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Forces marshalled to spread word of hypertension study

Doctors are becoming detailers in promoting ALLHAT results. Some question the wisdom of using research dollars to support these efforts.

By Susan J. Landers, amednews staff. April 12, 2004.

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Washington -- Borrowing a successful pharmaceutical firm strategy that employs drug reps to carry study findings to busy physicians, the National Institutes of Health is funding an effort to spread the results of a large federally supported study that compared high blood pressure medications.

The message will be delivered to primary care physicians by a cadre of their colleagues who had been investigators on the large ALLHAT study, or the Antihypertensive and Lipid-Lowering Treatment to Prevent Heart Attack Trial.

If the approximately $4 million effort proves successful, the dissemination method may be duplicated to speed the results of other federally funded trials to clinicians.

The ALLHAT findings were published in the Dec. 18, 2002, Journal of the American Medical Association and served to highlight the role of diuretics as a good starting point for treating some of the 50 million Americans who have high blood pressure and are at increased risk for heart attack, heart failure and stroke.

The study compared a diuretic to a newer calcium channel blocker and an ACE inhibitor and found the treatments to be of equal value in lowering pressure, with the diuretics carrying a lower price tag and often fewer complications and side effects.

While no one questions the importance of encouraging physicians to help patients control their blood pressure, some urge caution before starting down a path that uses valuable NIH research dollars to fund outreach.