The Widening Role of Family Medicine in Cardiovascular Risk Control Improvement

Although theoretically very effective and apparently quite straightforward, cardiovascular prevention in practice leaves much to be desired. Several reasons, including psychological, ethical, conceptual, and operative issues are involved resulting in the current situation, where lifestyle changes are mostly ignored, overdiagnosis and overtreatment are expanding, so that drug therapy is often prescribed with no good reason, and performed in an episodic or on/ off pattern. In this essay analyzed are the reasons for these aberrations and suggested are some intuitive solutions and opportunities, best fitted to family medicine.