October is Cholesterol Awareness Month, which seems a great opportunity for us to share details of HIEMs CVD Prevention programme and remind healthcare services in the East Midlands of the support HIEM can offer.
The NHS Long Term Plan states that the biggest area where the NHS can save lives over the next 10 years is in reducing the incidence of cardiovascular disease (CVD).
CVD affects around seven million people in the UK and is a significant cause of disability and death. CVD is responsible for one in four premature deaths in the UK, with those in the most deprived areas almost twice as likely to die from CVD.
Over the next 10 years, the NHS will help prevent up to 150,000 heart attacks, strokes and dementia cases
In this blog, Innovation Lead Nikki Biddlestone tells us more about the programme, how Health Innovation East Midlands can support CVD service teams across the region and signposts to helpful resources.
“Over the next three years, the CVD prevention programme will work with systems across the East Midlands on three key prevention workstreams – Lipid Optimisation, Familial Hypercholesterolaemia (FH) and Blood Pressure Optimisation.
“Our aim is to support our local systems to detect, appropriately manage and optimise treatment for high cholesterol, hypertension and FH, and so reduce broader cardiovascular risk, prevent heart attacks, strokes, and dementia.
“I joined the CVD Prevention programme in June having previously worked on the Innovation for Health Inequalities Programme (InHIP).
“There are lots of fantastic initiatives happening across the East Midlands that are working towards improving CVD care for local people.
“If you are wanting to improve CVD care for people in your area, we can help.
“We speak to CVD leads and teams across the region and beyond on a daily basis and can help signpost you to people who are working on similar challenges to you, who have found ways to overcome similar barriers or who can share their policies, operating procedures or toolkits for their workforce for example.
“We can share learning and knowledge about the different risk stratification tools and good practice across services. We can share different approaches, models and case studies.
“My previous role focussed on addressing health inequalities in healthcare. Across the region there are some great examples of how teams have approached CVD care with an aim to reduce health inequalities across our diverse populations.
“Please do get in touch if you are thinking of making changes to your CVD service as we could help save you some time – one of our most precious resources!”
To find out more and to access other helpful resources please visit our website. Here’s where you’ll also find webinars on lipid management pathways and on familial hypercholesterolaemia and links to national guidance and frameworks as well as Top tips, Q&As and a guide to patient search tools.
There are also links to patient and healthcare professional CVD resources produced by reputable charities.
If you’d like to find out more, please do get in touch via