Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. Despite outspending peer nations by more than double per capita on healthcare, the United States ranks last in life expectancy among high-income countries – and suffers higher rates of obesity, heart disease, and diabetes.¹ 

The 2025 National Forum Annual Meeting, our 23rd event, will bring together changemakers from multiple sectors to improve heart health and close the U.S. life expectancy gap by spotlighting strategies proven to prevent cardiovascular and metabolic disease across the lifespan. We will explore how targeted interventions can create significant positive changes.

Join us as we unite to build a heart-healthy America, where people throughout society live and enjoy heart-healthy, stroke-free lives.

Keynote Speaker: Make America Heart-Healthy – A Vision for Bold, Preventive Action

The Honorable Mehmet C. Oz, MD, MBA, Administrator, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services,  will challenge us to change the status quo in every zip code by refocusing America’s sick-care system on prevention from childhood through adulthood. Dr. Oz will share his goals for health system change.  

The Honorable Mehmet C. Oz, MD, MBA  
Administrator
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)

Watch the Keynote Address

Full Transcript | Keynote

Summary and Key Points

Session 1: Championing – Driving Policy and Prevention Where It Matters Most

Key leverage points could drive attention, resources, and vital conditions towards preventing and reducing suboptimal cardiovascular and metabolic health.  This session will map a path towards a heart-healthy nation, based on gold-standard science and leveraging prevention.

• Prevention First: Closing America’s Health Deficit
• System Change: Accelerating the uptake of evidence-based clinical care
• Closing a Gap: Increasing the use of policies and practices to reverse the rise of cardiovascular, metabolic, and mental health risk factors in children and adults

Questions this Panel Will Answer

• Can we accelerate the uptake of evidence-based clinical care? How?
• How does America’s healthcare payment system push resources away from prevention towards high-cost acute care? Can it be changed?
• Where can Annual Meeting participants take action to translate evidence-based prevention into population health impact?

Facilitator 

John Clymer
Executive Director
National Forum for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention

Speakers

Prevention First: Closing America’s Health Deficit
Donald M. Lloyd-Jones, MD ScM
Alexander Graham Bell Professor of Medicine
Director, Framingham Center for Population & Prevention Science
Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine
Past President American Heart Association

System Change: Accelerating the uptake of evidence-based clinical care
Eduardo Sanchez, MD, MPH, FAHA
Chief Medical Officer for Prevention
American Heart Association

Closing a Gap: Increasing the use of policies and practices to reverse the rise of cardiovascular, metabolic, and mental health risk factors in children and adults
Ann Marie Navar, MD, PhD, FAHA, FACC, FASPC
Associate Professor of Medicine (Cardiology)
UT Southwestern Medical School

Dr. Donald Lloyd-Jones
Dr. Eduardo Sanchez

Session 2: Uniting – We Know What Works. Let’s Do It!

The gold-standard science-based path to a heart-healthy nation is clear. National Forum members can, and must, lead America on this journey. This session will highlight high-impact opportunities and real-world examples of how communities, health systems, industry, and public health are helping more people make prevention part of everyday life.

• Reducing Lifetime Accumulated Risk: Raising the emphasis on chronic disease prevention in childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood
• Preventing Linked Conditions and Diseases: Cancer, Diabetes, Heart Disease, Hypertension, Kidney, Lipids, Obesity, and Stroke
• Closing a Gap: Reversing the Rise in Urban-Rural Cardiovascular and Metabolic Health Disparities

Questions this Panel Will Answer

• How can we shift the national focus toward early prevention to reduce lifetime cardiovascular and metabolic risk?
• What approaches are most effective in preventing interconnected conditions like heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and stroke?
• What strategies are working to close the urban-rural gap in cardiovascular and metabolic health outcomes?

