Effects of targeting disease and medication management interventions towards patients with COPD.

OBJECTIVE: Suboptimal adherence in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients is associated with decreased clinical and economic outcomes. Intervention programs, targeted at patients with suboptimal adherence and exacerbations, offer opportunities for cost-effective COPD care. We have aimed to assess the effects of the Medication Monitoring and Optimization (MeMO) targeted COPD intervention. METHODS: Twenty community pharmacies participated in this 1 year real-world study with a pre-test/post-test design. Patients with a physician-confirmed COPD diagnosis, oral corticosteroid use, suboptimal adherence and Clinical COPD Questionnaire (CCQ) score ≥1 were selected by pharmacists. Pharmacy interventions included inhalation instruction, medication information and motivational interviewing regarding adherence and smoking cessation. Proposals for dose, medication and/or inhaler change and physical activity or diet recommendations were discussed with the general practitioner (GP), physiotherapist or dietician, when deemed relevant. Primary endpoint was the change in CCQ score. Secondary outcomes were adherence, exacerbations, healthcare utilization, quality of life (EQ-5D), modified Medical Research Council (mMRC) dyspnea score and cost-effectiveness. RESULTS: Interventions were performed in 88 patients (mean age: 69; 52% male; mean CCQ: 2.10). The most often performed interventions were inhalation instruction (89%), medication education (98%) and adherence counseling (58%). Respectively 9%, 45% and 16% were referred to GP, physiotherapist or dietician. After 1 year, mean CCQ decrement was 0.12 and 38% showed a clinically relevant improvement. There was a significant decrease in exacerbations (-0.82) per patient per year. Adherence, mMRC and EQ-5D hardly changed. Per patient, annual medication costs were €26 higher, interventions cost €33, but total healthcare costs were €333 lower. The small sample size and lack of a control group were the main limitations. CONCLUSION: By specifically targeting COPD patients with potential room for improvement, the MeMO COPD program has the potential to be an effective and cost-saving method for preventing exacerbations. However, no effects on quality of life have been observed. Larger studies are therefore recommended.

Proactive pharmaceutical care interventions decrease patients' nonadherence to osteoporosis medication.

UNLABELLED: Using a protocolled intervention program, pharmacists can decrease nonadherence to osteoporosis medication, by continuous monitoring and tailored counseling sessions, starting at treatment initiation. In the usual care group, 32.8% of patients initiating osteoporosis medication discontinued or were nonadherent, compared to 19.0% of patients in the intervention group. PURPOSE: While community pharmacies have been shown to offer a promising platform for osteoporosis management in patients with osteoporosis, more research is needed to determine pharmacists' effects on improving adherence. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of a community pharmacists' intervention program on the 1-year discontinuation and nonadherence rates of patients initiating osteoporosis medication. METHODS: This intervention study included 937 patients, recruited from 13 Dutch community pharmacies, initiating osteoporosis medication. The intervention group (N = 495), received the Medication Monitoring and Optimization (MeMO) intervention, comprising of continuous monitoring of patients' adherence to their osteoporosis medication and tailored counseling sessions with nonadherent patients. Results were compared to an internal (n = 442) reference group, receiving usual pharmacy care. Primary study outcomes were therapy discontinuation and nonadherence; results were adjusted for potential confounders using Cox proportional hazard analysis. Secondary outcome was patients' satisfaction. RESULTS: In the usual care group, 32.8% of patients initiating osteoporosis medication discontinued or were nonadherent, compared to 19.0% of patients in the intervention group (P < 0.001). Ninety-three percent of the respondents were satisfied with the pharmacies' services provided. Notably, 31% mentioned that the pharmacy was the only place where they received information on various aspects of administration and acting of their medication. CONCLUSION: Pharmacists can decrease nonadherence and discontinuation with osteoporosis medication by providing tailored counseling sessions and continuous monitoring of drug use. Pharmaceutical care programs, such as MeMO, contribute to more optimal use of osteoporosis medication.

The pharmacists' potential to provide targets for interventions to optimize pharmacotherapy in patients with asthma.

BACKGROUND: Despite of pharmacists' specialized knowledge of medication and his/her regular contact with patients, the expertise of the pharmacist may not be used enough yet. Furthermore, the potential of pharmacy dispensing data is underestimated. OBJECTIVE: To provide targets for tailored interventions in asthma patients and to illustrate the potential value of pharmacists in the identification of these targets using individual pharmacy dispensing data. SETTING: We performed a cross sectional retrospective analysis assessing the quality of asthma patients' pharmacotherapeutic treatment. METHOD: Drug dispensing data from 2008 to 2009 were retrieved from a Dutch pharmacy database. All asthma patients were screened for potential suboptimal pharmacotherapy in 2009. Results were projected to a single community pharmacy to provide an estimate of the number of patients eligible for potential interventions. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: (1) frequent use of short-acting ß-agonists without preventive medication, (2) concomitant use of ß-blockers, (3) multiple short courses of oral corticosteroids without using inhaled corticosteroids and 4) use of long-acting ß-agonist without inhaled corticosteroids. RESULTS: A total of 8,504 patients were eligible for analysis of the quality of their asthma treatment. 20.9 % of all asthma patients used >100 DDD short-acting ß-agonists per year, whereas between 21.2 % (≥ 400 DDD) and 31.4 % (100-199 DDD) of these patients did not receive preventive medication. Approximately 5.2 % of the asthma patients are using ß-blockers concomitantly and 21.8 % of them received non-cardioselective ß-blockers. 6.3 % of the asthma patients received two or more oral courses of corticosteroids in 2008 and 17.4 % of these patients did not receive inhaled corticosteroids in 2009. 2.9 % of the patients used a long-acting ß-agonists without inhaled corticosteroids. 8.4 % of the asthma patients using both long-acting ß-agonists and inhaled corticosteroids received these drugs in two separate inhalers. We estimated that about 400 asthma patients could be identified in an average pharmacy population (8,000 patients) and 33 (95 % CI 22-44) of these patients would be eligible for interventions. CONCLUSION: This study shows the potential for pharmacists to use their own pharmacy records to identify suboptimal therapy of asthma patients, who may be targets for tailored interventions.