scholarly journals Improving Transplant Medication Safety Through a Technology and Pharmacist Intervention (ISTEP): Protocol for a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial (Preprint)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Casey L Hall ◽  
Cory E Fominaya ◽  
Mulugeta Gebregziabher ◽  
Sherry K Milfred-LaForest ◽  
Kelsey M Rife ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND Medication errors, adverse drug events, and nonadherence lead to increased health care utilization and increased risk of adverse clinical outcomes, including graft loss, in solid organ transplant recipients. Veterans living with organ transplants represent a population that is at substantial risk for medication safety events and fragmented care coordination issues. To improve medication safety and long-term clinical outcomes in veteran transplant patients, interventions should address interorganizational system failures and provider-level and patient-level factors. OBJECTIVE This study aims to measure the clinical and economic effectiveness of a pharmacist-led, technology-enabled intervention, compared with usual care, in veteran organ transplant recipients. METHODS This is a 24-month prospective, parallel-arm, cluster-randomized, controlled multicenter study. The pharmacist-led intervention uses an innovative dashboard system to improve medication safety and health outcomes, compared with usual posttransplant care. Pharmacists at 10 study sites will be consented into this study before undergoing randomization, and 5 sites will then be randomized to each study arm. Approximately, 1600 veteran transplant patients will be included in the assessment of the primary outcome across the 10 sites. RESULTS This study is ongoing. Institutional review board approval was received in October 2018 and the study opened in March 2019. To date there are no findings from this study, as the delivery of the intervention is scheduled to occur over a 24-month period. The first results are expected to be submitted for publication in August 2021. CONCLUSIONS With this report, we describe the study design, methods, and outcome measures that will be used in this ongoing clinical trial. Successful completion of the Improving Transplant Medication Safety through a Technology and Pharmacist Intervention study will provide empirical evidence of the effectiveness of a feasible and scalable technology-enabled intervention on improving medication safety and costs.

10.2196/13821 ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (10) ◽  
pp. e13821
Author(s):  
Casey L Hall ◽  
Cory E Fominaya ◽  
Mulugeta Gebregziabher ◽  
Sherry K Milfred-LaForest ◽  
Kelsey M Rife ◽  
...  

Background Medication errors, adverse drug events, and nonadherence lead to increased health care utilization and increased risk of adverse clinical outcomes, including graft loss, in solid organ transplant recipients. Veterans living with organ transplants represent a population that is at substantial risk for medication safety events and fragmented care coordination issues. To improve medication safety and long-term clinical outcomes in veteran transplant patients, interventions should address interorganizational system failures and provider-level and patient-level factors. Objective This study aims to measure the clinical and economic effectiveness of a pharmacist-led, technology-enabled intervention, compared with usual care, in veteran organ transplant recipients. Methods This is a 24-month prospective, parallel-arm, cluster-randomized, controlled multicenter study. The pharmacist-led intervention uses an innovative dashboard system to improve medication safety and health outcomes, compared with usual posttransplant care. Pharmacists at 10 study sites will be consented into this study before undergoing randomization, and 5 sites will then be randomized to each study arm. Approximately, 1600 veteran transplant patients will be included in the assessment of the primary outcome across the 10 sites. Results This study is ongoing. Institutional review board approval was received in October 2018 and the study opened in March 2019. To date there are no findings from this study, as the delivery of the intervention is scheduled to occur over a 24-month period. The first results are expected to be submitted for publication in August 2021. Conclusions With this report, we describe the study design, methods, and outcome measures that will be used in this ongoing clinical trial. Successful completion of the Improving Transplant Medication Safety through a Technology and Pharmacist Intervention study will provide empirical evidence of the effectiveness of a feasible and scalable technology-enabled intervention on improving medication safety and costs. Clinical Trial ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03860818; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03860818 International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID) PRR1-10.2196/13821


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 1064-1067
Author(s):  
M Asim Rana ◽  
M Ahad Qayyum ◽  
Amer Latif ◽  
M Afzal Bhatti ◽  
Syed Arsalan Khalid ◽  
...  

Aim: To determine overall mortality, outcome and mortality of COVID 19 infection in solid organ transplant pts. Study design: Retrospective study. Place and duration of study: Department of Medicine, Bahria International Hospital, Lahore, Pakistan15thApril 2020 to 31stDecember 2020. Methodology: Twenty-three patients 18 out of which were kidney transplant recipients while 5 were liver transplant recipients. All the solid organ transplant patients who were admitted with Sars CoV2 (Corona virus) infection were recorded. Their charts were reviewed regarding clinical course, management, and outcome of COVID-19 infection in recipients of solid organ (liver and kidney) transplant. Results: Mean age was 44.8±10.9 years. Median time lapsed from transplant surgery to admission was 2.88 years (interquartile range 2.25, 7.33). Median hospital stay was 15 days (interquartile range 13, 28). All 23 patients were admitted and managed, with 17 (73.91%) admitted in ICU. Over half of the cases (58.2%) presented with raised serum creatinine due to acute kidney injury. 80% received azithromycin, Tocilizumab and 50% received Remdesivir.Antimetabolites with or without calcineurin inhibitors were held or reduced. A total of 5 patients had died while the others 18 patients (78.26%) were discharged home. Conclusion: There is a theoretical high risk of getting Sars CoV-2 infection in post-transplant patients but we did not find any increase in overall mortality in solid organ transplant recipients receiving immunosuppressive therapy who acquired Sars CoV2 infection as compared with mortality in the general patients with SARS-CoV-2. We had favorable outcome in solid organ transplant COVID 19 patients in our center. Keywords: Incidence, Outcome, COVID-19, Infection


2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mojtaba Shafiekhani ◽  
Farbod Shahabinezhad ◽  
Tahmoores Niknam ◽  
Seyed Ahmad Tara ◽  
Elham Haem ◽  
...  

Abstract Background The management of COVID-19 in organ transplant recipients is among the most imperative, yet less discussed, issues based on their immunocompromised status along with their vast post-transplant medication regimens. No conclusive study has been published to evaluate proper anti-viral and immunomodulator medications effect in treating COVID-19 patients to this date. Method This retrospective study was conducted in Shiraz Transplant Hospital, Iran from March 2020 to May 2021 and included COVID-19 diagnosed patients based on SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR positive test who had been hospitalized for at least 48 h before enrolling in the study. Clinical and demographic information of patients, along with their treatment course and the medication used were evaluated and analyzed using multiple regression analysis. Results A total of 245 patients with a mean age of 49.59 years were included with a mortality rate of 8.16%. The administration of Remdesivir as an anti-viral drug (P value < 0.001) and Tocilizumab as an immunomodulator drug (P value < 0.001) could reduce the hospitalization period in the hospital and the intensive care unit, as well as the mortality rates significantly. Meanwhile, the patients treated with Lopinavir/Ritonavir experienced a lower chance of survival (OR < 1, P value = 0.04). No significant difference was observed between various therapeutic regimens in clinical complications such as bacterial coinfections, cardiovascular and gastrointestinal adverse reactions, and liver or kidney dysfunctions. Conclusion The administration of Remdesivir as an anti-viral and Tocilizumab as an immunomodulatory drug in solid-organ transplant recipients could be promising treatments of choice to manage COVID-19.


2020 ◽  
Vol 104 (S3) ◽  
pp. S119-S119
Author(s):  
Aykan Gulleroglu ◽  
Tunay Kandemir ◽  
Tugba Yalcin ◽  
Ender Gedik ◽  
, Pinar Zeyneloglu ◽  
...  

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