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The Guidelines in Practice Cardiovascular Disease Award 2007 was held to recognise innovative local initiatives to implement evidence-based clinical guidance on this therapy area. We would like to thank Recordati Pharmaceuticals Ltd for sponsoring this Award, and Dr Alan Begg and Dr Mike Kirby for judging the entries, many of which demonstrated measurable improvements in patient care.

Winning initiative—a clinical audit on measuring CVD risk

We are pleased to announce that the winner of this year’s Award was the team led by Dr Zaid Albrefkany, from Bermondsey & Lansdowne Medical Mission (Photo 1), for their project in which they integrated the measuring and recording of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk of hypertensive patients into routine practice—this was a simple audit method that has plenty of scope for further development.

Praising the winning entry, the judges stated: ‘This was a well-presented project, which will greatly benefit patients. A remarkable result considering that it was done as part of routine work. This was clearly a team effort, which closely followed national guidelines.’

Julia Morris, Editor of Guidelines in Practice, with a representative from Recordati Pharmaceuticals Ltd presented the Award certificate. The team will also receive a cheque for £2000.

Dr Albrefkany, a GP at the Bermondsey & Lansdowne Medical Mission, told Guidelines in Practice: ‘As a team we are delighted to have our hard work recognised and appreciated. Winning this Award has strengthened our commitments to progress this project to its full potential.’

‘We will use the prize money to introduce the JBS 2 calculator into our practice IT system, which will help with measuring the cardiovascular risk of patients. The winnings will also be used to develop new initiatives.’

Photo 1 From left to right: Catherine Power, Nurse; Dahlia Manners, Nurse; Dr Zaid Albrefkany, GP; Dr Rebecca Torry, GP; Dr Kathryn McAdam-Freud, GP.

Joint runner up—optimising hypertension management

The first joint runner up in the Guidelines in Practice Cardiovascular Disease Award 2007 was the team from Ixworth Surgery led by Dr John Cannon, CVD/CHD/MM Lead for Suffolk West PCT (Photo 2), for their project on optimising hypertension management.

In this practice-based initiative, the team identified hypertensive patients on beta blocker/diuretic combination therapy who were sub-optimally controlled and who had no clinical indications for beta blockade. They attended for routine appointment and underwent a therapy review.

‘This was an excellent project putting up-to-date evidence into practice. Very impressive,’ reported the judges. ‘It is an example of good practice that all practices need to consider implementing.’

Photo 2 From left to right: Elfreda Finbow, CV Nurse Specialist; Lindsay Moledina, IT Specialist; Dr John Cannon, GP.

Joint runner up—smoking cessation in young adults

The second joint runner up was the team from Oakleaf Medical Practice in Derry City, Northern Ireland, led by Dr Lee Casey (Photo 3), for their project on smoking cessation in young adults. The team’s entry described an innovative approach—a 7-week series of clinics, based on social learning theory principles—to encourage young adults to quit smoking. Lifestyle areas such as healthy eating, benefits of exercise, and alcohol consumption, were also addressed. The team concluded that this type of approach to smoking cessation in young people could achieve excellent results.

Commenting on the project, the judges remarked: ‘This was a comprehensive project targeted to young smokers. An excellent idea with a well constructed programme.’ They added, ‘We would be interested to hear about the long-term success of this type of programme.’

Photo 3 Back row from left to right: Micheala Burns, Deputy Manager; Dr Lee Casey, GP; Marie Hutton, Community Nurse Manager. Front row from left to right: Theresa Timlin, Smoking Cessation Nurse Specialist; Mary Campbell, Smoking Cessation Nurse Specialist.

Short-listed entries

There were three further short-listed entries in the Guidelines in Practice Cardiovascular Disease Award 2007, all of which impressed the judges.

1) Nurse-led community heart failure clinics

In this short-listed entry, Jan Oliver, on behalf of the coronary heart disease (CHD) team at Easington PDA, County Durham PCT (Photo 4), described the set up of a local clinic for patients with a diagnosis of heart failure. This initiative has resulted in the establishment of two nurse-led clinics, which enable management and treatment to be provided locally.

‘This is a model that every area should consider following as we know from the evidence that patients can benefit,’ the judges commented.

Photo 4 From left to right: Dr Martyn Farrer, Consultant Cardiologist, Sunderland Royal Hospital; Jan Oliver, Heart Failure Specialist Nurse; Sue Hall, CHD Team Lead; Janese Wilson, CHD Specialist Nurse; Denise Haswell, Secretary; Jonathon Watson, Exercise Instructor; Peter Linstead, Exercise Instructor. The team members not included in the photograph were: Dr Ali Khan, Consultant Cardiologist, University Hospital Hartlepool; Dawn Fletcher, CHD Specialist Nurse.

2) Primary prevention of CVD

Sue Kendal, whose team from Leeds PCT (Photo 5) presented their ‘Primary prevention of CVD project’, explained the importance of their initiative for identifying those people at significant risk of CVD (but who have not yet developed symptoms). A project team comprising a clinical nurse specialist and health informatics experts designed a specific data extraction tool to analyse practice data and calculate estimated at-risk CHD scores to generate target patient lists.

The judges explained that this was: ‘A clear description of an innovative approach to evaluating CVD risk in a large community using existing resources. A project like this, where risk is automatically assessed and then managed, has a lot of potential.’

Photo 5 From left to right: Sue Kendal, Public Health — Health Improvement Principal; Gary Heywood, Programme Manager; Martel Henry, Data Quality Facilitator. The team members not included in the photograph were: Chris Cooper, Information Manager; Zoe Quayle, Data Quality Administrator; Lynn Richards, Data Quality Administrator.

3) A nurse prescriber-led preventative cardiology programme in hospital and general practice

The EUROACTION team (Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College), led by Professor David Wood (Photo 6), were short listed for their community-based preventative cardiology programme for all high-risk patients. Led by nurse prescribers, this multidisciplinary, family-based initiative integrates the care of patients and their families with coronary disease, and those families at high risk of developing atherosclerotic disease, in a community leisure facility. Discussing this entry, the judges commented: ‘This project was well described—the important element of nurse prescribing could well have a significant outcome.’

The editorial team would like to thank all those people who entered the Guidelines in Practice Cardiovascular Disease Award 2007, and to congratulate the winner, runners up and short-listed teams. A number of the initiatives listed above will be featured in Guidelines in Practice over the coming months, starting with an article on the winning initiative, written by Dr Albrefkany, in the December 2007 issue.G