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Healthy Hearts
The Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention Unit, which is housed within the MDHHS Cardiovascular Health, Nutrition and Physical Activity Section, is working on establishing stroke systems of care, strengthening community-clinical linkages, enhancing team-based care, and implementing health system intervention activities.
This page includes summaries of some of the initiatives currently being worked on by the Section and its partners.
For more information about the work of the Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention Unit, contact Sonia Villarreal at 517-749-7123 (e-mail: VillarrealS2@michigan.gov).
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Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention Unit Focus Areas
Forging strong partnerships with health systems, community groups, and public health entities to implement heart disease and stroke prevention and management strategies.
Co-leading the Michigan Million Hearts Initiative with the American Heart Association of Michigan to increase the effective use of clinical and community strategies to diagnose and treat people with heart disease and its risk factors.
Improving identification, reporting, management, and treatment of heart disease and stroke risk factors in federally qualified health centers.
Building systems for near real-time surveillance of hypertension and blood cholesterol to intervene and offer resources to improve care coordination.
Establishing emergency room workflows for identification and coordination of care of patients with hypertension through innovative partnership with Wayne State University.
Leading statewide integrated stroke registry system focused on quality improvement across EMS, hospital, and discharge settings.
Increasing awareness of heart disease and stroke risk factors, promoting linkages to evidence-based lifestyle change programs, and working to improve health outcomes in minority populations through partnerships with community organizations.
Addressing health disparities through interventions for populations disproportionately affected by cardiovascular risk factors and outcomes, including minorities and rural residents.
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Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention Unit Projects
Million Hearts 2022 Initiative
Million Hearts® 2022 is a national initiative co-led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to prevent one million heart attacks and strokes in five years. The initiative focuses partner actions on a small set of priorities selected for their impact on heart disease, stroke, and related conditions.
Michigan Million Hearts stakeholders aim to reduce and prevent heart attacks and strokes among Michigan adults through promotion of the use of team-based care, health information technology and the utilization of community health workers.
► Learn more about Michigan Million Hearts.
CDC-1815 and CDC-1817
MDHHS works collaboratively with internal and external partners, such as health care systems, providers, businesses, policy makers, community-based organizations, and key stakeholders to support and build on actions taken to prevent and manage diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, and associated conditions, such as stroke and prediabetes.
CDC-1815 (Improving the Health of Americans Through Prevention and Management of Diabetes and Heart Disease and Stroke) through:
- Increasing reporting, monitoring and tracking of clinical data for improved identification, management and treatment of patients with high blood pressure and high blood cholesterol.
- Increasing the use of - and adherence to - evidence-based guidelines and policies related to team-based care for patients with high blood pressure and high blood cholesterol.
- Increasing community-clinical links that support systematic referrals, self-management, and lifestyle change for patients with high blood pressure and high blood cholesterol.
- Increasing medication adherence among patients with high blood pressure and high blood cholesterol.
- Increasing engagement in self-management among patients with high blood pressure and high blood cholesterol.
- Increasing participation in evidence-based lifestyle interventions among patients with high blood pressure and high blood cholesterol.
CDC-1817 (Innovative State and Local Public Health Strategies to Prevent and Manage Diabetes and Heart Disease Stroke) through:
- Tracking and monitoring clinical measures shown to improve healthcare quality and identifying patients with high blood pressure and high blood cholesterol.
- Implementing team-based care for patients with high blood pressure and high blood cholesterol.
- Linking individuals to community resources and clinical services that support bi-directional referrals, self-management, and lifestyle change for patients with high blood pressure and high blood cholesterol.
