Heart Health Support: The Role of Pharmacists

American Heart Month is here, reminding us of the importance of cardiovascular health, awareness of the risks of heart disease, and identification and management of heart-related conditions.

Heart Disease by the Numbers.:

Heart disease is quite common in the U.S. In fact, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shares the following:

• Heart disease is the leading cause of death for men, women, and people of most racial and ethnic groups.
• One person dies every 33 seconds from cardiovascular disease.
• In 2022, 702,880 people died from heart disease. That's the equivalent of 1 in every 5 deaths.
• In the United States, someone has a heart attack every 40 seconds.
• Every year, about 805,000 people in the United States have a heart attack. Of these, 605,000 are a first heart attack, and 200,000 happen to be people who have already had a heart attack.
• About 1 in 5 heart attacks are silent—the damage is done, but the person is not aware of it.
• Coronary heart disease is the most common type of heart disease, causing 371,506 deaths in 2022.
• About 1 in 20 adults age 20 and older (approx.5%) have coronary artery disease (CAD).
• Heart disease cost about $252.2 billion from 2019 to 2020. This includes the cost of health care services, medications, and lost productivity due to death.

Pharmacists and Pharmacy Teams: Playing a Critical Role in Supporting Heart Health

From condition education to medication management, adherence and additional counseling, pharmacists play a critical role in supporting heart health.

Starting with condition education, pharmacists and pharmacy teams can provide patients with insights about common health conditions, such as hypertension, and how they can lead to heart disease. Additionally, pharmacists can promote preventative measures such as learning to measure blood pressure at home, reminding patients of available in-pharmacy blood pressure checks, and providing fact sheets and questionnaires that engage patients and educate them on the importance of watching their blood pressure. Also, drug safety management can be part of the educational support so that patients are well aware of how to manage medications.

The pharmacy team can also work closely with patients already on a medicine regimen due to heart disease to ensure medications are taken as prescribed. Medication adherence is essential for patient success, and pharmacists can help by providing information such as common side effects and steps to take if patients experience adverse reactions. Pharmacists can also document adverse drug reactions and share them with members of the interdisciplinary care team. This type of support can significantly improve the care outcomes of congestive heart failure patients, including care transitions and rehospitalization reductions.

Additionally, through collaborative drug therapy management (CDTM), qualified pharmacists can directly engage with patients in their care and adjust their medications for hypertension, cholesterol, and other chronic conditions. Other direct means of intervention in a multidisciplinary team include medication monitoring and reconciliation, definition and application of disease management pathways and protocols, detection, prevention or control of specific cardiovascular risk factors, monitoring patients’ outcomes, and posthospital discharge follow-up and home visits for critical patients.

Lastly, pharmacists and pharmacy teams can provide lifestyle counseling and non-pharmacologic care by educating patients on preventative measures such as a healthy diet, exercise, smoking cessation, and stress management for better cardiovascular health.

At MAC Rx, we are honored to serve the needs of your residents and patients through our pharmacy, nurse consulting and pharmacy consulting services. Our goal is to always provide quality care and excellent resources. For more information about our pharmacy solutions, click here

Sources:

• Effectiveness of Pharmacist’s Intervention in the Management of Cardiovascular Diseases – Open Heart
• Your Health Care Team – American Heart Association
• Health Watch: Pharmacists Play an Important Role in Managing Hypertension – University of South Carolina
• Current Perspectives on the Role of the Pharmacist in Heart Failure Management –
• Integrated Pharmacy Research and Practice
• Using the Pharmacists’ Patient Care Process to Manage High Blood Pressure: A Resource Guide for Pharmacists – CDC
• Pharmacists Are Vital to Heart Health – Pharmacy Times
• Effect of Pharmacist Care on Medication Adherence and Cardiovascular Outcomes Among Patients Post-Acute Coronary Syndrome: A Systematic Review