Treating cardiovascular care with heart
Disparities in access to care, quality treatment and specialists negatively impact patient health outcomes and drive up the cost of cardiovascular care.
That is why we are focused on providing social support and services for vulnerable and under-resourced populations to both educate and reduce cost of care. Together we seek to avoid unnecessary hospitalizations through quicker access and linkage to cardiology care by addressing atrial fibrillation, stroke, venous thromboembolism, deep vein thrombosis and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
- African Americans are two to three times more likely to die of heart disease compared to white people.
- Racial/ethnic minorities have higher rates of premature death resulting from cardiovascular disease and higher risk factors.
- There’s a 13.7% higher risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE) for the U.S. adult population with physical disability and mobility impairments.
- People in the Stroke Belt, a region in the American southeast known for unusually high stroke and cardiovascular disease, have a risk 34% higher than the national average.
Our impact
The diagnosis for AFib isn’t complicated, but how you manage it gets to be extraordinarily complicated,” says Dr. Robert Reichling who has been working with AFib patients for over 20 years. This was until cardiologist Dr. Anil Gehi at the UNC School of Medicine in Chapel Hill, NC, started the AFib Care Network. This network has several approaches for AFib care that will decrease time spent in the ER, and make the diagnosis more manageable.
Our Grantees
- UNC Healthcare
- The American Heart Association
- Cooper Foundation (Urban Health Institute)
- American Association for Health and Disability
- America’s Essential Hospital