Medtronic Foundation Provides Stanford $600,000 to Integrate Cardiac Clinical and Lifestyle Care.

Lifestyle Editors/Health & Medical Writers

STANFORD, Calif.--(BW HealthWire)--Jan. 19, 2000

Stanford Medical Center has been awarded $600,000 to help educate thousands of people in the Bay Area and elsewhere -- through their own doctors and nurses -- about the nutrition, exercise, stress reduction and other life skills they need to become or remain heart healthy.

The grant was announced Wednesday, Jan. 19, by the Medtronic Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Medtronic Inc., Minneapolis, a leading manufacturer of pacemakers and other high-technology therapies for a range of cardiovascular and neurologic conditions.

Stanford's grant provides $200,000 for each of three years through the Stanford Center for Research in Disease Prevention (SCRDP), the company said.

Two other academic medical centers, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and Scripps Clinic in La Jolla, Calif., received similar grants announced by Medtronic on Wednesday.

In a 1995 National Institutes of Health-funded randomized clinical trial, Stanford researchers showed that nurses following a structured program -- including phone calls, counseling and education

-- could help patients substantially reduce major cardiovascular risk factors and heart attacks.

Called the Stanford Coronary Risk Intervention Program, the clinical trial produced a 40 percent reduction over four years in hospitalizations for cardiovascular disease, and a substantial reduction in atherosclerosis, said William Haskell, PhD, professor of medicine (research) and principal investigator on the Medtronic grant at Stanford. The funding from Medtronic is intended to expand this structured follow-up program.

"Patients do much better when they are able to integrate their medical treatment with lifestyle practices that contribute to their own health. With the rise of managed care and increased specialization, it's becoming more difficult for doctors or nurses to use their time with patients for health education and counseling," said Stephen Fortmann, MD, professor of medicine and director of the SCRDP.

"The current grant will allow us to fine-tune our patient education programs and to provide the services of nurses, physicians and others involved in health promotion to more patients in Northern California," said Kenneth R. Pelletier, clinical professor of medicine and an investigator on the Medtronic grant. The approach has been successful with patients in the Preventive Cardiology Clinic at Stanford, and in programs funded by partnerships with companies and health plans, such as Blue Shield of California, Aetna-U.S. Health and Kaiser Permanente.

Now, said Pelletier, as many as 50,000 people worldwide will have access to the integrated clinical care/lifestyle enhancement features of the Stanford program, called the Stanford Heart Network.

"An Internet site will allow Stanford investigators to provide clinics around the world with information about how to offer patient education, and we in turn will collect data on patients who are being managed by our partner physicians and nurses worldwide. This two-way interaction, expected to be up and running within the next year will help us to effectively evaluate how to make programs more effective," Pelletier said.

"As physicians we tell our patients to eat a healthy diet, get exercise and find ways to reduce stress; but these messages are far more effective when patients work with their doctors, nurses, dietitians and educators as part of an integrated program to achieve personal health," said John W. Farquhar, M.D. professor of medicine and co-director of Stanford's Preventive Cardiology Clinic.

"We hear all too often from patients, 'The doctor told me to take a pill. He told me I should lose weight and get exercise, but I'm not sure how to do that.' Now we hope to be able to offer that information and provide help and support to make enduring lifestyle changes," said Farquhar, director emeritus of the SCRDP, and an active clinician.

"Put simply, our programs help patients understand what they need to do to make long-term changes that will benefit their health -- both in terms of lifestyle and in maintaining an appropriate medication regimen," Farquhar said.

"Medtronic is a high technology company, so it's particularly significant that they recognize the importance of developing and integrating nontechnological solutions to health, said Pelletier.

"Medtronic recognizes that healing and restoring patients to full health requires treatment of the whole patient, as well as state-of-the-art medical technology," said William W. George, chairman and chief executive officer of Medtronic. "Through partnership with these leading institutions, we look forward to learning about new ways to care for the patients we both serve and demonstrating improved patient outcomes through a more comprehensive approach to patient care."