Heart disease is still the top cause of death in the US, but the types of heart disease killing people are changing, a new analysis has found. While deaths from acute conditions such as heart attacks have declined, deaths from other types of heart disease such as heart failure, hypertensive heart disease, and arrhythmias have increased.

And that has important implications for primary care physicians (PCPs), who will shoulder much of the burden for caring for these patients who can survive acute threats such as a heart attack but go on to need care for chronic cardiac conditions, sometimes for decades.

The shift in practice is well known to Brent Smith, MD, a family medicine physician in Greenville, Mississippi, in practice for 14 years and a member of the board of directors for the Ame

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