratio [OR] 0.45, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.21-0.97), but unassociated with hypoglycaemia (OR 2.05, 95% CI 0.82-5.10). For secondary outcomes, T2D-friendly ß-blockers were associated with a greater rate of re-hospitalization (OR 1.26, 95% CI 1.01-1.57), but not death (OR 1.06, 95% CI 0.85-1.32), functional decline (OR 0.91, 95% CI 0.70-1.19), or fracture (OR 1.69, 95% CI 0.40-7.08). CONCLUSIONS: In older NH residents with T2D, T2D-friendly ß-blocker use was associated with a lower rate of hospitalization for hyperglycaemia, but a higher rate of all-cause re-hospitalization.