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SECTIONS ON CARDIOVASCULAR SURGERY AND BASIC SCIENCES

A section on cardiovascular surgery has been initiated with the appointment of Drs. George H. Humphreys II and Jere W. Lord as chairman and secretary pro tem. A number of leading cardiovascular surgeons in the United States have indicated a desire to join the founding group. Papers on cardiovascular surgery are being presented as one of the scientific sessions this year.

Steps toward the development of a section on basic sciences have been taken with the appointment of Dr. William Hamilton as chairman, pro tem. A slate of officers and committees has been appointed to develop rules and regulations and to initiate a program which will meet the interest of investigators and other members of the association who are interested primarily in research.

SCIENTIFIC COUNCIL

The division assisted the officers of the scientific council and its major committees in planning and developing the new sections. A letter has been sent to all physician-members of the association urging them to apply for membership in the council and in one of the sections and to participate in the activities of the section.

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

In addition to the publications listed in the preceding paragraphs, the division has cooperated in the preparation and publication of several other pieces for distribution.

The association will publish and distribute a study and review of existing motion-picture films on cardiovascular subjects. This monograph form has been prepared by Dr. David Ruhe and his associates of the Medical Audio-Visual Institute of the Association of American Medical Colleges.

In answer to frequent requests, arrangements have been made with professional members of the association to prepare articles for publication in lay periodicals.

All materials prepared in staff for lay distribution, including pamphlets and news releases, and the news sections of Circulation and Circulation-Research are reviewed routinely by the division for scientific accuracy.

EXTRADIVISIONAL ACTIVITIES

The division has participated in the training course for staffs of affiliates and in several of the regional conferences.

COMMUNITY SERVICE AND EDUCATION

During the past year there has been a significant expansion of community heart programs. There has been an increased coordination between those concerned with the problems of the cardiovascular diseases-the medical and allied professions, official and voluntary health and welfare agencies, business, industry and labor, civic organizations, and lay leaders. This community interest resulting in program expansion has insured the success of the American Heart Association as a voluntary health agency in helping to provide a channel between medical science and the public so that the discoveries of medical science can be more easily applied.

The name of the public health division has been changed to community service and education. This action has been taken as a result of the board of directors' decision to create a council on community service and education, as a counterpart of the scientific council. The public health director will be known as the director of community service and education and will be responsible to the new council. Functioning under his direction will be the staffs on program consultation, educational materials, and public information.

PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT

Through the guidance of the public health committee, and its subcommittees on cardiacs in industry and screening and case finding, the division has engaged in a variety of activities in promoting the expansion of community programs. The division has provided continuing program consultation to heart association staffs and board and committee members through field visits, correspondence, conferences, and meetings.

Steps were taken to initiate, expand and improve rheumatic fever programs in such areas as prevention, control, case finding, home care, and public education.

Plans to implement the recommendations made by the ad hoc committee on labeling low sodium foods included publication of the statement in the Journal of the American Medical Association with copies sent to the Food and Drug Administration and the United States Public Health Service and followup with trade associations. Affiliates were advised and instructed in the use of this statement.

Annual program reports of affiliates were reviewed, summarized, and analyzed and a report and recommendations sent to the committee on affiliation.

The division assisted in the planning and arrangements for annual meeting assembly panels and with the staff conference of heart associations.

Assistance was given affiliated associations in obtaining staff personnel. The rehabilitation program has made substantial progress. This will be accelerated with the employment of a rehabilitation consultant.

IN-SERVICE TRAINING

An in-service training institute for professional paid and volunteer staff of heart associations was held in September in New York City.

Six regional conferences for board and committee members and staff were organized covering 40 States to discuss program development and expansion.

COOPERATION WITH OTHER AGENCIES

In addition, the division staff engaged in activities to help coordinate the work of the American Heart Association with other agencies and organizations. Plans were developed for the interchange of program information between affiliate associations, State health departments, Public Health Service, Office of Vocational Rehabilitation, and crippled children agencies. Included, as an example of cooperative promotion, was the joint announcement on rehabilitation programs from the division and the Federal Security Agency, Office of Vocational Rehabilitation.

There was preliminary exploration with Purdue University and the Department of Agriculture regarding work simplification on the farm.

A statement on the use of 70-millimeter photofluorographic films as a method of case finding for heart disease was prepared and distributed in cooperation with the National Tuberculosis Association, the National Heart Institute, and the Chronic Disease Division of the Public Health Service.

A protocol was developed with the Vocational Advisory Service and the New York Heart Association for a study on the vocational counseling of children with cardiovascular disease.

PREPARATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS

Educational materials are planned to tie in as closely as possible with program trends and activities. To give impetus to the cardiac-in-industry program, three related booklets were published aimed simultaneously at the three chief groups concerned with the problem:

Returning Cardiacs to Work is issued as a companion piece to the earlier Work Classification Unit, and is a handbook for the private physician.

These Hands Are Able is addressed to management.

