Not only are untreated chronic diseases expensive in terms of increase disease burden, suboptimal treatment is also very costly. It is estimated in Europe alone the cost associated with uncontrolled hypertension was a staggering 10.3 billion Euros in 2002. This huge cost is due to the cost incurred in
treating an estimated more than 2 million cardiovascular events in Europe that year, many due to suboptimum treatment of hypertension. In Malaysia in 2005 an estimated RM110 million was spend in managing hypertensives patients admitted to government hospitals. Many if not all of these admissions were preventable had blood pressure been optimally controlled. Efforts to optimally control chronic diseases entail going back to basics, not rocket science. While a lot of research money had been spend and will continue to be spent in trying to find the panacea of personalised molecularly driven
therapeutics, it is the attention to basic details which will help practitioners and in optimally managing their patients diseases and the risks factors associated with them.