Heart health in the news
From local news to global conversations and groundbreaking research, health care is constantly evolving and highly covered in the media. Here, we share the latest news and trends – and how they drive our work to best serve our communities and members.
Researchers from John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have developed a novel single “universal risk prediction model” for cardiovascular disease. Their research, including a dataset covering nearly 10,000 participants over two decades, demonstrated that this new approach worked well for patients who already have cardiovascular disease but also for patients who are yet to be diagnosed but may be at risk for developing it. This new model could mean a more streamlined process as doctors currently use two separate risk models to assess patients’ chance having heart attacks, strokes and other major cardiovascular events.
This new approach, announced by researchers last month, employs a set of 10 factors including age, cigarette smoking status, diabetes status and blood levels of several cardiac biomarkers, to gauge the risk of a new cardiovascular event, regardless of whether the patient has had one before. Researchers believe the implementation of this approach could provide more precise and comprehensive evaluations, leading to improved patient care and outcomes.
Heart disease remains the leading cause of death more than any other health condition in the United States, with communities of color being disproportionally impacted. At Point32Health, we are committed to removing barriers to quality health care for all and advancing health equity in our communities. One of the ways we do this is by starting with the research of the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute’s Department of Population Medicine, which is the nation’s only medical school appointing department based in a health plan and a Point32Health company.
Learn more on some of the Institute’s heart health findings as it relates to social determinants of health and what is being done to advance heart health equity: