Risk stratification tools in primary care in Europe

Risk stratification is an intentional, planned and proactive process that predicts the probability of adverse events occurring and assigns an individual a risk status or score. Based on individual risk assessment, patients are typically classified into high-, medium- (rising-) and low-risk groups. Risk levels should correspond to the likelihood that patients experience negative health outcomes and/or higher rates of unnecessary or preventable health care utilization. This allows targeting effective interventions to prevent them and promotes resource utilization based on individual and population needs rather than demand. Risk stratification is essential for PHC practices to be proactive and reach out to individuals based on their risk profile even if they do not present to PHC facilities and to tailor PHC service delivery accordingly. Even if risk stratification (especially as it becomes more sophisticated) is not done at the PHC level, the results can be made available to PHC professionals, often through integrated electronic health record systems, so they can benefit from it in their daily practice. Risk stratification may be carried out in PHC settings with varying degrees of complexity depending on local resources and with different purposes depending on the context. This presentation will discuss the different risk stratification tools used in country across the European region, and provide practical examples on their uses in PHC. The presentation will discuss enabling factors for advanced risk stratification that accounts for multimorbidity and social complexity.