Author: Hannah Faulkner

Recent CTTI Publication Investigates HABP/VABP Risk and Antibiotic Trial Eligibility for Hospitalized Patients in Europe

Posted on by Hannah Faulkner

Topics Included: Safety

A new CTTI publication investigates the prospective identification of hospital-acquired and ventilator-associated bacterial pneumonia (HABP/VABP) risk factors and antibiotic trial eligibility among hospitalized, critically ill patients at seven European hospitals. The study, PROPHETIC EU: Prospective Identification of Pneumonia in Hospitalized Patients in the Intensive Care Unit in European and United States Cohorts, published in Open Forum Infectious Diseases, evaluated 888 critically ill patients receiving ventilation or high levels of supportive oxygen and used existing clinical criteria to predict which patients would develop HABP/VABP. The researchers compared these results to those of a prior CTTI study of U.S. patients, finding that a higher proportion of European patients who were treated for possible HABP/VABP met the pneumonia definition compared to their counterparts in U.S. hospitals. The European patients were also more likely to meet common antibiotic trial eligibility criteria. The results could be applied to the development of new strategies to improve registrational trial feasibility and foster the development of much needed new antibacterial treatments for HABP/VABP. 

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Recent CTTI Publication Explores Educational Strategies for Increasing Use of Anticoagulants Among AFib Patients

Posted on by Hannah Faulkner

A new CTTI publication from collaborators including CTTI investigates the impact of educational mailings in increasing the use of oral blood thinners among patients with atrial fibrillation (AFib). For many of these patients, use of blood thinners can reduce their stroke risk by about 70%. Despite current guideline recommendations, only about half of eligible patients with AFib are routinely taking blood thinners, and patient interviews have revealed that patients are undereducated about stroke risk and the potential benefits of preventative blood thinner use. To explore solutions to this educational gap, the IMplementation of a randomized controlled trial to imProve treatment with oral AntiCoagulanTs in patients with Atrial Fibrillation (IMPACT-AFib) identified and sent educational mailings to a subset of eligible patients enrolled in health plans that participate in the FDA’s Sentinel System. The resulting paper, published in JAMA Network Open, found that these mailings were only minimally successful in increasing blood thinner use among AFib patients. These results indicate that more intensive educational interventions may be needed to address this problem. 

This trial was the first ever to leverage the FDA-Catalyst System, which combines data from interactions with patients and/or providers with data from the Sentinel Infrastructure. The collaboration included Aetna, Duke Clinical Research Institute, the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute’s Department of Population Medicine, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, HealthCore Anthem, Humana, Optum, and the FDA.  

CTTI Publication Investigates Use of Preventive Statins among Patients with Cardiovascular Disease

Posted on by Hannah Faulkner

A new CTTI publication, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, investigates the use of preventive, high-intensity statins among patients diagnosed with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD). The study, which used pharmacy and medical claims data from a commercial health plan, found substantial underuse of statins among insured ASCVD patients. Most notably, younger patients and women were among those less likely to be prescribed any statin. In those prescribed a statin, women and older patients were less likely to receive high-intensity statins. This paper was based on exploratory work done by CTTI with Duke and HealthCore as background to inform a potential randomized intervention to improve the use of guideline recommended high-intensity statins.