Patients need to be able to rec­og­nize the symp­toms asso­ci­at­ed with VHD and prompt­ly com­mu­ni­cate any con­cerns to their pri­ma­ry care physi­cian (PCP). Equal­ly impor­tant­ly, health care pro­fes­sion­als (HCPs) should be able to iden­ti­fy these symp­toms and take the appro­pri­ate action.

Actions for pol­i­cy-mak­ers

• Pol­i­cy-mak­ers should work close­ly and align their efforts to raise aware­ness among the pub­lic and HCPs about VHD in peo­ple old­er than 60.

• The pop­u­la­tion should be informed about the symp­toms of VHD and encour­aged to have reg­u­lar check-ups.

Actions for health sys­tems and HCPs

• All HCPs, espe­cial­ly physi­cians work­ing in pri­ma­ry health care, should be aware of VHD and the increased risk as peo­ple age.

• HCP asso­ci­a­tions or med­ical soci­eties should pro­vide train­ing regard­ing prompt­ly diag­nos­ing and effec­tive­ly treat­ing VHD.

Pri­or­i­ty areas for research

• Gath­er evi­dence on the preva­lence of VHD in Sau­di Ara­bia.

• Fund and con­duct more local research to help improve the health care community’s knowl­edge and pri­or­i­ti­za­tion of VHD.

PCPs should proac­tive­ly per­form an aus­cul­ta­tion to detect a heart mur­mur.

A patient with a heart mur­mur is referred for an echocar­dio­gram to con­firm the diag­no­sis. Upon diag­no­sis, the PCP should know which refer­ral path­way to fol­low to ensure that a car­di­ol­o­gist sees the patient and the patient receives treat­ment.

Actions for pol­i­cy-mak­ers

• Ensure that a work­force plan is in place that allo­cates the right skills and resources required at each lev­el of the health sys­tem.

Actions for health sys­tems and HCPs

• Guide­lines and prac­tice should include refer­ral of patients to sec­ondary care or ter­tiary care for an echocar­dio­gram.

• PCPs and car­di­ol­o­gists should receive skills devel­op­ment train­ing in inter­pret­ing echocar­dio­grams.

• Tech­ni­cians, echocar­dio­g­ra­phers, and physi­cians should be pro­vid­ed with edu­ca­tion mod­ules on screen­ing and eval­u­at­ing patients with VHD.

• When a per­son is diag­nosed with VHD, refer­ral path­ways must be clear for HCPs and patients. Health ser­vices for VHD patients must be inte­grat­ed across var­i­ous lev­els of health care and coor­di­nat­ed.

Pri­or­i­ty areas for research

• Gath­er data on the epi­demi­ol­o­gy of VHD in Sau­di Ara­bia, includ­ing the demo­graph­ics of indi­vid­u­als affect­ed by aor­tic steno­sis.