Encouraging Pharmacist Referrals for Evidence-Based Statin Initiation: Two Cluster Randomized Clinical Trials
Authors' conclusion
In these 2 cluster randomized clinical trials, visit-based interruptive alerts were not associated with a significant increase in statin prescribing compared with usual care, whereas a strategy of asynchronous semiautomated referral for pharmacist comanagement was associated with a substantial increase.
Study context
- Population
- Primary care patients with an indication for high- or moderate-intensity statin, not prescribed a statin or on an inappropriately low dose; 12 practices in a community health systemtrial 1 n = 1412
- Comparison
- Pharmacist-referral interventions vs usual care
- Interruptive alertn = 1,412
- Semiautomated referraln = 1,950
- Primary endpoint
- Proportion of patients prescribed a statin
Methodological detailstrial 1: delayed-intervention, clinician-level randomisation, single clinic, trial 2: parallel-arm, clinic-level randomisation, 11 clinics
- Trial 1: delayed-intervention, clinician-level randomisation, single clinic
- Trial 2: parallel-arm, clinic-level randomisation, 11 clinics
Primary result
As reported in the abstract
Statin prescribed
Each group vs usual careUnadjusted absolute difference, percentage points (95% CI)
Interruptive alerttrial 1; not significant
3.9(−0.4 to 8.3)
Semiautomated referraltrial 2
16.4(12.7–20.1)
Original publication
Encouraging Pharmacist Referrals for Evidence-Based Statin Initiation: Two Cluster Randomized Clinical Trials. JAMA Cardiol. Published 1 May 2025. doi:10.
Summarised from the published abstract; every number is checked against it