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A message from the director

Nathan Wong, M.D.
Nathan D. Wong, director of the Heart Disease Prevention Program

Welcome to the Heart Disease Prevention Program at UC Irvine's School of Medicine. We are an interdisciplinary group of medical professionals whose mission is to address the newest strategies in cardiovascular disease prevention through research, teaching, community education and service. We are dedicated to offering, through UC Irvine Healthcare's Preventive Cardiology and Cholesterol Management Program, sound patient care to keep your heart healthy.

Cardiovascular diseases remain the leading cause of death in the United States and in many developing countries. These diseases include myocardial infarction (heart attack), stroke, heart failure, peripheral arterial disease and other vascular conditions. The occurrence of a coronary heart disease event is obviously devastating. However, there is much that we now know — from research done around the world during the past half-century — about delaying or preventing these diseases.

Most of us know that the risk factors for cardiovascular disease, such as elevated cholesterol levels, blood pressure and diabetes, should be carefully controlled. Still, for many people these factors are inadequately controlled. Adherence to lifestyle measures, such as following a heart-healthy diet or getting enough physical activity, is also suboptimal. It is our goal to help address these issues through research and educational efforts aimed at the public and the healthcare community. 

Our research and approach to patient management focuses on the use of newer screening and risk-assessment strategies, biomarkers and diagnostic tools, as well as on how the combination of these strategies can best detect people at greatest risk for cardiovascular problems. Important to our mission is understanding which approaches work best, not only in treating people with pre-existing cardiovascular disease (secondary prevention), but also in preventing the onset of initial occurrences of cardiovascular disease (primary prevention) and eliminating the risk factors that lead to the disease (primordial prevention).

We hope the information our program provides, including educational links to websites that address specific risk factors for cardiovascular disease, can help you to achieve and maintain optimal cardiovascular health.

Thank you for visiting the Heart Disease Prevention Program. You are welcome to contact me.

Sincerely, 
Nathan Wong, PhD, FACC

Phone: 949-824-5433
E-mail: ndwong@uci.edu