Facts About Employment and Heart Disease supports the statement that "cardiacs can work." This leaflet is addressed to patients with heart disease and their families, and offers reasons for convincing employers as well.

Other recently produced publications are:

Heart Disease in Children

Heart Disease and Pregnancy

Food for Your Heart, a diet manual for patient and physician

Be Smart, Protect Your Heart, a leaflet of good health advice for popular distribution

Your Heart and How It Works, a schematic heart diagram for use in schools, clinics, study groups

Heart Chart, for use by speakers, bureau lecturers, and others

It's Your Heart, four health educational bulletin board posters designed chiefly for display on office and industrial bulletin boards.

Two popular pamphlets were revised:

Heart Disease Caused by Coronary Arteriosclerosis

High Blood Pressure

Many reprints or adaptations of magazine articles were issued in a format that features them as American Heart Association publications. Such publications include:

Varicose Veins, Cause and Cure

101 Questions and Answers About Your Child's Heart and Your Own

How Should We Look at Heart Disease

What the Heart Association Does for the Practicing Physician

Don't Worry About Your Heart

Sometimes the reprint process works in reverse, as when the medical journal GP reprinted in their pages our booklet, Returning Cardiacs to Work.

The educational materials section has also worked closely with the medical division to edit and produce the handbook for the general practitioner, Diagnosis of Congenital Cardiac Defects.

In cooperation with the National Heart Institute, the staff prepared and distributed Diseases of the Heart, Facts and Figures. This has been invaluable as a statistical guide to affiliated associations and writers.

A paper-bound edition of the popular You and Your Heart was arranged for and distribution suggestions sent on to affiliates.

Even though lack of funds has prevented us from producing new films, the American Heart Association has been able to make new films available to heart associations by reviewing and reproducing for national distribution good films developed by affiliated heart associations and by other associations. Round Trip— produced by the Missouri Heart Association (rheumatic fever film), and Working With Your Heart, an account of the Cleveland work classification unit, are two examples.

In the field of exhibits we have worked with our public relations counsel to make available small portable units that can be used as a focal point for local exhibits; one featured an illuminated transparency, the other a plastic, palpitating heart. In lieu of developing many exhibits, we very often advise individual heart associations on developing their own localized exhibits. Whenever warranted, we send to affiliates exhibit worksheets with photographs and details of heart association's exhibits that could be adapted to any heart association program.

With every new publication, film, or exhibit released by the national office goes an educational materials memorandum outlining suggestions for using the material to the best advantage in a local program.

An arrangement was made with three major instrument companies to include a copy of Recommendations for Human Blood Pressure Determination by Sphygmomanometer with every blood-pressure machine that goes out of their

factories.

PUBLIC INFORMATION

The public information staff continued to render publicity and editorial service to all divisions, reporting on the scientific, educational, and organizational progress of the association. The importance of the year-round program of publicity releases to the general and medical press has been clearly established, and during the past year has expanded as our activities have increased. Publicity has been developed into an integral part of the educational program, with an enthusiastic and welcome response from the press and public for news releases featuring the various types of educational materials produced.

The three cardiac-in-industry booklets produced for the patient, employer, and physician were publicized most effectively as a “program package” and, along with Food for Your Heart, the diet manual for physicians and patients, drew an overwhelming response from the press and public.

The association's scientific activities and the various aids to the professional person, prepared by the medical division and the various sections of the scientific council, also have been given wide publicity in the general and medical press. Publicity material produced during the past year interpreted the benefits and objectives of the Statement on Prevention of Rheumatic Fever, other manuals and guides, the heart models, the association's research program, the scientific sessions, the annual meeting of the Council on High Blood Pressure Research, the Inter-American Cardiological Congress, the ACTH-cortisone cooperative study in the treatment of rheumatic fever, the new scientific journal Circulation Re

search. Publicity releases for the Heart Fund were prepared and distributed during the December and January "buildup" period, and during the campaign month of February.

Guidance was provided to affiliates in adapting national publicity material for use to local advantage, and there was evidence of much more successful placement of national publicity by heart associations.

Under the heading of special events, a Doctors Meet the Press panel discussion was produced for the annual meeting of the Medical Society of the District of Columbia.

Editorial activities included preparation of the 1952 Annual Report, titled "To Live and To Work," and the production of the American Heart Quarterly. The staff prepared the news announcement sections of the association's scientific journals as well as the Assembly Newsletter reporting highlights of board and executive committee meetings.

The inquiries section continues to service a continuously mounting number of requests from organizations, agencies, and individuals for pamphlets and information on all aspects of the heart program.

FUND RAISING

It is estimated that a total of between $8,500,000 and $9 million will be raised in the 1953 campaign, as compared with $6,582,132 raised in 1952.

Mr. Bruce Barton served for the third successive year as national campaign chairman, and we are greatly in his debt for the effective leadership he has given to us in that capacity.