Facilitator 

Janet S. Wright, MD, FACC
Rabid Advocate for Cardiovascular Health

Speakers

Reducing Lifetime Accumulated Risk: Raising the emphasis on chronic disease prevention in childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood
Stephen R. Daniels, MD, PhD
Professor and Chair, Department of Pediatrics
University of Colorado School of Medicine
Pediatrician-in-Chief
Children’s Hospital Colorado

Preventing Linked Conditions and Diseases: Cancer, Diabetes, Heart Disease, Hypertension, Kidney, Lipids, Obesity, and Stroke
Anand Parekh, MD MPH
Chief Health Policy Officer, School of Public Health Adjunct Professor
Department of Health Management and Policy Senior Advisor
Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation
University of Michigan

Closing a Gap: Reversing the Rise in Urban-Rural Cardiovascular and Metabolic Health Disparities
Karen Joynt Maddox, MD, MPH
Co-Director, Center for Advancing Health Services, Policy & Economics Research
Washington University in St. Louis

Watch Session #2

Full Transcript | Session 2

Summary | Key Points

Session #2 Q&A

SLIDE DECKS

Dr. Stephen R. Daniels
Dr. Anand Parekh
Dr. Karen Joynt-Maddox

Session 3: Hot Topics – Innovations, New Opportunities, and Big Questions in Cardiovascular Health

New research about the effects of lifestyle combined with innovations in screening and preventing major disease risk factors forecasts exciting new opportunities to prevent cardiovascular and metabolic disease. This dynamic session will highlight what is new, what is coming, and what is making a difference right now?

• Hypertension
• Lipids
• Obesity
• Technology

Questions This Panel Will Answer

• Can lifestyle and food supply interventions alone reverse America’s epidemics of hypertension, high lipids, and obesity?
• What are the new and coming secondary and tertiary prevention treatments for hypertension, high lipids, and obesity?
• How can we capitalize on this moment of increased attention on hypertension, lipids, and obesity to raise prevention and control for people everywhere?
• How can we harness technology innovations so that more people benefit from cardiovascular and metabolic disease prevention?

Facilitator 

Juliana Crawford

National Executive Vice President, Emerging Strategies
Emerging Strategies at the American Heart Association

Speakers

Hypertension
Yvonne Commodore-Mensah, PhD, MHS, RN
Associate Dean for Research
Johns Hopkins School of Nursing
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology(Joint Appointment)

Lipids
Anne Carol Goldberg, MD, FACP, FAHA, MNLA
Professor of Medicine
Washington University School of Medicine

Obesity
Michael G. Knight, MD, MSHP, FACP
Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine
The George Washington University

Technology
Rashmee U. Shah, MD, MS
Adjunct Associate Professor in Cardiovascular Medicine
University of Utah School of Medicine

Clinical Research Scientist, Meta

Watch Session #3

Full Transcript | Session 3

Summary | Key Points

Session #3 Q&A

SLIDE DECKS

Dr. Yvonne Commodore-Mensah
Dr. Carol Anne Goldberg

Session 4: Taking Action – Participants Respond

Unique Initiatives Championing A Heart-Healthy American

During registration, participants were invited to share how their organizations are contributing to a heart-healthy America. In this session, you will hear nine brief updates from a variety of organizations, each showcasing their unique initiatives and impactful efforts. These stories reflect the diverse and innovative ways our community works together to combat cardiovascular and metabolic disease and promote heart health nationwide.

Watch Participants Respond

Full Transcript | Participants Respond

Highlights of each Initiative

Annual Business Meeting & National Forum Awards

Watch the Annual Business Meeting and Awards

Awards Press Release

Full Transcript | Annual Business Meeting

¹ Fryar, C. D., Carroll, M. D., & Afful, J. (2020). Prevalence of overweight, obesity, and severe obesity among children and adolescents aged 2–19 years: United States, 1963–1965 through 2017–2018. NCHS Health E-Stats. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hestat/obesity-child-17-18/obesitychild.htm.

Full Transcript | Closing

Platinum

Heart Contributor

Heart Friend

Funding for this conference was made possible (in part) by 1R13HL170703 from the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI). The views expressed in written conference materials or publications and by speakers and moderators do not necessarily reflect the official policies of the Department of Health and Human Services; nor does mention by trade names, commercial practices, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. 

This is our 23rd Annual Meeting