NLA HIT LDL Goal Attainment Research Project

In June of 2013, the Health Quality Research Committee was tasked by Merck and Company to perform a research project to identify and understand the barriers that exist and prevent patients from reaching their LDL-C goals as it relates to health information technology (HIT). Dr. Jerome Cohen appointed 11 members of the NLA to serve on a Steering Committee to summarize the current landscape around EHR interventions, their use in clinical practice and their efficacy to improve outcomes for high-risk CHD patients. The Steering Committee divided work into major work areas around literature review, adherence, practice benchmarking, and evaluation of EHR’s and the issue of LDL goal attainment. The Steering Committee Members developed a first generation landscape survey to understand the impact, challenges and limitations of current EHR tools in the management of high risk cardiovascular secondary prevention patients, with particular focus on LDL-C goal attainment. The survey was conducted in three diverse practices from the NLA membership representing a university based setting, a large cardiology group clinic and a solo practice lipid clinic.

In late July of 2013, the Steering Committee gathered for an expert panel workshop with invited guest presenters representing Kaiser Permanente, the National Quality Forum as well as HIT representation from Practice Fusion, AllScripts, Medivo and MDdatacor. The purpose of the workshop was to gather all of the work completed from sub-committees and experts and share with fellow members and invitees to come to a consensus on potential interventions and an EHR decision support blueprint/strategy for lipid goal attainment utilizing all health information technology resources.

The Steering Committee produced a robust publication on the workshop proceedings which was published in the 2013 November/December issue of the Journal of Clinical Lipidology. In addition, a stand-alone literature review was also published in the 2013 November/December issue of the Journal and can be viewed here. In the spring of 2014, JCL editor Dr. Virgil Brown invited Steering Committee Members, Dr. Karen Aspry, Dr. Alan Brown and Dr. Matthew Ito to share their perspectives and experience with the application of health information technology in the management of lipoprotein disorders. The roundtable discussion can be viewed here.  

Read more...

• Effect of health information technology interventions on lipid management in clinical practice: A systematic review of randomized controlled trials
• JCL Roundtable: Health information technology in the management of lipoprotein disorders
• Use of health information technology (HIT) to improve statin adherence and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol goal attainment in high-risk patients: Proceedings from a workshop