A New Model of Care for Familial Hypercholesterolaemia

Familial Hypercholesterolaemia (FH) is a co-dominantly inherited disorder that causes marked elevation in plasma cholesterol and premature coronary heart disease. There are at least 45,000 people with FH in Australia and New Zealand, but most remain undiagnosed and undertreated. To bridge this gap researchers including Professor Andrew Tonkin have developed a new model of care for FH.

One of the key objectives of this research is to provide guidelines for the management of this disease to primary healthcare providers such as cardiologists, as the current Model of Care is primarily for lipid disorder clinics.

To this end the researchers have created a new framework for primary healthcare providers to increase the recognition and effective treatment of Familial Hypercholesterolaemia to reduce the numbers of people suffering from premature coronary heart disease.

‘A New Model of Care for Familial Hypercholesterolaemia: What is the Role of Cardiology?’: Watts, G., Sullivan, D., Bockxmeer, F., Poplawski, N., Hamilton-Craig, I., Clifton P., O’Brien, R., Bishop, W., George, P., Semsarian, C., Tonkin., A. Heart Lung and Circulation http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.lib.monash.edu.au/10.1016/j.hlc.2012.04.010