Cardiovascular disease is widespread across Canada. It is the leading cause of death for women, and the second leading cause of death for all Canadians. Dyslipidemia can be modified with effective, safe, and inexpensive treatment using cholesterol-lowering medications, such as statins. Unfortunately, only about 25% to 66% of individuals who would benefit from statins, or other management strategies, are currently benefiting from them.1,2 PLP Medical Directors, Drs. Sonia Butalia, Katrina Nicholson, and Oliver David collaborated extensively with patient partners, family physicians, specialists, and pharmacists to co-create a dyslipidemia clinical decision support tool for individuals and physicians. By visiting the site and reading through the material, individuals can learn about dyslipidemia, statin indicated conditions, use a health heart calculator (Framingham Risk Score), and explore treatment options. Physicians can leverage the physician guide to facilitate evidence-based cholesterol management. This work was funded by Diabetes Canada, and PLP provided in-kind HCD and technical development expertise.

The tool was implemented in November 2023 (https://cholesterol-tool.ucalgary.ca/ ). In collaboration with AHS and Alberta Precision Laboratories, the online clinical decision support tool is included with every lipid profile result, appearing in NetCare, electronic medical records, and other clinical systems. It is also publicly available (https://cholesterol-tool.ucalgary.ca/ ). Health Quality Alberta has integrated it into their panel reports as well.

This year, the platform has continued to captivate, amassing over 11,000 active users from Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Mexico, India, and China and more than 12,000 direct traffic sessions and 22,000 user engagement sessions.

To further enhance its impact, a series of provincial and national presentations were conducted, aimed at promoting the importance and raising awareness of the shared decision-making process in cholesterol management. Feedback on the tool and platform has been overwhelmingly positive, with recognition coming from across the province, as well as on national and international levels. In acknowledgement of her leadership in this work, Dr. Sonia Butalia was honored as the inaugural recipient of the Dr. Norm Campbell Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Award for her role in developing the “Let’s Talk Cholesterol” tool.