# Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation for Ischaemic Non‐Obstructive Coronary Artery Disease: Implementation Considerations From a Survey of UK Health Professionals

## TL;DR

UK healthcare professionals lack resources and knowledge to care for patients with ischaemic non-obstructive coronary artery disease (INOCA), requiring new training and support.

## Contribution

Identifies a gap in healthcare professionals' capacity to manage INOCA and proposes specific care recommendations and educational needs.

## Key findings

- Healthcare professionals lack knowledge and capacity to care for INOCA patients.
- Recommended care includes exercise training, psychological support, and dietary advice.
- Educational material and additional resources are needed for effective INOCA management.

## Abstract

Investigate if UK healthcare professionals have the resources and knowledge to provide cardiovascular prevention and rehabilitation to people with ischaemic non‐obstructive coronary artery disease (INOCA), and explore what type of care healthcare professionals believe patients should receive.

Electronic cross‐sectional survey of UK healthcare professionals, circulated between 7 January and 7 March 2022.

Quantitative data were analysed descriptively. Qualitative data were analysed inductively.

Healthcare professionals lacked knowledge and capacity to care for this patient group. Healthcare professionals recommended patients receive two unsupervised sessions per week, for 8 weeks, at home and in person. Recommend include physical activity advice/exercise training, health behaviour support, psychological support, smoking cessation, dietetics/nutritional support, weight management, counselling and medication titration.

In the UK, healthcare professionals lack resources and knowledge to provide cardiovascular presentation and rehabilitation to people with INOCA. Recommended care reflected care currently available to other patient groups.

There is a need to create and evaluate educational material for healthcare professionals.

Before people with INOCA are offered cardiovascular prevention and rehabilitation it was necessary to determine if healthcare professionals had sufficient clinical knowledge and resources to provide care.We conclude that additional training and resources are required to enable health professionals to deliver care to people with INOCA.

Before people with INOCA are offered cardiovascular prevention and rehabilitation it was necessary to determine if healthcare professionals had sufficient clinical knowledge and resources to provide care.

We conclude that additional training and resources are required to enable health professionals to deliver care to people with INOCA.

Researchers should create and evaluate educational material for cardiovascular prevention and rehabilitation programmes. Programmes also require additional resources to deliver care to this group.

Reporting adheres to the Cherries guidelines.

A patient (SB) was consulted on study design, data collection, and interpretation, and manuscript preparation.