Experience in implementation of cardiovascular absolute risk assessment and management in Australian general practice

Cardiovascular absolute risk (CVAR) assessment (the probability of a cardiovascular event over 5 or 10 years calculated from multiple risk factors) has been recommended as a means of more accurately tailoring cardiovascular disease primary prevention strategies to the patient's risk level (1-4). Although the use of CVAR assessment has been advocated for some time, the lack of an implementation strategy has hindered its translation from guideline into practice both in Australia (5-8) and overseas (9-11). Our team has developed a theoretical implementation model of CVAR assessment and management using multiple strategies to encourage use (12,13).