Managers within healthcare provider services are vital to leading activity that promotes achieving equity of outcomes. Genuine management guidance is crucial to reduce bias and improve the health experience for individuals, whānau, and our communities.
Nirmatrelvir with ritonavir (Paxlovid), a new oral antiviral medicine for adults with COVID-19, is now available for community use. In people at higher risk of severe illness from COVID-19, treatment with Paxlovid has been shown to reduce the incidence of hospitalisation or death. However, for certain patients it will not be safe or appropriate to use Paxlovid.
The current primary care CVD management guidance strongly recommends aggressive risk management and lifestyle modification in patients with pre-existing CVD or an equivalent CVD risk. Opportunities to improve use of CVD medicines remain, particularly for Māori and Pacific peoples who lose 2.6–2.8 times more years to CVD events relative to non-Māori/non-Pacific peoples.
Adalimumab is used to treat a range of dermatological, rheumatological, gastrointestinal and ophthalmologic conditions. From 1 March, Amgevita (an adalimumab biosimilar) is funded under Special Authority. From this date, patients starting treatment with adalimumab will receive Amgevita rather than the reference product, Humira.
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in New Zealand, accounting for 35 per cent of mortality in 2019. Yet it’s preventable and treatable. Māori, Pacific, and South Asian peoples have a disproportionately higher CVD risk compared with people not of these ethnicities. Therefore, CVD risk assessments in these ethnicities should begin earlier.
Prescribers are instrumental in framing a medicine positively or negatively, setting patient expectations. Optimising these expectations during a short consult can enhance and sustain benefits. Conversely, highlighting negative information may lead to increased experience, and reporting, of adverse events, and to poor adherence.
The jury is in – usual gout care isn’t working well, especially for Māori and Pacific peoples, who are disproportionately affected by this common disorder.
What potential tools are readily available to reduce gout harm? Specific clinician actions!
Read the bulletin to find out more.
Biological medicines have markedly changed prognoses for many conditions such as cancers, diabetes and autoimmune diseases.
As biologics’ patents expire, biosimilars – highly similar versions of approved biologic brands – will be competitively marketed. This will lead to cost savings, increased access and treatment options, and improved patient outcomes.
Read the HAH Bulletin to find out more.
When initiating either empagliflozin or dulaglutide, the newly funded second-line type 2 diabetes agents,1 choice is based primarily on predominant comorbidities, clinical features and tolerability.
Administration route is an additional factor; dulaglutide is a once-weekly, subcutaneous injection and empagliflozin is a daily tablet. Patient factors are also important, and the contraindications and adverse effects profiles differ.
Read the HAH Bulletin (updated July 2022) to find out more.
Prescribers wanting to block angiotensin II effects can consider the remaining funded ACE inhibitors or angiotensin II receptor blockers. ACE inhibitors and ARBs are similarly effective for hypertension, chronic renal disease and diabetic nephropathy, but ARBs are better tolerated. ACE inhibitors are preferred over ARBs first-line for heart failure and post myocardial infarction.
Read the HAH Bulletin to find out more.