Overall , telemedicine was shown to be beneficial , with home-based teletransmission effectively reducing all-cause mortality and HF-related hospital admission , length of stay and mortality in patients with HF
Telemedicine interventions may be associated with reductions in hospital admission rate and mortality in patients with heart failure ( HF ) .
Reduction in heart failure events by the addition of a clinical pharmacist to the heart failure management team: results of the Pharmacist in Heart Failure Assessment Recommendation and Monitoring (PHARM) Study.
BACKGROUND The multidisciplinary approach to managing heart failure has been shown to improve outcomes . The role of a clinical pharmacist in treating heart failure has not been evaluated . METHODS One hundred eighty-one patients with heart failure and left ventricular dysfunction ( ejection fraction < 45 ) undergoing evaluation in clinic were r and omized to an intervention or a control group . Patients in the intervention group received clinical pharmacist evaluation , which included medication evaluation , therapeutic recommendations to the attending physician , patient education , and follow-up telemonitoring . The control group received usual care . The primary end point was combined all-cause mortality and heart failure clinical events . All clinical events were adjudicated by a blinded end point committee . RESULTS Baseline characteristics were similar except for slightly higher age in the intervention group . Median follow-up was 6 months . All-cause mortality and heart failure events were significantly lower in the intervention group compared with the control group ( 4 vs 16 ; P= .005 ) . In addition , patients in the intervention group received higher angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor doses as reflected by the median fraction of target reached ( 25th and 75th percentiles ) , 1.0 ( 0.5 and 1 ) and 0.5 ( 0.1875 and 1 ) in the intervention and control groups , respectively ( P<.001 ) . The use of other vasodilators in angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor-intolerant patients was higher in the intervention group ( 75 % vs 26 % ; P= .02 ) . CONCLUSIONS Outcomes in heart failure can be improved with a clinical pharmacist as a member of the multidisciplinary heart failure team . This observation may be due to higher doses of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors and /or closer follow-up
Overall , telemedicine was shown to be beneficial , with home-based teletransmission effectively reducing all-cause mortality and HF-related hospital admission , length of stay and mortality in patients with HF
Telemedicine interventions may be associated with reductions in hospital admission rate and mortality in patients with heart failure ( HF ) .