Welcome To The TEAM Study Website
The Team Education and Adherence Monitoring (TEAM) Trial is a cluster-randomized trial that tested a 6-month intervention for improving patient adherence to anti-hypertensive medications and blood pressure outcomes in Black patients with uncontrolled hypertension. The study was conducted in 28 corporately owned community pharmacies in five Wisconsin cities. Patients in 14 control pharmacies received “usual care” and patients in 14 intervention pharmacies were invited to participate in a 6-month TEAM program that included scheduled monthly visits with a TEAM pharmacist and pharmacy technician who received 8-hours of TEAM training, supplies for creating a portable BP counseling station, and novel tools for identifying and reducing the core barriers to medication adherence in Black patients with hypertension. Data collectors screened 1,250 Black patients and enrolled 576 patients with treated but uncontrolled hypertension. The primary endpoints were the proportion of patients achieving blood pressure (BP) control, reductions in systolic and diastolic BP, and improvements in optimal refill adherence (>80% PDC, proportion days covered) during and after the 6-month intervention. Secondary endpoints were cost-effectiveness, changes in pharmacist monitoring and intervention, patient perceptions of pharmacist help with the core barriers to adherence, physician prescribing, and patient satisfaction with care. Researchers also used causal path analysis to determine the largest contributors or mediators to intervention success.
Study results indicated that the TEAM model involving pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, and specially designed tools was a successful and cost-effective strategy for improving systolic BP, refill adherence, and patient satisfaction in study patients and that the most important factor in explaining improved refill adherence was pharmacist collaboration with the patient in reducing the core barriers to adherence.
Funding provided by: Grant #R01 HL78580
Clinical Trials.gov identifier: NCT00205153
Contact Principal Investigator: Bonnie L. Svarstad, PhD