Implementation of Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Guidelines into Clinical Practice: an Unmet Challenge?

Prevention through evaluation and treatment of cardiovascular risk factors is an efficient approach to reduce the risk of cardiovascular events, however, the problem remains that the available treatment options are underused. Implementation of cardiovascular disease prevention guidelines into clinical practice is therefore important for decreasing the burden of cardiovascular disease in general population. However, there are many barriers to this process, including questionable relevance of scientific results for clinical practice, personal preferences and expertise of the doctors, patient attitudes, lack of time, and economical factors. All these factors need to be taken into account for any change in the clinical practice to be successful. With respect to cardiovascular disease prevention, insufficient screening for risk factors, inappropriate risk estimation and hesitation to keep to the guidelines-based treatment targets contribute most to inadequate control of risk factors, and this has been repeatedly demonstrated to be difficult to improve. In this context, our studies demonstrate that the emphasis on systematic application of principles of cardiovascular prevention results in improved control of cardiovascular risk factors. Adequate support for transforming guidelines-based knowledge into practicable habit appears therefore important for successful prevention of cardiovascular disease in clinical practice and may translate into substantial reduction of cardiovascular risk in general population.