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BackgroundUniversity of California at Los Angeles Health implemented a Best Practice Advisory (BPA) alert for the initiation of an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor (ACEI) or angiotensin-receptor blocker (ARB) for individuals with diabetes. The BPA alert was configured with a “chart closure” hard stop, which demanded a response before closing the chart. ObjectiveThe aim of the study was to evaluate whether the implementation of the BPA was associated with changes in ACEI and ARB prescribing during primary care encounters for patients with diabetes. MethodsWe defined ACEI and ARB prescribing opportunities as primary care encounters in which the patient had a diabetes diagnosis, elevated blood pressure in recent encounters, no active ACEI or ARB prescription, and no contraindications. We used a multivariate logistic regression model to compare the change in the probability of an ACEI or ARB prescription during opportunity encounters before and after BPA implementation in primary care sites that did (n=30) and did not (n=31) implement the BPA. In an additional subgroup analysis, we compared ACEI and ARB prescribing in BPA implementation sites that had also implemented a pharmacist-led medication management program. ResultsWe identified a total of 2438 opportunity encounters across 61 primary care sites. The predicted probability of an ACEI or ARB prescription increased significantly from 11.46% to 22.17% during opportunity encounters in BPA implementation sites after BPA implementation. However, in the subgroup analysis, we only observed a significant improvement in ACEI and ARB prescribing in BPA implementation sites that had also implemented the pharmacist-led program. Overall, the change in the predicted probability of an ACEI or ARB prescription from before to after BPA implementation was significantly greater in BPA implementation sites compared with nonimplementation sites (difference-in-differences of 11.82; P

Background: Many countries have experienced 2 predominant waves of COVID-19-related hospitalizations. Comparing the clinical trajectories of patients hospitalized in separate waves of the pandemic enables further understanding of the evolving epidemiology, pathophysiology, and health care dynamics of the COVID-19 pandemic., Objective: In this retrospective cohort study, we analyzed electronic health record (EHR) data from patients with SARS-CoV-2 infections hospitalized in participating health care systems representing 315 hospitals across 6 countries. We compared hospitalization rates, severe COVID-19 risk, and mean laboratory values between patients hospitalized during the first and second waves of the pandemic., Methods: Using a federated approach, each participating health care system extracted patient-level clinical data on their first and second wave cohorts and submitted aggregated data to the central site. Data quality control steps were adopted at the central site to correct for implausible values and harmonize units. Statistical analyses were performed by computing individual health care system effect sizes and synthesizing these using random effect meta-analyses to account for heterogeneity. We focused the laboratory analysis on C-reactive protein (CRP), ferritin, fibrinogen, procalcitonin, D-dimer, and creatinine based on their reported associations with severe COVID-19., Results: Data were available for 79,613 patients, of which 32,467 were hospitalized in the first wave and 47,146 in the second wave. The prevalence of male patients and patients aged 50 to 69 years decreased significantly between the first and second waves. Patients hospitalized in the second wave had a 9.9% reduction in the risk of severe COVID-19 compared to patients hospitalized in the first wave (95% CI 8.5%-11.3%). Demographic subgroup analyses indicated that patients aged 26 to 49 years and 50 to 69 years; male and female patients; and black patients had significantly lower risk for severe disease in the second wave than in the first wave. At admission, the mean values of CRP were significantly lower in the second wave than in the first wave. On the seventh hospital day, the mean values of CRP, ferritin, fibrinogen, and procalcitonin were significantly lower in the second wave than in the first wave. In general, countries exhibited variable changes in laboratory testing rates from the first to the second wave. At admission, there was a significantly higher testing rate for D-dimer in France, Germany, and Spain., Conclusions: Patients hospitalized in the second wave were at significantly lower risk for severe COVID-19. This corresponded to mean laboratory values in the second wave that were more likely to be in typical physiological ranges on the seventh hospital day compared to the first wave. Our federated approach demonstrated the feasibility and power of harmonizing heterogeneous EHR data from multiple international health care systems to rapidly conduct large-scale studies to characterize how COVID-19 clinical trajectories evolve., (©Griffin M Weber, Harrison G Zhang, Sehi L'Yi, Clara-Lea Bonzel, Chuan Hong, Paul Avillach, Alba Gutiérrez-Sacristán, Nathan P Palmer, Amelia Li Min Tan, Xuan Wang, William Yuan, Nils Gehlenborg, Anna Alloni, Danilo F Amendola, Antonio Bellasi, Riccardo Bellazzi, Michele Beraghi, Mauro Bucalo, Luca Chiovato, Kelly Cho, Arianna Dagliati, Hossein Estiri, Robert W Follett, Noelia García Barrio, David A Hanauer, Darren W Henderson, Yuk-Lam Ho, John H Holmes, Meghan R Hutch, Ramakanth Kavuluru, Katie Kirchoff, Jeffrey G Klann, Ashok K Krishnamurthy, Trang T Le, Molei Liu, Ne Hooi Will Loh, Sara Lozano-Zahonero, Yuan Luo, Sarah Maidlow, Adeline Makoudjou, Alberto Malovini, Marcelo Roberto Martins, Bertrand Moal, Michele Morris, Danielle L Mowery, Shawn N Murphy, Antoine Neuraz, Kee Yuan Ngiam, Marina P Okoshi, Gilbert S Omenn, Lav P Patel, Miguel Pedrera Jiménez, Robson A Prudente, Malarkodi Jebathilagam Samayamuthu, Fernando J Sanz Vidorreta, Emily R Schriver, Petra Schubert, Pablo Serrano Balazote, Byorn WL Tan, Suzana E Tanni, Valentina Tibollo, Shyam Visweswaran, Kavishwar B Wagholikar, Zongqi Xia, Daniela Zöller, The Consortium For Clinical Characterization Of COVID-19 By EHR (4CE), Isaac S Kohane, Tianxi Cai, Andrew M South, Gabriel A Brat. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (https://www.jmir.org), 11.10.2021.)