Journal of managed care pharmacy : JMCP
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With the passage of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, widespread adoption of certain health information technologies, such as electronic health records (EHRs) and electronic prescribing (e-prescribing), is imminent. Drug-drug interaction (DDI) screening and medication history information are commonly incorporated into health information exchange systems to improve medical decision making, safety, and quality of care, but the value of these features is unclear. ⋯ A stand-alone medication management program in a wireless PDA device was not frequently used by most prescribers to update patient medication histories and was not associated with a reduction in the rate of prescribing potentially clinically important DDIs.
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The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act brought considerable attention to comparative effectiveness research (CER). ⋯ Researchers at Pfizer routinely conduct CER-type studies. In this supplement, we have proposed some approaches that we believe are useful in developing certain kinds of evidence and have described some of our experiences. Our experiences also make us acutely aware of the limitations of approaches and data sources that have been used for CER studies and suggest that there is a need to further develop methods that are most useful for answering CER questions.
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In recent years, the U.S. government has designated funding of several large-scale initiatives for comparative effectiveness research (CER) in health care. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 apportioned more than $1 billion to support CER programs administered by the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). CER is generally defined as the undertaking of original research or systematic reviews of published literature in order to compare the benefits and risks of different approaches to preventing, diagnosing, or treating diseases. These approaches may include diagnostic tests, medications, medical devices, and surgeries. The overall goals of CER are to support informed health care decisions by patients, clinicians, payers, and policy makers and to apply its evidence to ultimately improve the quality, effectiveness, and efficiency of health care. ⋯ As supported by AHRQ, CER is conducted in order to synthesize comprehensive evidence on the comparative benefits and harms of treatment interventions. The findings from comparative effectiveness reviews can thus contribute to informing therapeutic strategies and treatment decisions. In 2007, a multitude of RA treatment options and studies motivated AHRQ to commission a systematic comparative effectiveness review. Conducted by investigators at the RTI-University of North Carolina Evidence-Based Practice Center, the review included comparisons of synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs), biologic agents, synthetic DMARDs versus biologic agents, and various combination therapies. Head-to-head comparisons of synthetic DMARDs generally revealed no significant differences in long-term clinical and radiographic outcomes, or in functional capacity or health-related quality of life. Two nonrandomized prospective cohort studies and 1 open-label effectiveness trial reported no differences in ACR20 and ACR50 response rates in patients treated with the tissue necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha inhibitors etanercept and infliximab. Comparisons of TNF-alpha inhibitors generally indicated no significant differences in rates of adverse events, including serious infections, and no increases in rates over time. In comparisons of a biologic agent combined with methotrexate versus a biologic agent alone, combination therapies were generally associated with better clinical response rates and better outcomes of functional capacity and quality of life. The most common adverse events observed in studies on biologic agents were diarrhea, headache, nausea, rhinitis, injection site reactions, and upper respiratory tract infections.
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Review Meta Analysis Comparative Study
Updates on the treatment of essential hypertension: a summary of AHRQ's comparative effectiveness review of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, angiotensin II receptor blockers, and direct renin inhibitors.
In 2007, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) published a comparative effectiveness review (CER) on the benefits and risks of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) and angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs) for treating essential hypertension in adults. The main findings indicated that the 2 classes of antihypertensive medications caused similar reductions in blood pressure, although higher rates of adverse events, especially cough, were reported by patients treated with ACEIs. In addition, the 2007 review indicated no treatment related differences in lipid levels, glycemic control, or progression of kidney disease among the agents. Since 2007, 39 relevant studies have been published that compare outcomes for adults treated with ACEIs versus ARBs or a drug in one of these 2 classes versus a direct renin inhibitor (DRI). To systematically analyze findings from the new research, AHRQ commissioned and, in June 2011, published an updated comparative effectiveness review on the benefits and risks of agents that target the renin-angiotensin- aldosterone system (RAAS), specifically ACEIs, ARBs, and DRIs. ⋯ Consistent with the findings from AHRQ's 2007 report, the 2011 update indicated no overall differences in blood pressure control, mortality rates, and major cardiovascular events in patients treated with ACEIs versus ARBs. With a low strength of evidence, 2 studies reported a small significantly greater blood pressure reduction for patients treated with the DRI aliskiren versus the ACEI ramipril. Studies evaluating the DRI aliskiren versus ACEIs and ARBs on mortality and morbidity outcomes were relatively short, and few deaths or cardiovascular events occurred, resulting in insufficient evidence to discern differences. A random-effects meta-analysis of 23 RCTs comparing ACEIs and ARBs found no significant difference in the proportion of patients who achieved successful blood pressure control on a single antihypertensive agent. Compared with ARBs and the DRI aliskiren, ACEIs were consistently associated with higher rates of cough. Withdrawals due to adverse events were modestly more frequent for patients receiving ACEI rather than ARBs or DRIs; this is consistent with the differential rates of cough. There was no evidence of differential effects of ACEIs, ARBs, or DRIs on the outcomes of lipids, renal outcomes, carbohydrate metabolism or diabetes, or left ventricular mass; however, there was not a high strength of evidence for any of these outcomes. Regarding the question of whether ACEIs, ARBs, or DRIs are associated with better outcomes in specific patient subgroups, the evidence was insufficient to reach firm conclusions.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Economic evaluation of denosumab compared with zoledronic acid in hormone-refractory prostate cancer patients with bone metastases.
Bone metastases are common in patients with hormone-refractory prostate cancer. In a study of autopsies of patients with prostate cancer, 65%-75% had bone metastases. Bone metastases place a substantial economic burden on payers with estimated total annual costs of $1.9 billion in the United States. Skeletal-related events (SREs), including pathologic fractures, spinal cord compression, surgery to bone, and radiation to bone, affect approximately 50% of patients with bone metastases. They are associated with a decreased quality of life and increased health care costs. Zoledronic acid is an effective treatment in preventing SREs in solid tumors and multiple myeloma. Recently, denosumab was FDA-approved for prevention of SREs in patients with bone metastases from solid tumors. A Phase 3 clinical trial (NCT00321620) demonstrated that denosumab had superior efficacy in delaying first and subsequent SREs compared with zoledronic acid. However, the economic value of denosumab has not been assessed in patients with hormone-refractory prostate cancer. ⋯ Although denosumab has demonstrated benefits over zoledronic acid in preventing or delaying SREs in a Phase 3 trial, it may be a costly alternative to zoledronic acid from a U.S. payer perspective.