In addition to usual care provided by general practitioner (GP) and other health care providers, a pharmacist-practitioner in collaboration with GPs from the study setting provided CMM services to patients in the intervention group. Based on the pre-defined inclusion criteria, GPs were selecting patients and referring them to the pharmacist. The individual consultation with the patient was held at the private counselling area where pharmacist and patient were able to talk face-to-face apart from the other patients. The initial assessment lasted 60-90 minutes and the follow-up evaluations 30-60 minutes. Alternatively, patients were followed-up by telephone. Communication with GPs took place in a written (electronic consultation system Health net. PRO; e-mail) and, if needed by face-to-face conversation. Each patient in the intervention group needed to agree to participate in the study by signing an Informed consent form.

Patients in the control group received the usual care which includes GP and other health care provider visits. Data for the patients pertaining to the control group were provided by the 'control' GP and collected parallel with the intervention group. 'Control' GP profile corresponded to the profile of GPs included in the intervention group - the number of years of professional experience in the primary health care less than ten.

Comprehensive Medication Management services (CMM services) is an evidence-based and patient-centred service which involves an assessment of patient's medications to determine that each medication is appropriate, effective for the medical condition being treated, safe for the patient in the presence of other medications and co-morbidities, and that the patient is able and willing to take the medications as intended. As all patient care providers need a structured, rational thought process for sound clinical decision retrieval, the Pharmacotherapy Workup was developed and adopted as a systematic problem-solving process. This process represents the cognitive work taking place in the mind of the practitioner, and is used to identify, resolve, and prevent drug therapy problems (DTP), establish therapy goals, select interventions and evaluate outcomes.

Within- and between-treatment differences for the intervention and the control group in blood pressure.

Within- and between-treatment differences for the intervention and the control group in LDL cholesterol (mmol/L), triglycerides (mmol/L), HDL cholesterol (mmol/L) and total cholesterol (mmol/L).