“Helping our physicians treat patients more effectively and making that process easier: That’s the goal.”
The companion patient brochure of- fers similar information that’s easy to un- derstand, including background on high blood pressure, why it’s important to take the medications as prescribed, and a list of questions patients can discuss with their physicians on topics such as costs or other medicines they take.
Getting it right
physicians. Helping our physicians treat patients more effectively and making that process easier: That’s the goal,” Dr. Villamaria said.
Effective tools, effective care That’s why TMA is collaborating with AHRQ’s EHC Program to put free, ev- idence-based resources directly into physicians’ and patients’ hands. TMA is a member of the program’s National Partnership Network, and the tools are the latest in a suite of quality improve- ment resources the association’s Council on Health Care Quality has developed or collaborated on with other organizations. For more information, visit www.texmed .org/QualityImprovement. With the EHC Program, AHRQ col-
lects and summarizes the findings of published and unpublished scientific research on the effectiveness, benefits, and risk of treatment options for a vari- ety of chronic health conditions: type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, pregnancy, mental health, and digestive system conditions, among others. The agency then translates those find- ings into evidence-based tools and mate- rials that include physician- and patient- friendly research summaries and patient decision aids.
The diabetes and cardiovascular dis-
ease research summaries are immedi- ately available and downloadable at no
50 TEXAS MEDICINE June 2014
cost through TMA’s website, www.tex
med.org/Effective_Health_Care_AHRQ. There, doctors can view and print free treatment summaries for themselves and their patients or order them in bulk. They also can link directly to patient videos explaining what it means to be newly diagnosed and how to evaluate treatment options, for example. (While TMA considers expanding the menu of health conditions, free summaries and evidence-based tools for other condi- tions, as well as continuing medical edu- cation activities and more information on the Effective Health Care Program, are available through AHRQ’s website at
www.effectivehealthcare.ahrq.gov.) The physician summary on high
blood pressure medications, for example, not only provides a succinct “clinical bot- tom line” on the benefits and adverse ef- fects of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs), angiotensin II recep- tor blockers (ARBs), or a direct renin inhibitor (DRI) for adults with hyper- tension, but also indicates the strength of the research behind each treatment. Physicians can see a summary of the gaps in knowledge and directly link to the research sources AHRQ used to draw conclusions like, “There is high strength of evidence that ACEIs and ARBs control blood pressure to a similar extent. Data are limited for comparisons involving the DRI aliskiren.”
AHRQ Medical Officer Supriya Janakira- man, MD, says the ultimate goal of the EHC Program she helps oversee is to improve quality and efficiency in health care. It focuses on comparative effective- ness research: “By identifying and know- ing what works, and more importantly what doesn’t work, this will help to improve decisionmaking and outcomes, and ultimately improve the quality of the care delivered.” To accomplish that, AHRQ assembles
reports and parses research based on what Dr. Janakiraman calls “real-world situations.” For example, a number of studies on gout management take place in a research center where patients have rigorous monitoring and follow-up to make sure they adhere to their treatment regimen. But such conditions typically don’t mimic patients’ day-to-day lives, often filled with comorbidities and busy schedules. “We take that into account in terms of the types of reports we fund and the studies we look at during a systematic review,” she said. “Young healthy vol- unteer subjects might not be the reality of the average patient sitting in front of you. Doctors really want to know if the findings they see in the headlines are ap- plicable to their patients.” That’s also why physicians, patients, and anyone from the general public can submit topics for AHRQ to research, says Dr. Janakiraman, who also oversees the program’s selection process through the agency’s Evidence-based Practice Center.
“We want to make sure we are asking the right questions about where the clinical uncertainty is with respect to manage- ment, treatment options, and monitor- ing,” he said.
AHRQ convenes a group of experts to home in on and answer those clinical questions. The Evidence-based Practice
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