Simplifying the medical prevention of cardiovascular disease

There is enormous potential to reduce deaths and disability from cardiovascular disease by widening the use and simplifying access to blood pressure and cholesterol-lowering preventive treatment. The main obstacles to realizing this potential are the complexity of multiple risk factor-based risk estimation, an excessively high risk cut-off for treatment and a focus on testing rather than prevention. A fresh approach to prevention is needed that replaces complex multiple risk factor-based assessments with a simple age cut-off as the means of selecting people for preventive drug treatment. This review examines the evidence for such an approach and its potential impact.