Favorable Impact of Personalized Visual Medcation Charts on Patients With Arrhythmias
Document Type
Conference Proceeding
Publication Date
4-2025
Publication Title
Heart Rhythm
Abstract
Background: Polypharmacy in patients with arrhythmias can lead to less adherence, possibly from lack of understanding of the different medications. Patients often describe pills by color and shape while healthcare providers identify pills by dosage and names. To bridge this gap, a personalized visual medication chart (PVMC) was created to display a pictographic table of pills with its corresponding name and dosage tailored to each patient. Objective: This study seeks to evaluate the impact of PVMCs on the medication knowledge of arrhythmia patients presenting to ambulatory cardiology clinics over a 3-6 month period. Occurrence of medication and dosage changes in the follow up period were also studied. Methods: Patients taking 2 or more cardiac medications with an arrhythmia diagnosis were recruited to the control (CP) or intervention (IP) group. Patients were consented for participation and assessed on their medication knowledge using a 4 point scale for each cardiac medication. Patients in IP received a PVMC at their index visit (Figure 1). All patients were called 3-6 months later to reassess medication knowledge and evaluate for medication changes. Results: From 6/2023 to 11/2024, 94 patients in IP and 30 patients in CP completed follow-up. Median age was 71 years (range 39-90) and 71 years (range 32-91) for CP and IP respectively (p5ns). Median cardiac medications were 5 (range 2- 9) and 5 (range 2-8) for CP and IP respectively (p5ns). Medication changes occurred in 45% of patients (50% in CP, 44% in IP (p5ns)) and dosage changes occurred in 19% of patients (10% in CP, 21% in IP (p5ns)). Medication knowledge in CP did not significantly increase from baseline (81%) to reassessment (88%) (p5ns). Medication knowledge in IP significantly increased from baseline (78%) to reassessment (85%) (p50.003). Conclusion: There was a significant amount of medication and dosage changes over a short period in this select population, emphasizing the need for better medication insight tools. PVMCs represent a promising intervention for increasing medication knowledge. Further studies with larger cohorts are needed.
Volume
22
Issue
4 Suppl
First Page
S63
Last Page
S63
Recommended Citation
Quach K, Henderson A, Brunk D, Bloomingdale R, Mehta N. Favorable impact of personalized visual medication charts on patients with arrhythmias. Heart Rhythm. 2025 Apr;22(4 Suppl):S63. doi: 10.1016/j.hrthm.2025.03.132
DOI
10.1016/j.hrthm.2025.03.132
Comments
Heart Rhythm Society Annual Meeting, April 24-27, 2025, San Diego, CA