BIG MOOD: Managing Depression in Patients with Heart Failure

Depression is a common comorbidity in patients with heart failure. Despite being associated with worse outcomes, depression is often unaddressed in this population, possibly due to unfamiliarity of cardiologists with proper diagnosis and management of this disease. Recent data continues to be conflicting in how to address this comorbidity. In this post, Dr. Gale discusses the evidence for managing depression in patients with cardiovascular disease.

Teamwork Makes the Dream Work: Enhancing Employee Productivity, Engagement, and Satisfaction Through a Culture of Collaboration: Part 2 of 2

Teamwork improves organizational performance and goal achievement. Professional and social support as a result of team work is associated with improved job satisfaction. In the second part of this two-part blog series, we discuss tips for creating your own team as well as common challenges that arise within teams and how to overcome them.

Teamwork Makes the Dream Work: Enhancing Employee Productivity, Engagement, and Satisfaction Through a Culture of Collaboration: Part 1 of 2

Teamwork improves organizational performance and goal achievement. Professional and social support as a result of team work is associated with improved job satisfaction. In the first section of this two-part blog, we discuss the fundamentals for a high-performing team as identified by the National Academy of Medicine. We also describe the creation of a clinical faculty team, including the fundamentals of team development and strategies for implementation, using the Applied Therapeutics, Research, and Instruction at the University of Maryland (ATRIUM) Cardiology Collaborative as a case study.

Formulary Decisions Matter: 4 reasons to add SGLT2i to your inpatient formulary

Several advances in the pharmacologic treatment of heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) have been made in the past several years. Despite known benefits, use of guideline-directed medical therapy in these patients remains wildly suboptimal. There are several reasons for this, including increasing complexity of HF regimens as well therapeutic inertia. While we may not have control over all components of therapeutic inertia, we feel strongly as a pharmacist that we cannot let our inpatient formulary decisions be one of them. As such, here we discuss 4 reasons why you should add these agents to formulary.

A Sticky Situation: The Role of Thrombolytics in Left Ventricular Assist Device Thrombosis

Pump thrombosis is a potentially life-threatening complication of continuous-flow left ventricular assist device support. Escalation of antithrombotic therapy has historically been associated with variable efficacy and high rates of bleeding. Previous guidelines suggest thrombolytic therapy as an alternative treatment option in patients with device thrombosis in whom surgical device exchange would result in unacceptable operative risk. This blog will explore the use of thrombolytics for pump thrombosis and highlight important factors to consider with this strategy.