Kim Williams discusses his successful cardiology community outreach in Louisville

In the heart of western Louisville, a low-income area with high rates of cardiovascular disease, an innovative heart screening initiative is making a meaningful difference in the lives of underserved patients.

Kim Allan Williams Sr., MD, chair of the department of medicine at the University of Louisville School of Medicine and former president of the American College of Cardiology (ACC), is leading a grassroots outreach campaign to identify and treat cardiovascular risks before they lead to heart attacks, strokes, or death.

"We are finally doing what we've been hoping to do in cardiology for a long time, which is stop just mopping up the floor with fancier and fancier mops, but actually turning off the faucet and doing some prevention," explained Williams, who also serves as an ACC delegate to the American Medical Association (AMA).

The program, known as HEART ("Helping Everyone Address Risk Today"), conducts weekend screening events in churches and community centers, where residents undergo simple fingerstick tests for cholesterol and blood glucose along with blood pressure measurements. Using demographic information and a zip code-based social determinants calculator from the American Heart Association (AHA), the team estimates each participant’s 10-year risk of heart attack, stroke or death.