Effectiveness of visits from community pharmacists for patients with heart failure: HeartMed randomised controlled trial

Effectiveness of Dader Method for Pharmaceutical Care on Control of Blood Pressure and Total Cholesterol in Outpatients with Cardiovascular Disease or Cardiovascular Risk: EMDADER-CV Randomized Controlled Trial

“…In contrast, other randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have found that community pharmacist intervention did not lead to improvements in primary outcome measures (e.g., hospital admissions 22 or the proportion of patients receiving appropriate medication 23 ). In a systematic review and assessment of the quality of studies evaluating community pharmacist interventions in preventing or managing diabetes or CVD and/or major CV risk factors, Evans et al (2011) found that study quality was generally poor (poor design and/or poor reporting), most studies assessed only biomarkers, and none of the studies demonstrated any benefits in major health outcomes (e.g., hospital admissions or mortality).…”

The Effectiveness of Collaborative Medicine Reviews in Delaying Time to Next Hospitalization for Patients With Heart Failure in the Practice Setting

“…7 A more recent United Kingdom randomized controlled trial on the effectiveness of home visits from community pharmacists for patients with heart failure failed to show any significant difference in total hospital readmissions at 6 months after discharge. 8 Australia has funded HMR services since 2001, and more than 200 000 collaborative medication reviews have been provided across the country, with approximately 40 000 provided each year. 9 The Australian model is a collaborative model, where physicians refer patients to an accredited pharmacist who undertakes a home visit.…”

Pharmacists Making House Calls:Innovative Role or Overkill?

“…In Tasmania, patients with a cardiovascular diagnosis who were receiving lipid-lowering drug therapy and who had a home visit from a pharmacist 6 weeks after hospital discharge had significantly improved cholesterol levels at 6-month follow-up; however, the improvement was not significantly different from that of the control group. 14 Moreover, contrary to the favourable results reported above, the HOMER 15 and HeartMed 16 randomized controlled trials performed in the United Kingdom reported increased utilization of health services resources, such as hospital admissions 15,16 and home visits by general practitioners, 15 for those who received a home visit from a pharmacist within 2 weeks of hospital discharge. The HOMER study included patients at least 80 years of age who were discharged home on at least 2 medicines.…”

“…[14][15][16] Given the equivocal nature of the evidence relating to clinical pharmacy services in the home after discharge, formal evaluations of such initiatives will help to determine the circumstances in which they are effective.…”