In times of crisis, teams pull together. As ACC responded to the COVID-19 pandemic by building the go-to-source for the latest clinical and operational guidance and practice updates, the CardioSmart team focused on ways to support the College's response for patients.

Translating Clinical Guidance For Patients

In lockstep with the publication of ACC's first clinical bulletin that offered guidance about COVID-19 and treating patients with heart conditions, CardioSmart released a patient summary, published March 13, 2020, that received more than 73,000 unique page views in the first week. Another summary of a joint statement urging patients to stay on their blood pressure and heart failure medications soon followed. These summaries helped address patient concerns without getting ahead of the science.

On April 3, Martha Gulati, MD, MS, FACC, CardioSmart's editor-in-chief, spoke in the Mended Hearts webinar called COVID-19 and the Cardiac Patient. In addition to general information about the disease, she gave practical tips on how to manage heart health during the pandemic.

Information, Education to Combat Care Delays

During the early days of the pandemic there was an alarming drop in the number of patients presenting to emergency departments heart attacks and other cardiac concerns. CardioSmart responded quickly with the Don't Ignore Heart Symptoms patient education infographic, publishing it in mid-April. This effort was reinforced by a news release and an all-member email to ensure broad awareness and access to the tool.

After two weeks, the infographic had been downloaded more than 2,400 times – faster than any other CardioSmart infographic. By the end of the year, it had been downloaded 4,400 times. Attention for the infographic was global, with requests for translations into Spanish, Portuguese (versions for Portugal and Brazil) and Italian.

Listening to Unique Concerns of Heart Patients

Insights from a virtual patient forum held in May helped inform the messaging for a statement released by the ACC in the fall of 2020, as well as a supporting infographic and fact sheet.

During the forum, participants shared their experiences of living with heart disease and the threat of COVID-19, including how they hesitate to seek care because of their fear of contracting COVID-19 in the hospital. They also talked about the toll not seeing family and friends – and trusted care team members – took on their emotional well-being.

Supporting COVID-19 Vaccine Efforts

CardioSmart continues to support clinician messaging with information for patients. When ACC released its health policy statement on vaccine distribution Feb. 12, 2021, CardioSmart summarized the policy for patients and updated its COVID-19 vaccine Q&A page for patients.

In the month since the summary was posted (Feb. 12-March 16), the article was viewed more than 5,000 times. And for the month of March, unique page views for the article exceeded those for CardioSmart's homepage – typically the site's most viewed webpage.

Scientific research, especially on how to treat COVID-19, is evolving rapidly. Patients today often confront an overload of information. Providing unified messaging when it's relevant and needed helps cut through the noise while supporting informed discussions between patients and their clinicians.

ACC is staying focused, disciplined and agile working toward its mission to transform cardiovascular care and improve heart health. This extends throughout the College, and CardioSmart's COVID-19 response is just one example of that in practice.