A focused review of cardiovascular guideline related recommendations for the primary care physician in the USA.

Abstract

Primary care physicians in the USA serve the critical role of first contact for undiagnosed or mismanaged pathologies as well as providers of continuous care in multiple communities. Their scope of practice is broad from medication reconciliation to coordinating specialty care and even performing office procedures. Primary care physicians in the USA commonly encounter patients with diabetes and associated comorbidities related to prolonged insulin resistance. Mainly these include heart failure exacerbation or major adverse cardiovascular events. The demanding roles primary care physicians serve may render these providers encumbered to navigate through long, verbose and dynamic guidelines related to managing diabetes and cardiac diabetology sequelae. Our aim is to compose current, prominent evidence-based points from American medical societies such as the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association and the American Diabetes Association central to lifestyle modifications, antiplatelet therapy, anti-hyperglycemic and SGLT2-inhibitor utilization, hypertension, dyslipidemia, and heart failure screening in a way that is both succinct and valuable to primary care physicians.