Million Hearts e-Update: November/December 2015

Tools You Can Use

• Watch and share the heart age animated videos—To promote the recent Vital Signs report on heart age, CDC released a short animated video in English and Spanish to spread the word that most U.S. adults have a heart that is older than their actual age.
• Reach and maintain a healthy weight with the NIH Body Weight Planner—The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Body Weight Planner provides personalized strategies on how to achieve your healthy weight goals. Watch this video to learn how to use the planner.

Million Hearts^® in the Community

• NYC votes to change requirements on sodium labels. The New York City Board of Health has made a historic amendment to a city health code, requiring quick-service and sit-down restaurants to add warning labels next to food items containing high levels of sodium.
• Funding awarded for new studies on hypertension disparities. A partnership between the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute and NIH has granted awards totaling $23.5 million for two studies focused on reducing health disparities related to uncontrolled high blood pressure. Read more about the Collaboration to Improve Blood Pressure in the US Black Belt-Addressing the Triple Treat study and the Comparative Effectiveness of Health Systems vs. Multi-level Interventions to Reduce Hypertension Disparities study.
• ASTHO enables states to explore innovative ideas and reduce hypertension disparities. Arkansas and North Dakota recently received the Association of State and Territorial Health Official’s (ASTHO’s) Million Hearts^® State Learning Collaborative Innovation and Acceleration Award. ASTHO also awarded funding to Colorado, Connecticut, Indiana, Texas, and Wisconsin through the “Creating Community-Clinical Linkages to Reduce Disparities in Hypertension Identification and Control” proposal. Congratulations!
• Million Hearts^® Executive Director receives 2015 National Forum Chair Recognition Award. Each year, the National Forum for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention recognizes individuals and organizations that have helped advance heart disease and stroke prevention efforts above and beyond the norm. This year, Million Hearts^® Executive Director Dr. Janet Wright was recognized for her energetic national leadership and collaboration with the National Forum and its members.
• BCBS of Louisiana gets better health results. BlueCross and BlueShield of Louisiana’s Quality Blue Primary Care program is focused on helping primary care providers (PCPs) better manage their patients—particularly those with chronic conditions. One goal is to achieve 70% hypertension control among all patients in the program, which currently comprises nearly 180,000 patients among 656 PCPs. Data have already shown a 31% improvement on hypertension quality measures and a 40% improvement on vascular disease quality measures.

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^®

• Community Guide’s recommendations and commentaries outline evidence supporting team-based care and use of clinical decision support tools. Several articles in the November 2015 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine explore the economics of team-based care in controlling blood pressure, and review recommendations and evidence on the use of clinical decision support systems in preventing cardiovascular disease.
• USPSTF continues support for blood pressure screening, adds recommendation for measurements outside the clinical setting. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) continues to give screening for high blood pressure an “A” recommendation. The latest recommendation from the USPSTF included additional guidance for obtaining blood pressure measurements away from the clinical setting, such as ambulatory or home blood pressure monitoring for diagnostic confirmation of hypertension prior to starting treatment.
• FDA approves the use of two cholesterol-lowering drugs for high-risk patients. New cholesterol-lowering treatments approved by the Food and Drug Administration, alirocumab (Praluent) andevolocumab (Repatha), are the firsts in a new class of drugs called PCSK9 inhibitors. These treatments use a novel approach to lower levels of “bad” cholesterol, or low-density lipoprotein (LDL), in the blood.
• Trans fat ban demonstrates reductions in heart disease deaths in Denmark. In 2004, Denmark implemented a national ban on trans fat, becoming the first country in the world to regulate the content of artificial trans fat in food and leading the way for many other countries, such as the United States, to establish similar policies.More than 10 years after the ban’s implementation, this study investigated the policy’s impact on reducing deaths caused by cardiovascular disease.

Happy Holidays from Million Hearts®! Thank you for all you did to prevent heart attacks and strokes in 2015! Please join me in reflecting on the importance of our work together to preserve the health and quality of life for loved ones, co-workers, and communities across the country. As 2015 ends, we celebrate your Million Hearts®accomplishments, from healthy personal commitments to community-wide action to care delivery innovations. These investments will show returns in a heart-healthier America for years to come. As we look to that future, we are grateful for your passion, energy, and hard work. You are integral to achieving the goal of preventing 1 million heart attacks and strokes. Thank you, and warm wishes to you and yours from the entire team at Million Hearts®. —Janet Wright, MD, FACC Executive Director, Million Hearts®

Do This! Check out the Million Hearts® website with a fresh new look! Many of you shared ideas to help make the website better, and we listened: The refreshed website is now live! For professionals, it’s now even easier to find the most timely and important resources, including clinical tools, success stories, partner news, and peer-to-peer learning opportunities. We’ve also made it easier to share content with your networks, including infocards about heart disease and strokeas well as snapshots of current Million Hearts® progress. We look forward to sharing more enhancements with you in the near future.