In New York on January 9, the American Heart Association and New York Heart Association jointly held a heart inaugural dinner, the highlight of which was the appearance of President Eisenhower. His speech endorsing the heart fund was transcribed on records and filmed for the use of affiliates. Five hundred and twenty thousand reprints of the newspaper article showing "Ike opening the heart-fund campaign" were distributed to affiliates by the national office and sent out in all mail during the month of February.

The president of the association also appointed a new committee on public relations and fund raising. The first chairman of the committee is Sylvester L. Weaver, Jr.

The president of the association appointed a committee on fund-raising policy which prepared and submitted to the board of directors a new fund-raising policy in respect to united appeals. This policy, which was approved by the board contains three main departures from the previous policy. First, it declares a 2-year moratorium during which affiliations with federated campaigns are prohibited except under the most unusual and exceptional circumstances.

Secondly, it establishes the principle that heart associations may continue to participate in the federated funds in which they are now participants only so long as the moneys received substantially meet their fair-share percentage. Thirdly, the policy incorporates in writing the principle that determination of any program and administrative activities are within the absolute discretion of the Heart Association alone, and interference with these activities by united funds will result in withdrawal of the Heart Association.

The board of directors also adopted a "fair share" plan showing what percentage of the national fund-raising total should be raised by each affiliate in order to meet its fair share. The percentages compiled take into consideration three factors:

(1) Those published by the national quota committee.
(2) Campaign experience of similar organizations.
(3) Sales-management buying-power indexes.

The field staff of the fund-raising division continued to help affiliates by direct consultation on fund-raising methods. During this last year they spent a total of 870 days in the field.

As in the past, affiliates continued to use larger quantities of campaign materials. For example, 4,722,465 mass pamphlets were distributed, as against 3,536,914 in the previous campaign; 3,962,600 heart lapel pins compared with 3,100,000 in the previous year. Affiliates used 47,475 group contribution scrolls (30,000 last year); 799,700 milk-bottle collars (600,000 last year); 1,025,850 school coin cards (625,000 last year). These figures are significant because they show a great increase in campaign coverage and the use of more direct collection devices.

Efforts to secure the support of labor unions have continued and intensified. Publicity in labor publications from all over the country has been widespread and favorable. More labor unions are contributing to the heart fund than ever before. This year, 150 union presidents sent letters to all of their locals asking for contributions in memory of Philip Murray and William Green. The International Association of Machinists has conducted a scroll solicitation of its entire membership.

Informal surveys continue to indicate that memorial gifts constitute at least 10 percent of the total heart-fund income. Most affiliates are now conducting some sort of active memorial gift plan to develop this source of income.

PUBLIC RELATIONS

The public relations of the American Heart Association have continued to develop rapidly in breadth and in depth. Today a tremendous, steady flow of information about the cardiovascular diseases and the heart program is reaching the general public through all media of mass communication.

One important step toward raising the level of medical reporting in the heart field was the establishment of the Howard W. Blakeslee award. Under its terms an award of $1,000 is to be presented annually to the "individual whose creative efforts have contributed most toward public understanding of the cardiovascular diseases in any medium of communication, including newspapers, magazines, books, radio, television, or films." The cooperation of the National Association of Science Writers was obtained in the preparation of award rules and methods of selection of winners.

During the association's annual meeting in April 1952, a "Doctors Meet the Press" panel brought together physicians and science writers for an informal discussion of problems involved in reporting scientific advances in the heart field. This set up a pattern and a technique of promoting cooperation between scientist and layman which has been successfully followed by many heart associations.

The association worked closely with the editors of Parents magazine in the preparation of one of the most important health educational articles of the year, entitled "101 Questions and Answers About Your Child's Heart and Your Own." In this, the guidance of many prominent cardiologists was obtained by the medical division in gathering authoriative information on all phases of heart and circulatory disease.

In general, a very high level of cooperation has been maintained with magazine writers and editors. Among the large circulation magazines publishing articles on different aspects of the heart-disease problem-in many cases lead articles were Woman's Home Companion, Saturday Evening Post, Reader's Digest, This Week, Collier's, Good Housekeeping, Quick, Look, and Business Week.

In addition to the Blakeslee award, a bronze medallion award of merit was aproved for presentation to individuals who have rendered valuable services to the association in connection with its fund raising and public relations activities.

During the past year, the first annual Albert Lasker award for distinguished achievement in the cardiovascular field was presented by the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation, through the American Heart Association, to Dr. Paul D. White. The presentation was made by Dr. Irving S. Wright at a dinner (held in Boston on February 2 which officially launched the 1953 heart fund campaign in Massachusetts.

The science writer carrying out the research reporting project initiated to present to laymen a dramatic story of the meaning, needs, and accomplishments of cardiovascular research has completed his first report. The form of publication of this report is now under consideration. The material obtained through interviews with more than 200 investigators in the field has already been utilized extensively in the orientation of national magazine and newspaper writers and editors and in the development of special radio and television shows.

Collaboration with the American Medical Association's Bureau of Health Education and the Community Service and Education Division of the American Heart Association led to the production of Heart of America, a series of thirteen 15-minute transcriptions which local medical societies are presenting jointly with heart associations.

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