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Federal
Health Agencies Team Up With The American Heart Association To Advance War On
Heart Disease And Stroke The
Federal government and the American Heart Association -- including its division
the American Stroke Association -- are joining forces in the fight against heart
disease and stroke, America's number one and number three killers, respectively. Several
Federal health agencies and the association signed a Memorandum of Understanding
(MOU) to speed progress toward the heart disease and stroke goals set forth in
Healthy People 2010, a national health promotion and disease prevention
initiative. "This
historic Memorandum of Understanding will create a working partnership that
promises to greatly improve the nation's cardiovascular health by the year
2010," said Surgeon General David Satcher. American
Heart Association President Rose Marie Robertson, MD, called the agreement a
"milestone in public and private sector cooperation."
"The association and the Federal government have agreed to focus and
coordinate our combined efforts to significantly reduce the impact of heart
disease, stroke and other cardiovascular diseases on our nation by 2010,"
Robertson said. The
Federal health agencies signing the Memorandum of Understanding are:
The
MOU signing took place in Bethesda at the National Institutes of Health. The
need for the MOU was underscored by the findings from the NHLBI-sponsored
National Conference on Cardiovascular Disease and Prevention, which revealed
that progress in reducing the death rate from cardiovascular disease has slowed
and that there are striking differences in cardiovascular death rates by
race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and geography.
The MOU was conceived to address these issues as well as the goals of
Healthy People 2010 to increase the quality and years of healthy life and
eliminate health disparities. The
Memorandum of Understanding establishes four cooperative goals, as follows:
The
Federal agencies and the American Heart Association will work to accomplish
these goals through focused initiatives including: population- and
community-based public education and health promotion programs; activities to
bring about policy, systemic and environmental improvements in the nation's
cardiovascular health care delivery systems; research; media-based public
awareness campaigns about the warning signs and symptoms of heart attack and
stroke; promoting professional education and training, including co-hosting of
national conferences and the dissemination of "best practices" among
the cardiovascular community; and other activities. In
signing the agreement, Robertson noted the continuing, pressing need for a
national effort against heart disease and stroke.
"Although many advances have been made in the fight against heart
attack, stroke, and other cardiovascular diseases, these maladies continue to
kill nearly 950,000 Americans each year, more than the next six leading causes
of death combined," Robertson said. Stroke
remains the nation's number three killer, and all cardiovascular diseases are a
major cause of long-term disability in this country, Satcher added.
He noted that in 2001, cardiovascular diseases are expected to cost the
nation nearly $300 billion in medical costs and lost productivity. All told,
about 61 million Americans are currently suffering from some form of
cardiovascular disease. Robertson
concluded, "By coordinating with the government's Healthy People 2010
initiative, and closely aligning our mutual goals and efforts, we can make a
major contribution to the nation's cardiovascular health by achieving the goals
set out in this landmark Memorandum of Understanding." For
more information, visit: www.nhlbi.nih.gov
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