Active Choice in the EHR to Promote Statin Therapy

July 15, 2019 updated by: University of Pennsylvania

Using Active Choice in the EHR to Promote Cardiologists to Prescribe Evidence-Based Statin Therapy

Cardiovascular (CV) events are the leading cause of mortality in the United States. Statins have been demonstrated to be an effective tool for reducing CV events and mortality, but statins are often either not prescribed or under-prescribed for patients that meet evidence-based guidelines. In this study, we will evaluate a health system initiative using active and passive choice prompts in the electronic health record to prompt cardiologists to prescribe evidence-based statin therapy. In partnership with the health system, this will be conducted as a randomized, controlled trial to evaluate its effect.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

This study will use a randomized, controlled trial to evaluate a health system initiative. Cardiologists randomly assigned to the control arm will receive no interventions. For cardiologists randomly assigned to the active choice intervention, the electronic health record will be used to prompt cardiologists to initiate or change statin therapy for patients not on evidenced-based guidelines based on the 2013 American College of Cardiology / American Heart Association (ACC/AHA) and the National Lipid Association (NLA) through a "best practice alert" in Epic which appears on the screen and forces a decision before the clinician can move on. For cardiologists randomly assigned to the passive choice intervention, the electronic health record will be used to create a passive alert using the same evidence-based guidelines. The passive alert will not block clinician workflow and instead will be available in the background for the cardiologist to open and then use to make a prescribing decision. The intervention period will be 6 months in duration.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

23066

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

    • Pennsylvania
      • Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, 19104
        • University of Pennsylvania

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Have a cardiologist at the University of Pennsylvania Health System
  • Meets 2013 ACC/AHA or NLA guidelines for statin prescription

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Allergy to statins
  • Severe renal insufficiency defined as glomerular filtration rate (GFR) less than 30 mL/min or on dialysis
  • Adverse reaction to statins including a) myopathy, b)rhabdomyolysis, c)hepatitis
  • Pregnant
  • On a PCSK9 Inhibitor medication

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Double

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Usual care
Cardiologists in this arm will receive no interventions and will act as usual care
Experimental: Active choice
Cardiologists in this arm will be exposed to an active choice intervention through the electronic health record (EHR) using an alert to prompt recommendations for statin therapy for patients not on guideline-based therapy. Cardiologists will be have to make an active choice to prescribe a statin at the recommended dose or not.
EHR alert prompting cardiologists to make an active choice to prescribe a statin or not.
Experimental: Passive choice
Cardiologists in this arm will be exposed to a passive choice alert within the EHR, using the same evidence-based guidelines as in the active choice arm. The passive alert will not block clinician workflow and instead will be available in the background for the cardiologist to open and then use to make a prescribing decision.
EHR passive alert to cardiologists about prescribing a statin

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in the percent of eligible patients prescribed statin therapy at a dose that meets evidence-based guidelines
Time Frame: 6 Months
Among patients not on guideline-based statin dosages, the percent that are prescribed guideline-based therapy at appropriate dose.
6 Months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in percentage of eligible patients prescribed a statin, at any dose.
Time Frame: 6 Months
Among patients not on a statin, the percent that are prescribed guideline-based therapy, at any dose.
6 Months

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

September 24, 2018

Primary Completion (Actual)

June 5, 2019

Study Completion (Actual)

June 5, 2019

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

September 1, 2017

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 1, 2017

First Posted (Actual)

September 5, 2017

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

July 16, 2019

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 15, 2019

Last Verified

July 1, 2019

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 827983

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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