June 22, 2010
HSR&D Investigator Rodney A. Hayward, MD, Co-Director of the HSR&D Center for Clinical Management Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan, was recently featured in The Wall Street Journal regarding a study about cholesterol treatment and the use of statins. The study, which appeared in the January 2010 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine, suggested that there might be more people who would be treated with statins if the current treatment paradigm were shifted to a more personalized approach.
Dr. Hayward was the lead author of the study, which argued that physicians do away with numerical cholesterol targets in favor of a more tailored approach to treating individual patients. Authors further suggested that physicians approach treatment by calculating each patient's heart-disease risk using a range of factors that might also include family health history and conditions such as diabetes and hypertension. Under such an approach, some patients might take statins, while others might receive the opposite advice. Hayward told the Journal, "When you think of only one thing—are you at target?—you've adopted a simplistic view that is not tailored to that patient's circumstances."
To read the Journal's coverage, visit WSJ.com.
The abstract of Dr. Hayward's paper is available at the AIM website.
