Clinical Audit Awareness Week 2026: How CVDPREVENT turns data into better cardiovascular care

This week marks Clinical Audit Awareness Week 2026 (#CAAW26), the annual national campaign that celebrates the critical role of clinical audit and data-driven improvement across the health system. For CVDPREVENT, it is a moment to reflect on what the audit exists to do and the difference it makes.

What is CVDPREVENT?

CVDPREVENT is a national primary care audit, commissioned by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP) as part of the National Clinical Audit and Patient Outcomes Programme (NCAPOP), and funded by NHS England. It uses data extracted from GP records to help primary care understand how many people with cardiovascular disease (CVD), or conditions that increase CVD risk, may be unidentified, undiagnosed, or not receiving optimal treatment.

The audit is delivered in partnership by the NHS Benchmarking Network (NHSBN), NHS Arden and Greater East Midlands Commissioning Support Unit (AGEM), and NHS England — and sits at the heart of a broader ambition set out in the NHS Long Term Plan to prevent 150,000 strokes, heart attacks and cases of dementia over ten years.

From data to improvement

Clinical audit is only as valuable as the action it inspires. CVDPREVENT is designed with that principle at its core. By providing GP, PCN- and ICB-level data, the audit helps to identify variation in the identification, diagnosis and management of key CVD conditions including atrial fibrillation, hypertension, diabetes, chronic kidney disease and heart failure, and enables organisations to act on what they find.

Reducing health inequalities

CVDPREVENT also collects demographic information including age, sex, ethnicity, deprivation, learning disability and severe mental illness, so that health inequality breakdowns can be reported alongside clinical data. This supports targeted quality improvement and aligns with the NHS Core20PLUS5 approach to reducing health disparities.

Join the conversation

Clinical Audit Awareness Week is a chance for everyone working in and with the NHS to share what clinical audit means for their patients and populations. We encourage CVDPREVENT users to explore the audit's insights tools, share their improvement stories, and engage with this year's #CAAW26 programme of free national webinars, running 22–26 June. https://www.hqip.org.uk/news-and-articles/clinical-audit-awareness-week-2026/