Resources for Health Care Professionals
American Heart Month 2023
As a health care professional or clinician, you play an important role helping patients manage and control their health conditions, including hypertension.
Uncontrolled hypertension is the primary contributor to the morbidity and mortality rate disparities in cardiovascular disease (CVD) between Blacks and Whites.1
By working toward a healthier life, patients and their health care teams can help close disparities gaps together.
Who Should Use This Toolkit?
This toolkit is designed for health care professionals and clinicians to help support their patients taking small steps toward living healthier lives.
These resources can help your clinical team implement protocols, use data to improve health outcomes, and be inspired by other practices’ success stories.
A health equity lens can also help address the needs of all your patient populations and help improve cardiovascular health for all.
How Do I Use This Toolkit?
- Identify patients with hypertension and other cardiovascular disease CVD risk factors.
- Incorporate lessons learned from success stories.
- Share messages and graphics with your care teams to help patients manage their CVD risk factors.
- Use these tools in tandem with the actions recommended in Best Practices for Heart Disease and Stroke: A Guide to Effective Approaches and Strategies.
Clinical Tools and Resources
Explore various types of tools, guides, and success stories that can help you support your patients in taking small steps toward a healthier life and your health care team in implementing best practices.
- Pulse Check: Live to the Beat
Help patients learn how to manage their conditions, move more, eat healthier, stress less, and work with their health care team. - Alliance for the Million Hearts® Campaign Partner Toolkit
Use these messages and tools to encourage adults ages 55 and older to practice heart-healthy habits that can help lower their risk for heart disease and stroke. - Eat Smart, Move More! [PDF – 847 KB]
Use this fillable calendar to help your patients reach their healthy eating and physical activity goals one day at a time. - Recipes for a Heart-Healthy Lifestyle
Share these affordable, nutritious recipes with your patients to encourage healthy eating.
- Focusing on Health Equity
Learn how Million Hearts® aims to advance health equity through policies and practices that provide access to resources and enable cardiovascular health for all. - Community-Clinical Linkages Health Equity Guide
Practitioners can use this guide to help incorporate health equity into community-clinical linkages (CCLs). CCLs are an effective approach to preventing and managing chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease. - Reducing Out-of-Pocket Costs for Medications
Download and share the strategies presented in this Best Practices Guide that focus on reducing medication costs for patients with hypertension and hyperlipidemia. - Grady Implementation Guide
This implementation guide for public health practitioners and health care professionals is based on the Grady Heart Failure Program. The guide provides a detailed description of an effective intervention to address health disparities among heart failure patients.
- Self-Measured Blood Pressure Monitoring
Explore tools and action guides on this webpage to help you implement SMBP monitoring in your clinic and engage patients in monitoring their own blood pressure. - Success Story: Wisconsin Team Leverages SMBP Monitoring to Improve Outcomes
Read this success story about how ThedaCare health care system became a Hypertension Control Champion. - Success Story: Using Home Blood Pressure Monitoring for Hypertension Control Success
Read this success story about how Hunterdon Cardiovascular Associates became a Hypertension Control Champion.
- Pharmacists’ Patient Care Process Approach Guide
This implementation guide provides key examples for public health practitioners and health care professionals to help engage pharmacists in hypertension management through the Pharmacists’ Patient Care Process. The guide shares lessons learned from the Michigan Medicine Hypertension Pharmacists’ Program. - Improving Medication Adherence Among Patients with Hypertension
Use this web content to help you and your team learn about and overcome medication adherence barriers. - Success Story: Two Coordinated Health Care Teams Improve Medication Adherence
Read this success story about how health care systems in Orlando and San Diego became Hypertension Control Champions. - Success Story: Large Health System Implements Medication Adherence Practices
Watch a video about how Kaiser Permanente in Denver became a Hypertension Control Champion.
- Best Practices for Heart Disease and Stroke: A Guide to Effective Approaches and Strategies
Find evidence-based strategies for effective and sustainable cardiovascular disease prevention, including controlling risk factors such as hypertension and high cholesterol. - Million Hearts® Hypertension Control Change Package, Second Edition
Implement this list of process improvements as your team seeks optimal hypertension control among your patient population. - Team-Based Care: Promoting Team-Based Care to Improve High Blood Pressure Control
Download and share the strategies presented in this Best Practices Guide that focus on how to involve a multidisciplinary team working in collaboration to improve patient outcomes. - Success Story: Using Practice Facilitation to Improve Care Delivery
Read this success story about how an initiative made the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene a Hypertension Control Champion. - Success Story: Leveraging Information Technology to Empower Patients
Read this success story about how Reliant Medical Group became a Hypertension Control Champion.
