CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study
Individualized electronic decision support and reminders to improve diabetes care in the community: COMPETE II randomized trial.
Diabetes mellitus is a complex disease with serious complications. Electronic decision support, providing information that is shared and discussed by both patient and physician, encourages timely interventions and may improve the management of this chronic disease. However, it has rarely been tested in community-based primary care. ⋯ A shared electronic decision-support system to support the primary care of diabetes improved the process of care and some clinical markers of the quality of diabetes care. (ClinicalTrials.gov trial register no. NCT00813085.).
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Multicenter Study
Long-term trends in use of and expenditures for cardiovascular medications in Canada.
Medication expenditures have become the fastest growing sector of costs within the Canadian health care system. Evaluation of the use of cardiovascular medications is important to determine the magnitude of the growth, to identify which medications dominate the landscape and to detect interprovincial differences in utilization. We describe long-term trends in the use of and expenditures for cardiovascular medications in Canada, by drug class and by province. ⋯ Prescriptions and expenditures for cardiovascular medications in Canada escalated over the study period. Projected increases may reach potentially unsustainable levels. Greater emphasis on the use of cost-effective medications is required to limit further increases. Factors influencing interprovincial differences warrant further study.