PocDoc, the UK's leading digitial diagnostics company, has powered a pharmacist-led community screening pilot that identified elevated cardiovascular risk in one in five people tested, the majority of whom had no previously diagnosed health conditions and would never otherwise have accessed a preventative health check.

The nine-week pilot saw community pharmacists from the North East London and Essex Local Pharmaceutical Committees (LPCs) deliver point-of-care cholesterol testing and cardiovascular risk assessments across Barking, Dagenham, Havering and Thurrock. Using PocDoc's rapid diagnostic platform, the screenings were completed in minutes from a mobile health unit, bringing lab-quality testing directly into the heart of local communities. The pilot was commissioned by Thames Freeport and delivered by Avencera, with an independent evaluation carried out by digital transformation company Public.

The results make the case for community-based prevention in stark terms. Of the 687 people screened, one in five were found to be at elevated risk of developing cardiovascular disease over the next decade. More than a quarter (27%) had high or borderline high cholesterol, despite around 80% reporting no previously diagnosed health conditions. These are people who felt healthy, had no reason to suspect a problem, and were carrying a significant, invisible risk they knew nothing about.

Perhaps most tellingly, more than three quarters (77%) of participants said they would not otherwise have accessed a preventative health check. The pilot reached exactly the people traditional healthcare pathways miss: more than half of attendees came from ethnic groups at increased risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease, and 60% were men, a group consistently underrepresented in preventative care.

Through PocDoc's smartphone-based Healthy Heart Check, each participant received a full picture of their heart health in minutes, delivered via a simple fingerprick test. The check provides a detailed cholesterol profile, body mass index, NHS Heart Age, and a ten-year risk assessment for heart attack or stroke, with those at elevated risk guided seamlessly toward the right care pathway, and healthy individuals gaining reassurance about their risk, all without creating additional burden on GPs.

The pilot directly supports the Government's 10 Year Health Plan and demonstrates the NHS's three key shifts in action: from hospital to community, from sickness to prevention, and from analogue to digital. NHS research shows that every digital health check can save 20 minutes of a GP's time¹, while early detection could prevent up to 80% of CVD cases, equivalent to saving an estimated 136,000 lives in the UK each year².

The independent evaluation concluded that the pilot provides a strong foundation for wider deployment, and recommended closer integration with NHS referral pathways and expansion into other areas of preventative care. It follows a similar PocDoc-powered pilot in North East London, commissioned by Barts Health NHS Trust, in which seven community pharmacies delivered cholesterol point-of-care testing between January and October 2025, and which also found that one in five patients, 111 people in total, were at elevated risk of cardiovascular disease.

Hilary Bretag, Senior Consultant at Avencera, said:

"One of the biggest strengths of the pilot was taking healthcare to people, rather than expecting people to come to healthcare. By working alongside trusted local partners and delivering services in the heart of communities, we were able to engage residents who may otherwise have gone years without a preventative health check. The evaluation provides a strong foundation for expanding this model and reaching even more people in the future."

Steve Roest, CEO and Co-Founder at PocDoc, said:

"These findings show that when clinically validated diagnostics are taken directly into communities, we can engage people who simply aren't accessing traditional services. One in five people we tested were at elevated risk of cardiovascular disease, and the vast majority had no idea. Every one of them now has the chance to act early, before a preventable condition becomes a life-changing event. That is exactly what PocDoc was built to do, and this pilot shows what's possible when we bring diagnostics to where people are."