Image courtesy of Wake App Health SL
December 23, 2015 — Leading cardiologist Valentin Fuster, M.D., Ph.D., has developed a free mobile application called “Circle of Health” to empower individuals around the globe to take action to comprehensively assess and enhance their daily overall heart health.
The now internationally available mobile app was developed in English and Spanish by Fundación Pro CNIC in Spain, in collaboration with Fuster and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York.
Overall, cardiovascular diseases are acquired and largely preventable. The vast majority arise due to one or more of six risk factors that can be prevented or reduced with daily lifestyle and behavior modifications. These six risk factors are: high cholesterol and diabetes (chemical), obesity and high blood pressure (physical), and smoking and lack of exercise (behavioral).
“These abnormal risk factors account for 90 percent of heart attacks and strokes,” said Fuster, director of Mount Sinai Heart and physician-in-chief of The Mount Sinai Hospital, general director of the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares (CNIC), and past president of the American Heart Association and World Heart Federation. “Each person needs to pay close attention to these six risk factors and maintain them daily to remain heart healthy and reduce their chances of atherosclerosis, heart attack or stroke.”
Using the mobile app, users learn directly from Fuster about the six variable risk factors, how to prevent or better manage them, and how to live a healthier and longer life. It assists adults on how to properly measure, prevent, fight and reduce their risk factors.
The mobile app, developed in collaboration with Wake App Health, has a multimedia and interactive circular format which creatively incorporates video, audio and educational graphics. It works by comprehensively evaluating health with an initial questionnaire to assess and measure baseline cardiovascular health, empowering users with health information and prevention heath tips to succeed, and weekly and monthly motivation to establish good habits, reduce bad habits, and providing challenges to get more physically activated.
“This mobile app is for those people who want to improve their health and lifestyle habits including diet, exercise and others—and it’s also a very useful tool for those that have or have had any heart attack, stroke or artery disease to gain knowledge on how to reduce their chances of a future event,” said Fuster.
Currently, there are more than 6 billion people in the world with mobile phones, and nearly 2 billion with smartphones. Given the growing popularity of smartphones and tablets and the mutually growing global threat of cardiovascular diseases, Fuster believes there is no better way to reach people than via their mobile devices to prevent and reduce the risk factors of heart disease.
For more information: www.thecircleofhealth.org
August 15, 2024 
