Million Hearts - Home

Million Hearts - Home

Tools You Can Use

• Make blood pressure control your—and your patients’—goal—Blood pressure control is critical to preventing heart attacks and strokes. Check out new resources from Million Hearts^® to help health care professionals address high blood pressure in their practice or health system, support their patients, and “Make Control Your Goal.”
• Visit the new Million Hearts^® Healthy Eating and Lifestyle Resource Center—Developed in partnership with EatingWellmagazine, the resource center features lower sodium, heart-healthy recipes and family-friendly meal plans that help manage sodium intake, a major contributor to high blood pressure and heart disease. All the recipes include nutritional facts and average cost per serving information. Use the search and filter options to quickly find the right meal for yourself and your family based on prep time, cuisine, course, number of servings, and specific health considerations. Get cooking!
• Access continuing education programs for cities across the country—This fall, attend one of the free, half-day programs presented by the Preventive Cardiovascular Nurses Association to learn the latest information in preventive cardiovascular care and network with colleagues. Register today for the session nearest you!

Million Hearts^® in the Community

• ASTHO Million Hearts^® State Learning Collaborative issues request for proposals. The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO), with CDC support, has issued a request for proposals to support another group of states in achieving the Million Hearts^® goal of preventing 1 million heart attacks and strokes by 2017 by focusing on hypertension identification and control. States will use a quality improvement process to collaborate among clinical, community, and public health partners to implement best practices and evidence-based policies to identify, control, and improve blood pressure. All governmental state health agencies in good standing with ASTHO, and that did not participate in the first collaborative, are eligible to apply. Applications are due on September 4, 2014.Read the FAQs or contact ASTHO.
• Health centers find success in implementing Health eQuits smoking cessation intervention program. Health centers owned by the New York Hotel Trades Council and Hotel Association of NYC, Inc., Employee Benefit Funds used a multidisciplinary approach to increase the detection of smokers and the number of smoking cessation interventions they received. Using Health eQuits, a smoking cessation intervention program launched by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s Primary Care Information Project, the organization more than tripled its smoking cessation intervention rates for documented smokes from a baseline of 27% (October 2010–September 2011) to 91% (April 2011–March 2012).
• FDA Cardiovascular and Renal Drugs Advisory Committee scheduled to meet September 10, 2014. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) committee will be discussing the potential usefulness in the clinic and the potential patient population for fixed-combination prescription drugs composed of an antihypertensive drug, aspirin, and a statin. This combination would be administered to reduce the risk of cardiovascular death, nonfatal heart attack, and nonfatal stroke in patients with a history of cardiovascular disease.

Let us know what you're doing to advance Million Hearts® in your community! Send us a short description with some key points, and we may feature you in a future e-Update!

The Science of Million Hearts^®

• Preventing a million heart attacks and strokes: A turning point for impact. Since launching in 2012, Million Hearts^® has captured the support of many individuals and organizations and has inspired bold collaborations across federal agencies. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Public Health Grand Rounds will highlight the progress that has been made to date through Million Hearts^®along with the work that is still needed to reach the goal of preventing 1 million heart attacks and strokes by 2017. Specifically, speakers will discuss how public health and clinical care experts are coming together in communities to improve blood pressure control, how comprehensive tobacco policy efforts can be scaled up to have a statewide impact, and how efforts to promote healthy nutrition can occur through exercising purchasing power to increase the availability of lower sodium products. Join via webcast at 1:00 p.m. ET on September 16, 2014.
• New data show the prevalence of coronary heart disease or stroke among workers younger than 55 years old. In a recent study published in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report,researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analyzed data from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) for the period 2008–2012 to estimate the prevalence of a history of coronary heart disease or stroke (CHD/stroke) among adults younger than 55 years. The researchers looked at selected characteristics, employment status, occupation category, and industry of employment to evaluate if workers in certain occupation and industry groups would benefit from a Total Worker Health program, which integrates occupational safety, health protection, and health promotion to reduce risk for CHD/stroke. Of the key findings, workers employed in service and blue collar occupations were found to be more likely than those in white collar occupations to report a history of CHD/stroke, impairment and dementia.

• The 2014 Million Hearts®Hypertension Control Challenge is now OPEN! Has your practice or health system successfully worked with patients to reduce high blood pressure and improve heart health? If you’ve achieved hypertension control rates of 70% or higher for your patient population, share your success and enter the 2014 Million Hearts® Hypertension Control Challenge by October 10. Do you have what it takes to be a 2014 Champion? Get more information. Need inspiration? The 2013 Million Hearts® Hypertension Control Champions are sharing their approaches and lessons learned. Learn how they achieved exceptional blood pressure control rates. —Janet Wright, MD, FACC Executive Director, Million Hearts®

  

  Do This! One Easy Way to Support Million Hearts® On July 7, 2014, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology launched its Electronic Health Record (EHR) Innovations for Improving Hypertension Challenge to accelerate improvement in blood pressure control—the “B” in the ABCS of heart health. ONC seeks to uncover the practices that have used clinical decision support to implement the most successful evidence-based blood pressure treatment protocols. ONC will then further reward organizations that can spread these tools for use by the most providers. The Challenge is open now through October 6, 2014. VisitChallenge.gov for more information and to enter!