Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention

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Know These Key Messages

The following key messages were developed by the Communications Implementation Group to clearly communicate the primary goals and objectives of the National Forum, both internally and externally. Priority target audiences include current and potential National Forum members, groups that influence the public (e.g., health care professionals and journalists), key decision makers, and policy makers from both private and governmental sectors.

During the National Forum’s April 2007 meeting in Washington, D.C., the messages were tested in three focus groups facilitated for the National Forum by staff of Fleishman Hilliard Worldwide Communications. The messages were reviewed, revised and approved by the Coordinating Board for use in the National Forum’s communication materials.

The National Forum for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention (National Forum) is made up of more than 80 individual organizations that collaborate to provide national leadership for those committed to building a heart-healthy and stroke-free society.

More than 80 national and international organizations from every sector of heart disease and stroke prevention are represented in the National Forum for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention.
A Public Health Action Plan to Prevent Heart Disease and Stroke—a national plan to chart a course for the prevention of heart disease and stroke—was developed, and the National Forum’s purpose is to provide leadership for this plan.
Each year the National Forum assembles the world’s leading experts to discuss developments in heart disease and stroke prevention and gain valuable information in community intervention, communication, and research strategies.
The National Forum has seven implementation groups that carry out its work:

Action Priorities: identifies effective policies in cardiovascular health promotion.
Communications: communicates the urgency and importance of preventing heart disease and stroke.
Monitoring and Evaluation: monitors the burden of heart disease and stroke and measures progress in prevention and treatment.
Organizational Capacity: builds the capacity of federal, state, and local public health agencies to address heart disease and stroke.
Policy Research: develops a comprehensive research agenda and fosters translation of research into practice.
Public Health Leadership: fosters the necessary leadership and partnerships for a comprehensive public health strategy to prevent heart disease and stroke.
Global and Regional Partnerships: engages regional and global partners to mobilize resources in heart disease and stroke prevention and treatment.

The National Forum for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention brings together expertise from the most respected and influential organizations and individuals to address heart disease and stroke, leading causes of death and disability in the United States and the world.

A Public Health Action Plan to Prevent Heart Disease and Stroke provides health practitioners and policy makers with a framework for developing a health care system that equally supports treatment and prevention.
The founding organizations of the National Forum are the American Heart Association, the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In addition, the forum represents organizations involved in

Advocacy
Faith
Academia
Policy
Public and private health care.
Each year the National Forum assembles the nation’s leading experts to discuss developments in heart disease and stroke prevention and to gain valuable information in community intervention, communication, and research strategies.

There are proven strategies to prevent and manage heart disease and stroke, but these are not universally applied. We must act now to put them into practice. The National Forum for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention is committed to working with partner organizations to put these strategies into practice.

Heart disease and stroke are the nation’s leading causes of death and are among the leading causes of disability. When final figures are available, in the United States alone, the cost of heart disease and stroke is projected to be more than $400 billion for 2007.
More than 910,000 Americans die of heart disease every year, yet heart disease is largely preventable.
Less than 3% of state health department budgets are dedicated to heart disease and stroke prevention.
Despite gains in recent years, unless we take action now the number of victims and health care expenses related to heart disease and stroke will escalate.
The National Forum addresses the Healthy People 2010 (HP 2010) goals. Strategies already exist to achieve all of them:

Prevention of risk factors (e.g., by increasing physical activity, improving nutrition, and reducing tobacco use and exposure to tobacco smoke).
Detection and treatment of risk factors (e.g., through screening programs and effective care by health providers).
Early identification and treatment of heart attacks and strokes (e.g., by organizing know-the-symptoms campaigns).
Prevention of recurrent cardiovascular events.

The National Forum for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention includes nearly every national organization involved in heart disease and stroke prevention and management and is a source of knowledge and expertise on the prevention of heart disease and stroke.

We have knowledge from decades of research and experience that can be used to inform sound policies to prevent heart disease and stroke. Because it represents nearly every national organization involved in research on heart disease and stroke, the National Forum is a single source for knowledge and expertise on these two health conditions.
The National Forum is also a single source of information on how to put this knowledge to use as the basis for action to achieve the HP 2010 goals.
Although many National Forum members have research expertise, such expertise is not a prerequisite for membership in the National Forum.

Membership in the National Forum for Heart for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention is an effective way for your organization to add your voice to the national call for urgent action to prevent heart disease and stroke. Collaboratively, we can make the case to the nation and the world that heart disease and stroke can be prevented.

The National Forum works with its regional and global partners to ensure all members reap the full benefits of sharing knowledge and experience in heart disease and stroke prevention.
The National Forum provides a vehicle to gain visibility for your organization’s efforts to prevent heart disease and stroke.
The National Forum’s Regional and Global Collaborations Implementation Group produced an inventory of international programs and policies for cardiovascular health.
The National Forum has five priority areas for policy and legislative focus: 1) risk factors, 2) chain of survival, 3) quality of care, 4) disparities, and 5) support for heart disease and stroke prevention in all 50 states and in U.S. territories.

The National Forum for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention fosters research on policies and programs aimed at preventing heart disease and stroke. This research is focused especially on policies and programs at the national, state, and community levels.

The National Forum contributed to a research article “Essential Features of a Surveillance System to Support the Prevention and Management of Heart Disease and Stroke,” which was published in the January 2007 issue of Circulation.
The National Forum sponsored a state-of–the-science conference (Evaluation of Policy and Environmental Change for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention) in August 2007 to convene a group of international experts engaged in evaluation research.

A priority for the National Forum is to address the disparity among groups in deaths and disabilities related to heart disease and stroke.

Health disparities is one of five priority areas established by the Action Priorities Implementation Group.
Working through member organizations such as the Association of Black Cardiologists and Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, the National Forum focuses on promoting policies that address the disparities in heart disease and stroke mortality in areas or populations with limited access to health care.

2008 Public Health Action Plan Update: Celebrating Our First Five Years

Know These Key Messages