Reducing Veterans' Risk of Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease Through Pharmacogenomics Informed Statin Prescribing
VA Office of Research and Development
Summary
Statins are the most cost-effective medications to lower cholesterol and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. However, many patients at high-risk for CVD do not accept or adhere to statins. This gap in patient's use of statins limits the full impact of these effective medications resulting in higher cholesterol levels and CVD risk. The main barriers to using statins are patients' perceived lack of benefit, excess risk of statin toxicity as well as their misperceptions of their CVD risk. Statin pharmacogenomic testing - an application of precision medicine - is a readily available, feasible, and inexpensive intervention that addresses this barrier by using genetic testing to identify the nearly 1 out of 2 patients with enhanced benefit and/or reduced risk of statin toxicity or increased risk for CVD. By communicating statin pharmacogenomic test results to Veterans at high-risk for CVD not taking statin therapy, the investigators aim to improve patients' perceptions of their risk of CVD and statins and, in turn, their acceptance of and adherence to statins to reduce their cholesterol levels and CVD risk.
Description
Background: Despite the proven efficacy and safety of statins, nearly 250,000 Veterans at high-risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) seen annually in primary care are not taking them leading to higher cholesterol levels, cardiovascular risk, and health care costs. Primary care providers and health systems have a critical and unmet need for pragmatic, scalable interventions to address gaps in their patients' perceptions of the risks and benefits of statin therapy to improve appropriate statin utilization and to lower CVD risk. Important prior work by the investigators group demonstrates that ph…