The Right Care Initiative: Promoting Accountable Care to Prevent Cardiovascular Death

We describe the rationale for and implementation of the Right Care Initiative and its University of Best Practices (UBP), a model designed to close the implementation gap between clinical evidence and the real-world management of cardiovascular risk factors. The model aims to move beyond institutional silos toward an accountable care model that emphasizes interorganizational partnerships and the systematic sharing of best practices to eliminate preventable mortality.

We summarize lessons from a 17-year learning collaborative involving clinicians, pharmacists, health plans, and public health officials. The collaborative focuses on sharing best practices, peer accountability, and the dissemination of team-based care. The article synthesizes evidence from regional pilot projects, performance variation, and federal policy shifts to support a transition to precision prevention.

Effective strategies identified include integrating clinical pharmacists into primary care to manage complex biometrics and utilizing coronary artery calcium imaging for early disease staging. Collaborative learning models address clinical inertia by identifying drug therapy problems and scaling proven interventions, including support for healthy nutrition, weight reduction, and physical activity, across health systems. Aligning value-based payment models with measurable reductions in cardiovascular disease risk holds promise to improve population health.

Making progress toward 0 preventable cardiovascular deaths requires developing organizational infrastructure rather than just generating new science. By fostering radical collaboration and adopting advanced diagnostic and team-based tools, health care leaders can ensure that lifesaving evidence reaches patients effectively.