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The elderly constitute an ever-increasing proportion of the population. It is projected that the number of citizens older than age 75 will quadruple in the next 50 years. It is therefore both logical and wise that as Miami-Dade County faces the challenge of improving the wellness of its residents, the County Health Department has chosen to focus special attention on the elderly (liberally defined as residents 55 and older). To this end, The Consortium for a Healthier Miami-Dade, formed in 2003, in coordination with Mayor Alvarez has launched the Mayor’s Initiative on Aging. This initiative establishes and coordinates an extensive network of agencies, organizations and resources within the county to facilitate and promote health awareness and education, advance prevention and early intervention, and improve and enhance access to available services.

Perhaps nowhere in the health field can prevention have such a profound impact on outcome as in the field of cardiovascular disease. Nearly 50% of the elderly will develop manifestations of this lethal disease process during their lifetimes, yet research continues to document that much of the attendant morbidity and mortality is readily preventable. Unfortunately, the elderly are frequently victim to the results of a prolonged process which has evolved over years of unfortunate life-style choices and unrecognized and/or uncorrected risk factors. However, current scientific findings have discovered that it is not merely—or perhaps even mainly—the extent of atherosclerotic disease which exists in a persons’ blood vessels, but rather the current inflammatory activity of that disease which determines the clinical behavior and overall prognosis of the individual. This important finding opens a window of opportunity to identify known risk factors and use this profile as a guide to reducing risk. The potential impact of stopping smoking and/or reducing hypertension and/or controlling glucose levels in diabetics and/or improving lipid profiles and/or engaging in an appropriate exercise regimen has been demonstrated to be dramatic.

It is for these reasons that the Florida Heart Research Institute has become an active participant in the Consortium, and was instrumental in creating the Leadership Forum at which the Mayor’s Initiative on Aging was launched. In keeping with our mission to stop heart disease through research, education and prevention, the Institute is active and proactive in community cardiac risk factor screening, both as a vehicle for community education, and as a tool for individual empowerment. Education and awareness are the first steps toward developing both the inspiration and the method of building a healthy lifestyle, as well as toward addressing the problems which currently exist. It is our intention that through our active collaboration with the many other members of this consortium we can augment the impact of our efforts and make a definitive and important contribution to improving the wellness of our community.