The Role of Digital Primary Care on Cardiovascular Health in a Changing Climate

Summary

Climate change poses a major threat to cardiovascular health, particularly for those who are more vulnerable. Digital primary care (DPC) offers innovative ways to mitigate these effects by incorporating digital health interventions (DHIs) into primary care settings. This paper reviews recent work in integrating climate data with DPC systems to improve cardiovascular outcomes.

We conducted a scoping review using PubMed to find studies from the past decade that examined how climate change affects cardiovascular disease (CVD) and primary care. We also included case studies from the International Medical Informatics Association Primary Care Informatics Working Group (IMIA PCI WG). We screened and selected studies based on predefined criteria that focused on climate change, CVD, and primary care integration, and data were extracted to identify research gaps and priorities.

We included eight studies from PubMed and seven international case studies from the IMIA PCI WG. Key studies have shown that cold weather, air pollution, and wildfire smoke can affect CVD outcomes. However, there is still a lack of evidence on effectively combining climate data with DPC tools in primary care settings to improve cardiovascular outcomes.

DPC has the potential to improve cardiovascular health outcomes in the context of climate change. However, there is a need for more research and real-world evaluation of DPC tools. By integrating climate data with primary care systems, we can provide early warnings and targeted interventions, especially in low- and middle- income countries (LMICs). Future research should address these gaps to strengthen healthcare systems against the challenges posed by climate change.