KUALA LUMPUR: Cardiovascular Risk Reduction Clinic (CRRC) modules will be widened soon to more family health clinics to improve heart disease care.
Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad said the CRRC modules by the National Heart Institute (IJN) would be included in more public and private clinics for cardiovascular disease prevention.
"CRRC represents a groundbreaking and innovative public-private partnership, including various healthcare industry partners, aimed at transforming the treatment paradigms for cardiovascular disease," he said when launching the CRRC’s expansion here on Monday (July 22).
The CRRC will also be developing and distributing similar modules on treating obesity, hypertension, diabetes and post-heart failure, he added.
Established in 2022, the CRRC was previously a hospital-based clinic for post-heart failure patients to reduce recurrence of heart diseases.
This is done through close follow-up and monitoring for high-risk patients who have not achieved LDL-C (low-density lipoprotein cholesterol) targets despite medication.
Dr Dzulkefly said the expansion is an important development, as cardiovascular diseases account for nearly 23.3% of all deaths in Malaysia.
A particularly deadly disease is atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD), with high cholesterol as a major risk factor.
"According to the 2023 National Health and Morbidity Survey, 33.3% of adults in Malaysia, or 7.6 million people aged 18 and above, have this condition (ASCVD)," he said on Monday (22 July).
He stressed that cholesterol control and diagnosis were important, citing that one in two adults were caught unawares as increased cholesterol levels are often asymptomatic.
CRRC's primary objective, he said, is to manage lipid and other cardiovascular risk factors in patients with cardiovascular disease.
"This potentially reduces recurrent ASCVD events and hospitalisations. It can save lives," he said.
IJN senior consultant cardiologist Datuk Seri Dr Azhari Rosman said that around 500 to 700 family medicine specialists and general practitioners could adopt CRRC principles in their clinics.
This will expand cardiovascular disease prevention to smaller communities that these clinics serve, he said.
"We train them and can supervise them through online and occasionally physical sessions," he said, adding the CRRC based in IJN will remain at its main resource centre.
