06/01/2026
What does prevention actually look like?
Sometimes, it looks like a classroom full of high school students learning how blood pressure is measured and why it matters.
Sometimes, it looks like hands-on demonstrations of the innovations used to restore blood flow and save lives.
And sometimes, it starts with a conversation about nutrition and the everyday choices that shape long-term health.
Recently at the Center for Vascular Awareness (CVA) annual V-Healthy® Day, hundreds of students across over 14 high schools learned about vascular health and risk factors like hypertension, diabetes, obesity, hyperlipidemia, smoking, and genetics from interactive presentations by 100+ healthcare professionals and volunteers across the area.
This event holds special meaning for us because the President and CEO of CVA is Dr. Manish Mehta, vascular surgeon from CCP’s Vascular Health Partners. We were proud to join Dr. Mehta and the incredible V-Healthy team who are helping students connect the dots between prevention and lifelong vascular health.
In the weeks following V-Healthy Day, hundreds of students will participate in a Nutrition Project (with scholarship opportunities) using the Healthy Eating Index (HEI) to monitor and evaluate their eating habits over the course of a week. More than 1,000 students have also participated in a prior hypertension study through the program, which identified previously undiagnosed hypertension in more than 70% of participating parents — nearly half of whom had Stage 2 hypertension with dangerously elevated blood pressure readings.
Healthcare starts long before someone becomes a patient. It starts with awareness, education, and prevention.
