Outcomes of pharmacist-assisted management of antiretroviral therapy in patients with HIV infection: A risk-adjusted analysis.

PURPOSE: The impact of pharmacist-assisted management (PAM) of pharmacotherapy for patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection was investigated.

METHODS: A retrospective cohort analysis was conducted to evaluate antiretroviral therapy (ART) outcomes in treatment-naive patients initiated on ART at an HIV clinic. Eligible patients enrolled in the clinic during the period 1999-2013 were classified into two groups: those referred to a clinic-based HIV pharmacist for initiation of ART (the PAM group) and those managed by a primary care provider (the control group). The primary study objective was the median time to viral suppression; secondary objectives included the durability of response to the first ART regimen. Relative hazards for the events of interest were estimated using a marginal structural Cox proportional hazards model and Kaplan-Meier curves, with inverse probability weights used to control for selection and confounding bias.

RESULTS: Patients referred for PAM services (n = 819) typically had higher baseline viral loads and lower CD4+ cell counts than those in the control group (n = 436). The likelihood of viral suppression during the first two years after ART initiation was significantly higher in the PAM group versus the control group (hazard ratio, 1.37; 95% confidence interval, 1.18-1.59; p < 0.0001). The median durability of the first ART regimen was 100 months in the PAM group versus 44 months in the control group (p > 0.05).

CONCLUSION: In treatment-naive patients, suppression of HIV viral load occurred earlier when pharmacists assisted with initiating ART than when ART was initiated without that assistance.