Advancing access to cardiovascular care in the U.S.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is one of the most pressing health challenges in the United States, affecting nearly half of all American adults.1 This broad category of conditions — including heart disease, heart attacks, stroke and heart failure — continues to grow in prevalence due to risk factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity and smoking.2,3

Despite significant medical advances, many individuals continue to face barriers to timely, high-quality cardiac care because of social and environmental factors that impede access to health services.4 These challenges are widespread, affecting people in both rural and urban areas, particularly those from racial and ethnic minority groups or low-income communities. The barriers are often most severe in places where health care infrastructure is limited or care is fragmented.5

Collaborative for Equity in Cardiac Care: A Merck Foundation initiative

The Merck Foundation (the “Foundation”) is supporting the Collaborative for Equity in Cardiac Care (the “Collaborative”) in the U.S. with a commitment of $22 million over five years (2025 – 2030). The Collaborative is a national, multi-site initiative to improve access to high-quality, person-centered care for people with heart conditions living in U.S. communities that face long-standing barriers to health care.

Collaborative goals

As a collective, the Collaborative program grantees aim to:

  • Redesign primary care by promoting person-centered, holistic approaches to meet the medical and social needs of people living with heart conditions
  • Build sustainable community partnerships to address barriers to cardiac care
  • Improve health outcomes and quality of life for people living with heart conditions
  • Disseminate findings and lessons learned to improve the delivery of cardiac care

Collaborative for Equity in Cardiac Care program grantees

The Foundation is providing grants to a select group of nonprofit health care and public health organizations working with local community-based groups. Together they will implement evidence-informed, community-focused programs to help bridge gaps in cardiac care with the goal of improving health outcomes.

The program grantees are:

Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity serves as the National Program Office (NPO) for the Collaborative. The NPO will provide technical assistance to program grantees, foster peer-to-peer learning and collaboration, conduct a comprehensive cross-site evaluation and disseminate program results and lessons learned through the Collaborative.

  1. American Heart Association. (2019). Cardiovascular diseases affect nearly half of American adults, statistics show. https://www.heart.org/en/news/2019/01/31/cardiovascular-diseases-affect-nearly-half-of-american-adults-statistics-show
  2. American Heart Association. (2024, January 10). What is cardiovascular disease? https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/consumer-healthcare/what-is-cardiovascular-disease
  3. Joynt Maddox, K. E., Elkind, M. S., Aparicio, H. J., Commodore-Mensah, Y., de Ferranti, S. D., Dowd, W. N., … American Heart Association. (2024). Forecasting the burden of cardiovascular disease and stroke in the United States through 2050—Prevalence of risk factors and disease: A presidential advisory from the American Heart Association. Circulation, 150(4), e65–e88.
  4. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2024). Ending Unequal Treatment: Strategies to Achieve Equitable Health Care and Optimal Health for All. National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/27820.
  5. Son, H., Zhang, D., Shen, Y., Jaysing, A., Zhang, J., Chen, Z., Mu, L., Liu, J., Rajbhandari-Thapa, J., Li, Y., & Pagán, J. A. (2023). Social determinants of cardiovascular health: A longitudinal analysis of cardiovascular disease mortality in U.S. counties from 2009 to 2018. Journal of the American Heart Association, 12(2), e026940. https://doi.org/10.1161/JAHA.122.026940