As a result of ACHA's significant and ongoing advocacy efforts, the first-of-its-kind funding for adult congenital heart disease surveillance has been awarded through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The Congenital Heart Futures Act was passed as an amendment to the Affordable Care Act in 2010. In December 2011, $2 million was appropriated to the CDC for surveillance of CHD across the lifespan.
Today, the CDC announced the news and the awardees of these grants, below:
CDC strives to improve understanding of causes of CHDs and to better understand how to improve the lives of individuals born with CHDs. CDC works to identify causes and prevention opportunities for congenital heart defects (CHDs) by applying a public health approach—surveillance or disease tracking, research to identify causes, and prevention research and programs. CDC has recently expanded work on CHDs:
- In Fiscal Year 2012, CDC received funding to enhance and expand public health surveillance of congenital heart defects (CHDs) to improve understanding of the epidemiology of CHDs across the lifespan.
- Through a competitive process, new CDC awards for population-based surveillance of CHDs among adolescents and adults were made to the New York State Department of Health, Emory University, and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.
-These three sites will work with CDC on a pilot project to develop population-based surveillance of adolescents and adults with CHDs.
-The objectives of this surveillance are to better understand the survival, healthcare utilization, and longer term outcomes of adolescents and adults affected by CHDs through potentially unique and innovative approaches to monitoring CHDs among this population.
- September 10-11, 2012, CDC will host a meeting of invited experts in pediatric and adult cardiology, surveillance, epidemiology, health services, and other areas of public health to help CDC identify critical knowledge and strategy gaps that should be addressed with future activities. This meeting will help CDC identify future priorities for public health surveillance and research on CHDs.