The Enhanced Lipid Reporting (ELR) project aims to reduce severe cardiovascular events in Alberta through the screening, identification, and treatment of CVD at-risk primary care patients.

Through this project, a lab-based CVD screening tool has been added to the provincial general lab requisition and the algorithm built into Connect Care. The CVD screening tool is the Framingham Risk Score (FRS).

When clinicians use the FRS on the lab req for their patients, they will receive an enhanced lipid report from the lab that includes a patient’s FRS result, lipid panel, and treatment guidelines, based on the Canadian Cardiovascular Society 2021 dyslipidemia treatment guidelines.

The results are also sent to Netcare, where they can be viewed by other healthcare professionals and MyHealth Records for the patients to view.

South Zone Pilot

The ELR initiative started with a pilot study in the South zone as part of VRR 1.0, as well as a 2-year follow up study that demonstrated the benefit of the lab-based screening approach. Below are the publications from the pilot and follow-up study in the South Zone:

• Results of pilot study, South Zone (Canadian J of Cardiology, 2017)
• Results of follow-up study involving all CVD risk groups (Clinical Biochemistry, 2021)

Provincial Roll-out

The CvHS SCN secured a Health Innovation, Implementation and Spread (HIIS) grant in 2021 to support the provincial roll-out of the ELR.

The Framingham Risk Score (FRS) algorithm was built into the new provincial electronic medical record system (Connect Care) and went live in January 2022. The Canadian Cardiovascular Society (CCS) 2021 Dyslipidemia treatment guidelines were also built into Connect Care. Primary care has access to this lab-based screening tool as the labs in their geographical area launch onto Connect Care.

Similar to the pilot study, providers that use the lab-based FRS for their patients will receive an enhanced lipid report that contains the patient’s FRS results, CCS treatment suggestions, and lipid panel results. An improvement on the pilot study, is that the results also go into MyHealth Records, allowing patients to access and view their results.

The project has created a number of resources to support the implementation and uptake of the tool, targeted towards both patient and providers.