Care provided through general practice and cardiac rehabilitation programs for people with known coronary heart disease (CHD) can reduce the incidence of subsequent cardiovascular events and improve survival rates and quality of life. This requires the systematic application of evidence-based lifestyle, biomedical and psychosocial management recommendations.

The Heart Foundation advocates and supports the following key actions for improving the management of CHD in general practice:

• establish practice systems for CHD, including practice registers and recall mechanisms
• facilitate appropriate lifestyle risk factor modification 
• treat to target for hypertension and dyslipidaemia (see table below)
• ensure early diagnosis and appropriate management of chronic heart failure.

New: GP Management Plan (GPMP) for CHD

Guidelines

• Reducing Risk in Heart Disease (updated 2008) – full guidelines
   Download
• Reducing Risk in Heart Disease (updated 2008) – summary
   Download
• Guidelines for the management of acute coronary syndromes – full guidelines (clicking this link will take you to The Medical Journal of Australia website. This publication is copyright of The MJA.)
• Guidelines for the management of acute coronary syndromes – summary  Download

Other Clinical Information and Resources

• “Stress” and coronary heart disease: psychosocial factors (clicking this link will take you to another website)
• Heart health – CHD management gaps in general practice (copyright to Australian Family Physician. Reproduced with permission. Permission to reproduce must be sought from the publisher, The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners)
   Download
• Podcast of an interview with Dr Nancy Huang about CHD management gaps (clicking this link will take you to another website)   
• Treatment gap – information sheet (2009)
   Download 
• Information on lifestyle risk factor management
• Heart attack warning signs - health professional fact sheet
   Download
• Checklist of important information to discuss with your patient and their family when you give them the Heart attack warning signs fact sheet and action plan
   Download

Patient Resources

• Coronary heart disease
• Will you recognise your heart attack? - patient fact sheet
   Download
• Will you recognise your heart attack? action plan - for patients who have been diagnosed with CHD and prescribed angina medicine
   Download
• Managing my heart health – a resource for people with or at high risk of CHD
• “Stress” and coronary heart disease: psychosocial factors (2003)
   Download
• Information on lifestyle risk factors

More about GP Management Plan (GPMP) for CHD

The GPMP is designed to support general practice by using the chronic disease management (CDM) Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) items in implementing best practice interventions.

The GPMP is based on the Heart Foundation’s "Reducing risk in heart disease 2008" (RRIHD) guidelines (available under 'Guidelines' above) to improve ongoing management and secondary prevention of patients with CHD.

For more information, call (03) 9321 1560 or email us.

GPMP for CHD: paper-based version

This GPMP is a generic template. A MS Word version of the template is provided below for viewing before importing or to convert to another general practitioner desktop software of your choice.

The "GP management plan for coronary heart disease (CHD)" is provided by the National Heart Foundation of Australia to health professionals as a tool for CHD management in general practice. The sections "Recommendations" and "Recommended targets/goals" should not be changed or altered in any way. These recommendations are derived from National Heart Foundation of Australia clinical guidelines, 2008.

 Download MS Word version

Software vendors

We welcome discussion about opportunities to convert the Heart Foundation GPMP for CHD template to other clinical software and encourage practices to integrate the template into existing desktop software system.

To date, piloting of the GPMP has been done with Genie and Medical Director only. The Medical Director version is now available for use (below), and the Genie version is in the final stages of development (watch this space). Email us for more information.

Instructions for Importing Templates into Medical Director

Important: do not open the .rtf file. Opening the file will make the data field in the template inactive.

Right click on the file below and select ‘Save target as’. Go to the folder or location in the hard drive of the computer where you want to save it and select ‘Save’.

In Medical Director:

1. open Medical Director and then Letter Writer 
2. in ‘File’ menu, select ‘Modify template’ then select ‘Blank template‘ and ‘Open’
3. in ‘File’ menu, select ‘Import’, find the template file and select ‘Open’ 
4. in ‘File’ menu, select ‘Save as template’, type in the name you want to call it and select ‘Save’.

Download GPMP for CHD template for Medical Director - do not open this file. Please follow the above instructions to save this file.

Instructions for Importing Templates into Genie Software

1. Right click on the file below and select ‘Save target as’. Find the folder or location in the hard drive of the computer where you want to save it and select 'Save'.
2. Open Genie and go to a patient file. 
3. Open a new template by selecting 'Create or print a merged letter template' (Shift-Ctrl-T). 
4. Delete the text so that the page is blank (you don't need to do this if you have the current version of Genie, 7.4.1).
5. In the 'Letter templates' dialogue box, select 'Add template' to create a new blank template.
6. Select 'File' and then 'Open'. Select the template (it has '.4WT' at the end of the file name) from where you saved it.
7. Select 'Open'. The template should appear.
8. Type in a name for the template in the 'Title' text box at the top of the window (by default it has "Untitled" to start with).
9. Select 'Save changes to template'.
10. In the 'Confirm dialogue box', select 'Save'.
11. Close the '4D Write Area' by selecting 'Close'.

When you select 'Save' (step 10), current patient details should be imported.

Download GPMP for CHD template for Genie software - do not open this file. Please follow the above instructions to save this file.

Want to give your patients more information but lack the time? Refer them to our Health Information Service on 1300 36 27 87.