An individual’s risk of Coronary Heart Disease is currently based on classical risk factors such as age, gender, blood pressure, smoking habits and obesity. However, most heart attacks occur in individuals with only average classical risk factors. In this lecture, Professor Humphries will discuss how family history of Heart Disease is also an important predictor, and how identifying specific genes and DNA variants within family history could help doctors offer lifestyle and drug advice to individuals. This lecture with then focus on the need for researchers to explore different ways of presenting information about genetic risk, to find approaches that minimise a sense of fatalism and maximise motivation for behaviour change.