A more comprehensive cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk assessment tool to help identify patients who may otherwise be slipping through the gaps, is becoming available to thousands of general practices (GPs) across the country.
Currently almost 5,000 GPs have access at point of care to absolute CVD risk assessment and management templates that link to patients records through the MyGPMPtool (MGT), a software application available on Topbar.
According to Heart Foundation Risk Reduction Manager, Natalie Raffoul, the templates and new functionality within MGT will allow for a more comprehensive absolute CVD risk assessment compare with the existing online calculator.
“The templates from the Heart Foundation’s Heart Health Check Toolkit, which are embedded in MGT and Topbar software, mean risk factor information from patient records is automatically drawn and pre-filled during an absolute CVD risk assessment,” says Ms Raffoul.
“This means that patient records can be used to identify people who may be at clinically determined high risk of CVD, including patients with diabetes or microalbuminuria.”
Ms Raffoul adds that this is advantageous “over the existing online Australian absolute CVD risk calculator” as it “addresses previous concerns that these patients may be slipping through the gaps”.
“Having the templates from the Heart Health Check Toolkit built into GP software is a big advantage, as it frees up time for GPs and practice nurses by making it easier to treat patients who are most at risk of CVD.
“Using the templates within MGT streamlines the delivery of absolute CVD risk assessments by removing duplication as patient data is drawn from the patient record to create comprehensive documents.
“All outputs align with requirements of the 699 and 177 Heart Health Check MBS items and current clinical guidelines,” says Ms Raffoul.
The embedded ‘Heart Health Check Risk Assessment’ and ‘My Healthy Heart Plan’ templates are available on the MGT app, with free access to all general practices using the Topbar clinical support platform or the browser-based version of MGT.
“We are pleased to have worked with the Heart Foundation to embed these useful Heart Health Check templates into our MGT app,” says CEO of Modern Innovations (the parent company of MGT) and founder of MGT, Dr Dan Wijeratne.
“MGT is designed to improve the efficiency and productivity in all aspects of chronic disease management and prevention – this new solution has made the Heart Health Check easy and efficient, addressing some key barriers to integrating preventative care in general practice.”
