Start Here: What is Cardio-Advocate?

Cardio-Advocate Empowers

We advocate for better care, involving the patient and their care team in a way that we can change the way medicine is delivered. The patient, as the captain of their team, should have easy access to “tip of the spear” medical information that is publicly available, but digested and explained by cardiometabolic specialists and experts, directing them towards established treatment pathways and facilitating well informed expert-level discussions with their care team members. 

Patients: Be Your Own Advocate

We believe now more than ever before it is imperative for patients to be their own advocate. We have observed that patients feel this way too. How do we know this? Because patients are telling us. It’s becoming a common “Chief Complaint” in the cardiometabolic clinic. 

Doctor: “Why are you here?”

Patient: “I want to be my own advocate.” 

With a few swipes of the fingers, the push towards full transparency and complete access to their medical records, EHRs now provide patients with more detailed information about their personal health status than ever before. But despite this information being literally right at their fingertips, a significant gap exists between information and action. 

Patients invariably do not understand the information they are receiving. Most patients do not possess the training, nor do they have the time to look up the meaning to every piece of data they are bombarded with. Even if they do, it is very difficult for them to appreciate the clinical significance. Many simply put it aside and wait for a provider or nurse to explain it. Others become confused, anxious or look to “Dr. Interwebs” to help them interpret.

Clinicians:  Be an Advocate for Your Patient

As preventive cardiometabolic consultants we understand how challenging it can be for the average provider to find cardiometabolic specialists in their community. When they do, they are often booked for months. While the Cardiometabolic specialty field is growing, there are simply not enough to meet the growing demand. 

As a result patients become frustrated. Their PCP’s, doing the best they can, often feel the brunt of this frustration. This then leads to “provider burnout,” a growing epidemic in medicine, driving more and more providers to quit the field of medicine altogether. Believe it or not, most providers went into medicine to make a difference. No, that’s not a sappy cliche. It’s true. Yes, medicine can be a rewarding career and provide financial stability, but most of us didn’t go into medicine to get “rich.” For a growing number of us, when the added administrative work and stress encountered in the office does not seem to be rewarded with better care for our patients, it can create a sense of futility and apathy. We’re all human.

We believe providers feel better when they are delivering great care and their patients are pleased with this care. This is why we wish to provide not only you, but your patients with the resources of a cardiometabolic specialist. We aim to build an army of such specialists. But it begins with you.

Flying Under the Radar

Why do these cases go undertreated?

When it comes to cardiometabolic diseases, no single medical discipline “owns'' it. Unfortunately, in many healthcare systems and communities nobody WANTS to own it. So nobody does. 

It might come as a surprise, but even specialists such as cardiologists frequently ARE NOT comfortable addressing and treating cardiometabolic diseases. Some groups are lucky and one of their partners may have a keen interest in prevention, lipids or cardiometabolic diseases, but many, if not most, do not. 

The cardiometabolic patient, therefore goes undetected and/or undertreated. 

Recommendations

Information should be actionable. All of our published phenotypes (i.e., the common patient profiles around which our site is organized) contain a list of actionable recommendations based on a synthesis of up-to-date published guidelines. These are powerful tools for empowering patient advocacy that should always be balanced with the nuance that patients deserve and can only be delivered by a licensed physician.

To get you started, here are some recommendations that apply to everyone.

We recommend:

• Review your medical records
• • “My Chart” and others EHR tools have made this much easier
  • • CMS has continually pushed for EHR “transparency”, allowing patients full access to their records and results
    • But they forgot to give patients the instruction manual and a medical degree (which is where we can help!)
• See our list of Cardiometabolic Diseases (coming soon)
• Use our Calculator to search for additional cardiometabolic diseases you may not be unaware of (coming soon)
• Visit our pages that relate to familiar cardiometabolic phenotypes
• • These pages will be updated and modified as new information becomes available and additional authors contribute
  • Check back regularly as the site will periodically change content
• Use our  Tool (coming soon) page to locate:
• • Cardiometabolic specialists in your area
  • Cardiometabolic advocacy groups, foundations, medical groups