• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: First Nations
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.616.1016; http://www.cmaj.ca/content/174/9/1285.full.pdf

The term “clinical inertia ” is used to summarize 3 re-lated problems associated with inadequate manage-ment of chronic diseases: overestimation of care provided; use of “soft ” reasons to avoid intensification of therapy; and lack of education, training and practice organi-zation aimed at achieving treatment goals.1 Combatting clinical inertia with the aid of health professionals such as nurses and pharmacists following defined treatment algo-rithms has been seen as a potentially cost-effective way to improve clinical care for patients with chronic conditions such as hypertension and diabetes, particularly in commu-nity settings. The randomized controlled trial (RCT) re-ported by Tobe and colleagues in this issue (page 1267) is an example of such a strategy.2 In this study, First Nations people with hypertension and type 2 diabetes received intensive and systematic nonpharma-cologic management. Those randomly assigned to the inter-