Top Things to Know: The AHA at 100: A Century of Scientific Progress and the Future of Cardiovascular Science - A Presidential Advisory from the AHA
Published: February 12, 2024
Prepared by Radhika Rajgopal Singh, PhD, FAHA; Sr Vice President, Science and Medicine
- Founded in 1924, the American Heart Association (AHA), whose mission to improve cardiovascular and brain health, is one of the largest and longest-standing public health organizations in the United States.
- The focus of the AHA expanded from the prevention of heart disease to include the active promotion of cardiovascular health and addressing stroke, aging, mental health, the social determinants of health and health equity as areas.
- The Presidential Advisory chronicles the many firsts during the hundred-year journey of the AHA thus far, including the first Scientific Sessions (1925), research awards (1948), scientific publishing (Circulation, 1950), and International Stroke Conference (1976).
- It showcases major cardiovascular advances across fundamental, translational, clinical and population science, including the role of lipids in atherosclerosis, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and defibrillation of ventricular fibrillation, pacemakers, and thrombolysis for stroke, illustrating how the evolution of science and medicine helped shape key strategies of the AHA.
- AHA science continues to be the foundation for major advocacy in the United States, including the passing of the federal Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which allowed the FDA to regulate tobacco, banned candy-flavored cigarettes, and added warning labels to tobacco products.
- Discoveries in clinical and population science were the impetus for AHA quality improvement programs and systems of care such as Target:Stroke, clinical practice guidelines, the Precision Medicine Platform, and health equity research.
- Partnerships and coalitions underscore the impact of the AHA on patient outcomes via clinical practice guidelines and data-driven Get With the Guidelines registries, including the COVID-19 registry, one of AHA’s rapid responses at the early onset of the pandemic.
- The Advisory presents several scientific questions that need to be addressed in the next century, including closing gaps in implementation science, providing science-based solutions for the health effects of social determinants, and understanding which social determinants of health lead to cardiovascular disease outcomes.
- Future challenges for the AHA include governmental limitations in research funding, the size and diversity of the scientific workforce, public health infrastructure, and public scientific illiteracy and disinformation campaigns.
- The Advisory concludes with a call to the larger cardiovascular and stroke community delineating ways in which research, clinical care and public health can be accelerated in the next century.
Citation
Elkind MSV, Arnett DK, Benjamin IJ, Eckel RH, Grant AO, Houser SR, Jacobs AK, Jones DW, Robertson RM, Sacco RL, Smith SC Jr, Weisfeldt ML, Wu JC, Jessup M. The American Heart Association at 100: a century of scientific progress and the future ofcardiovascular science: a presidential advisory from the American Heart Association. Circulation. Published online February 12, 2024. doi: 10.1161/CIR.0000000000001213