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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2025 Sep 4.
Published in final edited form as: Hypertension. 2024 Sep 4;81(11):2218–2227. doi: 10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.124.20533

Table 2.

American Heart Association’s 10 Commitments to Support Health Equity and Combat Structural Racism and Progress through 2023

AHA Health Equity Commitment Progress through 2023
1. Invest $100 million in new research programs and grants focused on science-based solutions to health inequities and structural racism. Funding for new research programs, and grants focused health equity have surpassed the $100 million goal by almost $70 million.
2. Invest in community-led solutions to address health inequity and structural racism. Raise and invest at least $100 million to address the barriers to health equity at the community level. A total of $253.4 million has been invested in community-led efforts, including Voices for Kids, the Social Impact fund, and the Bernard J. Tyson Impact Fund.
3. Improve access to and the quality of health care for under-resourced populations and those in rural communities, as part of a 50-state focus on Medicaid expansion. Successfully advocated for the expansion of Medicaid in North Carolina at South Dakota, the extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies, and extended postpartum coverage.
4. Leverage AHA advocacy, science and news media enterprise against companies targeting individuals in disadvantaged communities with unhealthful products including sugary beverages and tobacco products (including e-cigarettes). Launched a media campaign to bring awareness of tobacco companies’ targeted advertisements to Black and other underrepresented communities that had more than 11 million impressions in early 2023.
5. Launch in partnership with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), a $121 million-dollar nationwide hypertension initiative to address a main source of poor cardiovascular health in Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous communities. The National Hypertension Control Initiative supported community organizations that provided health education and BP screenings, federally funded community health centers, and a community health worker pilot program.
6. Use AHA’s extensive clinical registry programs to capture data and create new scientific knowledge on the health effects of social determinants of health and health care quality variances among racial and ethnic groups. The Get with the Guidelines program has expanded to include 2,840 hospitals that cover 80% of the US population.
7. Architect a road map, conceptual framework, and related tools for employers to identify and dismantle practices and policies in the workplace that contribute to structural racism and health inequities. A CEO roundtable of 50 members helped develop a framework and toolkit, Driving Health Equity in the Workplace, to provide companies with resources to increase organizational equity.
8. Create a digital learning platform for clinicians, health professionals, and scientists with courses on issues of reversing structural racism and improving health equity in the delivery of health care, and professional development of the workforce. Developed a Professional Education Hub that includes 9 free courses and 13 paid courses featuring health equity courses that address structural racism and social determinants of health. The site has be accessed by 100,000 users.
9. Elevate the focus of AHA scientific journals, including Circulation and Stroke, on disparities, anti-racism, health equity, community engaged/community based participatory research and implementation science. Established the AHA journal Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Editorial Board to promote quality health equity publications. AHA journals increased representation of underrepresented groups in invited authors from 6% to 9% and reviewers from 5% to 7%
10. Increase the diversity of the AHA workforce, including leadership. Fill at least one-third of hires with diverse individuals and mitigate bias in the recruitment, development, advancement and retention of diverse colleagues. New AHA hires in the past year included 46.5% diverse candidates overall and 38% diverse candidates for leadership positions. 87% of AHA staff completed a course and book summary on diversity, equity and inclusion.