Episodes
Thursday Apr 29, 2021
Is Home Blood Pressure Monitoring a “Home Run” for Blood Pressure Management?
Thursday Apr 29, 2021
Thursday Apr 29, 2021
Nearly 67 million people, which equates to 3 out of every 4 people, living with high blood pressure in the US remain uncontrolled, despite the clear and compelling benefits of achieving good control. Remote monitoring and self-management of BP may enable us to broadly achieve optimal BP control in most patients. Increased use of telehealth technology improves access to care, but the effects on the cost and quality of care, particularly in the context of hypertension management, have not been clearly established.
Guest Authors: Mary Taylor, PharmD and Megan Supple, PharmD, BCACP, CPP
Guest Panelist: Joseph Saseen, PharmD, BCPS, BCACP, CLS
Music by Good Talk
Friday Oct 30, 2020
Friday Oct 30, 2020
Health care professionals often don’t think twice about adding a new medication when a patient is not at goal. But we’re reluctant to stop a medication for a chronic condition when the patient appears to be stable and doing well. Polypharmacy in older adults is a significant problem. It’s costly and increases the likelihood of adverse effects. Several observational studies have suggested that lower blood pressure and multiple antihypertensive medications may be harmful in the elderly. Is it possible to discontinue medications without causing serious harm?
Guest Authors: Keturah Weaver Pharm D, BCPS and Daniel Longyhore Pharm D, M.S., BCACP
Music by Good Talk
Friday Jul 31, 2020
Friday Jul 31, 2020
Hypertension is poorly managed in the United States with only 25% of patients achieving optimal blood pressure (BP) control (BP less than 130/80 mmHg). To achieve optimal control, patients require close follow-up and BP-lowering medication regimens need to be titrated and periodically adjusted. Community pharmacists are in a unique position to manage patients who have poorly controlled hypertension. However, significant barriers exist to implementing hypertension management services by community pharmacists including a lack of reimbursement. Is chronic care management (CCM) a viable payment model to support these services?
Guest Authors: Kimberly Zitko, PharmD, BCACP, BCGP and Brittany Schmidt, PharmD, BCACP
Music by Good Talk
Friday Mar 27, 2020
Should Bedtime be Med-Time for Hypertension?
Friday Mar 27, 2020
Friday Mar 27, 2020
Few medications are specifically dosed at night to optimize outcomes. However, antihypertensive medications may soon belong on our patients’ nightstands. It is common practice for patients to take all antihypertensive medications in the morning, but perhaps daytime dosing doesn’t maximize cardiovascular risk reduction? The potential benefits of chronotherapy and its impact on BP and CV outcomes have been investigated since the 1980s. However, current practice guidelines do not explicitly recommend dosing antihypertensive medications at bedtime.
Guest Authors: Vivian Cheng, PharmD, BCPS and Joseph Saseen, PharmD, BCPS, BCACP
Music by Good Talk
Friday Nov 08, 2019
Friday Nov 08, 2019
Treatment-resistant hypertension, the need for 4 or more medications to achieve goal blood pressure (BP), occurs in nearly 1 in 5 patients.1 But is it truly treatment-resistant? Nonadherence is often regarded as the primary cause in many patients. But how can we distinguish between other causes of hypertension that should prompt additional diagnostic testing or treatment intensification? A recent study suggests there is a simple solution: watch them take their pills.
Guest Authors: Meagan Brown, PharmD, BCACP and Raven Jackson, PharmD
Music by Good Talk
Friday Apr 12, 2019
Friday Apr 12, 2019
Intensive blood pressure (BP) control reduces the risk of cardiovascular events and mortality, but the verdict isn't in yet on the benefits of intensive control to prevent the development of dementia. Previous studies have shown an inconsistent relationship between blood pressure control and cognitive decline. SPRINT-MIND, using data from SPRINT, was designed to evaluate the effects of intensive BP control on cognitive outcomes including probable dementia and mild cognitive impairment.
Guest Authors: Michelle Balli, PharmD, BCACP and Amy Robertson, PharmD, BCACP
Music by Good Talk
Friday Jun 15, 2018
Hypertension – Time for Patients to Control the Wheel
Friday Jun 15, 2018
Friday Jun 15, 2018
Traditionally, the management of hypertension requires routine blood pressure checks by a health professional to adjust medications. Could self-monitoring lead to better outcomes? Would a greater percentage of patients achieve their goal blood pressure (BP)? Self-monitoring may be an efficient method to improve blood pressure control; however, results from published reports are inconsistent. The authors of the TASMINH4 study sought to compare the effectiveness of three different approaches to BP monitoring.
Guest Authors: Vicky Shah, PharmD, BCPS and Daniel Longyhore, MS, PharmD, BCPS
Music by Good Talk
Thursday May 10, 2018
Strategies for Managing Hypertension: Is the Paradigm Shifting?
Thursday May 10, 2018
Thursday May 10, 2018
Forty-five percent of all adults in the United States have high blood pressure — that’s more than 100 million people! Of those treated with pharmacotherapy, more than half are not achieving their blood pressure goals. Thus, millions of Americans are receiving suboptimal care. A recently published systematic review and meta-analysis examined various implementation strategies to improve BP control in patients with high blood pressure. Which implementation strategies work best?
Guest Author: Lauren G Pamulapati, PharmD
Music by Good Talk
Friday Feb 02, 2018
SPRINTing towards lower BP goals : A re-analysis of the ACCORD-BP trial
Friday Feb 02, 2018
Friday Feb 02, 2018
The new 2017 ACC/AHA guidelines recommend a BP goal of <130/80 mmHg for everyone – including patients with diabetes. The 2018 ADA guidelines also recommend a goal of <130/80 mmHg, but only in patients at high risk of cardiovascular disease and only when it can be achieved without undue treatment burden. This change in recommendations is largely driven by results of the Systolic Blood Pressure Intervention Trial (SPRINT), which demonstrated a 25% reduction in the primary composite outcome of CV events with intensive BP control (SBP target <120 mmHg). However, extrapolating these findings to patients with T2DM has been challenging as patients with diabetes were excluded from SPRINT. A recent re-analysis of the ACCORD-BP study shed some new light.
Guest Authors: Kevin Cowart, Pharm.D. and Karen Sando, Pharm.D.
Music by Good Talk
Friday Dec 15, 2017
Friday Dec 15, 2017
We interview Eric MacLaughlin, Joseph Saseen, and Kristin Rieser about the ACC/AHA Guidelines for the Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure in Adults released in November 2017. Dr. MacLaughin, a member of the Guideline Writing Committee, gives a insiders view of the guidelines development process and explains the rationale for lower blood pressure goals. Drs. Saseen and Rieser talk about some of the practical considerations that we all must consider as we move forward to making these recommendations a reality.
Guests: Kristin Rieser, Pharm.D., Joseph Saseen, Pharm.D, and Eric MacLaughlin, Pharm.D.
Music by Good Talk