American Kidney Fund to Host CDC Million Hearts Collaboration Biannual Meeting, Spotlighting Connection Between Kidney Diseas...
March 26 2019 - 1:53PM
As Kidney Month draws to a close, the American Kidney Fund (AKF) is
hosting the March 27 biannual meeting of the Million Hearts®
Collaboration, bringing together 14 member organizations that are
working together to disseminate evidence-based cardiovascular
disease prevention strategies and resources, promote the use of
consistent cardiovascular health messaging, and provide
opportunities for sharing of best practices and evidence-based
prevention approaches at the state and local level.
Million Hearts® 2022 is a national initiative co-led by the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Centers
for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to prevent 1 million
heart attacks and strokes in 5 years. The initiative focuses
partner actions on a small set of priorities selected for their
impact on heart disease, stroke and related conditions.
“As the nation’s leading nonprofit working on behalf of the 30
million Americans living with kidney disease, AKF has long been
working to increase the public’s awareness of the close links
between kidney disease and heart disease,” said LaVarne A. Burton,
AKF president and CEO. “Hosting the Million Hearts
Collaboration at our office in Rockville lets us spotlight this
important connection to all the members of the Collaboration,
helping expand our reach.”
Cardiovascular and renal health are tightly linked, with heart
disease being both a cause and a complication of kidney disease.
High blood pressure causes more than a quarter of all cases of
kidney failure in the United States, and cardiovascular disease is
the leading cause of death among people on dialysis. Other
complications including anemia and hyperkalemia are common among
those with kidney disease, resulting in stress on the
cardiovascular system.
Many of AKF’s programs focus on education and prevention—seeking
to help people understand their risk for kidney disease and the
importance of keeping the disease, and other underlying conditions,
under control. Know Your Kidneys™, AKF’s free kidney health
screening program and the largest in the nation, provides blood
pressure and kidney health screenings and education to populations
most at risk. AKF’s team of public health professionals is
continually developing new health content and campaigns, like the
ACT on Anemia campaign, that target heart health and cardiovascular
complications.
AKF aims to continue developing initiatives that illustrate
heart-kidney connection to ultimately prevent new cases of kidney
and heart disease, and empower those who have kidney disease to
protect their heart health.
About the American Kidney Fund
As the nation’s leading independent nonprofit working on behalf
of the 30 million Americans with kidney disease, the American
Kidney Fund is dedicated to ensuring that every kidney patient has
access to health care, and that every person at risk for kidney
disease is empowered to prevent it. AKF provides a complete
spectrum of programs and services: prevention outreach, top-rated
health educational resources, and direct financial assistance
enabling the nation’s low-income dialysis and transplant patients
to access lifesaving medical care. AKF holds the highest ratings
from the nation’s charity watchdog groups, including Charity
Navigator, which includes AKF on its “top 10” list of nonprofits
with the longest track records of outstanding stewardship of the
donated dollar, and GuideStar, which has awarded AKF its Platinum
Seal of Transparency.
For more information, please visit KidneyFund.org, or connect
with us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Alice Andors
American Kidney Fund
240-292-7053
aandors@kidneyfund.org