An EHR program that cut cardiac deaths by 73 percent has also kept patients healthy two years later, according to a new study.
The Kaiser Permanente program in Denver linked coronary artery disease patients and teams of pharmacists, nurses, primary care doctors and cardiologists with an electronic health record to help keep the patients healthy two years after they left the program by keeping them in touch with their caregivers electronically, according to a randomized study.
The study, which was funded by the American College of Clinical Pharmacy, is published in The American Journal of Managed Care this month. It is the first randomized study to evaluate a follow-up system for patients discharged from a cardiovascular risk reduction service, researchers said.
The Clinical Pharmacy Cardiac Risk Service at Kaiser Permanente Colorado combines Kaiser Permanente's HealthConnect EHR with patient outreach, education, lifestyle adjustments and medication management.
The two-year randomized trial of 421 patients found that patients discharged from the program kept their lipid and blood pressure levels at controlled, healthy levels by receiving electronic reminders.
From: "Study places EHRs at core of saving cardiac patients' lives | Healthcare IT News."
1 comment:
Are we building a health IT Tower of Babel? Overlooked in most of the electronic health records discussion is the potential for population-level analysis -- finding healthcare patterns and measuring quality and improvement over time. Only if systems work together via data exchanges or other data pooling can we get the most out of our EHR investment. More information http://www.healthcaretownhall.com/?cat=3
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