Navy and Marine Corps Public Health Center Develops Outreach for Patients With Rare Disease

PORTSMOUTH, Va. (NNS) -- The Navy and Marine Corps Public Health Center's (NMCPHC) announced a targeted outreach initiative for myasthenia gravis patients and providers to raise awareness about a class of drugs that can exacerbate the chronic condition, June 26.

The goals of NMCPHC's direct outreach to patients and providers is three-fold: to raise awareness of the medical complications for myasthenia gravis patients; to encourage patients to take control of their health as part of Navy Medicine's Medical Home Port initiative; and to ultimately improve clinical outcomes for patients and indirectly reduce spending costs.

Myasthenia gravis is a rare autoimmune disorder with no known cure that causes muscle weakness and fatigue. An estimated 400 Sailors, Marines, and other beneficiaries were diagnosed with the condition between 2006 and 2012.

"We want to empower Sailors, Marines and their families in managing their health by providing information and resources to make informed decisions. We believe this empowerment can positively affect the quality of life and improve care delivered in our military treatment facilities," said Capt. Paul Rockswold, NMCPHC Health Analysis department head and Family and Preventive Medicine physician.

A little over two years ago, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a black box warning label indicating that fluoroquinolone medications, a class of commonly prescribed antibiotics, may exacerbate myasthenia gravis symptoms. In response, NMCPHC's Health Analysis (HA) department leveraged clinical health data analysis to design and launch a targeted outreach initiative notifying myasthenia gravis patients and their providers of the FDA safety warning.

HA identified patients and providers through their direct access to the most comprehensive clinical databases in the Military Health System (MHS). HA's team of expert epidemiologists analyzed clinical health data and discovered that patients with myasthenia gravis were still taking fluoroquinolone medications despite the black box warning, spurring the outreach initiative.

Outreach included a letter to patients detailing the risks associated with fluoroquinolone antibiotics and a wallet card for patients to take to appointments to help support direct communication with their health care provider. Letters were also sent to health care providers caring for myasthenia gravis patients, alerting them to the black box warning and the wave of patient outreach being conducted. This two-pronged approach ensured that myasthenia gravis patients and their providers within the MHS received the message to avoid fluoroquinolone medications, improving clinical outcomes and reducing medical complications.

Copies of the letters and the wallet card are available at http://www.med.navy.mil/sites/nmcphc/health-analysis/.

NMCPHC is part of the Navy Medicine team, a global health care network of 63,000 Navy medical personnel around the world who provide high-quality health care to more than one million eligible beneficiaries. Navy Medicine personnel deploy with Sailors and Marines worldwide, providing critical mission support aboard ship, in the air, under the sea and on the battlefield.

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