What is team-based care for the primary prevention of ASCVD?
Team-based care makes use of multidisciplinary health professionals to improve the quality and maintenance of ASCVD prevention. It is a multi-faceted approach that supports clinical decision-making (ie, treatment algorithms), collaboration among different clinicians, and patient and family member participation to facilitate the treatment goals of patients. RCTs and systematic reviews with meta-analyses demonstrated greater reduction of ASCVD risk with team-based care than with usual care in patients with hypertension, diabetes, and hyperlipidemia. A team-based approach to ASCVD prevention may result in significant improvements in patient outcomes and often meets patient needs better than standard care, especially in low-resource settings and among vulnerable populations. In a team-based care model that compared patients enrolled in a preventive cardiology clinic staffed by advanced practice providers with a propensity-matched cohort of patients enrolled in primary care clinics, a reduction in cardiovascular risk was demonstrated through effective risk stratification and preventive management. Other successful interventions that have used team-based care include telehealth monitoring, follow-up support aids, and patient education.