Prevention Matters

Thirteen key aspects of cardiovascular disease prevention are identified as performance measures in a new, comprehensive set of detailed steps to help healthcare providers reduce patients’ risk for heart problems. The performance measures, developed by a joint task force of the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association, are simultaneously published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association and the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
The 13 measures are:

• lifestyle/risk factor screening
• dietary intake counseling
• physical activity counseling
• smoking/tobacco use assessment
• smoking/tobacco cessation
• weight and body fat assessment
• weight management
• blood pressure measurement
• blood pressure control
• blood lipid measurement
• blood lipid therapy and control
• estimation of a patient’s global risk for developing heart disease
• aspirin use in at-risk patients