Conclusions Organisational and professional interventions improved prescribing of statins/lipid-lowering agents and target blood pressure in patients with IHDs but there was little evidence of change in other outcomes .
Objectives Ischaemic heart diseases ( IHDs ) are a leading cause of death worldwide .
Although prescribing according to guidelines improves health outcomes , it remains suboptimal .
We determined whether interventions targeted at healthcare professionals are effective to enhance prescribing and health outcomes in patients with IHDs .
Effects of treatment recommendations and specialist intervention on care provided by primary care physicians to patients with myocardial infarction or heart failure.
PURPOSE To assess the effects of an intervention involving dissemination of treatment recommendations to primary care physicians treating out patients with acute myocardial infa rct ion or heart failure . METHODS The study comprised 509 patients with myocardial infa rct ion and 323 patients with heart failure who were discharged from hospital . The primary care physicians caring for these patients were assigned r and omly to either the intervention or control group ; the intervention group was mailed practice guidelines immediately after patient discharge , and patients were cited by name . During a 6-month assessment period , the records of primary care physicians ( and cardiologists , if any ) were review ed to assess mean conformance with the guidelines , using seven measures of care for myocardial infa rct ion and eight measures of care for heart failure . RESULTS After adjusting for demographic and clinical characteristics of patients , and the number of eligible measures per patient , we observed no effect of the intervention on care of patients with myocardial infa rct ion ( odds ratio [ OR ] = 0.98 ; 95 % confidence interval [ CI ] : 0.81 to 1.17 ) or heart failure ( OR = 1.25 ; 95 % CI : 0.96 to 1.59 ) . However , there was a higher likelihood of conformance with measures for patients with infa rct ion ( OR = 1.56 ; 95 % CI : 1.29 to 1.87 ) or heart failure ( OR = 1.71 ; 95 % CI : 1.29 to 2.23 ) who had also been seen by a cardiologist during the 6-month assessment period . CONCLUSION Mailing treatment recommendations did not improve the quality of care of recently discharged patients with myocardial infa rct ion or heart failure . However , efforts to include cardiologists in the care of these patients might be worthwhile
Conclusions Organisational and professional interventions improved prescribing of statins/lipid-lowering agents and target blood pressure in patients with IHDs but there was little evidence of change in other outcomes .
Objectives Ischaemic heart diseases ( IHDs ) are a leading cause of death worldwide .
Although prescribing according to guidelines improves health outcomes , it remains suboptimal .
We determined whether interventions targeted at healthcare professionals are effective to enhance prescribing and health outcomes in patients with IHDs .