Computerized Clinical Decision Support to Improve Stroke Prevention Therapy in Primary Care Management of Atrial Fibrillation: A Cluster Randomized Trial.

BACKGROUND

Despite guidelines supporting antithrombotic therapy use in atrial fibrillation (AF), under-prescribing persists. We assessed whether computerized clinical decision support (CDS) would enable guideline-based antithrombotic therapy for AF patients in primary care.

METHODS

This cluster randomized trial of CDS versus usual care (UC) recruited participants from primary care practices across Nova Scotia, following them for 12 months. The CDS tool calculated bleeding and stroke risk scores and provided recommendations for using oral anticoagulants (OAC) per Canadian guidelines.

RESULTS

From June 14, 2014 - December 15, 2016, 203 primary care providers (99 UC, 104 CDS) with access to high-speed Internet were recruited, enrolling 1145 eligible patients (543 UC, 590 CDS) assigned to the same treatment arm as their provider. Patient mean age was 72.3 years; most were male (350, 64.5% UC, 351, 59.5% CDS) and from a rural area (298, 54.9% UC, 315, 53.4% CDS). At baseline, a higher than anticipated proportion of patients were receiving guideline-based OAC therapy (373, 68.7% UC, 442, 74.9% CDS; relative risk [RR] 0.97 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.87-1.07; p=0.511)). At 12 months, prescription data were available for 538 usual care and 570 CDS patients, and significantly more CDS patients were managed according to guidelines (415, 77.1% UC, 479, 84.0% CDS; RR 1.08 (95% CI, 1.01-1.15; p=0.024)).

CONCLUSION

Notwithstanding high baseline rates, primary care provider access to the CDS over 12 months further optimized the prescribing of of OAC therapy per national guidelines to AF patients potentially eligible to receive it. This suggests that CDS can be effective in improving clinical process of care.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

Clinical Trials NCT01927367. https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01927367?term=NCT01927367&draw=2&rank=1.

Informations de copyright

Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

Declaration of competing interest JC reports grants from Bayer Inc. during the conduct of the study; personal fees from Bayer, Servier, and HLS Therapeutics outside the submitted work. RP reports grants from Abbott, Bayer, Medtronic and Novartis outside the submitted work. JMK reports other fees from Merck Canada, Bayer, and Pfizer outside the submitted work. AC and SHC are employees of Bayer Inc. JNW reports personal fees from Nova Scotia Health Authority during the conduct of the study. All other authors declare no competing interests.