Presentation
Changes In Prescribing Patterns For Sodium-glucose Cotransporter-2 Inhibitors, An Experience From A Tertiary Care Health System
Heart Failure Society of America's (HFSA) Annual Scientific Meeting 2021
(2021)
Abstract
Introduction: : Sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors (SGLT2i) are glucose-lowering agents known to have a significant impact on renal and cardiovascular outcomes. Given the expanded indications for SGLT2i, it remains unknown if there has been a change in the prescribing patterns related to the number of prescriptions written and the specialty of the prescribing physician. Hypothesis: : We hypothesize that the prescribing patterns of SGLT2i have been changed along with the expansion of SGLT2i's indications approved by the FDA. Methods: We evaluated records of the outpatient prescriptions at Northeast Georgia Health System (NGHS) from Jan 1, 2018, to Dec 31, 2020, using Epic SlicerDicer software (Epic). The prescriptions of SGLT2i were identified using the terms “SGLT2 inhibitor”, “SGLT2 inhibitor and Biguanide Combinations”, “SGLT2 inhibitor and DPP-4 inhibitor Combinations”, and “SGLT2 inhibitor, DPP-4 inhibitor, and Biguanide Combo”. The numbers of SGLT2i prescriptions were further analyzed per the authorizing physician specialty. Due to the limitation of the SlicerDicer, we are unable to collect the demographic characteristics of patients who received SGLT2i. Results: In total, n = 10,745 prescriptions of SGLT2i were identified through 2018 to 2020. As shown in Figure 1, prior to the DAPA-HF trial, SGLT2i were mainly prescribed by physicians specialized in internal medicine (IM) and family medicine (FM). No considerable changes in the numbers of SGLT2i prescriptions were noticed from 2018 Q1 to 2019 Q3 with an average of n = 679 per quarter. Since 2019 Q4, advanced heart failure (AHF) and general cardiologists (GC) began to prescribe SGLT2i aggressively, accompanied by a steady increase of SGLT2i prescriptions prescribed by IM and FM, except for 2020 Q2, which could be explained by the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Notably, the numbers of SGLT2i prescribed by AHF and GC have increased by 2,313% and 785% from 2019 Q4 to 2020 Q4, respectively. Conclusions: A substantially increased utilization of SGLT2i has been observed in a tertiary care health system among various physician specialties after the DAPA-HF trial. The numbers of SGLT2i prescribed by AHF and GC have increased significantly. Further research is needed to confirm these findings in a large-scale setting.
Disciplines
Publication Date
September, 2021
Location
Denver, CO
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cardfail.2022.03.065
Citation Information
Hua Ling, U Egolum, V Raje and N Sthalekar. "Changes In Prescribing Patterns For Sodium-glucose Cotransporter-2 Inhibitors, An Experience From A Tertiary Care Health System" Heart Failure Society of America's (HFSA) Annual Scientific Meeting 2021 (2021) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/hua-ling/61/