University Hospitals and CMHA partner to address community health disparities
Addressing Cardiometabolic Health Inequities by Early PreVEntion in the Great LakEs Region (ACHIEVE GreatER) is a multi-organizational effort lead by University Hospitals Harrington Heart & Vascular Institute that aims to address cardiovascular health disparities, thanks to an $18.2 million federal grant from the National Institutes of Health’s P50 program. The initiative involves University Hospitals and Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) School of Medicine, as well as Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. The entities work to directly address social determinants of health in Black communities in the Cleveland and Detroit metropolitan areas.The Cleveland portion of the research will be done in partnership with the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA). CMHA is assisting by coordinating health events across housing developments throughout Cuyahoga County to identify patients with disparate health and social determinants of health needs. “The ultimate goal of ACHIEVE GreatER is to reduce cardiovascular complications and hospitalizations by improving blood pressure, lipids and glucose targets for Black patients at risk of heart health issues,” said Sanjay Rajagopalan, MD, the Principal Investigator of the ACHIEVE GreatER Cleveland site; Chief of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine and Chief Academic and Scientific Officer of UH Harrington Heart & Vascular Institute; as well as the Herman K. Hellerstein, MD, Chair in Cardiovascular Research.