Table 1.

Topics and Prioritization Ranking During First Steps of Focus Groups

Topic	Illustrative quotations
Blood pressure management
Choosing of blood pressure treatments	I think it’s nuts…. I did have a medication once that caused me to cough…That’s the only time I’ve ever gone to somebody and said, “Let’s change this.”
	Certain medications you add differently to the individual.
Targeting blood pressure levels	I was on the smallest dose of blood pressure medicine, but I started working out several times per week, and my blood pressure was dropping lower. [I]t wasn’t within the standard guidelines goals, but that small dose was impacting me. So my doctor finally took me off blood pressure medication.
Diabetes management
Choice of diabetes treatments	If you are borderline [diabetic, you might not take medication, but] some people take medicine and some people take shots, so there must be a reason why you can take a pill and somebody else have to take insulin.
	I am a borderline diabetic. I don’t take medication. I exercise and, you know, they told me to do these things to keep it down. But I shouldn’t be on the same as he would be. Or his brother. And I shouldn’t be taking their type medication.
Goals for blood sugar level	And you wonder about the A1c. Everybody is saying it has to be below 7. But what about 7.2 being fine? But these pharmaceutical companies want the money.
Cholesterol management
Figuring out who needs cholesterol medicine	My cholesterol was always high …my doctor always says it’s ok ‘cause it’s my good cholesterol that is pushing the ratio up…I didn’t need any medication…After I saw her…I got a letter …saying your cholesterol is high…and you better learn how to control it and all this stuff.
	If you have high blood pressure and high cholesterol—if you are treating one of them, is the benefit from, like, one of them going to lower …going to give you added benefit from the other one without actually taking another medication? Do I have to take both in tandem? Or is there one that is going to treat both?
Treatments for cholesterol/goals of treatment	You know what I’d like to see? I’d like to see this percentage of the people who take this medication and suffer from muscle aches or fatigue or blah, blah, blah, instead of the long list on that little piece of paper you get…
Coronary artery disease
Blood thinners	They treat you like guinea pigs to see what works. That’s what they do…this doesn’t work? Try this one. They just keep switching.
	With the blood thinner, I think it would be very important with regards to if a person was going to have surgery, to be very clear and find out if the person was taking something.
Other treatments	…for me, the beta blocker, it really was like somebody sitting on my chest 24 h a day. But it was helping my heart at the same time. But I just could not function. So we changed. He said, ok, we’ll work in another way…but I said no more of them, because …once they found out I had COPD and that’s why I was going around sounding like a horse, you know?