Understanding the role of multimorbidity and polypharmacy on cardiovascular disease predictionÂ
Supervisors:
Professor Jacob George, Division of Molecular and Clinical Medicine, School of Medicine (University of Dundee)
Dr Daniel Morales, Population Health & Genomics Division, School of Medicine (University of Dundee)
Summary:
Cardiovascular diseases affect millions of people worldwide. Management of these conditions requires a large proportion of healthcare resources with decisions strongly informed by clinical guidelines internationally. Cardiovascular disease-related risk prediction tools are important for guiding effective therapeutic choices aimed at preventing disease occurrence and/or progression. Whilst prediction models include many variables, it is uncertain how they perform in different groups of people with multimorbidity and polypharmacy.
The PhD project will examine how established CVS disease-related prediction models perform in people with vulnerable populations including those with multimorbidity, frailty and polypharmacy. The PhD will study the epidemiology of CVS disease in these populations and evaluate whether different methodological approaches and variable inclusion affect model prediction and the type of patients recommended for treatment. The PhD will also consider the utility of models for targeting prescribing of commonly used medicines with cardiovascular safety concerns.