Changes to DPP-4 inhibitor coverage: Physicians concerned

Issue: BCMJ, vol. 57, No. 2, March 2015, Pages 73-74 News

The Canadian Heart Research Centre (CHRC) recently conducted an online survey to assess the potential impact of BC Pharmacare’s changes to the coverage of DPP-4 inhibitors on physicians’ practice and patient care. The majority of surveyed physicians expressed concern about the change. The survey was completed by 322 physicians anonymously between November and December 2014 (approximately 4500 were asked to complete the survey). A selection of survey results are provided below:
•    69% were aware of BC Pharmacare’s changes but 88% of those were not consulted by BC Pharmacare in advance of the changes and were not aware of which organizations were consulted as part of the decision-making process. 
•    85% believed physicians should have been involved in the decision-making process, primarily given the potential implication on their practice.
•    97% believe physicians will be impacted by additional work as a result of the coverage change.
•    43% have noted/are expecting at least two extra patient visits per week as a result of the change.
•    15% indicated patients may stop taking their medication, which may result in the loss of glycemic control.
•    34% indicated additional time and resources may be required to re-achieve glycemic control.

In August 2014, BC Pharmacare announced it would no longer cover sitagliptin (Januvia) a DPP-4 inhibitor and the fixed-dose combination of sitagliptin and metformin (Janumet/Janumet XR). All patients currently taking these medications are required to have transitioned to one of the other two DPP-4 inhibitors that are covered by BC Pharmacare by 5 February 2015.

For more information on the survey, contact the Canadian Heart Research Centre at 1 800 725-6585, ext. 229, or via e-mail at cmeinfo@chrc.net. Summary survey results are available at www.bcvoice.ca.

. Changes to DPP-4 inhibitor coverage: Physicians concerned. BCMJ, Vol. 57, No. 2, March, 2015, Page(s) 73-74 - News.


Above is the information needed to cite this article in your paper or presentation. The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommends the following citation style, which is the now nearly universally accepted citation style for scientific papers:
Halpern SD, Ubel PA, Caplan AL, Marion DW, Palmer AM, Schiding JK, et al. Solid-organ transplantation in HIV-infected patients. N Engl J Med. 2002;347:284-7.

About the ICMJE and citation styles

The ICMJE is small group of editors of general medical journals who first met informally in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1978 to establish guidelines for the format of manuscripts submitted to their journals. The group became known as the Vancouver Group. Its requirements for manuscripts, including formats for bibliographic references developed by the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), were first published in 1979. The Vancouver Group expanded and evolved into the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), which meets annually. The ICMJE created the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals to help authors and editors create and distribute accurate, clear, easily accessible reports of biomedical studies.

An alternate version of ICMJE style is to additionally list the month an issue number, but since most journals use continuous pagination, the shorter form provides sufficient information to locate the reference. The NLM now lists all authors.

BCMJ standard citation style is a slight modification of the ICMJE/NLM style, as follows:

  • Only the first three authors are listed, followed by "et al."
  • There is no period after the journal name.
  • Page numbers are not abbreviated.


For more information on the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, visit www.icmje.org

BCMJ Guidelines for Authors

Leave a Reply