ACC’s New CardioSmart Website With COVID-19 Hub Provides Decision-Making Tools for Clinicians and Patients

July 28, 2020—The American College of Cardiology (ACC) announced the launch of the new CardioSmart website, the ACC’s patient engagement program that features shared decision-making tools and emphasizes the value of the patient and clinician partnership to personalize care.

The ACC’s goal for the website is to better connect patients with their clinicians to prevent or treat heart disease. Patients and clinicians will find information on heart conditions, resources to support important health conversations, and tools to build their partnership on specific decisions and throughout the course of a lifetime. These tools include action plans, decision aids, and infographics available in multiple languages.

Some of the key features on the website (www.cardiosmart.org) are the following:

• The Topics section is enhanced with detailed information on > 30 health conditions and subjects, including heart attack, atrial fibrillation, diabetes mellitus, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, stroke, women and heart disease, and more.
• A Decisions hub helps support the shared decision-making process among patients, clinicians, family members, and care teams working together to find out whether a test or a treatment is right for them.
• A COVID-19 hub includes the latest about COVID-19 and how to keep healthy and not delay seeking medical help during the pandemic.
• A Clinician Quick-Find section helps health care professionals easily locate infographics, fact sheets, and action plans to share with their patients.
• Streamlined access to translated and international materials in one location.

“Our new website is user-friendly for both health care professionals and patients,” commented CardioSmart’s Editor-in-Chief, Martha Gulati, MD, in the ACC announcement. “Clinicians can refer patients, and patients can effortlessly find the information they need to aid in making key health decisions. We continue to evolve and develop the resources our members want for our patients, be an up-to-date reliable source for everyone, and improve the ease with which everyone can access information, whether from a clinic setting or at home.”