British Heart Foundation has helped fund new research that explores how Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) can tackle cardiovascular disease.
The King’s Fund have published the results of this research in a report called Shifting to prevention: how integrated care systems can tackle cardiovascular disease.
Why this research is needed
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) has been identified as a national priority. The Government’s health mission commits to reducing premature deaths from heart disease and strokes by 25 per cent within 10 years.
However, CVD prevention is not taking place at the scale needed and there are inequalities in CVD mortality rates.
This research will explore how Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) are approaching CVD prevention.
What we did
We funded The King’s Fund to carry out independent, qualitative research across three diverse ICSs including Suffolk and North East Essex, Coventry and Warwickshire, and West Yorkshire.
The research included 11 in-depth interviews with senior leaders, clinicians, and public health experts, plus interviews with national innovators and a roundtable with CVD prevention leaders.
What we found
In summary:
- ICSs are taking promising steps to embed CVD prevention into local strategies.
- There are significant barriers to scaling up this work, including workforce pressures, data sharing challenges, and limited resources.
- National leadership and clearer policy direction are needed to support local systems to go further, faster.
Read the full results
Why it matters
To help prevent heart attacks and strokes, ICSs need to have:
- more proactive identification
- better monitoring and treatment of high-risk people in primary care
- an effective approach to prevention that lowers people’s risk through lifestyle changes.
This research comes at a critical time, as the government has launched its 10-year health plan. It offers valuable insights into how prevention can be prioritised within integrated care – and how we can support systems to do more to prevent heart and circulatory diseases.
There is huge opportunity to improve the nation’s health and boost economic activity by tackling CVD, but ICSs will only be able to deliver a meaningful change if national policy wholeheartedly gives prevention the focus it deserves.
Read the Shifting to prevention report
