Optimal Medical Therapy (OMT) Lowers All-cause Mortality in Patients with Heart Artery Disease
In the last post, I wrote about another woman with repeated chest pain that we found using information technology. She has a dangerous condition. In a study of 904 women with repeated chest pain related to heart artery disease, 11% were dead within 6 years. That is 100 women out of 904. Two-thirds of them died of cardiovascular causes. Forty-two died suddenly. One minute they were alive, the next minute they were not. They did not get a second chance.
It is important to realize that OMT for cardiovascular disease does not merely reduce cardiovascular mortality, it reduces all-cause mortality. A study at the Kaiser Permanente system in Colorado compared OMT for patients with heart artery disease with usual care within the same system. There were 628 patients in each group and they were followed for four and a half years. During follow-up, 12 people died of heart disease in the OMT group compared with 98 in the usual care people. Sixteen people died of all causes in the OMT group compared with 188 in usual care. We could save many lives with proper diagnosis and treatment of women with repeated chest pain.
Bill, all cause mortality is really important. For providers taking full risk and managing co-morbidities and for employer purchasers of healthcare, certainly mortality is important but controlling the acuity of disease process is what matters most. OMT is a built in risk management tool to manage co-morbid patients. Self funded employers purchase stop loss for catastrophic specific and aggregate risk. It generally constitutes the largest fixed cost in the employers self funded plan. If OMT can keep an individual form breaching the stop loss corridor......the exponential financial effect on the finances of the entire plan are huge.
Using our technology to early detect plus effective measurable primary lifestyle optimization prevention measures, the outcomes will be much better for everyone, including the OMT treated groups! Yup!