National Forum for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention

The National Forum's Move With The Mayor (MWTM)initiative engaged mayors across the US in encouraging people to walk and move more; deployed the Roadmap assessment tool to measure cities' progress in answering the Surgeon General's Call to Action to Promote Walking and Walkable Communities, and provided mayors with local policy recommendations to improve cardiovascular health. In addition, mayors and media personalities prompted by the National Forum used traditional and social media to urge vulnerable populations and others to get their heart health checked and take steps to protect it, including getting treated when needed. The MWTM Vaccination Initiative mobilizes mayors to encourage residents to protect and improve their health and to make their communities more active and accessible by encouraging adult vaccinations. Mayors are using MWTM messaging, policy recommendations, and other tools to empower and protect community members from COVID-19 and improve cardiovascular health and health equity.

Many Americans with Cardiovascular Disease face barriers to getting treatment that is right for them. The National Forum engages 32 diverse stakeholders in a transformative, consensus-building initiative to overcome the barriers. Together, the Value and Access Collaboration is breaking the stalemate, improving access to evidence-based care, and unifying patients, provider, purchasers, payers and public health groups on value and access policy issues. The VAC called on Congress and the White House to implement policies that expand access to care options for patients nationwide, especially in undeserved or otherwise vulnerable populations. This builds on a Joint Policy Statement issued by members and partners of the VAC, with recommendations that enable people to obtain more healthcare services from pharmacists, often closer to where people live or work, improving access to evidence-based care, particularly for undeserved Populations. In addition, 104 advocates attended a briefing on increasing minority participation in medical research.

Member Convenings Mid-Year Meeting: Hosted Paying Attention to Hypertension: Spotlight on Self-Measure Blood Pressure Monitoring, Mid-Year Member Virtual Meeting, in May 2022. 241 Healthcare providers, patient advocates, public health practitioners, researchers, policymakers, and industry leaders from 165 organizations participated. Annual Meeting: Held the 2022 (20th) Health Equity Benefits Everyone in October 2022. 304 Healthcare providers, patient advocates, public health practitioners, researchers, policymakers, and industry leaders from 180 organizations participated.