<p><strong>This year’s Heart Week, that runs from 3-9 May 2021, presents an opportunity for healthcare professionals to engage with patients about their risk of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD). </strong> </p>
<p>The Heart Foundation’s focus this Heart Week is on supporting health professionals to deliver more Heart Health Checks to eligible patients, a vital step to empower people to look after their heart health.<br /></p>
<p>Heart Foundation Senior Heart Health Coordinator Andrea Love, said it is vital to prioritise heart health this week and every week. </p>
<p>“76,500 CVD-related events could be prevented with a heart health check,” Ms Love said.<br /></p>
<p>“Within general practice the Heart Health Check is a relative new item number and takes about 20 minutes to complete,” Ms Love said. </p>
<p>From 1 April 2019, two MBS items were introduced to allow GPs and medical practitioners (other than a specialist of consultant physicians) to conduct a heart health check. </p>
<p>Ms Love said the COVID-19 pandemic had made people more aware of how important health is—and makes a case for the prevention of chronic disease. </p>
<p>“People who live with cardiovascular disease have increased vulnerability to severe complications of COVID-19 and the issues we had (during the height of the pandemic) were people avoiding regular consultations.” </p>
<p>“Now we have the vaccine rollout and people are coming into their GPs to be vaccinated. They could also ask about a heart health check in order to maximise on visits to primary care.” </p>
<p>On Wednesday 5 May, the Heart Foundation will host the Heart Week webinar, <em>Driving Best Practice CVD Prevention in a Post-COVID World</em>. </p>
<p>Ms Love said the webinar would be relevant to all clinicians. </p>
<p>“We have a really great panel and the main topic will be how COVID-19 has impacted CVD health and the strategies that complement the CVD risk approach,” she said. </p>
<p>One of the complementary strategies that GPs are encouraged to talk to at-risk patients about, is the <a href="http://www.myhealthforlife.com.au/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><em>My health for life</em> program,</a> designed to help Queenslanders stay well and lessen their risk of developing conditions such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, high cholesterol and high blood pressure. </p>
<p>Ms Love said <em>My health for life</em> offers patients a lifestyle-based intervention that complements other therapies that their clinicians might suggest. </p>
<p>For more information on the Heart Foundation webinar, visit the <a href="https://heartfoundation-au.zoom.us/webinar/register/5916189736296/WN_Nl-0JVlBSkCU72j7sNBttA" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Zoom registration page</a>. </p>

<p>On Thursday 13 May, the PHN is hosting a complimentary quality improvement focused webinar, <em>Cardiovascular Disease in Primary Care</em>, for practice staff. Registration is essential. For more information, <a href="https://brisbanenorthphn.org.au/events/quality-improvement-focus-cardiovascular-disease-in-primary-care">visit the PHN website</a>.</p> 
<p>Health professionals can download the Heart Foundation’s Heart Health Check Toolkit <a href="https://www.heartfoundation.org.au/Bundles/Heart-Health-Check-Toolkit/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">from their website</a>. </p>