Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death worldwide, responsible for an estimated 18.6 million deaths every year. While people are needing healthcare more than ever, access to healthcare still remains inadequate in many settings. The pharmaceutical workforce, an essential pillar of the healthcare system, is ideally positioned to strengthen primary care delivery and contribute to CVD risk factor management and prevention.
On Wednesday 26 October, the International Pharmaceutical Federation published Cardiovascular diseases: A handbook for pharmacists, which identifies and describes pharmacist-led interventions in cardiovascular disease prevention, screening, management, and treatment optimisation. Pharmacists can play a crucial role in screening, preventing and modifying risk factors, and overall providing helpful advice on how to keep or achieve a healthier lifestyle. Since pharmacy services are easily accessible and widely distributed in the community setting, interventions provided in this context could help reduce the burden of CVD worldwide.
“In the World Heart Vision 2030 report, the WHF calls upon all health professionals to strengthen their engagement in preventing and combatting CVDs. This handbook aims to do exactly that within the pharmacy profession, by providing a valuable resource to help pharmacists implement evidence-based interventions for CVD in their practices,” said WHF President Prof Fausto Pinto.
Read the publication here.
