The new ACC and American Heart Association (AHA) primary prevention guideline provides a comprehensive roadmap of strategies that can be used and tailored to help prevent or slow the development of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. The guideline, released March 17 during ACC.19 in New Orleans, also emphasizes the need to identify and address personal or social barriers (e.g., income and education levels, cost concerns, lack of health insurance, access to healthy foods or safe places to exercise, life stressors) as part of overall prevention, and sets a new tone for aspirin use, saying it should rarely be used. The guideline was simultaneously published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Read more on ACC.org.

The Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease Guideline Hub on ACC.org includes clinician resources including a slide set, perspectives, apps and tools, and more. The JACC Prevention Guideline Hub also has tools including the central illustration.

The CardioSmart team has created several patient resources to help patients understand the new guideline, including the 2019 CardioSmart Patient Summary; a Universal Lifestyle Tool; CardioSmart Aspirin Therapy Patient Article; CardioSmart Infographic; CardioSmart Heart Explorer App, and more. All of these resources can be found on the CardioSmart Prevention Hub.