Cardiovascular Disease Prevention and Management (CVD)

About the programme

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) encompasses all heart and circulatory diseases including stroke, coronary heart disease, angina, heart attack and vascular dementia. CVD is one of the leading causes of death and disability in the UK but is largely preventable through healthy lifestyle choices and detection and management of risk factors such as hypertension (high blood pressure), atrial fibrillation (AF) and high cholesterol. Cardiovascular disease has a strong association with health inequalities with ethnic minority groups being more at risk. There is significant variation in outcomes with those in the most deprived 10% of the population being almost twice as likely to die from CVD than those in the least deprived 10%. People with severe mental illness have an 85% higher risk of dying from CVD than the general population. 

Cardiovascular disease prevention is a priority area within the NHS Long Term Plan, which sets out a clear ambition to prevent 150,000 strokes, heart attacks and dementia cases. Targeted CVD prevention initiatives directly reduce health inequalities and are highly cost effective in preventing cardiovascular events. 

HIWM Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) Prevention and Management Programme has been established to support organisations, acute Trusts and Integrated Care Systems to implement new or modified models of care to reduce cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, address and reduce health inequalities and improve the overall health and well-being of the population in the West Midlands. HIWM will work across healthcare boundaries and support both commissioners and providers in identifying areas in which health gains can be made and overall CVD burden can be reduced; due to preventable cardiac events, reduction in re-admissions and recurrent events in people with established CVD. 

Programme ambitions

The overall objectives of the programme are:

• To support benchmarking of current disease prevalence, and to measure the impact of any interventions over time, 
• Use data to inform and drive clinical quality improvement initiatives and to evaluate the impact of interventions implemented, 
• Develop and deliver region wide education and training on detection and management of high-risk conditions, heart failure and secondary prevention, 
• To facilitate development of local clinical leadership to ensure sustainability of initiative implemented during the programme, 
• To support clinical service redesign and pathway transformation to improve the patient journey, introduce efficiencies and reduce unwarranted variation in access to diagnostic tests, guideline mandated / evidence-based therapies and support services. 

Find out more

Click on the links below to find further information relating to specific projects under the CVD programme.