A cancer screening programme that also checks your blood pressure

WISEWOMAN — Well-Integrated Screening and Evaluation for WOMen Across the
Nation — works towards optimal cardiovascular health for people aged 35–64,
focusing on women who are uninsured, underinsured or on lower incomes.

The clever part

**WISEWOMAN extends preventive services to participants of the CDC-funded
National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program.**

It does not build its own outreach. It attaches to a programme that has
already found and enrolled exactly the population cardiovascular prevention
struggles to reach — women without insurance, who are already through the door
for a mammogram or a Pap test.

A separate heart health programme aimed at the same women would spend most of
its budget locating them.

What it provides

Risk factor assessment: blood pressure, diabetes, BMI and cholesterol
screening.

Referrals to healthy behaviour support services, to reduce cardiovascular
risk through **diet, physical activity, tobacco cessation and medication
adherence support.**

Evidence-based lifestyle programmes and individual health coaching, with
referral to social services and support resources where needed.

Services are delivered by **local health departments, doctors' offices and
community health centres**.

What it is aiming at

Early detection and treatment of hypertension and high cholesterol — the
two conditions that are silent, common, cheap to treat and expensive to miss.

And explicitly: **addressing the social and economic factors that lead to
disparities in health care.** The social services referral is part of the
programme rather than an afterthought, because a woman who cannot afford the
medication has not been helped by the diagnosis.

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.