MMS Australian Collaborators Reduce Hospitalization for Heart Failure with MTM Services
Doctor-pharmacist Partnership Reduces Hospitalization for Heart Failure
ScienceDaily (Aug. 19, 2009) — Thinking “outside the medicine cabinet” is paying off in Australia, where a doctor-pharmacist partnership is reducing hospitalizations for heart failure — one of the most expensive conditions to treat — researchers report in Circulation: Heart Failure.
In the American Heart Association journal, researchers describe a collaborative model for ensuring heart failure patients take their medicines properly. The rate of hospitalization was cut by 45 percent in the first year of being part of a collaborative medicines review service.
“This is the first study to show these benefits in real-world practice rather than in a trial setting,” said Elizabeth E. Roughead, Ph.D., lead author of the study and a pharmacist and associate professor in the School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences at the University of South Australia in Adelaide. “If you have heart failure, getting a home visit with your pharmacist and then having a follow-up visit with your doctor about your medicines can keep you out of the hospital.”
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