The Evolving Landscape of Cardiovascular Risk Assessment

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains the leading cause of death in the US and globally and risk estimation is a cornerstone approach to guiding CVD prevention. Over the past 2 decades, various tools and strategies for predicting future cardiovascular risk have been studied and deployed. The overarching goal is to match the intensity of preventive therapy to absolute risk to have the greatest impact in preventing CVD events. Even small or moderate changes in risk estimation could have a large impact at a population-health level when applied to guidance for preventive therapies.