Northwestern Medicine is partnering with the Chicago Department of Public Health in an effort to combat cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death in Chicago.

The partnership will work to expand Keep Your Heart Healthy, a cardiovascular screening program, following the GE Foundation’s $2.2 million grant for the initiative. Keep Your Heart Healthy aims to educate and provide resources to Chicagoans in an effort to reduce risks of cardiovascular disease.

The program will bring together health professional students, community health workers and local health centers and provide residents with free heart screenings and referrals to low-cost primary health care services.

Each year, one in four deaths in Chicago is related to cardiovascular disease, and 30 percent of the adult population has high blood pressure.

Feinberg School of Medicine students will work with local organizations to conduct weekly heart screenings, and the program will serve eight communities in Chicago by 2016.

“We are proud to partner with the Chicago Department of Public Health in the development and execution of this important initiative,” said Dr. Donald Lloyd-Jones, senior associate dean, chair of preventive medicine at Feinberg and a cardiologist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, in a news release. “Through the skilled hands and passion of our medical students, we will work with the community to help improve cardiovascular health among Chicagoans.” 

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