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.

The workshop discussions focused on how low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) goal attainment can be enhanced with the use of health information technology (HIT) in different clinical settings. A gap is acknowledged in LDL-C goal attainment, but because of the passage of the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Acts there is now reason for optimism that this gap can be narrowed. For HIT to be effectively used to achieve treatment goals, it must be implemented in a setting in which the health care team is fully committed to achieving these goals.

Exceptions to outpatient quality measures for coronary artery disease in electronic health records.

Background: Physicians report outpatient quality measures from data in electronic health records to facilitate care improvement and qualify for incentive payments.

Objective: To determine the frequency and validity of exceptions to quality measures and to test a system for classifying the reasons for these exceptions.

Design: Cross-sectional observational study.

Electronic health record systems: the vehicle for implementing performance measures.

Advances in information technology and recent national directives have the potential to support dramatic improvements in health care. Two key components are the implementation of functional electronic health record systems and widely accepted, evidence-based clinical performance measures for physicians. Midwest Heart Specialists, a 55-physician cardiovascular group at 14 locations in northern Illinois, has utilized an outpatient electronic health record system since 1997.

Electrocardiographic predictors of arrhythmic death and total mortality in the multicenter unsustained tachycardia trial.

Background: Stratifiers of sudden and total mortality risk are needed to optimally target preventive therapies in patients with coronary artery disease and impaired ventricular function. We assessed the prognostic significance of ECG markers of conduction abnormalities and left ventricular hypertrophy in the Multicenter Unsustained Tachycardia Trial (MUSTT).

Methods And Results: We analyzed the ECGs of 1638 patients from MUSTT who did not receive antiarrhythmic therapy (antiarrhythmic medication or implantable cardioverter-defibrillator).

Effectiveness of the electronic medical record in improving the management of hypertension.

Clinical studies suggest that hypertension is often undiagnosed, undertreated, and poorly controlled. In 1997, the authors developed a comprehensive electronic medical record that interfaces with physicians during each outpatient visit and provides real-time feedback about patient care management, including the management of hypertension. The purpose of this study was to determine whether this interactive electronic medical record results in better detection and control of hypertension.