Medication Management and Culture of Safety

We will assess the current use of aspirin therapy for primary and secondary cardiovascular disease prevention in six general internal medicine and family medicine clinics within the University of Colorado Hospital system using electronic health record data.

We will develop messages concerning the appropriate use of aspirin for cardiovascular disease prevention for academic detailing to clinicians, a point of care (EHR) decision support aid for clinicians, and a short information sheet (generated by a CDS) for patients.

We will test the effectiveness of interventions to improve the evidence-based use of aspirin for primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease using a randomized trial in the six University of Colorado Hospital primary care practices studied. The three intervention arms will include:

1.academic detailing and cessation of the primary prevention reminder within the point of care clinical decision support system (EHR/CDS) only 2. academic detailing with an EHR/CDS message asking clinicians to consider stopping aspirin therapy for primary prevention embedded in the point of care clinical decision support system 3. academic detailing with the EHR/CDS point of care message for clinicians in the second paragraph above, and a short information sheet to be given to patients prior to a visit to ask them to check with their provider concerning their use of aspirin for primary prevention

-

Inclusion criteria

• All patient on low-dose aspirin without an appropriate diagnosis of coronary artery disease or thrombotic stroke/transient ischemic attack (TIA) within the six practices.

Exclusion criteria

• Persons not on aspirin therapy or persons on aspirin therapy for reasons other than prevention of cardiovascular disease (i.e., pain relief) will not be included in the study.