This post was authored by William J. Oetgen, MD, MBA, FACC, ACC executive vice president of Science, Education and Quality.

“It’s a problem whose time has come,” said Scott Grundy, MD, PhD, in kicking off a special Cardiometabolic Think Tank focused on addressing cardiometabolic disease and its interdependencies and identifying a new care model that takes an integrated approach to treating risk factors across diverse populations.

The Think Tank, hosted by the Cardiometabolic Health Alliance made up of the ACC, Association of Black Cardiologists, American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists and the National Minority Quality Forum, brought together a diverse group of stakeholders including pediatricians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, dieticians, pharmacists, and patient educators from diverse fields ranging from cardiology to primary care to endocrinology.

As Grundy noted in his address, the interest in cardiometabolic health has exploded in the last few years. Studies have shown that cardiometabolic risk factors like insulin resistance, obesity, endothelial dysfunction, prothrombotic and proinflammatory, low HDL and high blood pressure, are interrelated and people with these factors are at higher risk for heart disease and stroke.

Think tank participants debated how to describe the syndrome – cardiometabolic syndrome vs. metabolic syndrome – in a way that best encompasses its many various aspects (cardiovascular, renal, etc.). They also engaged in an in-depth evaluation of the responsibilities and contributions of all care team stakeholders for synergizing and optimizing care. Regardless of name, all participants agreed that successfully addressing the diverse constellation of risk factors will require an unprecedented integrated, coordinated and interdisciplinary approach to patient care that may include risk stratification/staging, targeted prevention at key populations, etc. What these approaches are, as well as suggestions for effectively implementing it in the real world, will be further expanded on in a outcomes paper that will be published in the future.

*Note: More information and resources for cardiometabolic syndrome and its risk factors can be found in the ACC’s CardioSource Cartiometabolic Disease Clinical Community.

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