Investing in Prevention: 3 Building Blocks of a Comprehensive Cardiovascular Program

Cardiovascular leaders should incorporate three important tools as part of a comprehensive CVD prevention program.

Nearly half of all cardiovascular-related deaths occur without overt warning—a sobering statistic that gives rise to heart disease’s grim nickname as “the silent killer” and highlights the true challenge of prevention and underdiagnosis.¹

• As a country, we spend nearly $1 billion a day trying to manage the implications of cardiovascular disease (CVD).²
• Forty-seven percent of all American adults have at least one key risk factor for CVD.³
• Demand for CVD care continues to outpace the number of practicing cardiologists.⁴

With data suggesting that CVD will continue to increase significantly in the coming years, our current approach to combating the nation’s leading cause of death is unsustainable. What we need is a greater emphasis on prevention and early detection.

A Shifting Landscape

Historically, CV program leaders have focused on expanding invasive and interventional clinical services—which yield high revenue and margins—as part of their strategic growth efforts. However, as a result of advances in technology, innovation, and consumer preference, the landscape of CV care delivery is beginning to shift away from high-cost episodic care toward prevention and personalized care. These advancements have also improved the tools and treatments available to providers for screening and diagnosing patients.

While prevention has always been a core focus of primary care and cardiology, the emphasis on personalized CV care can significantly expand the reach of CV providers to manage patients across broader geographies, as well as over the span of the patient’s lifetime. Payers are also beginning to transition reimbursement toward value-based risk models in an effort to manage escalating costs, and these changes allow CV providers to better manage patients, ultimately reducing costs and improving survival rates.

To succeed as high-performing and consumer-oriented organizations, CV programs need to invest in prevention. This article summarizes the important role of prevention in a CV care delivery model and urges CV leaders to incorporate three important tools—coronary artery calcium scoring (CACS), advanced lipid profiling, and nutritional counseling—as essential building blocks of a comprehensive CVD prevention program.

_{Edited by: Matt Maslin
Designed by: Mary Anne Akhouzine}

Published February 8, 2023