The center treats around 350 patients a year at this clinic, which was launched in March 2020.

The Cardiology Unit at Hospital Universitario Puerta del Mar Cádiz a coordination meeting on its virtual lipid consultation service, a secondary prevention strategy to reduce the risk of recurrent cardiovascular events in post-infarction patients. This conference was supported by the Cádiz Institute for Biomedical Research and Innovation Cádiz INiBICA) and AMGEN, and was attended by specialists in hospital pharmacy, cardiology, internal medicine, and neurology, as well as cardiology nurses from different parts of Spain.

The virtual post-heart attack lipid consultation service began in March 2020 and currently treats around 350 patients per year. The main objective of this secondary prevention strategy is to reduce, as much as possible, the risk of recurrent cardiovascular events in patients who have suffered acute coronary syndrome. To this end, a protocol has been established for monitoring risk factors after a heart attack, such as high blood pressure, smoking, diabetes, obesity, and a sedentary lifestyle, but with a priority focus on correcting high levels of so-called bad cholesterol (LDL cholesterol), the main factor causing new cardiovascular diseases.

According to the center's professionals, the main novelty of this consultation is that it is applicable to all patients after a heart attack and there is no waiting time, since treatment, investigation of risk factors, and health education begin as soon as the patient is admitted to the hospital for the heart attack. Thus, once discharge is indicated, the patient is prescribed intensive cholesterol treatment and two blood tests (with lipid profile) to be taken in the first and second months after the heart attack.

At the same time, the patient is included in a specific database for monthly calls, where the accuracy of the risk factors is verified and the requested tests are examined to check whether the objective has been achieved. The main achievement of this virtual consultation is the speed with which this objective is achieved, within the first 2-3 months.

This initiative is a complementary strategy to the review in Cardiology Outpatient Consultations and Cardiac Rehabilitation, which incorporated the role of the lipid nurse, an autonomous and specialized nursing model. In addition to this professional profile, the Team at the clinic is made up of cardiology specialists and nurses, hospital pharmacy staff, and an engineer from the INiBICA Group.

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