Michael D Murray

..To assess the effects of evidence-based treatment suggestions for hypertension made to physicians and pharmacists using a comprehensive electronic medical record system...

..As such, pharmacoepidemiologists should have a central role in curricular design and provision of the necessary training for needed comparative effectiveness researchers within the realm of pharmaceutical sciences...

..Further research is needed to address the key supportive roles of pharmacists in the treatment of patients with heart failure...

..However, many major improvements in medication use among older adults will also depend on closing the gap between knowledge and practice and increasing the ability of older adults to manage their medications...

..Adults aged > or =50 years often have multiple chronic diseases requiring multiple medications. However, even drugs with well-documented benefits are often not taken as prescribed, for a variety of reasons...

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..However, patients may not adhere to therapy. Patients with complex medication regimens and low health literacy are at risk for nonadherence...

..Translation of evidence-based guidelines into clinical practice has been inconsistent. We performed a randomized, controlled trial of guideline-based care suggestions delivered to physicians when writing orders on computer workstations...

..Electronic information systems have been proposed as one means to reduce medical errors of commission (doing the wrong thing) and omission (not providing indicated care)...

..The evaluation involves a randomized controlled trial in two inner-city group practices, as well as a statewide observational design. This article describes the ICDMP, highlights challenges, and discusses approaches to its evaluation...

..Our aim is to share these public-domain materials with other programmes...

..Self-reported and refill adherences appear to provide complementary information and are associated with reductions in systolic and diastolic blood pressure of similar magnitude...

..To assess the effect of health literacy on drug adherence in the context of a pharmacist-based intervention for patients with heart failure...

..Variance explained ranged from 14 to 33%. CONCLUSION: These cross-sectional data highlight the potential significance of social and behavioral factors in CHF-specific HRQL...

..CONCLUSIONS: Women younger than 65 years had relatively poorer initial health-related quality of life that improved after 26 weeks...

..A different approach with patients may be needed if providers hope to use patients' reports to identify those at risk for hospitalization...

..The potential utility of these measures for other beta-adrenergic antagonists and perhaps other cardiovascular drugs should be investigated...

..To investigate peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) and quality of life scores for their ability to predict exacerbations of asthma...

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..The objective of this study was to compare the ability of risk stratification models derived from administrative data to classify groups of patients for enrollment in a tailored chronic disease management program...

..Cognitive impairment challenges the ability to adhere to the complex medication regimens needed to treat multiple medical problems in older adults...

..To evaluate the association between histamine-2 receptor antagonist (H2A) exposure and incident cognitive impairment in a community-based sample of African Americans...

..70 US dollars to detect an ADE and tiered approach cost only $42.40. CONCLUSION: Tiered review of ADEs and MEs by personnel with increasing clinical capability is more cost-efficient than pharmacist review...

..Corresponding analysis using blood pressure measurements on the subset of participants was inconclusive. CONCLUSION: Antihypertensive medication use is associated with preservation of cognitive function in older African American adults...

..Although numerous health-related quality-of-life instruments are available to measure patients' quality of life, few studies have compared these measures directly to determine how they function in the same group of patients...

..Situations involving multiple alternatives can increase the difficulty of making a decision, resulting in more choice deferral than when fewer alternatives are available...

..It is not known whether patient outcomes are enhanced by effective pharmacist-patient interactions...

..No immediate change in other cardiovascular drug classes occurred following journal publication. CONCLUSIONS: Intense media publicity regarding a controversial study measurably and unpredictably changed prescription claims...

..Physicians should be alert to the possible presence of vertebral compression fractures and take a more aggressive approach to treatment when a fracture is present...

..We conducted a study to test the hypothesis that patients with elevated baseline liver enzymes have higher risk of statin hepatotoxicity...

..e., patients who have and have not, respectively, experienced hypertension-related target organ damage), and to examine the association of refill adherence with hospitalization and health care costs among these patients...

..Patients with heart failure who take several prescription medications sometimes have poor adherence to their treatment regimens. Few interventions designed to improve adherence to therapy have been rigorously tested...

..The study evaluated these instructions by examining whether patients preferred them to standard pharmacy instructions...

..We investigated relationships between health literacy and general cognitive and sensory abilities, as well as education, health, and demographic variables, in a community sample of middle-aged and older adults...

..Heart failure patients perceive benefits of and barriers to compliance with therapeutic regimens that are likely to be amenable to tailored interventions designed to enhance compliance...

..We investigated whether patient-centered instructions for chronic heart failure medications increase comprehension and memory for medication information in older adults diagnosed with chronic heart failure...

..This suggests that the use of such instructions may improve patients' medication knowledge and their adherence to treatment regimens...

..001). CONCLUSION: Greater medication knowledge, skills, and adherence were associated with fewer ED visits among patients 50 years of age or older with CHF in an urban, teaching medical center...

..To target interventions effectively, it is important to understand the association of medication acquisition with health care utilization and costs...

..If these findings are confirmed by a larger study, interventions to improve adherence and patient health outcomes should consider the timing of doses as well as the number of daily doses of a diuretic...

..All three instruments were satisfactory for measuring HRQL, but the disease-specific instruments were preferable to the generic instrument. The decision of which instrument to use depends on the purpose of the study...

..Pragmatic problems, although significant, can be successfully overcome...