Changing from mandatory to optional genotyping results in higher acceptance of pharmacist-guided warfarin dosing

Aim: We evaluated the clinical acceptance and feasibility of a pharmacist-guided personalized consult service following its transition from a mandatory (mPGx) to optional (oPGx) CYP2C9/ VKORC1/ CYP4F2 genotyping for warfarin. Methods: A total of 1105 patients were included. Clinical acceptance and feasibility outcomes were analyzed using bivariate and multivariable analyses. Results: After transitioning to optional genotyping, genotype testing was still ordered in a large segment of the eligible population (52.1%). Physician acceptance of pharmacist-recommended doses improved from 83.9% (mPGx) to 86.6% (oPGx; OR: 1.3; 95% CI: 1.1–1.5; p = 0.01) with a shorter median genotype result turnaround time (oPGX: 23.6 hr vs mPGX: 25.1 hr ; p < 0.01). Conclusion: Ordering of genotype testing and provider acceptance of dosing recommendations remained high after transitioning to optional genotyping.

83. ID Coaches Contribute to a Highly Effective Learning Experience for Third-Year Medical Students Rotating on the Infectious Diseases Consult Service

Background Education on infections in hospitalized patients, antimicrobial selection, and principles of antimicrobial stewardship are foundational to all clinicians. Incorporating early learners into Infectious Diseases (ID) consult services has the potential to build a strong fund of knowledge in these content domains, but also poses potential challenges. We evaluated the impact of a novel clinical rotation and supporting curriculum on third-year medical students rotating on the ID consult service for 2 weeks during their 12-week Internal Medicine clerkship at the University of California, San Diego. Methods Third-year medical students who selected to rotate on the ID consult service were given an hour-long orientation about the service and common infectious syndromes. They were provided with a checklist of clinical skills to complete during the rotation. In addition to daily rounds and clinical care, ID Coaches (ID faculty and senior ID fellows) met with students weekly for 1-2 hours to review ID topics, practice oral presentations, and/or conduct physical exam finding rounds. We surveyed medical students to assess the effectiveness of the rotation. Results Forty third-year medical students participated in the 2-week ID consult rotation between June 2020-May 2021; 31 (77%) completed the rotation evaluation. Seventy percent or more of students reported that the ID rotation facilitated their learning across 8 of 10 ID-content domains (Figure 1). More students reported that the ID Coach facilitated learning (71%) compared to the clinical skills checklist (42%). Students highlighted learning about antimicrobial selection, stewardship, and clinical reasoning on the rotation but reported that teaching was limited when the service census was high (Figure 2). Figure 1: Percent of Students Rating the ID Consult Rotation as Extremely or Very Effective in Facilitating Learning Across 10 Domains Figure 2: Students' Reflections on the Effectiveness of the ID Consult Rotation Conclusion Third-year medical students found that a 2-week rotation on the ID consult service was highly effective in teaching foundational ID content and general medicine skills. Incorporating early learners into a busy and complex subspecialty consult service can be facilitated through the use of supplemental curricular tools such as ID Coaches. Disclosures Darcy Wooten, MD, MS, Nothing to disclose

Bridging Recovery Initiative Despite Gaps in Entry (BRIDGE): study protocol for a randomized controlled trial of a bridge clinic compared with usual care for patients with opioid use disorder

Background Patients with substance use disorders are overrepresented among general hospital inpatients, and their admissions are associated with longer lengths of stay and increased readmission rates. Amid the national opioid crisis, increased attention has been given to the integration of addiction with routine medical care in order to better engage such patients and minimize fragmentation of care. General hospital addiction consultation services and transitional, hospital-based “bridge” clinics have emerged as potential solutions. We designed the Bridging Recovery Initiative Despite Gaps in Entry (BRIDGE) trial to determine if these clinics are superior to usual care for these patients. Methods This single-center, pragmatic, randomized controlled clinical trial is enrolling hospitalized patients with opioid use disorder (OUD) who are initiating medication for OUD (MOUD) in consultation with the addiction consult service. Patients are randomized for referral to a co-located, transitional, multidisciplinary bridge clinic or to usual care, with the assignment probability being determined by clinic capacity. The primary endpoint is hospital length of stay. Secondary endpoints include quality of life, linkage to care, self-reported buprenorphine or naltrexone fills, rate of known recurrent opioid use, readmission rates, and costs. Implementation endpoints include willingness to be referred to the bridge clinic, attendance rates among those referred, and reasons why patients were not eligible for referral. The main analysis will use an intent-to-treat approach with full covariate adjustment. Discussion This ongoing pragmatic trial will provide evidence on the effectiveness of proactive linkage to a bridge clinic intervention for hospitalized patients with OUD initiating evidence-based pharmacotherapy in consultation with the addiction consult service. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.govNCT04084392. Registered on 10 September 2019. The study has been approved by the Vanderbilt Institutional Review Board. The current approved protocol is dated version May 12, 2021.

A pharmacist-managed virtual consult service to improve tuberculosis screening

Disclaimer In an effort to expedite the publication of articles related to the COVID-19 pandemic, AJHP is posting these manuscripts online as soon as possible after acceptance. Accepted manuscripts have been peer-reviewed and copyedited, but are posted online before technical formatting and author proofing. These manuscripts are not the final version of record and will be replaced with the final article (formatted per AJHP style and proofed by the authors) at a later time. Purpose To describe a pharmacist-managed virtual consult service practice model to improve medication safety in a population of rheumatology patients and evaluate its initial impact on guideline compliance. Summary Optimal pharmacologic care of patients with rheumatologic conditions often revolves around the use of specialty medications such as self-injectable biologics and infused therapies, including biologic response modifiers (BRMs), nearly all of which carry risks of serious adverse events due to their immune-suppressive properties. Possible adverse events include serious infections such as reactivation of tuberculosis (TB) and viral hepatitis B (HBV). This articles describes a pharmacist-managed virtual consult service introduced by a large university-affiliated health system in 2018 to integrate clinical, specialty pharmacy, and therapeutic infusion services for proactive medication and safety management for patients with rheumatologic conditions requiring specialty or infused medications. During a 4-month evaluation period, 157 referrals were sent to the consult service; of 137 consults included in the analysis, 42% were for self-injectable biologic medications, 28% were for intra-articular injections, 26% were for infusions, and 4% were for oral specialty medications. Forty-one percent of the pharmacy benefit consult orders required an intervention prior to submission of prior authorization requests. Most interventions (61%) were clinical in nature and involved the pharmacists ensuring that necessary laboratory work, clinical disease activity scoring, or radiographic imaging were completed prior to submission of the consult results for insurer approval. Conclusion National rates of HBV screening and TB screening for patients prescribed BRMs continue to be suboptimal. The pharmacist-managed virtual consult service is a novel practice model to increase the screening rate to 100% to ensure the safety and appropriate monitoring of patients who are starting or continued on these complex medications.