Michigan Stroke Program
The Michigan Stroke Program works to establish a data-driven, linked stroke data system that will be utilized to guide and inform quality improvement efforts throughout stroke systems of care in Michigan in order to prevent strokes and resulting disabilities. Michigan Stroke Program staff and partners concentrate their efforts in five areas:
- Systems capacity (building the capacity to link current silos of stroke care data to develop, integrate and improve a statewide comprehensive system of stroke care);
- Pre-hospital care (assessing and improving emergency medical services [EMS] pre-hospital care for stroke and institute concerted quality improvement efforts between EMS and hospitals);
- Post-discharge services (improving access to services needed in the post-discharge period);
- Public awareness (improving community awareness regarding stroke signs and symptoms, the importance of calling 9-1-1, and access to services for patients with stroke risk factors, such as hypertension and cholesterol); and
- Burden of stroke (reducing disparities and overall stroke burden).
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Michigan Fact Sheets and Data
Data and surveillance reports about heart disease, stroke, and associated risk factors can be found on the Data & Statistics page on this website.
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Online Educational Resources
Online Order Form for MDHHS Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention Unit Patient Materials
Educational materials produced by the MDHHS Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention Unit are provided free of charge to Michigan residents in quantities up to 100. (Shipping included.)
The available resources include information about sodium intake, controlling and tracking high blood pressure, and following the DASH Eating Plan with recommended daily calorie needs and daily activity levels.
MDHHS Learning Module: Hypertension
After completing this interactive, Microsoft PowerPoint-based learning module, you will be able to:
- define hypertension;
- differentiate between normal and elevated blood pressure readings;
- describe the consequences of uncontrolled hypertension; and
- identify ways to manage hypertension.
► Open the Hypertension learning module
(Please Note: This file is 22.5MB and may take a few moments to download, depending upon the speed of your Internet connection.)
MDHHS Learning Module: Cholesterol
After completing this interactive, Microsoft PowerPoint-based learning module, you will be able to:
- differentiate between the two main types of cholesterol;
- describe the consequences of high cholesterol; and
- identify ways to prevent and manage high blood cholesterol.
► Open the Cholesterol learning module
(Please Note: This file is 23.9MB and may take a few moments to download, depending upon the speed of your Internet connection.)
Medicaid Managed Care Plan Coverage of Automated Home Blood Pressure Cuffs
Attention clinical partners and health care professional organizations: In an effort to improve control of hypertension, reduce associated comorbidities, and decrease costs associated with health care resource utilization, the MDHHS Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention Unit promotes the use of self-measured blood pressure monitoring (SMBP). SMBP is the regular measurement of blood pressure by the patient outside the clinical setting, usually in the home. SMBP tied with clinical support has been shown to improve blood pressure in patients with hypertension.
To facilitate patient access to home blood pressure cuffs and understanding of cuff coverage benefits, the Unit has created a Medicaid home blood pressure cuff coverage grid. The grid can be used by health care providers to check inclusion criteria, preauthorization requirements, and special instructions specific to each managed care plan prior to prescribing blood pressure cuffs to patients with hypertension for blood pressure self-monitoring.
Additional Resources
Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS)
- MDHHS Cardiovascular Health, Nutrition & Physical Activity Section website
- Michigan WISEWOMAN (Well-Integrated Screening and Evaluation for Women Across the Nation) program (MDHHS)
- MDHHS Tobacco Section website
- Michigan Tobacco Quitline (MDHHS)
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
- American Heart Month Toolkits 2022, including tools and resources for health care providers, public health professionals, and individuals and patients
- CDC Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention website
- Cardiac Rehabilitation | Million Hearts
- High Blood Pressure
- High Cholesterol
- All About Sodium
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)
- NHLBI website
- Health Topics: High Blood Pressure
- Health Topics: High Blood Cholesterol
- Health Topics: DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) Eating Plan
American Heart Association (AHA) / American Stroke Association (ASA)
- AHA website
- ASA website
- Health Topics: High Blood Pressure
- Health Topics: Cholesterol
- Healthy Living/ Healthy Eating/ Eat Smart: Sodium
- Get with the Guidelines quality improvement programs for medical professionals
American Medical Association (AMA)
State Alliance of Michigan YMCAs (Michigan YMCA )
Return to Cardiovascular Health, Nutrition & Physical Activity Section home page
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