Henry Low Heart Center Annual Report, 2007 - Hartford Hospital!

Evidence-Based Practice Center Grant Awarded to Hartford Hospital/UCONN
Hartford Hospital’s Division of Cardiology and Departments of Pharmacy and Research
Administration have teamed up with the University of Connecticut (UCONN) Schools of
Pharmacy and Business to create a health outcomes and policy conglomerate. This group has
been selected as an Evidence-based Practice Center (EPC) by the Agency for Healthcare
Research and Quality (AHRQ), a federal agency under the Department of Health and Human
Services. Jeffrey Kluger, MD, Jeffrey Mather, MS, and Robert Quercia, MS, represent the core
multidisciplinary team of Hartford Hospital researchers contributing to this effort, while
C. Michael White, PharmD, and Craig Coleman, PharmD, are UCONN faculty members with
practice sites at Hartford Hospital. AHRQ has only designated 14 Evidence-based Practice
Centers (EPCs) throughout North America and joined groups such as Tufts/New England
Medical Center and Vanderbilt University. EPCs use the scholarly modality of systematic review
that includes reviewing and summarizing current data, performing meta-analyses and simulation
Jeffrey Kluger, MD and
Michael White, PharmD studies, and applying cost-effectiveness or health policy models to translate the results to the
health care environment. EPCs are an invaluable resource for Medicaid, Medicare, other federal agencies, medical organizations, and
payers as they make evidence-based policy decisions.
EPCs are an invaluable resource for Medicaid, Medicare,
other federal agencies, medical organizations, and payers as
they make evidence-based policy decisions.
The Heart Rhythm Service has developed an extensive patient care database. Drs. Kluger, Coleman and White have recently
harnessed this database to answer important patient care questions. They have determined that statins can reduce mortality in
patients with Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators (ICDs) and can improve the safety of the devices by reducing inappropriate
shocks. In a meta-analysis, they determined that women might not benefit to the same extent as men when given an ICD which
opens up a new area for future investigation.