Team-Based Approach Aids Hypertension Control

the Renal and Urology News take:

Hypertensive patients see better control of their condition through team-based collaboration with pharmacists than with physician management alone, according to a recent study.

Puttarin Kulchaitanaroaj, PhD, and fellow researchers at the Department of Pharmacy Practice and Science at the University of Iowa combined two randomized, controlled trials to study the role of pharmacists on patients with hypertension. The total six-month data was taken from 2008 to 2009 and included a total of 496 patients.

Hypertensive medication alone was found to reduce systolic blood pressure by 7.19 mm Hg, while team-based sessions that included pharmacist counseling reduced it by 5.30 mm Hg.

They concluded that pharmacists can assist physicians when they feel that patients are receiving suboptimal therapy by providing counseling on lifestyle changes and performing necessary follow-up.

“Results suggest that both medication and lifestyle change are effective in bringing down a patient’s blood pressure,” the authors concluded. “The study will be useful for health providers to not undermine the benefit of counseling and for policy makers to consider team-based care.