Shelbyville, IN — Major Health Partners (MHP) has received the American Heart Association’s Check. Change. Control. Cholesterol™ Gold award in recognition of their commitment to reducing the risk of heart disease and stroke through improved cholesterol management.
Nearly half of all adults over age 40 in the United States have blood cholesterol levels that put them at risk for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD), increasing the possibility of stroke and heart disease.
To help people better understand their risk and learn to manage their cholesterol, the Association launched its Check. Change. Control. Cholesterol initiative in 2017. Since then, more than 1,400 health centers and systems have registered to participate. The Check. Change. Control. Cholesterol initiative from the American Heart Association is supported by Amgen.
The Gold award recognizes practices that have fulfilled the Participant criteria and that have 70% or more of their adult, at-risk ASCVD patient population appropriately managed with statin therapy.
“Major Health Partners is honored to be recognized by the American Heart Association for our dedication to helping our patients with the resources to manage risk factors and reduce the burden of cardiovascular diseases like heart attack and stroke," said Dr. Emily Ann Andaya, MHP Family & Internal Medicine. “Programs like these that address the real-world problems of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and uncontrolled type 2 diabetes are necessary to improve health today and avoid larger problems for many patients tomorrow."
To help practices achieve their goals, the Association provides all participants with a dedicated website featuring a free, evidence-based improvement program that includes tools and resources to help clinicians improve cholesterol control rates. To facilitate easy and seamless adoption of the program, the Association will provide access to trained support specialists within their community who can help identify specific program components to incorporate into clinical practice.
“High cholesterol continues to be one of the major risk factors for heart disease, yet remains undertreated,” said James Langabeer, Ph.D., FAHA, volunteer expert for the American Heart Association and Professor and Vice Chair of Emergency Medicine with McGovern Medical School at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth). “We are so glad to see dedicated professionals like those at MHP join this initiative to prioritize cholesterol management in their practices and ultimately improve heart health across the nation.”
Learn more at Check. Change. Control. Cholesterol.