The sustainability of a community pharmacy intervention to improve the quality use of asthma medication

What is known and Objective: A previously published asthma intervention used a software application to data mine pharmacy dispensing records and generate a list of patients with potentially suboptimal management of their asthma; in particular, a high rate of provision of reliever medication. These patients were sent educational material from their community pharmacists and advised to seek a review of their asthma management from their general practitioner. The intervention resulted in a 3‐fold improvement in the ratio of dispensed preventer medication (inhaled corticosteroids) to reliever medication (short‐acting beta‐2 agonists). This follow‐up study aimed to determine the long‐term effects of the intervention programme on the preventer‐to‐reliever (P:R) ratio. Methods: The same data mining software was modified so that it could re‐identify patients who were originally targeted for the intervention. Community pharmacists who participated in the previous intervention installed the modified version of the software. The dispensing data were then de‐identified, encrypted and transferred via the Internet to a secure server. The follow‐up dispensing data for all patients were compared with their pre‐ and post‐intervention data collected originally. Results and Discussion: Of the 1551 patients who were included in the original study, 718 (46·3%) were eligible to be included in the follow‐up study. The improved P:R ratio was sustained for at least 12 months following the intervention (P < 0·01). The sustained increase in the P:R ratio was attributed to significant decreases in the average daily usage of reliever medication (P < 0·0001). What is new and Conclusion: The follow‐up study demonstrated a sustained improvement in the ratio of dispensed preventer medication to reliever medication for asthma. The intervention has the potential to show long‐lasting and widespread improvements in asthma management, improved health outcomes for patients, and ultimately, a reduced burden on the health system.