Dear Colleagues,

    Thank you for agreeing to participate in the Alabama ACC Chapter project “Assault on Alabama Cardiovascular Mortality.” I realize that your time is limited and this represents more time away from your family and leisure activity. This project is important however as I believe it meets our chapter goals of patient education, patient service, advocacy, and collegiality through teamwork. Please take a few moments to read this introduction to the project you have graciously agreed to participate in.

    I would recommend that you take some time and familiarize yourself with the enclosed slide deck. These slides contain a large amount of information relative to cardiovascular disease risk factors and prevention. The information enclosed in these slides is more than you can impart in the suggested time of thirty minutes. However, these slides should allow you to discuss the important points in each area and serve as a reference point after the talk for any questions from the audience.

    The talks are being co-sponsored initially by the Alabama Department of Public Health. The evening will be held in venues that vary from city to city. The format will however be the same at each “town hall talk.” A designated community leader will introduce a local state legislator if available. The legislator will spend a few minutes speaking about the project and will introduce you as the expert speaker. I would recommend using the slide deck to speak no longer than 30 minutes. A question and answer session should follow which will allow the audience to ask any question they desire about the talk or their personal health risks. We will have a survey for the audience to fill out and mail back concerning the talk at the conclusion of the evening. I would also recommend in closing that you ask the audience members to contact their local legislator’s office and request he/she support the legislation for a “smoke free Alabama” that is being considered in the Alabama legislature at this time.

    The Alabama ACC Chapter has several goals with this project. We hope to lower cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in the state through education about cardiovascular risk factors and the ways to modify these risk factors. This in turn will hopefully have an impact on the quality and longevity of the lives of the people we serve. This should also have an impact on the health care costs in Alabama in the long term by preventing rather than treating a significant number of cardiovascular events in the state. This project will also allow many of us to interact with our state legislators. The relationships we build through this project will hopefully serve us well in the future with our “smoke free Alabama” legislation and any future legislation that might be important to our patients or to the practice of cardiology in this state.

    Please feel free to contact me at any time about this project or about our ACC chapter. I can be reached by email at pllmd33@comcast.net or through my office executive assistantLinda Snyder at 256-519-8272. Please place my email address in your address book so any email correspondence in the future will not be filtered out by your spam blocker. I look forward to seeing you and working with you in the future.

Sincerely,

Phillip L. Laney, M.D.