To help fight the country’s leading cause of death, the Department of Health and Human Services is awarding $112 million to an estimated 5,000 primary care professionals help fight heart disease.
The money will go to seven regional cooperatives in rural and urban areas, which will work with an estimated 300 smaller practices in 12 states, HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell announced Tuesday.
The EvidenceNOW: Advancing Heart Health in Primary Care initiative involves multidisciplinary teams of experts who will each provide quality improvement services such as onsite coaching, consultation in health care delivery improvement, sharing best practices, and electronic health record support, according to HHS.
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The grant represents one of the largest research investments to date by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Funding is from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Trust Fund created by the Affordable Care Act.
The seven cooperatives being awarded the funds are: the Midwest Tri-State Chicago area of Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana; New York City; North Carolina; Virginia; The Northwest including Washington, Oregon and Idaho; Oklahoma; and the Southwest area of Colorado and New Mexico; and Virginia.
In addition, an eighth evaluation grant will be awarded for an independent external evaluation of the overall EvidenceNOW initiative.
The seven implementation grants will run for three years, and the evaluation grant for four years.
The awards are aligned with the Department’s Million Hearts national initiative to prevent heart attacks and stroke.
The money is projected to aid an estimated eight million patients. Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women, according to HHS.
EvidenceNOW is designed to help small primary care practices incorporate the most recent evidence on how best to deliver the ABCS of cardiovascular prevention into their patients’ care: Aspirin use by high risk individuals; Blood pressure control; Cholesterol management; and Smoking cessation.
Twitter: @SusanMorseHFN