Cardiologists don’t manage CHD prevention risk

At the American Heart Association’s recent Scientific Conference on Compliance in Healthcare and Research in Boston, a cardiologist reported that many of his colleagues fail to implement guidelines for risk factor management of patients with coronary heart disease.

Joseph P. Frolkis, MD, of the Cleveland Clinic said he had done research that found that many cardiologists fail to screen for risk factors in post-CABG patients and implement strategies to reduce risk at the time those patients are discharged. That spurred his present study in which Frolkis and his team screened and developed specific recommendations for post-surgery risk management for half of 150 patients and offered no intervention for the other half.

Frolkis reported that they found two things: As in the initial study, cardiologists dealt with risk factors less than half the time; and even when the team did risk assessments for them and made treatment recommendations, it made "absolutely no difference."