Drug-safety leaflets included with prescriptions often inadequate, study suggests.The Wall Street Journal (12/17, Rockoff, subscription required) reports that a study "sponsored by federal regulators found that pharmacies too often failed to provide consumers with needed drug-safety information in the leaflets stapled to their prescriptions." Investigators evaluated "leaflets for the blood-pressure drug lisinopril or the diabetes medicine metformin, picked up from 365 pharmacies in 41 states."
Bloomberg News (12/17, Blum) adds that for the study, "Shoppers...were trained to simulate patients, and went to randomly selected pharmacies." They "gave the pharmacists prescriptions...and collected the material provided with the medications, the [Food and Drug Administration] said. Expert and consumer panels evaluated the information."
Investigators found that "most consumers -- 94 percent -- received leaflets either stapled to the prescription or inside the bag. But, only about three-quarters of this information met the minimum criteria for usefulness," HealthDay (12/16, Reinberg) reported. In addition, they found that "less than one in 10 leaflets met the criteria set for legibility and comprehensibility." MedPage Today (12/16, Neale) also covered the story.
from ASHP Newslink (2/11/09)
In the Los Angeles Times (2/10) Booster Shots blog, Tami Dennis wrote that according to "a study published in the Feb. 9 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, most doctors simply shrugged off the warnings issued by their helpful electronic systems." Researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center found that "out of almost a quarter-million medication safety alerts produced during the study period, the doctors involved accepted only 9.2 percent of the interaction warnings and 23 percent of the allergy warnings. In other words, they ignored more than 90 percent of the drug interaction alerts and more than 75 percent of the allergy alerts."
Two New Studies on the Benefits of Part D MTM
from ASHP Newslink (5/15/09)
The April 2009 issue of the Annals of Pharmacotherapy includes two new studies on the benefits of Part D MTM interventions. In "Assessment of the Impact of Medication Therapy Management Delivered to Home-Based Medicare Beneficiaries in an Integrated Health System," the study authors compared beneficiaries who opted in and those who opted out of the plan's MTM program. Those who opted in had lower death rates, but were more likely to have a hospitalization and higher drug costs. There was no difference in ER visits and drug-related problems (DRPs) were identified in more than 83% of beneficiaries in both groups. In "Mitigation of Medication Mishaps via Medication Therapy Management," study authors found an overall improvement in electronically-measurable clinical outcomes for MTMP enrollees. In addition, MTM enrollees showed improved adherence to drug therapy for heart failure and insulin use, and a significant reduction in gastrointestinal bleeds. There was a 17.2% decline in PMPM drug costs compared to only 7% for those who opted out of the program. Both studies are available at http://www.theannals.com (subscription required).