- Blood Pressure Control
Read about Million Hearts® and their priority to optimize care, starting with supporting blood pressure control. This content includes tools and resources for clinicians, public health practitioners, and patients. - Hypertensive Disorders of Pregnancy
Learn about the different types of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and share Million Hearts® tools and resources about preventing and treating them. - Undiagnosed Hypertension
Learn how to find patients “hiding in plain sight” with undiagnosed hypertension with this video, tools, and communications kit.
Spread the Word
Share the following social media messages with your followers. Don’t forget to tag @CDCHeart_Stroke in your posts and follow us on social media.
February is American #HeartMonth! Although cardiovascular disease (#CVD) death rates have increased across all demographic groups, Black adults continue to be disproportionately affected. Join @Million Hearts and share these lifesaving messages from the #LiveToTheBeat campaign to help Black adults take small steps to prevent heart disease and stroke. https://millionhearts.hhs.gov/partners-progress/partners/live-beat-campaign-toolkit.html
Black adults are twice as likely as White adults to die from preventable heart disease. Together, we can change that number. Use @Million Hearts blood pressure control resources in the #LiveToTheBeat toolkit to support your Black patients take charge of their heart health. #HeartMonth https://millionhearts.hhs.gov/partners-progress/partners/live-beat-campaign-toolkit.html
Cardiovascular disease (#CVD) isn’t exclusive to older adults. Data show that CVD and CVD mortality are increasing among younger populations. Explore change packages, best practice guides, and other tools from CDC to help your team support CVD patients of all ages this #HeartMonth. cdc.gov/heartmonth
No matter where you’re from or where you are, you can take steps toward heart health. Get shareable, evidence-based resources from CDC to help you manage cardiovascular disease (#CVD) in your practice. #HeartMonth cdc.gov/heartmonth
1 in every 3 deaths in the United States is related to cardiovascular disease. Explore CDC’s #HeartMonth toolkits for evidence-based resources to support heart health in your practice. cdc.gov/heartmonth
Only about 1 in 4 adults with #hypertension have their condition under control. The Million Hearts [tag] Hypertension Control Change Package can help improve patient #BloodPressure control with practice- and evidence-based resources. #HeartMonth https://bit.ly/2Net7xY
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) continues to be a leading cause of death annually. To prioritize effective CVD prevention, the @Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention has developed the “Best Practices for Heart Disease and Stroke: A Guide to Effective Approaches and Strategies.” The updated Best Practices Guide includes 18 evidence-based strategies highlighting public health and health equity. Brief stories highlight specific settings where these strategies have been successfully implemented. Check it out! #HeartMonth https://bit.ly/AHM23PT
Uncontrolled hypertension is the primary contributor to morbidity & mortality rate disparities in cardiovascular disease between Black and White adults. Help improve heart health in your patients with #HeartMonth resources from @CDCHeart_Stroke. cdc.gov/heartmonth
Cardiovascular disease prevention strategies should be effective and sustainable. Check out these 18 evidence-based public health practices targeting key cardiovascular risk factors in @CDCHeart_Stroke’s updated Best Practices Guide. #HeartMonth https://bit.ly/AHM23PT3
Black men and women are at a 70% and 50% elevated risk, respectively, for development of heart failure compared to white adults. Help patients in your practice take the first step to improve their health with the @CDCFound’s Pulse Check tool. #HeartMonth https://pulsecheck.livetothebeat.org/
#Hypertension control is within reach. With your support, self-measured #BloodPressure (SMBP) monitoring can help patients control hypertension. Use these evidence-based tools from @MillionHeartsUS to implement SMBP in your practice. #HeartMonth https://bit.ly/34XsYcl
Only about 1 in 4 adults with #hypertension have their condition under control. The @MillionHeartsUS Hypertension Control Change Package can help improve patient #BloodPressure control with practice- and evidence-based resources. #HeartMonth https://bit.ly/2Net7xY
Black adults are twice as likely than White adults to die from preventable heart disease. Together, we can change that. Help your patients take charge of their heart health with #LiveToTheBeat’s resources on blood pressure control. #HeartMonth https://bit.ly/3G5oodJ
Review and share our materials for public health professionals to help your communities live healthier lives.
Download our resources for you to share with individuals and patients in your practice.
Reference
- Balfour PC Jr, Rodriguez CJ, Ferdinand KC. The Role of Hypertension in Race-Ethnic Disparities in Cardiovascular Disease. Curr Cardiovasc Risk Rep. 2015 Apr;9(4):18.
