2026 Chapter Grant Awarded to Atrium Health Sanger Heart and Vascular

The North Carolina Chapter of the ACC is proud to announce the recipient of the 2026 Chapter grant, which is offered to a cardiovascular organization in need of funding to create a program with a goal of reducing cardiovascular health disparities in the state of North Carolina. 

Congratulations to Atrium Health Sander Heart and Vascular for their project submission, Preventing Maternal Cardiovascular Deaths in North Carolina: A Fourth Trimester Cardiovascular Mortality Prevention Pathway, submitted by: Principal Investigator

Monique Oye, DO, FACC and Co-Investigators: Diane Holmes, DNP, FACC and

Esther S.H. Kim, MD, MPH, FACC, FSVM with Atrium Health Sanger Heart & Vascular Institute.

The proposal sought funding to establish a Maternal Cardiovascular Mortality Prevention Pathway that operationalizes recommendations from the North Carolina MMRC, the 2026 ACC Expert Consensus Decision Pathway on Optimization of Postpartum Care, the 2024 AHA Scientific Statement on Postpartum CVD Risk Reduction, and the 2025 AHA/ACC High Blood Pressure Guideline.1,3,5 The program will provide remote blood pressure monitoring, telehealth-enabled cardiovascular follow-up, community health worker-supported outreach, health-equity evaluation using the AHA Life's Essential 8 framework, and a prospective outcomes registry during the first postpartum year.

The primary deliverable will be a replicable Maternal Cardiovascular Mortality Prevention Pathway and North Carolina Fourth Trimester Cardiovascular Care Toolkit designed for dissemination across health systems throughout North Carolina.