Improving primary prevention of coronary heart disease by increasing documentation of Framingham risk scores

Abstract

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in both men and women, accounting for nearly one-fourth of the deaths in the USA in 2010 [1]. Coronary heart disease (CHD) is the most common type of heart disease with about 715,000 heart attacks occurring in the United States each year. Startlingly, nearly 75[percent] of these heart attacks are in those without known coronary disease [2]. Thus, primary prevention of CHD is often the responsibility of primary care physicians in the outpatient setting. In 2001, the Adult Treatment Panel III (ATPIII) published clinical guidelines to aid in the primary prevention of CHD [3]. A critical component of these guidelines is the use of the Framingham Risk Score (FRS) to guide treatment.