Improving Patient Access to Medication

An ACC Chapter, Section Success Story

From ACC JACC

In a new Leadership Page published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, George A. Stouffer, MD, FACC; William B. Abernethy, MD, FACC; James P. Zidar, MD, FACC; and B. Hadley Wilson, MD, FACC, discuss a collaboration between the ACC North Carolina Chapter and the ACC Prevention Section in partnership with the North Carolina Association of Free and Charitable Clinics, which was designed to improve the cardiovascular health care of the most vulnerable patients in North Carolina by providing free lipid-lowering medications and clopidogrel. Over two years, there was an increase in patients receiving medications and significant decreases in total cholesterol and LDL levels in the clinics that provided free medications. Programs like this may improve adherence and medical costs and are also a way to reach society’s most vulnerable patients. Read more.