Stent Maker Commits $40 Million to Post-Op Kits

WASHINGTON — Boston Scientific Corp. plans to spend up to $40 million on a campaign to educate patients who receive the company’s heart stents about the importance of sticking with the blood-thinning drugs they are prescribed after surgery.

Research has shown that up to 30 percent of patients implanted with stents never fill the prescriptions for the blood-thinning drugs — often a combination of Plavix and aspirin — that decrease the chance that they will develop life-threatening blood clots. The company, which sells the nation’s top-selling drug-coated heart stent, hopes to improve patient compliance with brochures printed in English and Spanish, refrigerator magnets, wallet cards, and even follow-up phone calls and text messages to patients with stents.

Right now, most patients are told to take Plavix for three to six months, depending on the stent they’ve got, and to remain on aspirin indefinitely to reduce the risk of suffering a heart attack or stroke. But Jeffrey Mirviss, Boston Scientific’s vice president of coronary stent marketing, said that many patients are simply overwhelmed when they find themselves rushed to the hospital for surgery.

“They’re confused. They have a stent put in on Tuesday; they go home on Wednesday,” said Mirviss. And often patients think the procedure alone — in which a tiny mesh tube props open a cleared artery — has fixed the problem and don’t pay any mind to the fistful of prescriptions they’re handed when they are discharged.

Waiting until patients are discharged to inform them about their prescriptions can mix an important message into a rush of other paperwork, cardiologists have advised Boston Scientific. So the company will push to have stent patients or a family member informed about the importance of blood thinners post-operation but prior to discharge.

The new initiative comes after a series of studies linked drug-coated stents with potentially deadly blood clots. Boston Scientific says that if patients take blood-thinning medication more regularly, it should help to reduce the slightly elevated blood clot risk now associated with drug-eluting stents.

The kit that will go to an estimated 700,000 patients a year will also include information about cardiovascular health. In addition to the brochures, refrigerator magnets will remind patients about a toll-free number to call — 1-877-TAXUS-411 — where healthcare professionals can answer most questions.

If a patient agrees to be contacted after he or she leaves the hospital, they’ll get a reminder call from a nurse about the importance of dual anti platelet therapy two or three days after they’ve returned home. These reminders — by phone, e-mail, or text message — would continue for six months.

“The sweet spot is getting a message to the patient to get on their Plavix,” Mirviss said. “Once they’re in the habit of taking it and they fill the first and second prescription, they usually stay on it for about six months. The problem is when patients don’t get on it early, and they don’t get in the habit of taking it. They have a higher likelihood of being noncompliant.”

The company will finalize details of the information kit in the second quarter and, after testing and fine-tuning, expects to distribute it widely as early as this fall.

SOURCE: The Boston Globe