Doctors, allied healthcare professionals, and vascular patients team up with 15 schools in the Capital Region and North Country for V-Healthy® Day – March 22, 2023

Imagine the impact of empowering high school students to become the Sherlock Holmes in their communities and diagnose the risks of developing one of the fastest growing health care crisis that Americans face today – Peripheral Arterial Disease. On March 22, 2023, over 100 medical professionals, teachers, and patients with vascular disease will team up with thousands of students from 15 Capital Region high schools for V-Healthy® Day to highlight the impact of vascular risk factors (hypertension, diabetes, obesity, hyperlipidemia, smoking, and genetics) on their vascular and heart health in years ahead.

V-Healthy® is a vascular disease education, awareness & prevention campaign that empowers young high school students to understand the implications of environmental and genetic risks they are exposed to today on their vascular health decades later. This initiative is led by the Center for Vascular Awareness, a nonprofit organization, and has already impacted nearly 12,000 students in the Capital Region.

The V-Healthy® program consists of a 40-minute curriculum that utilizes didactics, hands-on workshops, and patient stories to focus on vascular risk factor awareness, innovation, and prevention. In weeks following the V-Healthy® Day, hundreds of students will participate in a Diagnosing Hypertension project and monitor daily blood pressures in their parents for one week. Over 1,000 students have already participated in this study and discovered undiagnosed Hypertension in over 70% of their parents, nearly half of which had Stage 2 Hypertension with alarmingly elevated blood pressures of ≥160/≥100 mmHg.

The V-Healthy® program has been recognized by the Society for Vascular Surgery Foundation as a key vascular disease education, awareness, and prevention initiative. The Eastern Vascular Society has partnered with the Center for Vascular Awareness in implementing the V-Healthy® program in numerous cities in Northeast United States. In the Capital Region, the V-Healthy® program is supported by numerous organizations and individuals.

Participating high schools include:

• Academy of Holy Names
• Albany
• Averill Park
• Bethlehem
• Corinth
• Cohoes
• Gilboa Conesville
• Glens Falls
• Greenville
• Guilderland
• Hudson
• Mohonasen
• Niskayuna
• Schalmont
• Scotia- Glenville
• South Colonie
• Shenendehowa
• Troy High School

Dr. Manish Mehta is President and CEO of Center for Vascular Awareness and a practicing vascular surgeon at Vascular Health Partners of Community Care Physicians.