NHLBI Enhanced Dissemination and Utilization Centers (EDUC)

In 2000, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) launched a new heart-health agenda to achieve the heart disease, stroke, and related objectives in the Federal Government's "Healthy People 2010" (HP 2010) initiative. HP 2010 is a statement of national health objectives designed to identify the most significant preventable threats to health and to establish national goals to reduce these threats over the first decade of the new century.

The NHLBI agenda, within HP 2010, includes four main cardiovascular performance goals: A) Prevent Development of Risk Factors, B) Detect and Treat Risk Factors, C) Early Recognition and Treatment of Acute Coronary Syndromes, & D) Prevent Recurrence and Complications of CVD, that target different stages in the progress of cardiovascular disease (CVD), from early prevention of risk factors to the prevention of recurrent cardiovascular events and complications. To meet these goals, the NHLBI is undertaking a wide range of projects, geared to use measurable results to evaluate progress. One key strategy for the NHLBI is to stimulate partnerships with organizations, named Enhanced Dissemination and Utilization Centers (EDUCs), to improve cardiovascular health at the community level, especially in communities at high risk for CVD. The Wright State University CVD EDUC will become a part of newly awarded CVD EDUC sites which will extend the existing network of CVD EDUC partners that began in April 2001.

The CVD EDUCs will eventually be a nationwide NHLBI network of community-based organizations implementing targeted and culturally sensitive health education strategies aimed at changing local physician practices and patient behaviors. The nationwide EDUC partnerships will share information and generate program ideas and strategies. Not only can the EDUCs advance the outcomes of their individual projects but can also, through the synthesis and broader dissemination of these ideas, promote the reduction of CVD in the country as a whole. Therefore, it is critical for the EDUCs to have involvement of the targeted population in all phases of the project because the community stakeholders' contribution will lend credibility to and provide synergy for sustainability of the project.

The Wright State University (WSU), Global Health Systems, Management, and Policy (GHSM&P) project concentrates on Montgomery County (Dayton, Ohio, area). Dayton's population has higher than the national average risk factor prevalence and unhealthy lifestyle behaviors. In addition, Dayton has higher than threshold mortality and disparities rates in outcomes related to CVD in black and white men and for stroke in black men and women.

This project proposes to build on current CVD prevention projects (Premier LDL Reduction Project, Consortium for Southeastern Hypertension Control (COSEHC) Clinic-Based Hypertension Project, and Know Your Numbers Mass Media Campaign). GHSM&P has developed extensive and diverse partnerships with local health care providers, primary care organizations, insurers, public health officials, local employers, media, and medical businesses to address CVD issues. The GHSM&P EDUC proposes to increase awareness of individual health status, increase physician visits for hypertension and cholesterol, and increase prescriptions for anti-hypertensive and lipid-lowering medication, as well as develop non-written educational materials for African Americans. All of these efforts will target the HP 2010 goal of eliminating racial/gender and geographical CVD disparities, as well as address three of NHLBI's HP 2010 performance goals (A, B, and D).

WSU's EDUC, led by GHSM&P, partners with Premier Health Partners and includes collaboration with Charles Stemple, D.O., MBA, (United Healthcare) and William McBride, M.D., MBA, (Merck & Co., Inc.).