Please note that the The Million Hearts Longitudinal ASCVD Risk Assessment Tool is apparently not currently available to us regular clinicians. I didn’t release this when I wrote the post. I’m leaving it up for when it is released for general use.
Reference (1), Estimating Longitudinal Risks and Benefits From Cardiovascular Preventive Therapies Among Medicare Patients: The Million Hearts Longitudinal ASCVD Risk Assessment Tool, mostly discusses the methodology of development of the Assessment Tool.
The meat of the above article for clinicians are pages 46 to 55 of the PDF [click here to go to example]. They explain how to use the Assessment Tool which is an Excel spread sheet that you fill out. The tool is currently only available to practices participating in the CMS clinical trial but will be released later online and in app form.
The following are excerpts from Ten Points To Remember, from JACC Nov 4 2016, concerning Reference (1):
- Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) remains the leading cause of mortality and major morbidity in the United States, particularly among older Americans.
- The majority of heart attacks and strokes occur in older adults as a result of cumulative exposure to preventable or modifiable causal risk factors that arise from adverse environmental conditions and behavioral/lifestyle patterns, including elevated blood pressure, adverse atherogenic blood lipid levels, diabetes, and tobacco use.
- The Million Hearts tool is intended to identify candidates for primary prevention therapies and assist in their management. Use of the tool occurs in three steps:
- Estimating the baseline 10-year risk for ASCVD,
- Considering the potential benefits of risk-reducing therapies for a given patient in the context of a patient–clinician discussion and shared decision making, and
- Assessing the updated ASCVD risk based on the response to therapy.
- The Million Hearts Tool has been developed to assist clinicians and patients to understand risk, to monitor patients’ risks over time, and to quantify potential benefits of preventive therapies based on high-quality evidence.
The following is from Reference (1):
How To Use The Assessment Tool [Tool not currently available for primary care use]
Resources:
Estimating Longitudinal Risks and Benefits From Cardiovascular Preventive Therapies Among Medicare Patients: The Million Hearts Longitudinal ASCVD Risk Assessment Tool [PubMed Abstract] [Download PDF]. Circulation. 2016 Nov 4. pii: CIR.0000000000000467. [Epub ahead of print]
