Case Study: Improving outcomes for people at risk of/ with cardiovascular disease (IMpulse CVD)

What is  IMpulse CVD?

IMpulse CVD is an ambitious collaborative project led by the HIWM, with support from the Midlands Cardiovascular Clinical Network, The British Heart Foundation, Office for Health Improvement & Disparities (OHID) and industry partners.

What were the aims?

The aim of this project was to provide practical upskilling workshops to all healthcare professionals in primary care who are involved in the diagnosis and management of cardiovascular conditions such as atrial fibrillation (AF), hypertension, hypercholesterolaemia and heart failure (HF).

The content of the workshops, which are delivered by local experts from both primary and secondary care, have been designed to help support primary care teams.

Their aim is to deliver on the cardiovascular ambitions outlined in the NHS Long Term Plan and meet the requirements of the CVD Primary Care Network Direct Enhanced Service (PCN DES). In line with the Health Innovation Network Network “detect, protect, perfect” approach we support systems to achieve PHE targets in relation to:

• Detect – Identifying of people with a high-risk CVD condition or those with heart failure.
• Protect – With modification of cardiovascular risk factors, commencing statin treatment and/or anticoagulation where appropriate and ensuring anti-hypertensives and disease modifying therapies for the management of HF are prescribed and optimised as appropriate.
• Perfect – Ensuring on-going optimisation of therapy with appropriate and timely follow-up and monitoring.

What did we do?

With the support of the STP / ICS, the HIWM identified enthusiastic local experts in CVD from primary and secondary care who had experience in providing education to their peers to deliver workshops using HIWM-developed content.

We have collaborated with the Sustainable Transformation Partnerships (STP) Integrated Care Systems (ICS) Education & Training Hubs, University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust (UHNM), and the Centre for Pharmacy Post Graduate Education (CPPE) to deliver 12 atrial fibrillation and 13 lipid management workshops. These took place in 4 STP regions and via CPPE during October and November 2021.

What were the outcomes?

• 70.5 hours of training
• 40 workshops
• 1,046 attendees