Right care and high-value cardiology: doctors' responsibilities to the patient and the population

Significant advances in cardiovascular care, developed over the past three decades, are now routine treatment for people with heart disease—for example, primary angioplasty for acute ST elevation myocardial infarction is available to over 70% of the UK population, resynchronisation and defibrillator pacing devices are options for those with advanced heart failure, and drug therapies such as statins for secondary prevention have made significant impacts in reducing cardiovascular mortality in the past 50 years. Today, patients with cardiovascular disease can expect a better quality of life and greater longevity than those treated previously. However, much of the improvement in cardiovascular outcome (almost half) is due to strenuous anti-smoking public health campaigns and parallel regulatory changes, resulting in a 69% and 50% reduction in smoking prevalence in men and women, respectively, between 1959 and 2009.1 Although there is much to celebrate in the world of cardiology, cardiovascular disease remains the leading...
Source: Postgraduate Medical Journal - Category: Journals (General) Authors: Tags: Patients, General practice / family medicine, Drugs: cardiovascular system, Stroke, Interventional cardiology, Ischaemic heart disease, Radiology, Clinical diagnostic tests, Cardiothoracic surgery, Vascular surgery, Epidemiology, Health economics Editor Source Type: research