SUMMER 2025
Addressing Gaps in Care for Patients with Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease
We are delighted to announce the late-summer publication of “Real-World Prescribing in Accordance to ACC/AHA Guidelines for Lipid-Lowering Therapy in High-Risk Primary and Secondary Prevention of ASCVD” in the American Journal of Preventive Cardiology (in press). The study, funded by an industry partner, involved electronic health record (EHR) data from seven PaTH sites and specifically focused on patients in three cohorts: patients with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD, heart and vascular disease caused by high cholesterol), patients aged 40-75 with diabetes but not ASCVD, and patients with neither ASCVD nor diabetes but with a history of extremely high cholesterol levels. The study’s findings showed that, even with variability between the health systems, on average only about half (48%-62%) of each cohort were receiving cholesterol-lowering therapy and even less (16%-34%) of each cohort were receiving guideline-consistent high-intensity statins to lower their risk of bad outcomes.
Even though it is discouraging to see that many patients are not receiving treatment that is concordant with American Heart Association or American College of Cardiology guidelines, conducting research like this helps health systems to recognize gaps in care that can be addressed on a site-by-site basis to improve health for our patients. Study investigator, Jon Arnold (University of Pittsburgh), notes, “Although our high-level results are similar to other recent studies, seeing the range of prescribing rates across our participating health systems was eye-opening and should lead to individualized efforts to improve guideline-concordant prescribing. This work was a great partnership between all the participating health system teams and our industry sponsor and highlights the value of a team-based approach to research in real-world data.” PaTH Network collaboration made this large-scale project possible and we hope that future collaborations can continue to advance the quality of care at our partner institutions, as well.