The Ministry of Health (MOH) has updated the Clinical Practice Guidelines on Lipids to provide doctors and patients in Singapore with evidence-based treatment for lipids. This article reproduces the introduction and executive summary (with recommendations from the guidelines) from the MOH Clinical Practice Guidelines on Lipids, for the information of SMJ readers. Chapters and page numbers mentioned in the reproduced extract refer to the full text of the guidelines, which are available from the Ministry of Health website:

BackgroundThe key management strategy for established coronary heart disease (CHD) patients is to control the underlying risk factors. Further complications will be reduced when these risk factors are treated-to-target (TTT) as recommended by clinical practice guidelines. These targets include blood pressure (BP) lower than 130/80 mm Hg and LDL-cholesterol of less than 2.6 mmol/L and for those with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM), HBA1c less than 7%. This article aimed to explore the issues affecting this approach from both the patients' and primary care physicians' (PCP) perspectives.MethodsThe study involved triangulation of research methods to determine the findings. Part A: focus group discussions to collect qualitative data from patients with CHD and from PCPs who were managing them in primary care. Part B: A subsequent questionnaire survey to determine the extent of their awareness of treatment targets for modifiable risk factors.ResultsCHD patients had variable awareness of the modifiable risk factors for CHD due to poor concordance between the PCPs' approach in managing the CHD patients and the latter's reception of information. 46% of participants knew their targets of BP control correctly; 11% of them were correct in stating their target for LDL-cholesterol control. Amongst these participants with DM (n = 146), 27% of them were correct in indicating their target of diabetic control.ConclusionsCommunication and practice barriers exist which hinder the treat-to-target approach in mitigating the risk factors for CHD patients. Incorporating this approach in routine clinical practice by PCPs has greater potential to achieve treatment targets for patients.

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