Fifty years ago, President Lyndon Johnson signed designated February as American Heart Month to acknowledge and combat the “staggering physical and economic loss to the nation” caused by cardiovascular disease.
Unfortunately, that proclamation is proving to be a timeless document.
Even with broad awareness of heart disease, expansive research and a number of clinical and public health efforts to prevent, diagnose and treat cardiovascular conditions, it remains the leading cause of death in the nation. About 600,000 people die from heart disease in the United States each year—making it responsible for one out of every four American deaths.
As a research institute dedicated to helping patients and those who care for them make better informed decisions that lead to better outcomes, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) is acutely interested in producing new information that supports more effective cardiovascular care. The directive in our establishing legislation to consider “disease incidence, prevalence, and burden” when prioritizing research funding is a clear call for studies of cardiovascular conditions.
I’m proud to say that PCORI has answered that call. Cardiovascular disease, including heart disease and stroke, is the most commonly studied topic in our research portfolio. It is addressed in several dozen of the 192 primary research studies that PCORI has funded to date, including projects that conduct a comparative assessment of heart disease interventions, as well as those that test the effectiveness of decision support tools. Communicating information and providing tools to patients in ways that motivate them to make healthy choices is often a major challenge for clinicians.
Our comprehensive approach funds research that addresses the gaps in both information and communication that are responsible for poor outcomes in cardiovascular care.
