American Heart Association Announces $4.6 Million Gift to Expand and Enhance Heart Attack Care in Rural Iowa

DES MOINES, Iowa, Feb. 3, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American Heart Association, Midwest Affiliate, announced at a press conference on Tuesday, February 3, 1:00 p.m. in the State Historical Building of the Capitol Complex in Des Moines a $4.6 million grant award to enhance systems of care, save lives, and improve outcomes for heart attack patients in rural Iowa, called Mission: Lifeline. 

The lead funder is The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, one of the nation's largest foundations, providing this grant of $4.6 million to the American Heart Association for the Mission: Lifeline initiative in Iowa.

Mission: Lifeline will be implemented over three years, launching today, in collaboration with Iowa's health systems, hospital networks, emergency medical service (EMS) providers, and the State of Iowa's Department of Public Health, including the Division of Acute Disease Prevention, Emergency Response, and Environmental Health (ADPER/EH) and the Bureau of Emergency and Trauma Services and other funders. Mission: Lifeline helps identify the gaps that lead to slower and less effective patient care, and with the providers in the state, closes those gaps through change in protocols and processes, and also in providing resources such as life-saving equipment. The funding for this initiative will enhance existing efforts in Iowa.

"This initiative represents a significant investment in Iowa's healthcare system, especially in our rural areas," said Dr. Patricia Quinlisk, Medical Director for Iowa Department of Public Health. "We are pleased to be partnering with the American Heart Association and the Helmsley Charitable Trust, and our hospitals and EMS services across the state to provide these important, lifesaving services to Iowans."

Each year, hundreds of thousands of Americans have the most serious type of heart attack known as an ST-elevated myocardial infarction, or STEMI, in which blood flow is completely blocked to a portion of the heart. Unless the blockage is eliminated quickly, the patient's health and life are at serious risk. Currently, around two-thirds of STEMI patients fail to receive the best available treatments to restore blood flow. Mission: Lifeline seeks to save lives by closing the gaps that separate STEMI patients from timely access to appropriate treatments. Although Mission: Lifeline is focused on improving the system of care for patients who suffer from a STEMI each year, improving that system will ultimately improve care for all heart attack patients.  According to statistics provided by the Iowa Department of Health, cardiovascular diseases (including stroke) are the leading cause of death in Iowa.

"We are truly grateful to the Helmsley Charitable Trust for this grant," said Dr. Kay Gannon, retired internal medicine physician and Medical President of the American Heart Association's Greater Des Moines board of directors. "Along with the Mission: Lifeline initiative,  it will help Iowa to better coordinate heart attack care, which will mean better outcomes for patients, and more lives saved. Time is muscle when someone is having a heart attack, so getting a patient proper treatment faster, especially in rural areas, is crucial. Better collaboration among healthcare providers improves care for patients, and Mission: Lifeline provides these important communication and collaboration tools to our first responders and hospitals to improve care for all Iowans."

In collaboration with stakeholders representing hospitals, individual ambulance services and the state of Iowa, the project will enhance many critical elements of an optimal STEMI system of care: a system-wide data tool for quality measurement and improvement; ongoing medical provider training and STEMI education; coordination of protocols for rural EMS and hospital personnel; regional plans for rapid transport and/or transfer of patients; and a public education campaign on heart attack signs and symptoms and the need to activate the 9-1-1 system. Targeted funding will be provided to assist hospitals and ambulance services in acquiring essential ECG equipment and training.

The Helmsley Charitable Trust and the American Heart Association launched Mission: Lifeline in South Dakota in July 2010, and since then the Trust has generously committed additional funding for Mission: Lifeline in five other states including North Dakota, Wyoming, Minnesota, Nebraska and Montana. With the recent award for rural Iowa, the total commitment from the Trust for Mission: Lifeline has reached $36.8 million.

The American Heart Association
The American Heart Association is devoted to saving people from heart disease and stroke – the two leading causes of death in the world. We team with millions of volunteers to fund innovative research, fight for stronger public health policies, and provide lifesaving tools and information to prevent and treat these diseases. The Dallas-based association is the nation's oldest and largest voluntary organization dedicated to fighting heart disease and stroke. The Midwest Affiliate serves an 11-state region: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin. To learn more or to get involved, call 1-800-AHA-USA1, visit heart.org or call any of our offices around the country.  Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

The Helmsley Charitable Trust

The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust aspires to improve lives by supporting exceptional nonprofits and other mission-aligned organizations in the U.S. and around the world in health, place-based initiatives, and education and human services. Since 2008, when the Trust began its active grantmaking, it has committed more than $1 billion to a wide range of charitable organizations. The Trust's Rural Healthcare Program funds innovative projects that use information technologies to connect rural patients to emergency medical care, bring the latest medical therapies to patients in remote areas, and provide state-of-the-art training for rural hospitals and EMS personnel. To date, this program has awarded more than $200 million to organizations and initiatives in the upper Midwest states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, Minnesota, Iowa, and Montana. For more information on the Trust and its programs, please visit www.helmsleytrust.org.

SOURCE American Heart Association