Translating the Public Health Action Plan
Into Action

Download the Guide Update The Public Health Action Plan update is available in Portable Document Format (PDF). Learn more about PDFs. Translating the Public Health Action Plan Into Action (PDF–294K)

Public health experts, key partners, and heart disease and stroke prevention specialists participated in extensive collaboration to create a comprehensive heart disease and stroke prevention plan.  As a result, A Public Health Action Plan to Prevent Heart Disease and Stroke was released and first disseminated in April 2003.

The purpose of the Action Plan is –

"to chart a course for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and collaborating public health agencies, with all interested partners and the public at large, to promote national goals for preventing heart disease and stroke over the next two decades—through 2020 and beyond."

The Action Plan is driven by two fundamental requirements and five essential components that together define seven action areas (see Figure 1 below):

1. Effective communication
2. Strategic leadership, partnership, and organization
3. Taking action
4. Strengthening capacity
5. Evaluating impact
6. Advancing knowledge through prevention research
7. Engaging in regional and global partnerships

Implementing the Action Plan:

Early in the dissemination of the Action Plan, a strategy was developed to quickly implement established priorities and set goals.

As part of this process, the National Forum for Prevention of Heart Disease and Stroke was reconvened in April 2003. The National Forum:

• Comprises more than 100 representatives from national and international organizations, from multiple sectors and constituencies
• Serves as the principal vehicle for implementing the Action Plan

Translating the plan into action:

• 75 proposed action steps were derived from the complete Action Plan
• 22 priority action steps were identified by the Working Group and presented to the National Forum for discussion in April 2004
• 8 concrete tasks were selected as the principal focus of National Forum activities through April 2005

The identified concrete tasks, as well as certain of the additional priority action steps, are now being undertaken through the efforts of the National Forum and other partners.

Figure 1: The 7 thematic areas of the Action Plan

A full report of the translation process is available in the related document, Setting Priorities for Implementation of A Public Health Action Plan to Prevent Heart Disease and Stroke, prepared for CDC by Concept Systems, Inc., August 2004.

Download the Guide Update

The Public Health Action Plan update is available in Portable Document Format (PDF). Learn more about PDFs.

• Translating the Public Health Action Plan Into Action (PDF–294K)

|Go to Task One

Date last reviewed: 05/12/2006
Content source: Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion