Contact: Nicole Napoli, nnapoli@acc.org, 202.375.6523

WASHINGTON (Jan. 18, 2013) — The American College of Cardiology (ACC) is combining forces with INTERVENT International to launch CardioSmart@Work, a program that will provide employers with cardiologist-approved health risk assessments and lifestyle management programs for employees.

Employees of participating companies will receive heart health information and programs from INTERVENT and the ACC's CardioSmart.org website. Together these programs provide health risk assessments, online lifestyle management and telephonic health coaching from specially trained health professionals that is primarily focused on nutrition, physical activity, weight management, stress management, tobacco cessation and other health habits.

INTERVENT (www.myintervent.com) is a leading provider of evidence-based lifestyle management and chronic disease risk reduction solutions for employers. The ACC's CardioSmart Initiative is a patient-centered program that encourages patients to play an active role in their own heart health.

"The current unprecedented interest in workplace health promotion programs in the United States stems in part from the recognition that more than 60 percent of Americans obtain their health insurance coverage through employment-based plans and the fact that most employees spend the majority of their time at work," said CardioSmart Chief Medical Expert JoAnne M. Foody, MD, FACC.
  
CardioSmart@Work will roll out nationally following the ACC Annual Scientific Session in San Francisco, March 9 - 11, 2013; however, thousands of Americans are already benefitting from the CardioSmart@Work initiative.

Compass Group is a foodservice management and support services company with over 180,000 associates in North America and the first employer to adopt the CardioSmart@Work program.

"Through our Great Rewards wellness program that has been successfully in place for several years now at Compass Group, participants have access to resources that help create an energized, bright future. We are excited about the new CardioSmart initiative with INTERVENT because it provides added assistance in achieving an important goal—helping our associates and their families to get healthy and stay healthy," said Robert Kovacs, VP Total Rewards for Compass Group.

Since early November 2012, over 23,000 individuals from Compass Group's United States-based business sectors completed the CardioSmart-branded INTERVENT health risk assessment and approximately 4,000 of these individuals have already signed up for the online and telephonic lifestyle management programs.

"INTERVENT's success in applying credible, evidence-based guidelines from the ACC and other professional societies within its program offerings during the past 15 years has translated into improved cardiovascular health for numerous individuals on multiple continents and lower health care costs and higher productivity for many employers," said Neil Gordon, MD, PhD, MPH, FACC, founder and chief executive officer of INTERVENT International. "We are excited about integrating our programs with CardioSmart's offerings and making the enhanced services available for use by employers throughout the United States in the war against heart disease and stroke."

INTERVENT International is a global company that develops, licenses and provides evidence-based programs for the prevention and management of cardiovascular and other chronic diseases. The primary purpose of INTERVENT's programs is to improve individual and population-based measures of health while simultaneously reducing health care costs and enhancing productivity. The programs provide unique solutions for employers, health insurers, health care systems, physicians, individual consumers and others. INTERVENT's programs have been successfully used to serve numerous clients on multiple continents and in a variety of languages via telephone call centers and the Internet. For more information, visit www.myintervent.com and www.intervent.ca.

The mission of the American College of Cardiology is to transform cardiovascular care and improve heart health. The College is a 40,000-member medical society comprised of physicians, surgeons, nurses, physician assistants, pharmacists and practice managers. The College is a leader in the formulation of health policy, standards and guidelines. The ACC provides professional education, operates national registries to measure and improve quality of care, disseminates cardiovascular research, and bestows credentials upon cardiovascular specialists who meet stringent qualifications. For more information, visit www.cardiosource.org/ACC.

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