Norman Sharpe
Norman Sharpe was formerly head of the Department of Medicine and then the School of Medicine in the University of Auckland. He is currently Medical Director of the Heart Foundation and Emeritus Professor. He was inaugural Chair of the New Zealand Guidelines Group and has been closely involved in cardiovascular guideline development and implementation since the 1980s. He is working with the Ministry of Health to support achievement of the new heart health target and also continues work as a part-time physician in acute general medicine at Grey Hospital on the West Coast.
Contemporary Issues in Cardiovascular Risk Assessment Main Session  Friday, 13 June 2014 Start 8:30am Duration: 20mins Baytrust CVDRA: Tick Box or Making a Difference for Your People? Contemporary Issues in CVDRA After a slow start in 2012, Primary Care has made the health target for ‘More heart and diabetes checks’ a priority and achieved steady progress during 2013. The on-going challenge will be to achieve sustainable CVDRA practice and provision of effective management support. It has been a long journey with CVDRA and the introduction of the health target has provided great support, but may also have had some unintended consequences. We discuss here ways to ensure CVDRA is effective across three areas; 1. Updates to Guidelines for Cardiovascular Risk Assessment and Management 2. Turning one-off activity, where used, into sustainable business as usual 3. Focussing on management and making a difference for patients. Heart disease death rates have fallen in recent decades, but these great gains are beginning to slow due to the epidemics of obesity and diabetes. Achievement of the health target and on-going focus on sustainable risk assessment and patient management can potentially provide large benefits for many people, and particularly the more disadvantaged, in a relatively short period of time. The challenge for primary care is to fully realise this opportunity for heart health improvement amongst the many competing demands in the sector. Primary care is in the keystone position to systematically and effectively merge population and individual health improvement, for which purpose the new target has been a timely incentive. CVDRA and management must now be prioritised as sustainable practice to ensure on-going heart health improvement.