Successful outcomes for national cardiovascular health programme

A summary of the impact of the Health Innovation Network’s lipid management and familial hypercholesterolaemia national spread programme has been published. The programme, which ran from October 2020 to March 2023, was successful in increasing the uptake of lipid lowering therapies, increasing the identification and management of people with FH, and enabling adoption of endorsed pathways.

With a focus on primary care, it achieved this through engagement and education events, supporting clinicians to identify those at risk, so they could in turn support patients to lower their lipids. It was anticipated that these interventions would in turn lead to a fall in the number of major cardiovascular events, such as heart attack or stroke.

The summary includes data from an independent evaluation by Unity Insights, and other sources such as CVDPREVENT and UCLPartners ‘Size of the Prize’ infographics. The improvement in lipid management achieved across England is estimated to have prevented over 9,000 heart attacks and strokes. Prescribing rates for lipid lowering therapies went up, and more people were genetically confirmed with familial hypercholesterolaemia.

The summary is available here.