In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.

Cardiovascular disease is the number one killer of both men and women in the US and Europe today. Over the last 20 years, many innovations in technology have allowed for improved therapies for heart attack and stroke and overall outcomes have significantly improved. Death rates from cardiovascular disease in men are declining.However, even with these improvements in care, death rates for women remain unchanged. This book will explore these gender disparities in care in depth — specific sections will be devoted to answering the questions of why they are occurring and what healthcare providers and women can do to effect change and narrow the gender gap in cardiovascular care.Ultimately, this book is designed to open the eyes of healthcare providers, medical professionals and policy makers — as well as potential female patients — and should serve as a “call to action” to promote better cardiovascular care for women. Through education, awareness and advocacy women worldwide will benefit, the gap will begin to close and better cardiovascular care can be provided for all.

Racial and ethnic disparities in health care are known to reflect access to care and other issues that arise from differing socioeconomic conditions. There is, however, increasing evidence that even after such differences are accounted for, race and ethnicity remain significant predictors of the quality of health care received. In Unequal Treatment, a panel of experts documents this evidence and explores how persons of color experience the health care environment. The book examines how disparities in treatment may arise in health care systems and looks at aspects of the clinical encounter that may contribute to such disparities. Patients' and providers' attitudes, expectations, and behavior are analyzed. How to intervene? Unequal Treatment offers recommendations for improvements in medical care financing, allocation of care, availability of language translation, community-based care, and other arenas. The committee highlights the potential of cross-cultural education to improve provider-patient communication and offers a detailed look at how to integrate cross-cultural learning within the health professions. The book concludes with recommendations for data collection and research initiatives. Unequal Treatment will be vitally important to health care policymakers, administrators, providers, educators, and students as well as advocates for people of color.

Written by internationally renowned physicians, scientists and cardiologists, Heart Disease in Women addresses the myths and facts about cardiovascular disease in women, one of the most common causes of death in women globally. The book is organised into eight detailed sections, beginning with prevention and risk factors, followed by investigation, diagnosis and management of coronary heart disease. The following sections cover other conditions, including heart failure, arrhythmias, rheumatic heart disease, and congenital cardiac lesions in pregnancy. A complete chapter is dedicated to non-invasive testing, including echocardiography and stress myocardial perfusion imaging. The final part deals with miscellaneous topics such as the “unmet challenge” of Peripheral Arterial Disease, the use of ankle-brachial index, cardiovascular implications of cancer in women and, significantly, an update on recent literature concerning heart disease in women. The book provides a thorough analysis of every aspect of heart disease in women, making it an essential reference for all cardiologists and physicians. Key Points Edited by recognised cardiology expert Navin C Nanda from the University of Alabama, USA Highly illustrated with more than 500 colour images Updates cardiologists on the most recent advances in the field Comprehensive coverage of an extensive range of heart conditions

Chronic diseases are common and costly, yet they are also among the most preventable health problems. Comprehensive and accurate disease surveillance systems are needed to implement successful efforts which will reduce the burden of chronic diseases on the U.S. population. A number of sources of surveillance data-including population surveys, cohort studies, disease registries, administrative health data, and vital statistics-contribute critical information about chronic disease. But no central surveillance system provides the information needed to analyze how chronic disease impacts the U.S. population, to identify public health priorities, or to track the progress of preventive efforts. A Nationwide Framework for Surveillance of Cardiovascular and Chronic Lung Diseases outlines a conceptual framework for building a national chronic disease surveillance system focused primarily on cardiovascular and chronic lung diseases. This system should be capable of providing data on disparities in incidence and prevalence of the diseases by race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and geographic region, along with data on disease risk factors, clinical care delivery, and functional health outcomes. This coordinated surveillance system is needed to integrate and expand existing information across the multiple levels of decision making in order to generate actionable, timely knowledge for a range of stakeholders at the local, state or regional, and national levels. The recommendations presented in A Nationwide Framework for Surveillance of Cardiovascular and Chronic Lung Diseases focus on data collection, resource allocation, monitoring activities, and implementation. The report also recommends that systems evolve along with new knowledge about emerging risk factors, advancing technologies, and new understanding of the basis for disease. This report will inform decision-making among federal health agencies, especially the Department of Health and Human Services; public health and clinical practitioners; non-governmental organizations; and policy makers, among others.

In early 2007, the Institute of Medicine convened the Roundtable on Health Disparities to increase the visibility of racial and ethnic health disparities as a national problem, to further the development of programs and strategies to reduce disparities, to foster the emergence of leadership on this issue, and to track promising activities and developments in health care that could lead to dramatically reducing or eliminating disparities. The Roundtable's first workshop, Challenges and Successes in Reducing Health Disparities, was held in St. Louis, Missouri, on July 31, 2007, and examined (1) the importance of differences in life expectancy within the United States, (2) the reasons for those differences, and (3) the implications of this information for programs and policy makers.

Cardiovascular diseases kill and disable more than a million Americans each year. The major types of this complex of diseases are coronary heart disease, hypertensive disease, cerebrovascular diseases, rheumatic heart disease, and congenital malformations of the circulatory system. Authors Moriyama, Krueger, and Stamler relate each of these types to etiology, age of patient at onset, clinical course, and socioeconomic impact on the population. For each type of cardiovascular disease they analyze the quantitative data on the incidence, prevalence, and levels and time trends of mortality and on the demographic characteristics of person affected. They also examine international differences in levels and trends in mortality and point out areas for further research. More than thirty-five figures as well as extensive tables document their text.