Scientific Poster Session II - MeRIT Primer Participants (Proposed Research)

Abstract

The prevalence of patients with gestational diabetes (GDM) is increasing. High blood glucose during pregnancy can cause both maternal and fetal complications. Management of GDM includes lifestyle changes with diet and exercise, and often requires medication therapy with insulin. What is unknown is if positive impacts of pharmacist care, shown in management of other diabetes types, translates to GDM management.

Research Question or Hypothesis:

What is the pharmacist’s impact on care of patients with gestational diabetes?

Study Design:

Retrospective, observational historical control group design

Methods:

The setting for this study is a Midwest federally qualified health center where family medicine residents serve as primary care providers. Participants included in the study will be women diagnosed with GDM. The intervention group (n~30) will be women who received standard of care plus embedded pharmacist care. The comparison group (n~30) will be a historical control who received standard of care with no pharmacist care. The primary outcome is time to initial blood glucose control. Secondary outcomes include maintenance of blood glucose control, medication use and titration, and maternal and fetal outcomes. The pharmacist’s involvement in the care will also be described. Data will be collected through retrospective chart review. Survival analysis using Kaplan-Meier will be used to compare time to initial blood glucose control between study groups. Comparisons of secondary outcomes will be done with chi-square or t-tests. Descriptive statistics will be used to describe pharmacist involvement in care.

Results:

It is anticipated that pharmacist involvement on the care team will expedite time to blood glucose control and optimize insulin use in patients with GDM. Patients who are not meeting blood glucose goals will likely have higher rates of insulin use necessitating more frequent pharmacist interactions.

Conclusion:

Pharmacist care may have significant positive impacts on GDM management and related outcomes.

Presenting Author

Authors