RESEARCH
CLINICAL
EFFECTIVENESS OF THREE MODELS FOR
COMPREHENSIVE CARDIOVASCULAR RISK
REDUCTION IN LOWER RISK PATIENTS WITH
CORONARY ARTERY DISEASE.
(Presented
at the American Heart Association
Research Symposium, Dallas, Texas, May
2000)
Neil
F. Gordon, Center for Heart Disease
Prevention, St. Joseph's/Candler
Health System, Savannah, GA
INTRODUCTION
¨
Current
evidence provides a strong rationale
for the long-term aggressive control
of multiple CAD risk factors as an
essential strategy to reduce
morbidity, mortality, and the ongoing
cost of medical care in CAD patients.
¨
Recent
research has identified a large gap
between the recommended preventive
therapies for persons with CAD and the
preventive care they are actually
receiving.
This “treatment gap”
remains a final frustrating barrier to
fulfilling the potential for improving
quality of life and prognosis through
cardiovascular risk reduction
interventions.
¨
There
is an urgent need to bridge the
treatment gap by developing and
implementing approaches that provide
all persons with CAD access to
clinically effective comprehensive
cardiovascular risk reduction
interventions.
¨
Despite
the documented benefits of traditional
cardiac rehabilitation programs,
factors such as cost and accessibility
currently contribute to relatively low
participation rates.
¨
In
this study, we are comparing the
clinical effectiveness of two
less-costly and potentially more
accessible approaches to comprehensive
cardiovascular risk reduction with
that of a traditional phase 2 cardiac
rehabilitation program.
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