Developing a community pharmacy-based cardiovascular disease risk screening service in Saudi Arabia: a...

to develop a community pharmacy-based cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk screening service in Saudi Arabia (SA) through stakeholder involvement.

A modified nominal group technique (m-NGT) consensus method was employed, integrating a pre-meeting questionnaire for idea generation and an in-person NGT meeting (conducted on 7th February 2025) for discussion, ranking, and consensus formation. Purposive sampling was adopted to recruit stakeholders from SA, including experts in CVD, health and pharmaceutical policy, and service delivery. Ideas regarding service-targeted populations, screening processes, and post-screening interventions were collected from a literature review and pre-meeting questionnaire. Experts ranked these ideas, with higher scores indicating higher priority. A consensus level of 70% was considered acceptable. An inductive thematic analysis was performed for the discussion.

Six experts participated in the NGT meeting. The prioritised age group was ≥40 years, with the top 5 priorities for those with or on treatment for comorbidities, with a family history, or any risk factors, on medications that cause CV harm, without pre-existing comorbidities and not on treatment. The top 5 screening processes included calculating CVD risk scores, collecting patient data, performing point-of-care and anthropometric measurements, and assessing medication adherence. The top 3 interventions included providing education, physician referrals, and medication therapy management with follow-ups. A 100% consensus was achieved. Two main themes were identified: (i) drivers of strategic decision-making and (ii) facilitators for sustainable implementation.

This study outlines a potential service model; however, further research is needed to achieve national consensus on it and support its future implementation.