Million Hearts™ Initiative
| Million Hearts™ is a national initiative to prevent one million heart attacks and strokes in America over five years. The initiative will achieve its goal through improved clinical and community performance on four key evidence-based prevention strategies: appropriate use of aspirin, blood pressure control, cholesterol management, and smoking cessation. As a result of the initiative, federal agencies have created a uniform set of measures to monitor clinical performance in implementing the interventions and have aligned incentives for clinicians and health systems to achieve high performance. In addition, clinical innovations to health care delivery and payment systems—health homes, patient-centered care homes, bundled payments, and accountable care organizations—will further improve focus on achieving the strategic targets. While the initiative was just launched in September 2011 and the number of events prevented is not yet known, these innovative approaches are exceeding expectations. Public and private partners are taking action to adopt the approach and interventions as their commitment to Million Hearts™. The Million Hearts™ initiative is based on three key innovations: alignment of existing federal programs focused on the strategies, meaningful incentives for partners, and a multi-disciplinary approach to partner engagement and action. First, the initiative convened five teams (e.g., science, partnership, communication, field strategies, and management) to ensure a strategic focus for engagement and action. The result was a targeted approach to recruiting key partners to join the initiative and raise awareness of the initiative. New media technologies such as electronic pledges, Facebook and Twitter appeals, and other use of social media were key to initial mobilization of high-profile partners and alignment of efforts. In the first six months, this collaborative approach has yielded more than 4,000 pledges, 3,228 Facebook fans, more than 2,000 media mentions, and nearly 1.8 billion media impressions—a publicity value worth $1.5 million. Second, Million Hearts™ used incentives to encourage collaboration from stakeholders. This approach included two key elements: making it easy for partners to co-brand their events and activities with the Million Hearts™ logo, and sharing core information resources among partner organizations. In the past 6 months, this novel approach has resulted in more than 35 public and private stakeholder organizations working together to deliver aligned and focused prevention strategies. The results of the model have led to an escalating number of new partners who are joining the initiative. Third, innovative management techniques were used to enhance partner opportunities. This included alignment of federal programs for clinical care quality measures and supporting clinical quality initiatives that provides great potential to ensure maximum outcomes from preventive health care services. This approach enabled the support Million Hearts™ while minimizing the need for significant new financial resources. |
Million Hearts™ Initiative
Public-private partnership aimed at preventing one million heart attacks and strokes in five years.
Learn how the public and private sectors are using innovative approaches to collaboration, information dissemination, and project management to prevent heart disease and stroke, two of the nation’s leading causes of death. This innovation brings together broad expertise and establishes a central focus on a range of public health and clinical practice strategies to address significant national health issues. More details ...
Preparing for the Zombie Apocalypse
What does a zombie apocalypse have to do with public health preparedness? Everything! Learn how a tongue-in-cheek blog post, complemented by social media outreach, drove an unprecedented number of visitors to CDC’s emergency webpage where they learned about protecting their families and homes during a disaster. More details ...
Connecting Kids with Dental Care
Making it easy for families to find the dental care their children need to grow up healthy.
Learn how the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), and the States’ Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) agencies applied innovative methods to create a web-based locator tool to match kids enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP with oral health providers who will treat them. More details...
Electronic Patient Tracking in Disasters
In the face of a natural or man-made disaster, health care providers need to track patient counts, patient severity status, and patient location to make timely decisions.
The Bethesda Hospitals' Emergency Preparedness Partnership Patient Tracking and Locating System is an exportable suite of electronic tools that significantly advances the ability of hospitals to manage high volumes of incoming patients. More details...
Leveraging the Public to Catch Fugitives
The Office of Inspector General (OIG) is pursuing 170-plus fugitives who have defrauded Medicare, Medicaid, and taxpayers of hundreds of millions of dollars. Focusing attention on these health care criminals via the Most Wanted Health Care Fugitives Website effectively harnesses a previously untapped resource: the public.
Find out how public attention helps catch the crooks who steal our tax dollars. More details ...
Bridging the CHASM of Health Disparities
Community Health and Service Missions (CHASM) addresses the needs of underserved populations and builds communities’ health infrastructure while providing essential emergency management and response training for the United States Public Health Service (USPHS). More details ...
