Achieve health equity
Tools and resources for providers and administrators who want to make an impact
Advancing health equity
At Close the Gap, our focus is helping you understand and eliminate certain disparities in specialty care, so you can reach more women and people of color suffering from serious health conditions and save more lives.
Heart and vascular disease disparities
Too many women and people of color with heart and vascular conditions struggle to access the life-saving care they need, while being disproportionately affected by advanced diseases like these.
Who’s affected by health disparities
 | Black Americans are 30% more likely to die from heart disease than non-Hispanic whites.1 |
 | Black Americans have rates of peripheral artery disease that are twice as high as other ethnicities at any given age over 40 years old.2 |
 | 3.6 million women in the United States are affected by heart failure.3 |
Examples of health inequity in cardiovascular care
 | Black Americans are 50% less likely to receive catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation treatment compared to white patients.4 |
 | Black Americans are less likely than white patients to have received lower extremity revascularization in the year before amputation because of critical limb ischemia.5 |
 | Hispanic/Latino and Black Americans are less likely to get counseling for a minimally invasive device to prevent sudden cardiac death and less likely to get the device after counseling.6 |
Our approach
Health equity is worth fighting for. But you don’t have to take it on by yourself. Boston Scientific’s Close the Gap program has the people and resources in place to help you advance a health equity program that allows you to reach and treat underserved patients who need specialty care.
Health equity resources
Find downloadable sheets and infographics to help you, your referrers, and patients understand the risks and barriers that women and people of color may face in accessing specialty care. And find ready-to-use outreach tools to address them.
Feeling overwhelmed? We can help.
Contact a Close the Gap health equity consultant from Boston Scientific who can help you align internally and build a program designed to reach women and people of color at-risk for life-threatening diseases within your community.
References:
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services – Office of Minority Health. Heart Disease and African Americans.
- Hackler III, E. et al. (2021) Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Peripheral Artery Disease. Circulation. 12:1913-1926.
- Cleveland Clinic - Heart Failure in Women
- Patel N, Deshmukh A, Thakkar B, et al. Gender, Race, and Health Insurance Status in Patients Undergoing Catheter Ablation for Atrial Fibrillation. Am J Cardiol. 2016;117(7):1117-1126. doi:10.1016/j.amjcard.2016.01.040
- Goodney PP, Travis LL, Nallamothu BK, et al. Variation in the use of lower extremity vascular procedures for critical limb ischemia [published correction appears in Circ Cardiovasc Qual Outcomes. 2012 May;5(3):e27]. Circ Cardiovasc Qual Outcomes. 2012;5(1):94-102. doi:10.1161/CIRCOUTCOMES.111.962233
- Hess, Paul. Et al. Sex and Race/Ethnicity Differences in Implantible Cardioverter-Defibrillator Counseling and Use Among Patients Hospitalized With Heart Failure – Findings from the Get With The Guidelines-Heart Failure Program. (2016). Circulation. 134:517-526. https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.115.021048