Tools You Can Use

Discover evidence-based strategies for tobacco cessation—The latest Million Hearts^® Action Guide provides clinicians with tested strategies on how to identify and treat patients who use tobacco. Check out the guide for tips on how to use teams and workflow so that all smokers get the best evidence-based interventions. The guide includes valuable links to resources and supporting references.
Help smokers quit with this clinical intervention protocol—Check out the Million Hearts^® website for guidance on how to adopt and use a protocol and see examples for use in practices and health care systems. You can also create a custom protocol using theMillion Hearts^® Tobacco Cessation Protocol template.
Check out Smokefree.gov’s Practice Quit Program—This text messaging program provides options for smokers who are thinking about quitting, but aren’t ready to commit to the 6-week SmokefreeTXT program. Practice Quit lets users try going smoke-free for a short time before they decide to quit for good. Also, visit Smokefree.gov’s new website that aims to help smokers 60 and older.
Choose the right population health management software for your practice—The Population Health Management Software: An Opportunity to Advance Primary Care and Public Health Integrationreport is a tool to help small- to medium-sized health care practices and independent providers identify population health management products that have robust reporting and analytic capabilities. With the support of Million Hearts^®, the Public Health Informatics Instituteassessed software products from 10 vendors.
Help patients make healthful eating choices—The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), in collaboration with the American Medical Association (AMA), has a new continuing medical education video for physicians about using the Nutrition Facts label to help patients make healthful eating choices. The program includes two printable patient handouts: “Understanding and Using the Nutrition Facts Label,” and “Key Nutrients and Your Health.”
Help your practice and patients with blood pressure measurement using AMA’s infographic—Blood pressure measurement is a routine task in most practices, but are you sure it’s done accurately in yours? This infographic offers a simple way to help your patients and medical staff get the most accurate results.

Million Hearts^® in the Community

National Association of Chronic Disease Directors (NACDD) issues brief on identifying undiagnosed hypertension. This brief highlights case studies, success stories, and lessons learned from state health departments in their work on finding the people with uncontrolled and undiagnosed hypertension.
CMS announces participants for the Million Hearts^®Cardiovascular Disease Risk Reduction Model. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced 516 awardees in 47 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia participating in the Million Hearts^® Cardiovascular Disease Risk Reduction Model. The Model is a randomized controlled trial that seeks to bridge the gap in cardiovascular care by providing targeted incentives for health care practitioners to engage in cardiovascular disease risk calculation and population-level risk management.
CMS offers opportunity to comment on bundled payment models for high-quality, coordinated cardiac care. CMS has proposed new models of care for heart attack, bypass surgery, and cardiac rehabilitation that reward hospitals that work together with physicians and other providers to avoid complications, prevent hospital readmissions, and speed recovery.
FDA launches first ad campaign to focus on dangers of smokeless tobacco among rural teens. FDA has expanded its award-winning The Real Cost campaign to educate rural, white, male teenagers about the negative health consequences of using smokeless tobacco products. Learn more about the campaign and get free resources to share online and with your patients.
The next Million Hearts^® Hypertension Control Challenge is coming soon! Be on the lookout for the launch of the next Hypertension Control Challenge in early 2017! In the meantime, discover best practices for achieving a blood pressure control rate of 70% or greater.
Million Hearts^® director spreads word about finding undiagnosed hypertensive patients. In the August 2016 “The Download” podcast supported by CMS, Million Hearts^® Executive Director Janet Wright explains how millions of patients with undiagnosed hypertension are “hiding in plain sight.” Listen now to learn more about the initiative and the four steps to finding these patients.
ASTHO releases searchable library for Million Hearts^® tools and resources. The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) has expanded and improved Tools for Change. This virtual library provides tools and resources from states, national organizations, and federal agencies to drive the work of states and territories toward improving hypertension identification and control. ASTHO has compiled more than 300 resources in Tools for Change and will continue to add more from states and partners.

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^®

Only 6 in 10 Americans are covered by state or local laws banning smoking in public places. A new CDC report finds laws in southern states may favor smokers rather than nonsmokers. No states in the southeast United States have comprehensive smoke-free laws to protect nonsmokers from tobacco fumes. Of the 23 states without comprehensive smoke-free laws, just 14 have local antismoking laws that help protect residents. The other nine have no such laws at either the local or state level, and eight states actually forbid local officials from passing smoke-free laws.
CDC: 1 in 4 U.S. adults use tobacco. Despite decades of declining cigarette use, one quarter of U.S. adults still use a tobacco product at least occasionally, CDC reports. The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report analyzed results from the 2013–2014 National Adult Tobacco Survey. More than 49 million U.S. adults—about 21%—reported using a tobacco product every day or some days, but the number rose to 59 million (about 25%) when researchers included those who used tobacco products only rarely. Cigarettes were used by 17% of adults; smokeless tobacco by 2.5%; e-cigarettes by 3.3%; and hookahs by 0.6%.

Smoking costs the U.S. public more than $300 billion a year—and for many smokers, their lives and limbs—yet it continues to be a leading risk factor for cardiovascular disease and a leading cause of preventable death. Seventy percent of U.S. smokers want to quit, and only about a third of those who try receive counseling and/or medications to help them succeed. Although smoking rates have declined, between 35 and 40 million adults continue to smoke. Take action to help the millions of Americans who want to quit smoking by checking out recent data from the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report,promoting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Tips From Former Smokers (Tips) Campaign, and using tools such as the Million Hearts^®Tobacco Cessation Protocoland Action Guide.

—Janet Wright, MD, FACC
Executive Director, Million Hearts^®

Do This!
Embed Million Hearts^®clinical quality improvement (QI) tools and resources onto your web page!
Million Hearts^® recently launched the Million Hearts^® for Clinicians Microsite, a collection of syndicated Million Hearts^® messages and QI tools that can easily be embedded into any website. The microsite is an easy and free way to make high-impact and up-to-date Million Hearts^®resources available for your clinical audience. Check outhow the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials syndicated the microsite.