Patient-Centered Cardiac Risk Communication

Roma Amin, Department of Family and Community Medicine, Jefferson Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA
Mark Berguson, Department of Family and Community Medicine, Jefferson Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA
Marianna LaNoue, PhD, Thomas Jefferson University
Geoffrey Mills, MD, PhD, Thomas Jefferson University
Manisha Verma, MD, MPH, Thomas Jefferson University

Abstract

More than a third of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in America is primarily due to modifiable risk factors. This reflects the significant impact that patient behavior could have on health outcomes. Our solution is to develop a tool that would convert Framingham Risk Score (FRS) – the gold standard of cardiac risk assessment – into a personalized mode that best incorporates patient’s desires and abilities, and that ultimately elicits behavior change. The first phase in this project was to understand how physicians are currently assessing cardiac risk.