A tool to help patients visualize ASCVD risk and the potential impact of risk-lowering interventions

Abstract

Risk assessment is a fundamental step in the current approach to primary prevention of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD). When considering pharmacotherapy for primary prevention of ASCVD, current prevention guidelines in the United States recommend the use of the pooled cohort equations (PCE) to assess 10-year ASCVD risk and begin the important process of shared decision-making between patients and clinicians. Clinicians should support patients in the decisionmaking process by turning raw data into information that is easily understood and more effectively utilized for decisions around the treatment plan. In this work, we present a tool to help patients visualize ASCVD risk and the projected impact of risk-lowering interventions. We believe this visual tool can facilitate communication of ASCVD risk to patients, and improve patient understanding of risk and the potential impact of risklowering interventions, which we believe may help patients make more informed, empowered decisions that achieve greater risk reduction.

Keywords

• ASCVD
• Risk visualization
• Preventive cardiology