An abstract of a study has been published in ScienceDirect exploring how pharmacist prescribers in Gloucestershire achieved measured cholesterol reductions in patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD) by following a lipid optimisation pathway.
This work was undertaken as part of our successful application with Gloucestershire ICB and Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust to the Pathway Transformation Fund. This allowed us to support five GP practices to use search options within their databases to identify patients at risk of raised cholesterol who would benefit from a detailed medication review.
The abstract by Marcus Jones, Formulary Pharmacist at Gloucestershire Hospitals is titled ‘A cross-sector, multidisciplinary approach to lipid optimisation’., It explains the aim of this quality improvement study was to identify patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD) and suboptimal lipid profiles, and use pharmacist independent prescribers to optimise their cholesterol lowering medication, in line with a locally developed treatment pathway, to achieve NICE recommended lipid targets.
Five pharmacist prescribers, from both primary and secondary care backgrounds, undertook one session per week at the five Gloucestershire GP practices. Patients aged 18 to 75 years, with documented CVD and non-high density lipoprotein cholesterol (non-HDLc) ≥2.5mmol/L, were identified by searching electronic patient records. A lipid optimisation treatment pathway was developed by the secondary care lipid clinic and used by the pharmacists to conduct telephone-based lipid consultations, order blood tests and optimise lipid treatment over a nine-month period (September 2021 to May 2022).
The published abstract shows how, in a stretched primary care sector, pharmacist prescribers from both primary and secondary care were able to follow a lipid optimisation pathway to achieve measured cholesterol reductions in patients with CVD. The treatment pathway, developed and trialled through primary and secondary care joint-working, has subsequently been endorsed and made available across the Gloucestershire Integrated Care System. This, and the ongoing education sessions provided by the project group for the Gloucestershire primary care networks, has helped to raise awareness and update knowledge of lipid treatments and targets.
Read more about this and our Pathway Transformation Fund projects here.
Read the abstract in ScienceDirect here.
Posted on February 1, 2024
