Prioritizing Prevention: Lessons from Million Hearts

On March 21, the Primary Care Collaborative and the American Heart Association hosted a webinar exploring what insights Million Hearts can provide into creating more effective approaches to prevention in primary care and public health settings.

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S. and the largest cause of lower life expectancy among Black Americans. Thirteen years ago, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services joined with the American Heart Association, other private sector health organizations, and state and local health leaders to launch Million Hearts. The effort aimed to prevent 1 million heart attacks and strokes by implementing proven, effective, inexpensive interventions—both at the public and clinical level. The initiative included a trial to test targeted incentives for clinical care.

In this webinar, speakers explore lessons they’ve learned from Million Hearts and discuss how payment models can be better designed to foster effective preventive care, support primary care intervention and produce better health outcomes for cardiac issues and other conditions.

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Supporting Materials & Resources

This webinar is made possible with support from:

Arnold Ventures
The Commonwealth Fund

Eduardo Sanchez, MD, MFP, FAAAFP

Chief Medical Officer for Prevention, American Heart Association
Dr. Eduardo Sanchez serves as Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for Prevention for the American Heart Association (AHA). He is the Principal Investigator (PI) of the National Hypertension Control Initiative (NHCI), a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Minority Health (OMH) and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). He is the AHA clinical lead on Target: BP (a joint blood pressure control initiative with the American Medical Association) and KnowDiabetesbyHeart (a joint cardiovascular risk factor control initiaitive with the American Diabetes Association). read more

Laura Blue, Ph.D.

Principal Research, Mathematica
Laura Blue is a principal researcher at Mathematica with interests in primary and preventive care, population health, impact evaluation design, and quality-of-care measurement. She has worked on the evaluations of several CMS Innovation Centers models, including Primary Care First, the Million Hearts Cardiovascular Disease Risk Reduction Model, Comprehensive Primary Care Plus, and most recently, the forthcoming Making Care Primary Model. She has a PhD in demography from Princeton University. read more

Nkem Okeke, MD, MPH, MBA, MSPM

Founder and CEO, Medicalincs
Nkem Okeke is an award-winning kaizen entrepreneur, physician executive, and transformation strategist. Drawing from years of intercontinental and multi-disciplinary experience in health care, she founded Medicalincs, a population health management and health care transformation organization. Medicalincs was founded to solve care-continuum fragmentation in the ambulatory health care system, by linking silos to sustain health care systems that save lives. Although Okeke began and enjoyed her career in clinical practice, she decided to take an unconventional path that combines her love for equitable, patient-centered care delivery and her passion for bringing rippled value to others. read more

Thomas Frieden, MD

President and CEO, Resolve to Save Lives
Dr. Tom Frieden is a physician trained in internal medicine, infectious diseases, public health, and epidemiology. He is former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and former commissioner of the New York City Health Department. Dr. Frieden is currently President and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives. read more
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