2014: The Public Health Action Plan

In March 2014, the National Forum released the Public Health Action Plan to Prevent Heart Disease and Stroke: Ten-Year Update. The Ten-Year Update provides a framework for individuals, organizations, and agencies to collaboratively achieve national goals for preventing heart disease and stroke. With contributions from more than 100 public health leaders, the Ten-Year Update calls for: Striking a better balance in the nation’s financial investment in health by prioritizing prevention, transforming our public health agencies into champions of heart health policy and environmental changes, and developing upstream strategies that prevent the root causes of heart disease and stroke.

In addressing these challenges, the Ten-Year Update identifies seven action priorities that reflect the changing landscape – both new opportunities and remaining barriers. These seven priorities guide the work for the National Forum for Heart Disease & Stroke Prevention.

Effective communication

Focus: Prevention & public health

Communicate to legislators, policymakers, and the public at large the nation’s vital stake in sustaining and building upon the prevention and public health provisions in the Affordable Care Act, e.g., the National Prevention Council Prevention and Public Health Fund, and others.

Strategic leadership, partnerships, & organization

Focus: Public health—healthcare collaboration & integration

Integrate public health and health care into a public health system effective in supporting community-level prevention policies and programs, e.g., the Million Hearts.

Taking action

Focus: Cardiovascular-health & health equity

Develop, advocate, and implement policies, programs, and practices aimed to improve the nation’s cardiovascular health in terms of the Healthy People 2020 objectives and AHA metrics—addressing tobacco use, overweight/obesity, physical activity, healthy diet (including reduction in sodium and artificial trans fat intake), blood pressure, cholesterol, and fasting plasma glucose); and ensure that all such actions reach everyone, especially those most vulnerable die to unfavorable social and environmental conditions.

Building capacity

Focus: Prevention workforce

Make full use of resources for education and training of the prevention workforce at local, state, national, and global levels.

Evaluating impact

Focus: Monitoring cardiovascular health

Advocate for a comprehensive, robust, and timely system of monitoring cardiovascular events (heart attacks, stroke, heart failure) and cardiovascular health metrics for the US population, including full adoption of the “developmental” heart disease and stroke objectives of Healthy People 2020.

Advancing policy

Focus: Research on critical questions to advance policy & practice

Pursue needed implementation and dissemination science and health economics research, Including needed education and training for this research, in support of health policy development, implementation, and dissemination.

Engaging in regional & global collaboration

Focus: Initiatives linking CVD & NCD prevention

Undertake collaborations in major regional and global cardiovascular health and NCD initiatives, in the interest of improving cardiovascular health and reducing the burden of NCDs In the United States and globally.

The original National Plan, A Public Health Action Plan to Prevent Heart Disease and Stroke was published in 2003 to address this urgent need for action. Key partners, public health experts, and heart disease and stroke prevention specialists came together to develop targeted recommendations and specific action steps toward achievement of this goal, through a process convened by CDC and its parent agency, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).