American Heart Month: Take the Next Step
Cardiovascular disease has long been a leading cause of death in the U.S. It has led to nearly 700,000 deaths annually, and almost half of all American adults have at least 1 major risk factor for cardiovascular disease. As a result, the threat of cardiovascular disease—in the form of heart attacks, strokes, high blood pressure, etc.—impacts nearly every U.S. family.
However, this costly and often deadly disease is frequently preventable, simply by taking action to provide:
- Access to affordable healthcare
- Advancements in technology
- Lifestyle changes
As a result, Congress passed a Joint Resolution in 1963 requesting that the President issue an annual proclamation to designate February as “American Heart Month” so that, every February, our nation would “recommit to supporting the more than 120 million Americans living with a cardiovascular condition; advancing groundbreaking and lifesaving research and expanding access to affordable health care, prescription drugs, and healthy lifestyles.”
The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) established The Heart Truth® in 2002 as the first nationally sponsored education program to raise awareness about heart disease as the leading cause of death in women. Now, NHLBI and The Heart Truth® celebrate American Heart Month yearly to help motivate Americans to adopt healthier lifestyles to help prevent heart disease.
In this article, we highlight 3 ways Veradigm supports American Heart Month—whether you’re a researcher, healthcare provider, or payer whose patients deal with cardiovascular disease.
Three resources to support American Heart Month
During the 2023 celebration of American Heart Month, Veradigm took the opportunity to draw attention to 3 approaches researchers, clinicians, and payers might help support our nation’s fight against this life-threatening disease. We published this information in 3 blog posts.
The first article, Powering Your Cardiology Research with the Veradigm Network:
- Examines the potential disadvantages of randomized controlled trials (RCT)—and why they are no longer the gold standard for evaluating new medical treatments in cardiology
- Explores the escalating use of Real-World Evidence (RWE) in place of RCT
- Introduces the Veradigm Network and the Veradigm Cardiology Registry as valuable assets to cardiology researchers
The second article, Have a Heart—and Give a Boost to Your Provider Incentive Program:
- Showcases how using the Veradigm Cardiology Registry (formerly the PINNACLE Registry) provides access to the largest sample of ambulatory cardiology practices in the U.S., and how this can help you strengthen your physician incentive program
- Illustrates how registry use enables clinicians to gain deeper clinical insight for their patients with coronary artery disease, heart failure, hypertension, and other cardiovascular conditions
The final article, The Importance of Clinical Data Registries in Modern Cardiology:
- Explores how clinical data registries can be vital contributors to scientific knowledge in modern cardiology by offering insights into real-world patterns of care beyond what is possible for RCT to offer
- Examines how clinical data registries can help improve patient care quality by measuring quality metrics across large cohorts of patients, enabling clinicians to benchmark their patients’ care and outcomes against national standards
- Illustrates the benefits of participation in clinical data registries such as the Veradigm Cardiology Registry, from helping to increase medical knowledge to providing benchmark reports to participants
American Heart Month
Contact us to learn more about how your organization can help support American Heart Month and help improve the odds for those fighting cardiovascular disease.