The sudden second death due to drugs

Deadly arrhythmia due to drug side effects

01/09/2013

The term "second heart death" describes the sudden onset of fatal cardiac arrhythmias, often in people who were actually healthy after own and foreign perception. Not always the second heart death is an unpredictable fate. It may also be the result of the side effect of so-called "QT-interval prolonging" drugs (QT-IVAM), which can trigger such arrhythmias. The simultaneous prescription of multiple QT-IVAM is particularly dangerous and therefore usually not indicated.

Concomitant treatment of a patient with multiple medicinal products that prolong the so-called "QT interval" on the ECG may increase the risk of sudden cardiac death. The side effects are not recognized in many cases - because the non-combining drugs are often prescribed by different doctors. Current risk warnings from German, European and US regulatory authorities indicate that co-administration with other QT interval-prolonging medicines should be avoided for patients taking medicines containing citalopram or escitalopram. Both drugs are often prescribed for depression.

Based on the number of daily doses of citalopram and escitalopram in Germany of more than 200 million (Drug Disposal Report 2011), it can be deduced that up to 1.8 million people across Germany are treated with these active substances and may be at risk.

This is where the nationwide unique project of the IKK Südwest and its cooperation partners comes into its own, which has several international unique selling points and was awarded the Innovation Prize for Health of the Financial Times Germany.

Using specially designed software from RpDoc Solutions, the drug prescribing data is used to identify patients who are simultaneously prescribed multiple QT-IV medicines and thus have a potentially preventable risk of sudden cardiac death. "The RpDoc risk radar drug therapy identifies avoidable prescription-related risks that the individual doctor can not or only badly recognize," said Simone Grandt, CEO of the company.

If the affected patient gives his consent, the physicians treating him will be informed about the overall medication and the identified risks. This allows the physician to use alternative drug therapies if necessary. The assessment of the potential risks and the subsequent information of the insured and doctors is carried out in close cooperation with the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KV) Saarland. "The KV Saarland sees the program as a practice-oriented model that allows the doctor to identify and avoid risks for the patient," says Dr. med. Gunter Hauptmann, Chairman of the Board of KV Saarland.

"With this globally unique project, the Saarland wants to give an impetus to continue along this path and to significantly increase the safety of medicines for patients, even with avoidable risks." The project was launched in early June 2012 at the e-Health Conference in Saarbrücken presented and since then constantly evolved. ", Says the Saarland Minister of Health Andreas Storm as patron of the joint project.

"As an innovative health insurer, we are committed to providing our insured with the best possible protection against dangerous drug interactions, so we are proud of our pioneering role in the fight against sudden cardiac death," explains Frank Spaniol, CEO of IKK Südwest. From the beginning, the project partners worked closely with the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM), which also provided financial support for the project by the Saarland Ministry of Health. (Pm)

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